When I bought my new place, I was quite pleased to see that I had a mailbox attached to the house rather than at the curb like most new developments today. (It’s the little things in life, right?)
Anyway, I moved in and the mail carrier left me a note that all new residents are required to install a new curbside mailbox. I called the post office and the told me that a new resident is considered a new mail stop and therefore has to have a curbside box.
Its kind of absurd since 95%+ of the houses here still have boxes on the house. I realize they are looking to convert the whole neighborhood to curbside to allow carriers to stay in their vehicle. But at the current rate of housing turnover in this subdivision, humans will have evolved to sending messages by telepathy before all houses actually convert.
So are there any mail carriers out there to give me the Straight Dope?
Why wouldn’t the post office just send everyone a note and force all houses to switch?
Do they really think it helps my mail carrier if three mailboxes on my street are now at the curb?
If I refuse, would they actually stop delivering mail to my place?
Yes, its probably petty on my part. But like I said, sometimes its the little things.
WAG it’s easier for them to get new residents to change over then it is to force everyone to do so. If the sent a mailer out saying everyone has to do so they could end up with a large enough group to protest against it. At the point that no posted mail box people are the minoity they might send that letter.
It does save the mail carriers time to not have to go to your porch to deliver mail. Even if they still have to do so for your nieghbors.
Seems like a good gradual way to get a change over done.
I think your local post office is one of the worst organizations to piss off by being non-compliant. Those people know everything and every one. It’s very scary.
I visited the post office in my home town recently. I’d never carried a conversation with anyone at the post office when I lived there. I was greated by name and asked how various members of my family where doing. Like, hows you brother doing at BU? What is he studying? My responce was how do you know that he’s going to BU do you study his mail? They said nope they just learn things from delivering it.
How would that work where street parking occurs? You don’t get mail for a week and you call them. They explain that people are legally parked in front of your house, so you have to come to the post office to get the mail?
Be free? Have you seen what those things cost per month??
While it does seem counter-intuitive that a curbside mailbox in the middle of a block of houses that have house-mounted mailboxes is somehow better, you just don’t question the USPS.
It could be worse - they could switch the entire neighborhood to pods of multiple mailboxes mounted at the main road. They just adore these as it lets them drive up and drop off mail for a dozen addresses at once.
Oh, sure. I live “in town” around the corner from the post office but we are still rural enough that there is no USPS delivery to our houses. PO boxes are about $36 a year, even though there is no other way to get our mail. What sucks is that while the boxes are available 7:30 - 5:00 weekdays, the window is only open 8:00 - 4:45 so I lose the chance at good parking at work (which fills up by 8:00) if there is a slip for a package I need to pick up from the window. Package or parking hinterlands?? These are the days of my life…
I guess it’s still better for them to go around one car than all the way up to the house…?
The Post Office still finds ways not to deliver your mail even with a curbside box.
You go to work. It snows hard that day. City plow comes by to push all the snow on the street to the sides of the street.
Those who aren’t home and can’t shovel the snow away from in front of their mailbox don’t get mail that day.
