Forwarding Mail - a cautionary tale...

[mgirardo]

We've been seasonal camping for a few years now. Each year we have had our mail forwarded by the Post Office. It's been working okay. When we got back last year, there was 1 piece of mail in our mailbox from middle of the summer, but it wasn't important so no big deal.

We don't get a lot of mail, all of our bills except one are paperless. However, since I am self-employed, all of my customers pay by check sent via mail. About a week after we got here mail started to come in and we were getting mail regularly. But then after about 2 weeks, we stopped getting any mail. My wife had to go back home for a couple days. When she got there, she found the mailbox was full! She went to the post office and asked about it. Our carrier was still there, so the agent at the counter brought her out. She was new, just started on our route a few weeks ago and had no idea our mail should be forwarded!

If you have your mail forwarded by the Post Office and all of a sudden stop getting mail, be sure to contact your local PO right away. We have gone through a lot of carriers in the last 10 years or so. Hopefully, we don't get another new one this summer!

-Michael

[B_O__Plenty]

We recently got a post office box but our old mailbox was left in place just in case...Now we get mail at both places..I give up.

B.O.

[Opie431]

We put a note covered by plastic and held in place by a rock in the mail box. It has worked well.

[Dave_H_M]

wow, we have never had a problem with the local post office, but it is in a small town. Ole (name withheld to protect the innocent) will even hold the mail over the 30 day allowable, no problem.

BTW, I just asked google for the post office in podunk IL, and he came up with a full page on it to include the phone number. :h

[mfinnerty]

When gone, we generally have our mail held. After a couple of instances of finding mail in our mailbox on our return, my wife started putting a box in the mailbox with a note our mail was supposed to be held. The box took up all the space so the carrier couldn't stick any mail in the mailbox. This next time we will be gone longer so we're having the mail forwarded but will still leave the box and note for the carrier.

[jesseannie]

All of the above is why we use a independent mailbox service. We just call a couple times a month and have it forwarded to us wherever we are.
Jesseannie

[JimK-NY]

Popsie wrote:
Before you leave town, go to your local post office, and get a good telephone number that you can use to contact them directly.

The PO used to put the phone number for every post office on the internet, but they've quit doing that.

With a phone number, you can talk to people who know what's happening with your mail at your post office from where you happen to be.

I tried that. It did no good. Visiting in person was also a waste of time. The post office just does not have any sort of reliable system for forwarding mail.

[Popsie]

Before you leave town, go to your local post office, and get a good telephone number that you can use to contact them directly.

The PO used to put the phone number for every post office on the internet, but they've quit doing that.

With a phone number, you can talk to people who know what's happening with your mail at your post office from where you happen to be.

[mgirardo]

accsys wrote:
When you fill out an official temporary Change of Address with the postal service, it should never get to your local post office as it is rerouted at a distribution center. I guess if your mail was coming from a local address using your same post office it would never get to the distribution center?

That is what I thought and perhaps at one time it was the case, but now it is not. It makes more sense to me that mail would be forwarded at the point of origin, not the local PO, but when I talked to a rep at the USPS' main customer service center a couple years ago because we were not getting some mail forwarded, I was told that any mail that is forwarded is received by our local PO and then it is our carrier that handles the forwarding.

The first year we had our mail forwarded, we did not receive the one bill that we cannot receive paperless. The bill is sent to Girardo, Michael at my address. When I talked to the USPS' rep about not receiving that bill, I was told that I had to fill out a separate forwarding application for every combination of my name. I told her that I selected the Household option not Individual option when filling out the application so wouldn't that forward all my mail? She said it didn't matter, that the local carrier was looking for Girardo to be the second name listed when putting the forwarding sticker on. When they see Michael second, they send it back to the sender!? Crazy. Ironically, that same year, my wife received a piece of mail sent to her Maiden name. The carrier wrote Girardo on the envelope and it was forwarded to us!! The application I filled out had no mention of her maiden name. We have never received a water bill, mailed to Girardo, Michael, forwarded to us.

-Michael

[GizmosMom]

We have our mail held about 6 times a year. Been doing this for twenty plus years and have never had a problem.

Our mail delivery person out here in the country is a gem. We are very lucky.

[Ductape]

USPS is notoriously unreliable. We take our mailbox down when we are on the road so they can't leave mail.

[JimK-NY]

Unfortunately the USPS does not have a decent system for forwarding mail. It seems to be dependent on your local carrier checking and remembering.

When I started as a full timer, I had already set up my South Dakota mail service months in advance. I notified all the sources of mail I could think of. Then a week or so before selling the house and moving out, I set up mail forwarding with the local post office. The new home owners were slow in moving in so I checked the mail box at the house and sure enough it was full of our mail. I made another trip to the post office concerning the forwarding. We were set to begin traveling but unfortunately my wife had an accident and our trip was delayed several weeks. During that time we were camping at a relatives house. Weeks later and more trips to the post office, I was still finding our mail at the old house. Years later we found out that an important piece of mail had been lost. We found out when the IRS sent notice that we owed taxes due to a check for thousands of dollars that we never received.

I don't have anything good to say about the mail forwarding system for the USPS.

[Dutch_12078]

Our mail goes to our commercial remailing service now, but back when we used to have it forwarded by the USPS, the mail never got to the local post office. It was labeled and forwarded at the regional sorting center.

[chuckm99]

Accsys - the key word in your post is "should". The folks at the PO are human and make mistakes - maybe more than they should..... Our neighbor gets ours when we are gone.

[NMDriver]

Same thing can happen with mail hold. Returned from a 2 week trip and found mail box stuffed with mail. We now ask a neighbor to check a couple of days after we leave on a trip.