USPS? getting delivery ever other day?

ZTMAN · Jan 22, 2022

Seems like we get mainly junk mail on a daily basis. I just told my wife today it would be fine if they delivered mail once or twice a week. No need for me to go to the mailbox six days a week.

lman · Jan 22, 2022

KennyG said:
Good luck on that. Locally, the post office has been advertising for applicants for the last year. The same with the "infrastructure" funding. If we're going to fix a bunch of bridges, roads, etc, who is going to do it? Construction workers are in short supply.

I'm sure the infrastructure money will find a good home though.

LittleBill21 · Jan 23, 2022

KennyG said:
Good luck on that. Locally, the post office has been advertising for applicants for the last year. The same with the "infrastructure" funding. If we're going to fix a bunch of bridges, roads, etc, who is going to do it? Construction workers are in short supply.

I said they were hiring, never said they were going to get the people

square1 · Jan 23, 2022

Put an outgoing letter in the box on the 10th and raised the flag. Needed to be at it's destination (local) as close to the 15th as possible. Wasn't taken from the box until the 14th. Hopefully it didn't take 5 more days to be delivered! I could have walked it over in a couple hours

kcflhrc · Jan 24, 2022

The biggest problem we have with USPS is when Amazon uses them for the last leg of the delivery. It's horrible. I have seen it go from Kansas City MO to Kansas City Kansas, then to Warrensburg MO, then back to KC MO then back to Kansas City KS and then eventually it makes it to us about 30 minutes southwest of KC. Most of the mail I get is junk so they can deliver once a week if they want to. They suck, it's just about that simple. No one wants to work any more, they do half ass jobs and want $20 an hour or more.

NorTracNY · Jan 24, 2022

etpm said:
This may seem political but is not. Years ago the Republicans forced the USPS to fund retirees medical benefits 75 years into the future in a way no private company does. This funding is a very large financial burden to the USPS. It can only be changed by an act of Congress. ...
Eric

I appreciate that you attempted to some degree to state facts, but you certainly have made this political. It is not a fact that "Republicans forced the USPS.." As you stated, Congress is needed to make changes. It was Congress that made the USPS to change the was benefits were handled, not a political party. If you wanted to be factual, you would have said "Years ago, Congress ..." If you wanted to be factual and political (which you did), you could have said "Years ago when the Republican party was in control of Congress..."

Let's avoid the politics. The mods don't like it.

dmccarty · Jan 24, 2022

USPS service, and lack there of, is local.

Our service is pretty good. My parents service in a different state is horrible. So many times, too many to be truthful, we have paid to have X Day delivery and the package does not show up on time.

Amazon, UPS, and FedEx can do deliver on schedule but the USPS cannot in certain places.

Later,
Dan

Ken45101 · Jan 24, 2022

I was beginning to wonder the same thing (alternate day delivery). We were supposed to received some tax stuff Saturday. Nothing. Monday a holiday. Tuesday, nothing even though I had the flag up for outgoing mail, which was not picked up. It finally came Wednesday. They are still supposed to deliver even if short staffed. If no one else is available, the postmaster is supposed to run the route.

As for not delivering packages and certified to the door, they are required to do so. Local PO had told me they wouldn't and for years I received the obnoxious "sorry we missed you..." notes.

Well my current wife is as retired rural carrier. When she moved in here and heard that, she said "absolutely wrong." She called the local PO and the OIC told her that they didn't have to deliver to the door. My wife asked when postal regulations changed and was told it was always that way. She hung up and called the regional office. A short while later, the local OIC called and was mad. "We will deliver your package tomorrow but that's it, from now on you can pick up all your mail at the office." "Oh?" my wife said, "that's okay, I have the regional office on speed dial." We get our mail delivered properly most of the time.

Diggin It · Jan 24, 2022

^^^^ Sorry, but pulling strings is kind of like 'pull my finger'. It doesn't go over so well and you end up with an odor about you.

