Bad Mail

[millring]

The route I've been doing for the past month or so has an extremely transient population. There are two (soon to be three) apartment complexes where people live for the short term while settling in to new employment or out of old relationships. There's also a huge retirement development on the route that houses folks transitioning from home ownership to the cemetery.

This route requires about an extra hour a day just to note the changes of address and sort the bad mail sent to 500 nomads every day.

Most residents deal with the mail not addressed to them by stuffing it in the outgoing mail slot. I've thought about leaving a trash can for that purpose so that the trash isn't forever hiding the actual outgoing mail, but quickly realized that wouldn't work. I'd still have to sort through that bad mail, AND I'd then be pulling it from fast food wrappers and half full drink cups. So there's really no solution.

But what really mystified me at first was the mail returned with the angry scrawled ""Doesn't live here anymore!!!!!". Why the anger, I wondered?

But I think I've figured it out. It's always old people with their angry ball point pens scratching out the messages. And what are they so angry about?

1. They're lonely and wishing for a letter from someone they miss. No letter coming is bad enough. But a letter -- any letter -- waiting in their box is a tease and a heartbreaking disappointment when it's not even addressed to them. They lash out, wanting someone to know they hurt.

2. They miss the mail the way it worked at their old place. They had lived there for decades and had the same mailman for most of those years. He knew their names, their kid's names, their dog's names.... and even shared some of life's big events over those years. Now they live where they don't know anyone and the mailman is a sub who can never learn the names of the 750 transient residents on this route. Bad mail just rubs their noses in their newly anonymous life. It hurts.

3. They know what happened to the former resident for whom that letter they got by mistake was addressed. It's a foreshadowing of what's ahead for them. It scares them.

4. Just walking to the mailbox hurts their creaky bones....and then they finally get to the box only to find mail that's not even theirs. It tires them out to deal with it.

Hello in there. Hello in there, indeed.

[howard lee]

'Nuff said.

[drlj]

Maybe they are just tired of getting somebody else’s mail. When I get someone else’s mail, my first thought is not, oh, my, I am going to die some day! Nor is it anger about my creaky bones or the mail itself.
Sometimes I get the very same piece of wrong mail 3-4 times.
I have yet to climb a tower dressed as a commando.

[majorminor]

Nov 1, 2023 5:01:18 GMT -5 millring said:

4. Just walking to the mailbox hurts their creaky bones....and then they finally get to the box only to find mail that's not even theirs. It tires them out to deal with it.

DING!!DING!!DING!!DING!!

[dradtke]

Possibly they've gotten and returned mail addressed to this person several times before, and after the eighth or ninth time they're pissed off that it keeps happening. Somebody's not paying attention.

[james]

It can get tedious and even a bit exasperating having to deal with someone else's mail when they are dead or gone.

[millring]

Nov 1, 2023 8:38:46 GMT -5 dradtke said:

Somebody's not paying attention.

Yes. A digital sorting machine the size of a basketball court up in South Bend Indiana that sorts several million letters a day. But it does pretty good considering the volume and the transient nature of our population.

[Dub]

<letter carrier>

We don’t have a mailman, we have a femailman and have for many years. Kathy is nearing retirement and is often off work lately. She’s had both knees replaced and still hikes around like someone half her age. Often we see China, a seemingly happy and much younger woman. We hope she inherits Kathy’s route. Our neighborhood is one of the last developments to still have mail slots or boxes at the front door.

I don’t think a letter carrier, nor a sorting machine for that matter, is authorized to discard mail. Since businesses are allowed to send mail to “current resident” or “occupant” there’s no way for the USPS to determine whether or not a piece of mail should be delivered. If the address exists, the letter must be left there. In the rare case that a piece of mail intended for someone else looks truly important^*, we’ll try to see that it gets rerouted. If not, it goes into the shredder with our other junk mail.



^*When marked “Time Sensitive” or “Open Immediately,” we know for sure it’s not important. The same with anything sent at a bulk rate.

[drlj]

Damned old people taking up space and making another old person’s job more difficult! I have two words for you: Soylent Green!😡😡

[Marshall]

Yum !

[John B]

Nov 1, 2023 10:37:54 GMT -5 millring said:

Nov 1, 2023 8:38:46 GMT -5 dradtke said:

Somebody's not paying attention.

Yes. A digital sorting machine the size of a basketball court up in South Bend Indiana that sorts several million letters a day. But it does pretty good considering the volume and the transient nature of our population.

The former resident who didn’t fill out a forwarding card was not paying attention.

[millring]

Nov 1, 2023 12:16:34 GMT -5 Dub said:

I don’t think a letter carrier, nor a sorting machine for that matter, is authorized to discard mail. Since businesses are allowed to send mail to “current resident” or “occupant” there’s no way for the USPS to determine whether or not a piece of mail should be delivered.

This is something I find interesting since I started working at the USPS. Even some of the carriers misunderstand the obligation in postage. I know of a few carriers who don't deliver "standard" (junk) mail to a few of the people on their routes who have asked them not to. It seems harmless -- just a shortcut as to who puts the mail in the trash, really. And part of the misunderstanding stems from calling the people on our routes our "customers". They actually aren't our customers. Oh, they can be. When they put a stamped letter in their box for me to pick up and deliver for them, they are my customer. But in reality the customer is whoever paid for the stamp. And it is our obligation to deliver it. If we had a good forward for a former resident, we can forward it.

