Anyone Receiving Mail Lately?

A friend needed to be sure a check was delivered on time to a PO box in Bridgewater last week, so spent nearly two hours driving round trip to the PO in Bridgewater in the hopes she’d increase her chances by mailing it down there. This has gotten ridiculous!!

spontaneous said:

 That is just laziness, not a legitimate excuse.  I’m assuming that you have a door slot.  If she can’t bend to pull out outgoing mail then she can’t bend to deliver the mail. 

Document her excuse and go up the management chain.  Not having enough allotted hours to finish a route is something they can’t control at the moment, but a carrier who claims they can’t physically do the job need to find work they are able to do.  If you can’t do the job then you can’t do the job, period.  

ETA:  And believe me, as much as the job sucks physically, there are plenty of people who are looking for work and willing to lift up to 70 lbs, walk 10-15 miles a day, and bend when required to to deliver the mail, have a regular paycheck, and get benefits.  

 I have been going up the management chain.  I phoned Maplewood which referred me to Union.  Union is not helping me.  They side with the carrier.  I have filed a service request and gotten no reply.  I have spoken with a customer service officer at the District Office who said all she could do is help me file a service request.  I spoke with a representative at a different customer service number who said this was a local post office problem (meaning Union).  She said she would have the Postmaster at Union and the Maplewood supervisor at Union call me.  Neither has.  According to the USPS website, the next step would be hiring an attorney and filing a complaint with the USPS's Attorney General.  I can't even do this until I get an official response from Union.  Union is not responding.  They don't even pick up the phone. What else do you suggest I do?

joan_crystal said:

spontaneous said:

 That is just laziness, not a legitimate excuse.  I’m assuming that you have a door slot.  If she can’t bend to pull out outgoing mail then she can’t bend to deliver the mail. 

Document her excuse and go up the management chain.  Not having enough allotted hours to finish a route is something they can’t control at the moment, but a carrier who claims they can’t physically do the job need to find work they are able to do.  If you can’t do the job then you can’t do the job, period.  

ETA:  And believe me, as much as the job sucks physically, there are plenty of people who are looking for work and willing to lift up to 70 lbs, walk 10-15 miles a day, and bend when required to to deliver the mail, have a regular paycheck, and get benefits.  

 I have been going up the management chain.  I phoned Maplewood which referred me to Union.  Union is not helping me.  They side with the carrier.  I have filed a service request and gotten no reply.  I have spoken with a customer service officer at the District Office who said all she could do is help me file a service request.  I spoke with a representative at a different customer service number who said this was a local post office problem (meaning Union).  She said she would have the Postmaster at Union and the Maplewood supervisor at Union call me.  Neither has.  According to the USPS website, the next step would be hiring an attorney and filing a complaint with the USPS's Attorney General.  I can't even do this until I get an official response from Union.  Union is not responding.  They don't even pick up the phone. What else do you suggest I do?

 Contact:  Bamboozled@NJAdvanceMedia.com

Make sure to outline how you’ve tried to address this at the local level.  And play up the senior citizen not receiving ANY mail aspect of this situation.

And just to confirm, you’ve received mail there in the past, correct?  It is just recently that the carrier is claiming they can’t bend over to place the mail in the mail slot?

And while I understand the security of having a mail slot that feeds mail into your home, maybe have a mail box installed at a normal height so the carrier doesn’t have to bend over.  I’m not saying the carrier is right, they’re not.  But if it comes down to being right, or getting mail delivered, I’d say giving in and getting mail delivered is the way to go

spontaneous said:

 Contact:  Bamboozled@NJAdvanceMedia.com

Make sure to outline how you’ve tried to address this at the local level.  And play up the senior citizen not receiving ANY mail aspect of this situation.

And just to confirm, you’ve received mail there in the past, correct?  It is just recently that the carrier is claiming they can’t bend over to place the mail in the mail slot?