RalphVa · Jan 24, 2022

Bedlam said:
I was wondering if anyone else has gone a day or longer getting the mail delivered to the Rural box? A few weeks ago I was watching for a certified letter to arrive. It took almost a week . and 4 of those days in was in my local PO. I understand one day was due to snow.(4 inches). but then two days later I waited in my house for it. (they are supposed to attempt to delivery in person). But when I checked the mail that evening I found a orange note telling me it would be at my local PO the next day. (so no attempt in person). Anyways it was Saturday so I had to wait till Monday. And on Monday I went to the PO 7 miles away and they hadnt gotten it from the carrier. Finally on Tuesday I got it.

But now I was told that due to staffing issues and 'stuff' it would be possible every other day.(this was NOT from the PO)

So now for three days now I haven't even had a scan on the email to tell me they were going to deliver.

Anyways the main reason of the post is to ask if anyone else is experiencing that?

Thanks.

We had not had any mail in about a week. They'd pick stuff up but no deliveries. Wife finally wrote to the new republican governor urging him to use the national guard. Finally started getting some mail. She has to contact outfits we're expecting bills from by email/phone and asking about bill and sending money.

Jimbrown · Jan 24, 2022

Well the post office does not even deliver to my house. I have to drive 15 miles to the post office

etpm · Jan 24, 2022

Jimbrown said:
Well the post office does not even deliver to my house. I have to drive 15 miles to the post office

I'm pretty sure that if you have an address on a public road they have to deliver to a mailbox, that you are not required to get a PO box or resort to general delivery. Are you on a public road? Can you explain your situation better?
Thanks,
Eric

John_Mc · Jan 25, 2022

Our town is served by four different post offices. The one that serves us is aslightly shorthanded, but has been keeping up well, so we've had just about ZERO problems.

Surrounding areas have had major problems. I was told that one town's smal PO was so backed up that when one of the distribution trucks from the main sorting facility showed up, they had to turn it around and send it back: they had no place to put that shipment of mail.

They didn't have enough people to start with, and with a few out sick, they just went downhill from there.

John_Mc · Jan 25, 2022

etpm said:
I'm pretty sure that if you have an address on a public road they have to deliver to a mailbox, that you are not required to get a PO box or resort to general delivery. Are you on a public road? Can you explain your situation better?
Thanks,
Eric

That's not how it works here. Since we moved in 20 years ago, our mailbox has been a mile from our house. The mail carrier does not come down our dead end road (which is a public, town-maintained road). We were told that we needed some minimum number of houses in order to relocate the mailboxes and have the carrier come down the road.

A few houses have gone up since then, so we might meet that minimum now, but we've gotten used to it. The only real bummer is that when a package is too large to fit in the mailbox the carrier is only obliged to drive a certain distance to deliver it (I think that is 1/4 mile?) so when it doesn't fit, we get a notice and need to drive to the PO to pick it up. If we moved the mailboxes, they would be close enough that the carrier would deliver. However, no one has made a move to relocate them. Personally, I like our mail carriers. They have always been extremely reliable. They have a very full, rural route. I have no interest in making their job tougher, particularly at a time when there is such a shortage of people willing to do the job.

etpm · Jan 25, 2022

John_Mc said:
That's not how it works here. Since we moved in 20 years ago, our mailbox has been a mile from our house. The mail carrier does not come down our dead end road (which is a public, town-maintained road). We were told that we needed some minimum number of houses in order to relocate the mailboxes and have the carrier come down the road.

A few houses have gone up since then, so we might meet that minimum now, but we've gotten used to it. The only real bummer is that when a package is too large to fit in the mailbox the carrier is only obliged to drive a certain distance to deliver it (I think that is 1/4 mile?) so when it doesn't fit, we get a notice and need to drive to the PO to pick it up. If we moved the mailboxes, they would be close enough that the carrier would deliver. However, no one has made a move to relocate them. Personally, I like our mail carriers. They have always been extremely reliable. They have a very full, rural route. I have no interest in making their job tougher, particularly at a time when there is such a shortage of people willing to do the job.