[david]

Nov 1, 2023 19:34:18 GMT -5 millring said:

Nov 1, 2023 12:16:34 GMT -5 Dub said:

I don’t think a letter carrier, nor a sorting machine for that matter, is authorized to discard mail. Since businesses are allowed to send mail to “current resident” or “occupant” there’s no way for the USPS to determine whether or not a piece of mail should be delivered.

This is something I find interesting since I started working at the USPS. Even some of the carriers misunderstand the obligation in postage. I know of a few carriers who don't deliver "standard" (junk) mail to a few of the people on their routes who have asked them not to. It seems harmless -- just a shortcut as to who puts the mail in the trash, really. And part of the misunderstanding stems from calling the people on our routes our "customers". They actually aren't our customers. Oh, they can be. When they put a stamped letter in their box for me to pick up and deliver for them, they are my customer. But in reality the customer is whoever paid for the stamp. And it is our obligation to deliver it. If we had a good forward for a former resident, we can forward it.

John, I get a bunch of mail for dead folks, that is, clients who I have represented, but who subsequently died. (I rarely have had anything to do with their deaths, really).

Sometimes it is for people for whom I have handled probate estates, either as a personal representative or an attorney for the personal representative. Most of it is unsolicited ads, requests for re-upping memberships, and solicitations for contributions. It is obviously a waste of everyone's time and resources. I am tempted to reply or write on the envelope something to the effect of, "Ms. Jane Doe died 1-1-2020 and remains dead" but I understand that presorted mail does not go back to the mailer. As to others, I do not want to take the time nor pay postage to write back to companies that are soliciting my deceased clients. What is the most expeditious means for terminating this waste of time and money?

[millring]

Nov 1, 2023 20:16:47 GMT -5 david said:

What is the most expeditious means for terminating this waste of time and money?

If in the place where the stamp would go (or on the stamp itself if there is one) it says "presorted standard" or anything that looks like an abbreviation of the same (like "pre std"), or it has something like 13 cents postage, or if it says "non profit", there really isn't anything you or I can do to stop it because if you put it back in your mailbox (with your flag up) for the mailman to pick up, he will simply take it back to the office and it will be shredded and recycled and the sender will never even be aware of it.

If, however, it has a real stamp on it, or if anywhere on the envelope it says "electronic return requested", if you put it back in your mailbox marked "deceased", the mailman will in turn endorse it and it will be returned to the sender (and the mail will hopefully stop).

[John B]

Hey John, since the holidays are coming up, what's a good way to thank our letter carriers? Not what is legal vs not legal, but something in an envelope with "letter carrier" on it with the mail flag up? My route seems to have subs on a regular basis - what's the best way to recognize subs AND my regular carrier?

[millring]

Nov 1, 2023 21:05:21 GMT -5 John B said:

Hey John, since the holidays are coming up, what's a good way to thank our letter carriers? Not what is legal vs not legal, but something in an envelope with "letter carrier" on it with the mail flag up? My route seems to have subs on a regular basis - what's the best way to recognize subs AND my regular carrier?

Last winter a lady on route 8 came in and asked who was carrying the route she lives on. At the time there were three of us subs splitting duty. She left a gift card for each of the three of us. You can find out at the post office who is carrying your route, but you might ask specifically about subs too.

Gift wise, other than cash, a yeti thermos tumbler shows a thoughtful understanding of the kind of winter work they're up against. It could even be filled with hot chocolate with a note that the tumbler is theirs.

[John B]

A Yeti sounds like a pretty good idea, and I didn't realize I could actually ASK who carries the route I'm on. Is there a particular saying or motto of postal carriers (like, "Carriers. We get shit done")? I guess there's a whole poem about delivering mail. I was thinking that engraving is only a couple of bucks extra if you order directly from Yeti. Or heck, I can just get my carrier's name engraved on it - that way it's not employment-specific.

[millring]

Engraving is an excellent idea.

[drlj]

When I lived in Crete, someone gave a mail carrier a car. It wasn’t new, but it was nice and had belonged to a relative who died. There was big hubbub about it and, eventually, he had to give it back. The PO issued a statement saying that all gifts were discouraged but, if a person felt they had to, hold them to no more than $20.
I give my mailman my personal well done. That should be enough. He doesn’t deliver out of the goodness of his heart. It’s his job.📬

[John B]

Nov 3, 2023 8:59:13 GMT -5 drlj said:

When I lived in Crete, someone gave a mail carrier a car. It wasn’t new, but it was nice and had belonged to a relative who died. There was big hubbub about it and, eventually, he had to give it back. The PO issued a statement saying that all gifts were discouraged but, if a person felt they had to, hold them to no more than $20.
I give my mailman my personal well done. That should be enough. He doesn’t deliver out of the goodness of his heart. It’s his job.📬

If I really want to reward someone, I'll stay at their house, and make them cook me waffles. My previous carrier LOVED that.