Mailman Can't Read

[marvholly]

simple numerics!!!!

i live at 83xx.
got a THICK envelope from a college addressed to 8233 in MY mailbox.

Poor kid is prob waiting acceptance letter and/or needs to make a deposit and/or needs to go register for summer school.

I did think about putting it out w/a WRONG delivery note but I will drop it to the correct when I leave today as I am assuming (yea, I know) it is important.

[zibazinski]

They can read. They're lazy. AND protected. No one ever gets fired from a gobmt job.

[Waffle]

I get mail addressed to the same number, but different street occassionally.  But, last month I got something that was totally wrong - wrong number, wrong street and didn't even happen to be in my neighborhood. 

[dannylion]

Apr 17, 2013 7:00:37 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

They can read. They're lazy. AND protected. No one ever gets fired from a gobmt job.

I can't speak for the Postal Service, but other government workers get fired all the time.  It is very difficult and time consuming to accumulate the necessary paper trail, but contrary to what appears to be conventional wisdom, most government managers are (or try to be) conscientious stewards of the public trust and the public purse.  True, there are people on the government payroll who should have been fired ages ago, but having been in the position of having to maintain documentation on a subordinate who was eventually fired, I can understand why some managers just give up in despair and try to deal with the problem employee or, out of desperation, turn him/her into somebody else's problem. 

[milee]

Well, I get probably 8-12 letters/catalogs/mailings/items a day and in a year, maybe 1 or 2 are wrong.  So 2 errors out of 2500 - 3800 pieces delivered per year doesn't seem like too high an error rate (.0008 - .0005).

I make a mistake or two at my work and hope people don't accuse me of not being able to read. 

The post office has a lot of problems, IMHO, but this isn't one of the biggies. 

[thyme4change]

People make mistakes.  

[wvugurl26]

People do make mistakes. It happens to all of us. On the other hand, the post office I was stuck with in Baltimore for two years was god awful. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the way my mail was addressed, they just didn't deliver it. I had packages and everything else under the sun go missing. And I had a locked mailbox so it wasn't someone else taking it.

I was at the post office one day mailing something and my problems became all too clear. It was Saturday and an older gentleman came into the lobby after they closed. He asked when they'd be open on Monday and the woman told him to read the sign. Some people should not be in customer service positions!

Fedex and UPS had zero problems delivering to me. I filed umpteen complaints and never got anywhere. I was relieved to finally move back to another county where they are capable of delivering mail to the correct address and in a timely manner.

[midjd]

Apr 17, 2013 7:00:37 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

They can read. They're lazy. AND protected. No one ever gets fired from a gobmt job.

Wow. You know we have postal workers on YM, don't you? None of them seem lazy to me.

I agree with Milee - considering the amount of mail that is processed on a daily basis, I think most postal workers do a pretty good job. We live in a rural area where the road names are numbers (600 S, 100 N) and I can't remember the last time I got a piece of mail that wasn't addressed to me. If others have been getting my mail, it's nothing I've missed.

[Rocky Mtn Saver]

Apparently Zib has never transposed a digit.  I sure have, and I'm an accountant!  

Although I'm a government worker, so apparently it won't affect anything because I can't be fired.

[zibazinski]

You know you can't be. It really doesn't matter. I still get mail from the first three residents even though they all had forwarding addresses. Very sad. My buddy, the postal manager says thanks for his 65k gastric bypass surgery though. He paid 50 bucks. He just laughs while it pisses me off. 

[Rocky Mtn Saver]

Apr 17, 2013 8:52:33 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

You know you can't be. It really doesn't matter. ;

I'll be sure to tell that to the administrators who have been 'let go' since I got here. 

[zibazinski]

Let go or transferred elsewhere? Seriously unemployed or re-employed elsewhere?

[alabamagal]

Actually it is probably the person who does the final sorting of the mail in the post office that transposed the numbers.

I live at 3211 and occasionally get mail from 3221. It happens, just put back in the mail with "REDELIVER" on it.

