I have been having an issue with my post office regarding “hold mail” requests submitted online. First, some background. I live in a single family house * and my husband and I do not share a surname. The first time I had a problem, I submitted a hold mail request online. Although the form said all mail for the address would be held, I tried to submit a separate request for my husband - it wouldn’t go through because only one request would be active. When we returned from our trip, his mail was in the box - only mine was held. Since that was not what the website said would happen, I submitted a customer service complaint. The customer service manager from my post office called and 1) didn’t seem to understand that married people can have different surnames and 2) didn’t seem to quite believe that the website would not allow two active requests for the same address. He eventually told me to find a way to put both names on the online request.
For the next request, I put instructions to hold the mail for both names in the additional comments box and received my mail wrapped in a printed copy of the request with a somewhat disrespectful note telling me I had done it wrong, I have to put in a request for the whole family not just one person. I sent another email to customer service asking how I was supposed to request that all the mail be held. That again was sent to my local post office - this time, I got a phone call saying the correct way to request a hold was to fill out the paper form and the website is wrong about one request holding mail for everyone at the address. The person who called me said she advised everyone not to use the website as there are always problems. After some back and forth, she agreed to send me some paper forms- on which she has scribbled over the information about using the website. I sent another email regarding the frustration I have with this PO seeming to set it’s own policies and the way they have communicated with me and asking that it not be sent to the local PO for handling. Of course they did sent it to them and I received an email back regarding change of address forms rather than hold mail requests and which didn’t address the note at all.
So I have two questions . First, why does this post office seem determined not to follow “one request will hold all the mail for this address” and so opposed to people using the online forms?
Second question - is there a way for me to complain that doesn’t just get routed to the very people I am complaining about?
* It’s a single family house, so there isn’t any question that the two names belong to two people who live in separate units.
Sounds like your local PO cannot function online. An in person visit may be required. To escalate your concerns? Idk!
I refuse to call Xfinity anymore, it’s worth a 20 mi rtrip for a face to face encounter as you cannot find a local # for the store. It all goes to central csr
I didn’t want to make my post too long - but part of my complaint was that the person who told me not to use the website also initially told me I needed to come into the post office or speak to my carrier to get the form, apparently not comprehending that the post office hours of 9-5 make that impossible for people who work anything close to 9-5.
Ick. All I can say is that at my address, mail is held for two last names (i.e., everyone in the house) when I put in a hold request under my name only.
Definitely grab a stack of those forms if you can, Saturday hours? 9-12 here. Ours shuts down also for an hour lunch every day! They try to but if it’s a line I’ve seen them keep going.
I tried a mail hold one time. I filled out the physical form and handed it in at my zip code’s post office (I’m retired, so I could do that). We were gone 15 days. When we got back, there was some mail in the box but not as much as I thought there would be for that long, so I went to the PO and asked for my mail. They said they didn’t have any. They said maybe it was at the distribution office, where I was not allowed to go, the local PO would try to find out where the mail was and I should come back. I ended up going back 3 times. The last time they told me that they found out that they had not held any mail, which is why they had nothing to give me. They could not tell me why they had not held any mail.
After my father died (same last name) and I was his executor and trustee, I got mail addressed to him at our house, including a lot of junk mail. On the junk mail I wrote “Deceased, return to sender” and put it out for our carrier to pick up. After a while I noticed I wasn’t getting any mail addressed to me, and I heard from someone who was trying to send me a bill that they had received it back. I finally caught up with the carrier, who had only noticed the last name and thought that all my mail should be returned to sender. In other words, he thought I was dead.
I have pretty much given up doing anything outside of the very ordinary with my post office. They are very good with packages, and for that I am grateful. Anything else, forget it.
Just to clarify: did they successfully hold your mail on this occasion? If so, I would keep using the method that worked and ignore the somewhat disrespectful notes.
Can’t you go to the post office and fill out a hold mail address there? That’s what I do in Canada. Theoretically you can do it online, but their web site is impossible to navigate. But these things work fine at the PO.
Sure, if I want to take time off to get there during the hours they are open. They are open for about 3 hours on Saturday, but the lines are a mile long on Saturday. My problem is the opposite of yours - the website is easy to navigate, it just seems like for some reason the people in my PO don’t want me to submit it online do it that way. No clue about why . For all I know, the original problem was that one carrier did it wrong, and now the customer service people don’t want to admit it was the carrier’s mistake.
This time they did- no guarantee that next time i won’t come back to an overfull mailbox. Since they gave me some cards, I’ll use the cards next time and see if that works.
Strange, when I go to the Post Office website and start a hold mail request it says:
We will hold all mail for this address, rather than an individual’s. An address can have only one USPS Hold Mail® Service scheduled at a time.
Only if I enter a forwarding request does it ask if the request is for everyone at this address, if everyone has the same last name, etc.
I have set up mail hold many times online with no issue (I always use the “carrier delivers accumulated mail” option). In fact the last two times I set up (1) a one week mail hold followed by (2) a six week temporary mail forwarding followed by (3) a ten day mail hold, with delivery the day we got back home. No issues - they forwarded the mail from the initial mail hold correctly, and when we got back our box only had the last ten days of mail wrapped in a rubber band.
I’m thinking your local PO is run by idiots. Have you actually spoken with the postmaster (rather than just the postal clerks)?
Years ago I had issues with my mail delivery person leaving my box door open. If it rained I’d have a pile of sodden mail. I phoned several times but the problem persisted. When I stopped at the post-office and asked to speak with the postmaster, he was very polite and understanding, but he told me the system was broken. My mail was being delivered by an independent contractor and he had no power over them.
The postmaster suggested I get a box at the post-office. I ended up selling that house and moving (for reasons other than mail).
If you find anything out, do let us know! I just tried to hold mail and have it delivered yesterday, only to return Saturday to find everything smashed in, like they’d used a trash compactor each day.
When I put in a hold mail online, I get an email confirmation of the hold. Then a few days before the hold is scheduled to end I get a reminder that mail delivery will be starting, plus a link to change my end date. Are those of you having trouble gotten the same emails?
It shouldn’t matter- but I have to say, I wonder how in 2021 someone could be surprised by the idea that married people don’t always share a name. Initially, I thought the issue might have been unrelated “roommates” who don’t live as a household, or illegal apartments but when it turned into filling out the paper form and listing every name is fine, but filling out the online form and listing every name is no good, it seemed to be some other issue. But at this point I’m pretty sure it’s just that this post office is full of idiots who know that a complaint will never go anywhere higher.
Or even if they don’t, you wouldn’t put a mail hold on if your roommate is at the house. You would just have him or her collect the mail as usual and separate yours.
Unless there is a new prank that these young kids are pulling whereby one roommate puts a mail hold on the other for giggles, I don’t think that there is such a policy, it is just the OP’s local post office being staffed by morons.
Years ago, due to problems with my mail (including local low-lives going down the street methodically riffling through all the boxes which is not under the control of the Post Office) I got a PO box. And for the most part it’s worked out. Except for that time the PO had a roof leak over the banks of boxes and… I got a pile of sodden mail. Is suppose nothing in life is certain (they did get the leak fixed, so it was only the one time)
