Fuck you, US Postal Service!

The BBQ Pit
1

A bit of background:

I work in a nuthouse. No, really. We roast, flavor and package almonds, and we ship worldwide. We are a tiny business, but something of a local landmark. We’ve been in business in the same location for 52 years. Originally, the house was surrounded by almond orchards but in the late 70s they all died from an almond blight. Currently, we are a business completely surrounded by residences.

We have a standard-sized mailbox, on a post, at the street. However, being a business, we get many catalogs and more than an average number of packages. Recently, our larger catalogs and smaller parcels have been delivered to a neighbor’s mailbox (they have a large-sized mailbox).

Not only is this improper, (and probably illegal), it’s annoying. Annoying to us and the neighbor receiving our stuff.

Upon calling the post office, we got their explanation.

Seems the carrier has a handicap (something to do with leg mobility) and therefore, it seemed to be okay to misdeliver our mail, not once, not a few times, but consistently over a period of a month or two.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for employing the handicapped (er, excuse me, physically challenged) but it seems that if an employee is UNABLE to perform the basic duties of a job, there should be some process in place to ensure that someone who is physically ABLE to PROPERLY complete the job does so.

Are governemnt employees so very protected these days that total failure to do ones job is simply overlooked?

2

You are right that it is an inadequate excuse. If the disability makes him unable to perform his job properly then he needs to be doing something else. You need to take up the issue with your local postmaster, or get a bigger mailbox. (Or both.)

3

You’re on your own pal.

4

You’re joking, right?

Insert your own link to any number of politicians…

5

Politicians aren’t employees.

6

If all of your mail cannot fit in your mailbox, you should get a larger mailbox. Then, if the carrier can’t seem to find the correct box, you have a much stronger complaint.

7

Install ramps and handrails around your mailbox. Problem solved.

8

We had a problem like this when I was in NC. We lived at the top of a VERY steep hill and instead of driving to the house, the postal person just called us to come pick up our items (REEEEEEALLY small town) We ended up getting a LARGE box specifically for our mail and that helped immensly. It is (according to every postmaster I have ever talked to) the CUSTOMERS duty to get a large enough mailbox for their mail. If you KNOW you will be getting a lot of catalogs or large packages then for your own sanity get a larger box!! Makes EVERYONES lives a LOT easier :slight_smile:

9

I’m with Libertarian on this one, plus get a larger mailbox and thank the Post Office for not just throwing the mail away.

10

Good God, I hope you’re kidding.

Mikie, complain away. That’s crap.

11

while the complaint in the OP is Valid, it’s not that hard to provide as many things as possible to assist mobility impaired workers. Might even be able to get the local council to pay for it.

12

Screw the middleman. Visit your neighbors personally and demand their money.

13

It sounds to me like the mailman would be able to do his job if there was a bigger box. Is it that the box is so small that he has to disembark the coveted postal chariot and hand deliver to the building itself? Maybe his particular route is his because otherwise he doesn’t need to disembark?

14

Wife of a USPS letter carrier here. It sounds like you have curbside mailboxes, right? The letter carrier in question might not even be handicapped, but rather simply injured and performing “light duty” - being unable to walk at all or very much, they put him in a curbside delivery vehicle.

To the best of my understanding - and note that I’m just basing this on many years of listening to “shop talk” among my husband and his friends - what the carrier should probably have done is left notes for the packages that wouldn’t fit, asking you to come in and pick up the package. I know that in cases where a letter carrier thinks that delivering the mail would be hazardous - snow-covered/icy front steps, aggressive dog loose in yard, etc. - they don’t have to deliver it. This may or may not fall under that category.

Since you’re a business, you should have a larger than standard mailbox at least to accomodate the number of catalogs and smaller pieces of mail that you get - the point of having a curbside box is that the mailman should not have to get out of his truck to bring regular mail to your doorstep.

I’d recommend installing a larger mailbox, and then calling the post office and ask to speak to the supervisor about what should be done about oversized packages that don’t fit in the box. The “OK to misdeliver” thing is bullshit, but his alternative might be to bring back any mail/parcels that don’t fit.

(My husband’s dealt with similar things. He does a walking route and has had a few customers come out and yell at him for not putting the mail in their mailbox slot. He’s replied that their door doesn’t have a mail slot, and so he put it on the front step. Seems these customers expect him to have ESP and just know that they put the mail slot on a side or back door - requiring him to walk even into their back yard - because that’s more convenient for them for the mail to be left there. One business customer was mad that the substitute filling in on my husband’s days off wouldn’t deliver their mail at all. He explained that since they don’t have an outside mailbox and the business doesn’t open until after mail delivery is done, he leaves the mail between their doors, but the substitutes just look for a box and since that business doesn’t have one, they don’t deliver. The business installed a mailbox.)

15

I think that when the recipient is receiving mail from personal or business correspondents, it is indeed their responsibility to have a box big enough to fit the items. That said, the proper way to go about it would indeed be to leave a note to pick your stuff up at the post office. Now, if there were a previous arrangement to leave it at an adjacent place, I’m still not sure if that would violate a code or whatnot, but ethically it would be okay.

On the other hand, if the intended mail is spam, I see no reason why the recipient needs to buy a larger box. Case in point, if you go on vacation for more than a few days and you live in an apartment complex, when you return your mailbox literally has no more room in it, as it is completely stuffed with advertisements (and that’s if you DO sign up for the no-send list!)

The post office knows which things are advertisements: they pay a special fee, which is probably less than us non-spammers pay. They should prioritize actual mail.

16

First and second-class mail do get priority over bulk rate mail in terms of when it’s delivered. The problem is that eventually the bulk mail does have to be delivered, and so you’ll get a mess of junk mail crammed into your box along with the regular stuff, and then when that’s full, your mail will pile up in a tub at the post office, for you to claim when you get back.

Also, sometimes supervisors will insist to carriers that they “clean” the route, so all the mail has to go out that day.

If you’re going on vacation for a while, you can put a hold on delivery for the time you’re away by filling out a little card at the post office. IIRC, you can specify “deliver all mail on (date of return)” or “will come to pick up mail.”

17

Ferret Herder, a question if I may:

I live far out in the country and frequently receive UPS/FedEx packages for my work. Both of those carriers have a standing request to leave packages on our enclosed front porch, which is always unlocked. They always do so.

We do have rural mail delivery also, and the mail usually just goes in our box out by the road. But sometimes there’s a large package, in which case the carrier pulls into the driveway for a signature or (if no sig required) to leave it at the door. Last time this happened, he simply left the box on the open deck (two feet from the door to the porch), with our flat mail underneath it. Good thing (1) it was a nice day and (2) we were home and noticed him pulling out. Especially since one of those flat pieces of mail contained a large check.

Would I be out of line to ask that the mail carrier use the porch also, when he must bring mail to the house?

18

Scarlett67 - Not at all out of line. The carrier might not be aware that it’s unlocked, and expressing your concern to him/his supervisor about issues like theft and weather would be a good way to handle it.

19

Just out of interest, once the postal worker knows that the mail slot is in a side or back door, is he or she required to deliver the mail to that slot? Personally, i think it should be a requirement that mail slots be in the most easily-accessible (from the regular route) door, and that mailboxes be as near to the route as possible. The postal carriers have a lot of stuff to deliver every day, and if we all had our mail slots in side or back doors, it would take even longer to get through the daily route. And we’d probably then start bitching when our mail wasn’t delivered as quickly.

20

Got to go with Libertarian once again, the neighbors are getting their mail from this guy, it’s a public servicve they are receiving, they need to ante up. Plus one of them is having to take care of your mail also.