Nothing important comes in the mail nowadays anyway. Thick envelope from college is usually just advertising materials. Application approvals/rejections are done mostly by email/text message/check online status. You do get an official accetpance letter in the mail a week or so later. Then they email you all the stuff you need to do

[Rocky Mtn Saver]

Apr 17, 2013 8:56:41 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

Let go or transferred elsewhere? Seriously unemployed or re-employed elsewhere?

Fired. 

[whoami]

I used to regularly grt mail for an adress that was about 5 streets away from me. I finally went down to the post office and asked them WTH the problem was?  Its pretty rare now to get mail for that address. Within the last month though, I have now started getting mail for a house 2 numbers away from me. A credit card bill and the gas bill both of which I accidently opened because I get those bills too.  I dont know what the sorting procedure is but its done long before it gets dropped in my box. A lot of the time, there is an elastic band wrapped around my mail 

[ontrack]

Apr 17, 2013 8:52:33 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

You know you can't be. It really doesn't matter. I still get mail from the first three residents even though they all had forwarding addresses. Very sad. My buddy, the postal manager says thanks for his 65k gastric bypass surgery though. He paid 50 bucks. He just laughs while it pisses me off. 

You realize forwarding your mail doesn't continue forever?  They stop after a year, figuring if it was important enough, you'd change your address with the business.

[Deleted]

Years ago, My husbands Green Card! Got delivered to the neighbor, a month + early (only time INS was ever early) ... I wouldn't have even known to complain/ search for it or months... Thank goodness she bought it to me! 

I only ever had one package delivered to a different neighbor. i was researching tantric techniques for an assignment, I swear!, and the book had a very graphic title and yes the package had been torn open before the neighbors brought it to me... 

[justme]

If it's a wall of mailboxes, then sometimes that happens. There's ~300 apts where I am and all the mailboxes are on one wall together. I occasionally get someone elses mail, but I just drop it off at their apt. Some people just put it over the mailboxes, but I don't like that because if the person's mail box is 3 squares of boxes over they won't see that you put it up there. I know the mailboxes aren't in any particular order because I'm on the 4th floor but have box 52.

The worst was when the UPS guy dropped of my package at the wrong apartment. It was an entirely different building in our groups of buildings, an entirely different door, and the apt he dropped it off at didn't share any of the same numbers with mine! Yet the idiot actually put into the system the number of the apt he dropped it off at! You'd think it'd make him pause and go "hmmm...the address for this package is 5046 but I'm dropping it off at 2013, that's not right".

[thyme4change]

I got a couple pieces of mail for the people with the same address, but one street over.  But, I know them, so I walked over, delivered it and chatted.  I also every once in a while, will get mail for the person next door - often time it seems like the mail is stuck to another piece of mail - especially if it is junk mail and I'm getting the exact same letter.  If I open mine and it is junk, I throw hers away too.  If not, I pour a glass of wine, and carry the letter and the wine over and we sit and talk.  I don't get enough mis-delivered mail!

[Deleted]

Apr 17, 2013 7:50:23 GMT -5 wvugurl26 said:

People do make mistakes. It happens to all of us. On the other hand, the post office I was stuck with in Baltimore for two years was god awful. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the way my mail was addressed, they just didn't deliver it. I had packages and everything else under the sun go missing. And I had a locked mailbox so it wasn't someone else taking it.

Just because there is a lock on it, wouldn't make me think that someone in Baltimore didn't steal it.

We only get an occasional wrong address.  I put it back in the mail box with a ? on it and the mail person picks it up. 

FedEx however is a nightmare.  We have nothing but problems with them.  Right now I have a package that was in my state yestrday and is now in the wrong state.  And when it eventually gets delivered, I will have to search everywhere to figure out where he put it. 

[wodehouse]

I like the USPS. I am friendly to them and always tell them "where else can I actually send a physical object thousands of miles away for a small pittance".

But the mail guy at our new home....lazy SOB always stuffs boxes from Amazon, etc, into the mail box on a post at the street so that it is extremely difficult to remove. In fact, a couple months ago I saw one of our neighbor's mail box laying on the grass next to the post. I guess the mail guy got a little carried away stuffing a box in there.