 I've received mail through that mail slot for over 39 years.  There is no evidence of there ever having been a mail box at the Courter Avenue side of the house for the nearly 100 years the house has stood at that location.  There was a mail box on the Prospect Street side of the house that was used briefly by a dentist's office that occupied space on the Prospect Street side.  That mail box has not been used for well over 50 years.  When passersby started using it to deposit trash, our then letter carrier suggested that we nail that box shut.  It is now overgrown by shrubbery.  Anyone trying to use it now, assuming those 6 inch nails could be safely removed, would have to bend over the shrubs to reach it. 

There is no place to install a mail box at normal height unless it is put in the lawn on the other side of the driveway.  The house is 100 year old brick (not brick face).  The side panels are leaded glass with the sot immediately below the leaded glass on the right hand side as one faces the doorway.  There is just a single step leading to the front door. That step is tile and not wide enough to contain a mailbox without people bumping into it as the enter and leave the house.  There is thick shrubbery on either side of the front entrance.

Installing a mailbox on a brick wall is pretty straightforward and any decent handyman can do that for you 

You also have two posts holding up the overhang, you can easily attach a mailbox there

Joan has received mail in the present mail slot for over 39 years. Why does she need a different one?

galileo said:

Joan has received mail in the present mail slot for over 39 years. Why does she need a different one?

 Like I said, if the choice is being right or receiving mail, I’d choose receiving mail.

I thought it was a regular door slot, they’re usually about 2/3 of the way down the door.  This is actually underneath the sidelights.  A few inches off the ground.  Mail carriers literally have to save seconds, and you won’t believe how many end up needing knee replacements.  Having the mail carrier stoop that low just because that’s they way it’s always been done before is being stubborn.

To clarify, a normal door mail slot you can just bend over to insert the mail, which is what I initially thought was being discussed.  Where Joan’s mail slot is located the carrier would need to go into a deep squat to be able to reach with both hands (one to open the slot the other hand putting the mail in).  

Solution:  

Hang a mailbox on one of the posts holding up the overhang. 

EASILY accessible to the carrier  even in winter weather and close to the house for you...

The pressure is now on them to do more in less time with fewer people  (NO overtime) 

Update:  The supervisor just left.  She agrees there is no place to put a mailbox or a bucket by the front door.  She also agrees that my mail slot is legal.  The problem is with the letter carrier, not me.  For the time being, we agreed on the following:  The letter carrier will deposit my mail inside the storm door.  I am to phone the supervisor when I have outgoing mail.  The supervisor will then come out and pick up my outgoing mail on days I cannot get to the post office myself.  

Note:  It is not just me being adversely impacted by this new letter carrier.  The supervisor told me there a number of people on my route for whom this letter carrier is withholding the mail.  A long term solution needs to be found.  I am concerned that others similarly situated have not reached out and as a result may have their mail withheld indefinitely when we were all able to get mail delivery before with no problem. 

There are plenty of places to hang a mailbox, the supervisor is dealing with a huge PR problem because confidence in mail delivery is taking a huge hit thanks to Trump.  

Scully put off having a proper mailbox installed for ages, until it got to the point of each replacement carrier putting the mail in a new spot because none of them could figure out where it was supposed to go.  Now she loves having a mailbox, her mail is properly put in it every time, and it is securely attached to her solid brick wall, though admittedly her brick house is only 91 years old, not 100.

I love the huge package chute Scully has on her house.

Joan,. One of my neighbors hangs a basket on the door frame between the storm door and front door as their mailbox.  It protects mail from the elements as well as them inclement weather.

joan_crystal said:

I love the huge package chute Scully has on her house.

 ???

galileo said:

Joan has received mail in the present mail slot for over 39 years. Why does she need .

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

galileo said:

Joan has received mail in the present mail slot for over 39 years. Why does she need a different one?

 Simple: Assholery from the post office.

 So the forcing the Post Office to fund 75 years of pensions, insisting fewer workers (Covid has taken its toll too) deliver more mail (first class volume is down but packages are WAY up) but refusing overtime for the increased work makes the carriers ********???

