I would too, although I think the distinction is small. You provide a recepticle for mail, maintain it and can change it if you like but its use is under USPS control. It would appear that this is a distinction without a difference. Another way of looking at it is that you grant an easement to the USPS to come on your property to deliver mail. Either way, objecting to junk mail on the grounds that trash is being left on your property against your wishes won’t hold water.
I disagree – I think the best way to view it is that the USPS regulates my mailbox and how it can be used, just as the DMV regulates my car and how it can be used. I don’t see anyone arguing that the DMV owns their car just because they have to have two working headlights & can’t drive it at 90 MPH.
Yes you can. Just remove your mailbox. The carrier will start a stop-mail for your box and try to reach you. If after some time, they haven’t managed to contact you or you have explained to them that you don’t want their service anymore, all mail sent to you will be returned as undeliverable: no such address.
The short answer to the OP is that the box might be yours, but you are contracting a service with a company (the USPS). Delivering only first-class mail is not an option they offer, just as Pizza Hut doesn’t sell raw pizzas or a “Meat Lovers, hold the dough, please”. If you want to receive mail from them, you have to receive the whole thing. It is not a pick and choose situation.
There are companies that will sort your mail. We did that at my UPS Store when you contracted a PMB (Private Mail Box). You could (for an additional charge) ask that we place only first class mail on your box, or many other different choices (in summary, we would honour any reasonable request).
Offering PMBs, though, did entail some responsabilities with the USPS, though. One of them is that we could not place or accept items not mailed or sent through a courier. PMBs couldn’t be used as drop boxes (we saw a lot of that in FL).
The big hassle with those credit card offers is having to shred the page with my information on it. Otherwise I’d just drop it in the trash.
This being the SDMB, you won’t be surprised to know there is one special-circumstances exception to what you say (which is, of course, in general, true).
When you move and file a forwarding notice with the Post Office – this is not the Change of Address cards they provide to be forwarded to your regular correspondents, but the other card, addressed to your old-address Postmaster, to tell him what to do with your mail – there is a block where you can tick whether or not to have 3rd class mail forwarded. Some people want it, others don’t.
Doesn’t guarantee you won’t get junk mail addressed to your new address – but it can filter out stuff still being sent to your old one that would otherwise be forwarded to your new one.
It probably is, but goes on anyway due to under-enforcement. What annoys me is the people that slip things under the frame seal of the windows in the doors.
You’d think I’d learn, but I somehow manage to miss these getting into my car and almost always go “Oh, what’s that?” <roll down window, watch as flier/card ends up inside car door>. :smack:
I have had wiper blades ruined by mishandling or by being put back down with the squeegee not laying flat. I usually call the advertisements number when that happens and see what they plan on doing about it.
This has gotten a lot more interesting than I anticipated, but I repeat, I’m not after the post office. I’m after the advertisers who are the real responsible parties.
I don’t think they should be allowed to put stuff in my house, through an agent or not, that I don’t want. If they want to put stuff here, they should ask. These advertisers have said time and again that they don’t want to ask because the answer will most often be “NO”.
I like the USPS. I get great service from them. And they have the best rates out there. They won’t go broke without junk mail, they’ll just get smaller. It would be bad for all those people to lose good jobs.
But all that junk is a huge waste of resources, and an environmental sinkhole.
Peace,
mangeorge
Yes. I have several neighbors who have no mailbox. Some are seasonal residents and have mail sent to their primary address; others prefer to go to the post office instead. Mail sent to their street address gets returned, marked “no mail receptacle” (that’s USPS-speak for ain’t got no box, Dude).
Sounds like that would make a nice lawsuit - what did they say? I guess you didn’t pursue it?
They will (at least unofficially.)
They do for mine, and my entire neighborhood. It’s an old (1900’s) area, so I guess it’s grandfathered.
I have had an issue with these ‘community newspapers’ for a while now. While they will stop throwing them in your yard (as Krokodil states) for a time… as soon as the distributor changes, the new one seems to think that everyone should have them and starts throwing it again! You see these pieces of crap all up and down the street, thrown in the alley, even littering the park/canal areas. Most people don’t seem to want them and just toss them wherever.
I asked the city attorney about this recently and was told that while technically it is littering, there is no legal recourse other than civil action. I can file a complaint against the publisher with the city attorney and he might file suit in city court, but of course that depends on several factors like availability, workload, etc.
I am reporting the parent company to the BBB, and am considering a neighborhood drive asking everyone to file complaints with the city attorney, which might result in some action being taken (I hope). But these people are providing no ‘service’ to anyone and their opt-out business model is extremely irritating, to say the least. I don’t want unsolicited crap left in my yard while I’m on vacation, advertising the fact to every burglar that drives by -and it shouldn’t be legal, IMHO.
Illegal? America’s Founding Fathers thought differently!
Just ask Bill Moyers.