We have our front door open very often when the weather is nice, which is much of the summer. There is a screen door that we latch. Recently, the mailman has skipped our delivery on a couple of days and noted on the mail packet “Door open 9/21”. WTF? Is this some obscure postal policy that I’ve never heard of? It’s never stopped them before now.
Is your mail delivered through a slot in the door? Maybe it’s a sub/new/replacement carrier that doesn’t feel right opening your screen door and tossing the mail on the floor. I don’t really know but that’s all I got. These days I don’t think you can call your individual post office but you can go in and ask for the carrier supervisor. Ask him/her.
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Nope, mailbox on the wall. I’ll ask him, if I can ever catch him when he comes, which is not often. I just wondered if anybody knows if there is some regulation about it.
According to this thread on Reddit, a mail carrier can refuse to deliver if there’s a chance they’ll get attacked by a dog, and a door that’s not obviously closed is considered a bad sign in that regard.
Our carrier knows damn well that there is no dog on the premises, and the screen door is closed and latched. I’m pretty sure our cat poses no danger. We’re going over to the distribution center today to find out what the what.
Perhaps it isn’t your regular carrier.
Nailed it. Turns out he’s been on vacation and the sub doesn’t know the pet status of the route.
Oh, good. Mystery solved.
I am very rural, my mailbox is a couple of miles from my house I have never actually seen my carrier. She(?) Leaves me notes. One time there was a wasp nest forming under the mailbox. She said it could interupt delivery if I didn’t remove it. Another time she complained about my mail staying in my box too long. I leave her a gift card at Christmas, she could thank me. But, nooooo! Just complaints.
Guess this shows how times have changed. I’m a retired letter carrier (retired twelve years ago) and it was common for us to take mail into houses with handicapped people living there, open the door to set packages inside or reach in to put mail on kitchen tables.
Our previous carrier, now retired, had this route for 30 years and lives here in the 'hood. He knew everyone and everything, and even called the cops when he saw something going on. We miss him.
My dad is also a retired letter carrier. By the time he retired (also 12 years ago) the days of letter carriers being allowed to “go the extra mile” were LONG gone. He spent the last 10-12 years or so under the cloud of knowing that at any time a supervisor might be tailing him (or any other carrier) just waiting for them to deviate from protocol.
That is because of crappy deliverers like ours. Our next door neighbor even got into a fight with the mail carrier because he does such a poor job. Police were called, yada yada.