Thanks. It sounded at first like all your mail was only available at the Post Office. I appreciate our mail carriers too. We are also rural and sometimes don't get mail until 8 at night. Those folks put in some long days.
Eric

stephenh · Jan 25, 2022

etpm said:
I'm pretty sure that if you have an address on a public road they have to deliver to a mailbox, that you are not required to get a PO box or resort to general delivery. Are you on a public road? Can you explain your situation better?
Thanks,
Eric

Not true here. I moved to this county in 1974, and there is no postal delivery except to the P. O. Box at the post office. We have to pay $160 a year to have the box, [small], and nothing is delivered to a home and that is true for the entire county.

Additionally, the PO will not deliver [to the box] mail that does not have a Box # in the address. Even if they know you after living here for decades. It is a constant chore to insist to vendors and people mailing to you that they have to put the PO # on the envelope or parcel. Several times a year someone does not do that and our mail gets sent back to sender.

deserteagle71 · Jan 25, 2022

etpm said:
I'm pretty sure that if you have an address on a public road they have to deliver to a mailbox, that you are not required to get a PO box or resort to general delivery. Are you on a public road? Can you explain your situation better?
Thanks,
Eric

It seems to vary as to which part of the country you live in. In Pennsylvania, where I grew up, each place out in the country had its own mailbox sitting out front to which mail was delivered. Out here in Nevada the Post Office utilizes communal mailboxes that serve a whole area, people have to drive to the mailboxes and pick up their mail. The Post Office will not deliver to individual mailboxes. The current bank of mailboxes I have to use now give each address a box - a slot, really, about 2-1/2" high, 12" wide by 12" deep. That works OK for letters, etc. although for someone with big hands it can be very difficult to pull a letter out of the back of the slot. But if you have a package delivered, what you get is a pink notice in your mailbox that tells you to go to your Post Office (miles away) to pick up your package and that is a pain for someone like me who rarely drives to town.

TheMan419 · Jan 25, 2022

stephenh said:
Not true here. I moved to this county in 1974, and there is no postal delivery except to the P. O. Box at the post office. We have to pay $160 a year to have the box, [small], and nothing is delivered to a home and that is true for the entire county.

Additionally, the PO will not deliver [to the box] mail that does not have a Box # in the address. Even if they know you after living here for decades. It is a constant chore to insist to vendors and people mailing to you that they have to put the PO # on the envelope or parcel. Several times a year someone does not do that and our mail gets sent back to sender.

Yep. We have several rural areas within our county that require resident to have a PO Box. No mail delivery to their physical address. Lots of subdivisions going up that have a bank of mail boxes at the entrance. Kind of like you would find in a highrise apartment buidling. So they all have to get their mail at that box.

japody · Jan 25, 2022

stephenh said:
Not true here. I moved to this county in 1974, and there is no postal delivery except to the P. O. Box at the post office. We have to pay $160 a year to have the box, [small], and nothing is delivered to a home and that is true for the entire county.

Additionally, the PO will not deliver [to the box] mail that does not have a Box # in the address. Even if they know you after living here for decades. It is a constant chore to insist to vendors and people mailing to you that they have to put the PO # on the envelope or parcel. Several times a year someone does not do that and our mail gets sent back to sender.

How can I qualify for a free PO Box?

You may qualify for free (Group E) PO Box service if your physical / business location meets all of the following criteria:

The physical / business location is within the geographic delivery boundaries administered by a Post Office.
The physical / business location constitutes a potential letter carrier delivery point of service.
The United States Postal Service® chooses not to provide letter carrier delivery to the physical / business location.
The customer does not receive letter carrier delivery via an out-of-bounds delivery receptacle.

If you believe you meet all of these requirements, do not reserve a PO Box using the Post Office Boxes Online application. In these instances, please contact your local Post Office facility.