Doing things the way it’s always been done despite  current changes isn’t working anymore...

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

galileo said:

Joan has received mail in the present mail slot for over 39 years. Why does she need .

 I don’t agree.  When I first heard the issue I mistakenly assumed that it was a door slot.  They’re a pain to deal with, but they’re not the end of the world.  But then when she further described it, and I looked at the front of the house (entrance next to the garage, not the side with the sun room on the front) I realized how low the mail slot was.  That is really low.  Literally inches off the ground.  Carriers already have very high rates of knee replacements, why force them into a low squat if there is any way around it

Don’t get me wrong, I was a newbie so I literally refused to deliver mail once, and it was a house with an invisible fence and their two dogs were out in the yard that day going ballistic.

Could the carrier have handled it differently?  Sure.  Like the supervisor suggested, by placing the mail inside the storm door.  

Joan, Scully’s package door (actually a milk delivery door) is really cool, but completely useless.  Only her regular carrier would put mail in there.  None of the CCA’s knew where to put the mail.  She didn’t have a storm door, so she would find her mail on the picnic table, on the garden chairs, on the welcome mat, inside the little outside storage boxes.  Occasionally she would find her mail on the front porch which, she doesn’t use and actually has a different address than the side door right next to the sign asking that all mail and packages be delivered to the side.  This was why I talked to her and convinced her to install a mailbox on the wall.  

It is hard. Many of us are older. Times change. But we must, on some things, adapt.

Again - Friday and Saturday's mail arrived on Monday.  Doesn't bug me too much, just hope things work out with USPS - it's certainly seems to be under attack at the moment.

jamie said:

Again - Friday and Saturday's mail arrived on Monday.  Doesn't bug me too much, just hope things work out with USPS - it's certainly seems to be under attack at the moment.

The problem is not the post office. The problem is Trump and the Republican Party's obsession with privatizing everything. In this case, starve the post office so that it fails. Then there will be push for U.P.S. and Fedex to take over.

The problem is the resources allotted to the post office and the way in which these limited resources are being managed at the local level.  Even after the Maplewood Supervisor agreed to my mail being delivered inside my storm door, I have not received mail since Thursday (letter carrier was out sick that day).  I called this morning and the Maplewood Supervisor said she would deliver my mail today, the supervisor not the letter carrier.  Even when the resources are in place, the system breaks down.

The aspect that I find quite concerning is after going sometimes 5 days without mail, when I do receive it, a day will be missing. Because I have the USPS app, I know what mail I’m supposed to be receiving every day. I’d like to know where the missing mail is!?! This has happened several times. I have not received personal correspondence and it has not been returned to sender so where exactly is it! I’ve gone the route of contacting Union Post Office, filing formal complaints, etc. to no avail. Should we be checking the garbage bins behind the Post Office?

I had stopped our mail while we were away recently. It still came once or twice during that time. Hasn't come at all since we've been back, so the "hold mail" request submitted online is pretty much useless. And I have had the same issue of mail showing on Informed Delivery, but never showing up at my house.

joan_crystal said:

The problem is the resources allotted to the post office and the way in which these limited resources are being managed at the local level.  Even after the Maplewood Supervisor agreed to my mail being delivered inside my storm door, I have not received mail since Thursday (letter carrier was out sick that day).  I called this morning and the Maplewood Supervisor said she would deliver my mail today, the supervisor not the letter carrier.  Even when the resources are in place, the system breaks down.

 I only got my Thursday mail yesterday.  (I know because the News-Record was in the batch.) 

sac said:

 I only got my Thursday mail yesterday.  (I know because the News-Record was in the batch.) 

 I didn't get any mail yesterday.  I assume we have the same carrier.

no mail in three days now

I've had mail returned to my employer and bank labled "not deliverable as addressed" when both had full correct information. I have to prove to my bank (mortgage holder) that I live here now