I recently moved 3 blocks within the city limits of my small (5,000) town. Now it appears I am on a rural mail route instead of the city mail route. My mail now arrives 3 hours later and anything larger than a business envelop is folded sharply in half. This makes reading magazines or catalogs difficult. I have complained to my postman and to the postmaster and gotten no satisfaction. Basically “This is just the way it is for rural mail.” Apparently rural carriers can do what they like and handle mail differently (they pull it differently?).
Am I being unreasonable? Does anyone know how I can elevate this and possibly get this resolved?
Standard size - the same as it was 3 blocks away; the same as my daughter’s who lives 5 blocks away. We both subscribe to the same magazine. Hers arrives nice and flat. Mine arrives folded - and not even a straight fold. But creased such that you cannot flatten it unless you iron it. I took the two magazines to the post office earlier today, hoping that if I showed them the problem they would work to correct it. Honestly, I was polite - because I thought they just did not understand the extent of the problem. However, they really lit into me for being a malcontent, saying that bulk rate mail is not entitled to be handled carefully on rural routes.
The neighbors have the same problem but they are afraid to say anything because they depend on the mail carrier and are afraid of retaliation. Honestly, after today’s experience, I share their fear. I’m hoping a mail carrier can chime in - we must have one
This is standard size for a rural box. Is yours this size? I’m guessing not. We live on a rural route, and while our mail people have many faults, bending the mail is almost never one of them.
I may be wrong - I could go measure it. The issue (from my point of view) is that I have exactly the same size mail box that I had at my apartment a few blocks away that is on a city route. Now I live in a condo, still within the city limits, still very densely populated, but I am on a rural route and my mail arrives folded and damaged. There is no difference in the receptacle. There is no difference in the location (curbside, multiple boxes adjoining each other). So the mail carrier (or the post office) is handling the mail differently. I expect there is a reason, but they have declined to share that with me.
In a previous life*, I was a contract carrier for a rural route. A low bid gets you the job. The faster you finish the route, the sooner you can do other things.
Apparently folding the magazine speeds up his process in sorting or delivering.
As long as the contract carrier is following the rules, the postmaster has little control.
There was a country club that wanted their mail brought inside. The postmaster was friends with the country club. She told me to take the mail inside. I told her that would mean extra time. I would have to lock up the Jeep and hand carry the mail inside. Six days a week or over 300 days a year. And we would have to renegotiate the contract.
As far as a solution for the OP, he may need to compensate the carrier with treats or money.
This seems like the best solution. From everything I’ve seen, carriers/handlers really don’t have any regulation against bending/folding the mail, even if it says “Do not bend.”
Rural carriers bundle the mags and mail with rubber bands. Rememer they are reaching across the passenger side to put mail in boxes. Or at least mine does. My mailbox is miles away from my driveway,(which is long too). I’m just happy to get anything in there. USPS, FedX or UPS will not come to my house I get notices in the box to go to a center to pick-up any packages. The closest is the Post Office and it’s 35miles from me.
I can’t see why you couldn’t meet the carrier out by the box and nicely ask her if she couldn’t just do you a little favor. Sweeten the request with a Sonic gift card of maybe, $5.00. It’s worth a try. Good luck.
PO boxes are typically much smaller than mailboxes. I’ve never had a problem with mail being folded in my rural route mailbox, but I’ve definitely had mail get folded and crumpled to fit into my PO box.
You can get large PO boxes for oversized mailings. That costs money, though. If you’re gonna spend money a few gift cards or a plate of cookies would be cheaper. IMO.
When I had problems with my rural mail, the postmaster told me exactly this. He suggested a post office box. I ended up just accepting things as they were, and sold the house a short time later.
(My specific problem involved my mailbox door not being closed. My neighbor’s had the same problem. I guess by saving one or two seconds each stop, pretty soon you’ve saved a minute.:dubious:)
I had a similar experience once, was quite taken aback by it! Now, I have had years of positive experiences with friendly counter service in post offices, so I don’t take that one negative experience as indicative of the whole. But it was memorable!
I don’t know if this will help the OP, but when I was having problems with my post office, which is decidedly NOT rural, I sent emails to my state representatives and my Congresspersons, and after a few back-and-forths for clarifications and to give them permission to look into it, my service almost immediately improved.
I don’t know specifically what anyone did; I’m guessing just getting a phone call from a representative’s office was enough to get them to get their shit together, but if someone had to get yelled at, I’m good with that too.
It’s not like the carrier is getting to your box and then taking your flat mail and deciding to fold your larger envelopes and magazines. The carrier sorts and folds the mail before he even gets in his vehicle. It has nothing to do with your box, and is all about manner in which the carrier gets his load ready for the day.
