We sent small letters (3 1/2 x 5 in) letters to my son and his room-mate at their apartment. Both were addressed correctly, and both returned undeliverable, one in one week, the other in three weeks. He states he does receive mail at this address, but the fact that both of these were returned is disquieting, particularly since his is applying to law school. I can’t help but wonder if half his mail isn’t getting bounced back. I called the post office, and the guy I spoke to had no explaination. Anyone have any idea why correctly addressed and appropriately stamped mail would be returned? Both were sent at the same time, and other similar letters mailed were delivered to the addressee. He has lived there for about 5 months.
A little more info might help us out…
Was there a reason stamped on the envelope? Was something hand-written on it as to the reason? Or was it just stamped “Undeliverable” with no reason given?
(This is silly, I know, but you did have the correct postage, right?)
Try entering the address in the USPS website? If it says it’s OK, then you probably have a delivery (person) problem.
It’s possible the USPS thought the letters were too small. This page notes that letters smaller than 3.5 by 5 inches are not mailable. Maybe the machine these went through had the wrong settings. You might try sending business size envelopes to see if this produces different results.
3 1/2 x 5 in. is the minimum size for envelopes ( http://postcalc.usps.gov/MailpieceDimensions.asp ) – were they a bit smaller, and hence not able to go through the post office’s sorting machines?
(My daughter and her fiance, in Australia, sent out very small envelopes with invitations to their engagement party, and a lot of those went missing, presumably because they were too small for the machines to handle.)
There was maybe three handwritten letters on the returned envelope, but it was hard to make out what they were, and they didn’t seem to spell a word, more like someone’s initial.
I just measured the envelopes and they are exactly 5" x 3 3/8", just under the legal size. I can see how they might have been mishandled by the mechanical sorter, but they were stamped as undeliverable. Also, about 100 were sent out, these were date reminder magnets for my daughter’s upcoming wedding, and these are the only two to be returned. I’m not sure where the sorting machine would be, in the envelopes trip to its destination, but it seems that if 98 made it to the correct place, that should not be the reason here. As the envelopes were small, so was the writing.
And yes, this was pre- 8 Jan. 2006, so the .37 postage was correct.
That’s almost certainly a three-letter abbreviation for the reason why it couldn’t be delivered. My postal worker husband will occasionally have to hand-write on an undeliverable envelope the appropriate abbreviation so the mail handlers know what’s up.
He elaborated for me - if there was an “endorsement” (hand-written 3 letters on the envelope) and returned as “undeliverable” then it wasn’t a postage issue.
He suggested the following possibilities for the endorsement:
ISA - insufficient address (no apartment number, for instance)
NSN - no such number (non-existent house number)
There are others like “UTF” (unable to forward) but that’s not likely.
He also suggested that this might have happened due to wrong address being written down, poor penmanship causing confusion, or even an error at the sorting plant (are there barcodes on the bottom of the envelopes?) causing it to be sent to the wrong ZIP code by accident, and then returned to sender.
I’d say this is your answer. We don’t get mail delivery either. Non, nada. Nor does anyone else that lives near us. We have to use a PO Box.
Does your son have a POB?
Did you read the quote correctly? He says he does get mail at the address (I read it as “doesn’t” at first too.) So he usually gets the mail ok, but these letters didn’t turn up.
The three letters can also be “UAA” (Undeliverable as addressed).
Opps. Somehow I read that as does not.
Around here we just had a street renumbering to enhance 911 efficiency. Our regular mail carrier knows what street number our house used to be, so we receive our mail with no problems. When someone is filling in for him however, some of our mail gets returned as “undeliverable”.
I worked for the Post Office many years ago.
It’s often a very tight schedule, especially in nasty weather, or on certain heavy days when there are lots of catalogs, etc.
If something can’t be delivered in a few seconds you have to stick it back in the bag and keep moving.
Sometimes the reason a letter isn’t delivered is forgotten by the time you get back to the post office, so it’s just stamped undeliverable.
The main reason is that while “my carrier” may have been told something special, that person doesn’t handle all of the mail. There are 6 delivery days a week and 5 work days/ carrier. The extra day is covered by rotations, so each carrier has 4 days of their regular route and 1 day covering others’. That means 1/3 of the mail is delivered by people who only see that route one day every few weeks, and that’s not counting vacation weeks when the rookies and part-timers have to fill in.
Many people have an odd box, apart from all the others, around the corner of the porch, without a name or number on it. Some have agressive dogs. Some have locked gates they forgot about. In snowy areas the path may not be cleared. Some have a slot hidden behind the hedge.
A whole lot of people who have corner lots will put the box by the front door, but it’s not on the same side as the street in their address. This is because often cities assign numbers to lots before the house is built and just guess which way it will face. Yes, the builder or any owner could have address corrected, but somehow they think it’s the Post Office’s problem and not the city’s.
And if you go down most streets anywhere you will find a great many where the house number cannot be seen from the steet or sidewalk. Numbers missing, painted over, placed behind a new porch lamp, etc.
Telling “my carrier” isn’t enough, you have to fix the problem if you want reliable mail.
None of these may apply in your case, but you should check.
Not necessarily. There are 2 major sorting points; on the input end, where mail is sorted for the destination post office, and at the destination post office, where it is sorted by carrier & house on the street.
If it’s bad enough, the input PO center will reject all of them, and you’ll get them all back. But the PO would prefer to deliver them, so often they’ll let minor things by.
On the destination end, it’s going thru lots of different Post Offices, and individual carriers. Some of them will just deliver it, some might be picky or just busy that day, and find it easier to return bad mail. Luck of the draw, really.
A while ago, I mailed out democratic 6,000 postcards reminding people of an election. The people who prepared them made them 3" x 5", a half-inch smaller than the minimum side (paid extra to have them trimmed to this size!). All went thru, except a couple hundred sent to a specific post office. Oddly enough, one that has a very Republican Post Master. Somehow, the senders don’t believe this was just coincidence. Especially as they frequently have trouble with Sample Ballots mailed to that Zip Code being delivered late, like the day after the election.
As a matter of fact, now that I know what to look for the three letters are indeed UTF. Ferret Herder says this would be unlikely. Why would it be unlikely? Because no one asked that it be forwarded? It is addressed perfectly, according the the USPS. I thought maybe the fact that the Apt. number was on the same line as the street address was the problem, but it turns out that that is “standard form.”
My husband says that this is a carrier error. It could be a newbie carrier who just uses the endorsement as a catchall for “I don’t know where this goes.” Could be a substitute carrier who didn’t see the names on the mailbox (they do have names on the mailbox, don’t they?) and assumed they were previous tenants who’ve moved out.
He also adds that it is policy that for apartments, all residents receiving mail there must have their names on the mailbox. Inside on the back wall of the box is probably a good idea too. He says the regular carrier would probably know who is on the route and deliver everything, but a substitute wouldn’t.
Oh, I forgot - if this isn’t the case, either you or your son should find out the phone number for the post office that handles his address, and ask to speak to a delivery supervisor. Mention the two letters marked up as “UTF” and explain that this is a valid address and who are the two residents of that address.
To address* the “he’s applying to law school” issue, I don’t think it is that important. When the acceptance/rejection letters (here’s to the former) get sent, he can simply call the school for information if he doesn’t hear by a week or so after the mailing date. He’ll have plenty of time to decide which school to attend, and not getting the letters shouldn’t be a big deal.
- no pun intended!