[Peace Of Mind]

We have a mailwoman and there are very few mistakes. 

[thyme4change]

LOL POM.

Our mailman - the poor guy - he is very large, and we have a street they walk to do the mail.  In the summer he puts mail under his arm, and usually we get moist mail - or, if you wait long enough, it dries, but leave a stain.

[wvugurl26]

Apr 17, 2013 10:49:06 GMT -5 @pooks1976 said:

Apr 17, 2013 7:50:23 GMT -5 wvugurl26 said:

People do make mistakes. It happens to all of us. On the other hand, the post office I was stuck with in Baltimore for two years was god awful. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the way my mail was addressed, they just didn't deliver it. I had packages and everything else under the sun go missing. And I had a locked mailbox so it wasn't someone else taking it.

Just because there is a lock on it, wouldn't make me think that someone in Baltimore didn't steal it.

We only get an occasional wrong address.  I put it back in the mail box with a ? on it and the mail person picks it up. 

FedEx however is a nightmare.  We have nothing but problems with them.  Right now I have a package that was in my state yestrday and is now in the wrong state.  And when it eventually gets delivered, I will have to search everywhere to figure out where he put it. 

Well considering it was a good neighborhood I doubt it. Some stuff was returned to sender and some stuff was just lost. Having seen the attitudes when I visited that post office, I have no doubts why my mail only got to me half the time. Fortunately I am no longer subject to their poor service. Interestingly enough nothing with a tracking number ever went missing. Maybe because they would have had to find it.

And this doesn't apply to all of them. I sent a package to Kuwait and it was there in 3 days. That was mailed from the post office in my work building.

[Peace Of Mind]

Apr 17, 2013 14:19:10 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

LOL POM.

Our mailman - the poor guy - he is very large, and we have a street they walk to do the mail.  In the summer he puts mail under his arm, and usually we get moist mail - or, if you wait long enough, it dries, but leave a stain.

Ewwww!  Just keep telling yourself it rained that day so you don't get too grossed out.  Our lady has a truck that is open and goes around in that.  Probably because it rains so much here.  Our mail gets damp now and then from heavy rains.  Or at least I hope that's how it got damp.  Crap.  Now I'll need to use the tongs to open my mail. 

[thyme4change]

My mother's neighborhood which isn't too far away uses the truck to go from house to house.  But in our 'hood we still have a lot of mail slots on the doors, or the boxes that hang on the wall, instead of the mailbox on the curb.  So, he would have to get out every house anyway.  Instead, he just parks and goes up one side, down the other.  Drives to the next street and repeats.  I wonder what his health and eating habits are to do that much walking and still be obese.

[marvholly]

UPDATE:
so I tried to deliver the envelope.  Turns out there is NO 8233 house-goes from 822x to 8235.    Brought the envie home.  Looked up the name.  Addy s/b 8235 (school addressed it incorrectly).  Called & left a voice mail at 4 pm.  Have heard NOTHING!!

Turns out the envelope contains 4 sealed envelopes of transcripts.  Poor person is probably try to trnasfer schools or applying to grad school.  I MUCH doubt this was an envie sticking together thing as it was quite fat and an odd color.

I don't bother to report or complain about the 1-3 pc of mail I get EVERY month for the people just north of me.  They prob think I am a nosey old biddy as I have often opened a utility or credit card bill thinking it was mine-who bothers to look when you are expecting it?

[Cass]

I got someone's college diploma via courier once.  The envelope wasn't addressed and the driver just knocked on the door and asked me to sign for it.  By the time I realized what it was, he was gone.
When I called the 800 # for the courier service, I just sat on hold forever.  And I couldn't find him on Facebook.  Poor guy's diploma is still on top of my fridge.

[marvholly]

Still have NOT heard back from the people I called 4/18.
Will call them again about 8 am and if I still do not hear back by tonight I will just shred everything.

I KNOW transcrips cost BIG.  Was $20-$30 per copy back when DD1 was applying to grad school back in 1997.

[taz157]

Can't you just do Return to Sender or put a note of Delivered to Wrong Address.