Mail Hold--What do you do?
Our Postmaster says that he will only hold mail for 30. However, just for us, he will hold it for 6 weeks. We plan a trip for 7-8 weeks. I know many RV'ers are gone for extended periods of time. W...
Forum Discussion
Not sure what we are going to do next year. Last year we went on a 6 week trip, same location, and used the Post Office's Premium Hold service. They hold the mail and forward the accumulated mail once a week using Priority Mail. We got all our mail within a week of it being mailed to us.
This year we went seasonal and decided the Premium Hold service was too expensive, last year it was like $85 to have them forward it 4 times. We decided to use a temporary forwarding address at the Post Office. We barely get any mail. Fortunately, I get all my client payments, but not much else.
The only bill we get mailed is our Water & Sewer bill, everything else is online. We never got our first water bill after arriving here. I called the Post Office and they explained that mail is forwarded to the person on the Mail Forwarding slip, in my case, Michael Girardo. I selected the option to include family. So basically anyone at my house with the last name Girardo should get forwarded. The water bill is mailed to Girardo, Michael. The PO told me I'd have to submit a request to forward mail for every variation of my name! That's ridiculous.
The kicker, my wife gets a MetLife Death Benefit statement from a previous employer once a quarter from before we were married 16 years ago. It is still addressed to her maiden name. Some how that got forwarded. The mail carrier actually wrote, Girardo on the envelope and it got forwarded. So the PO is smart enough to know my wife's maiden name and associate it with her married name, but they can't figure out that Michael Girardo and Girardo, Michael are the same person. We haven't received a water bill while we've been here. Should have received 3 of them by now.
I don't know if it is just our local PO. We know our carrier very well and she does a great job. I've always been happy with the PO before now. We go away a few times a year for a week or more at a time and never had any problem with them holding the mail. Sure hope I didn't get a jury summons. My wife did last year while we were away, but that was sent to us and she got out of it since we were away during the trial.
-Michael
This year we went seasonal and decided the Premium Hold service was too expensive, last year it was like $85 to have them forward it 4 times. We decided to use a temporary forwarding address at the Post Office. We barely get any mail. Fortunately, I get all my client payments, but not much else.
The only bill we get mailed is our Water & Sewer bill, everything else is online. We never got our first water bill after arriving here. I called the Post Office and they explained that mail is forwarded to the person on the Mail Forwarding slip, in my case, Michael Girardo. I selected the option to include family. So basically anyone at my house with the last name Girardo should get forwarded. The water bill is mailed to Girardo, Michael. The PO told me I'd have to submit a request to forward mail for every variation of my name! That's ridiculous.
The kicker, my wife gets a MetLife Death Benefit statement from a previous employer once a quarter from before we were married 16 years ago. It is still addressed to her maiden name. Some how that got forwarded. The mail carrier actually wrote, Girardo on the envelope and it got forwarded. So the PO is smart enough to know my wife's maiden name and associate it with her married name, but they can't figure out that Michael Girardo and Girardo, Michael are the same person. We haven't received a water bill while we've been here. Should have received 3 of them by now.
I don't know if it is just our local PO. We know our carrier very well and she does a great job. I've always been happy with the PO before now. We go away a few times a year for a week or more at a time and never had any problem with them holding the mail. Sure hope I didn't get a jury summons. My wife did last year while we were away, but that was sent to us and she got out of it since we were away during the trial.
-Michael
