UPDATED: What is wrong with the Mail Man?

[psophia17]

We have a PO box at the end of our street for picking up the mail. The previous tenant at this house never forwarded any mail, so we get a TON of mail for him. Our previous mailman came to the house one day shortly after we moved in, to meet us, and asked that when we got mail for the previous tenant, to cross out the address, write "moved" on it, and stick it in the outgoing mail. I've been doing this for almost 6 months, and the mail is slowly petering out.

The new mailmain has been taking the envelopes I stick into the outgoing mail, which have the address crossed out and "moved" written on them, and STICKING THEM BACK IN OUR BOX! Anyhow, I called the post office and asked what to do, and they said to continue doing what I had been doing, and they would talk to our mailman.

Today, I get to the mailbox, and in it is one of the letters I wrote "moved" on. The mailman has written me a note on the back, "Please advise person who moved out to update their address. Do not put misaddressed mail in the outgoing slot."

WTF???

---------------------------
There was another note today. It again instructed me to not put anything that wasn't outgoing mail into the outgoing mail slot. I wrote the postal person a little note of my own, and stuck the whole shebang into the outgoing box. Then I stormed home, and got on the phone with the main Canada Post CS number (not the local post office located in a 7-11 and staffed by people who are 7-11 employees). The lady I spoke with there took my complaint, and said she'd take care of it. Cross your fingers.

[rupptopia]

OK, that's weird! Like you are supposed to know exactly who lived there last & exactly where they ended up!

Maybe find out who the postmaster is & complain to a higher up?

[KBecks]

Chuck the mail for your old tenant and forget about it. Seriously.

Or you can you hunt down his new address? Would your landlord know where he went?

Sorry you have to deal with it.

[californiagirl]

Take the offending piece of mail to the post office and ask to see the postmaster (or whatever assistant postmaster is around while you're there). They should be able to sort things out.

[supercalifragilous]

I'd say do both of the above -
1. Take the offending envelope to the postmaster b/c clearly your new mailman needs instruction on what to do. Hello - like you even KNEW the previous tenants, much less their new address! WTH are YOU supposed to do with it?!?!
2. Chuck the rest.

After 6 months, the PO no longer forwards mail anyway - it expires. Obviously since the previous tenant isn't following up, they're not missing much. Besides, when they receive the forwarded mail on which you wrote "moved," they obviously know that you, the current tenant, are being kind enough to ensure they get their mail forwarded.

I say shred the rest. It's not like they'll know and if they really cared, they'd be more diligent about their mail - they could renew the forwarding service if they wanted. Honestly, you're MUCH nicer than me b/c I would've started doing throwing it away 3 months ago. I suppose if you want to be REALLY nice you could save it up and then dump it at the PO on your next trip...

[spunkybaby]

I always cross out the address (for the former owners of our house) and write "Return to Sender. No longer at this address." Then I stick the envelope back in the mailbox. That way the sender will know to take the person off the mailing list. At least, that's my hope, and it has worked so far...

ETA: I also always cross out the bar codes at the bottom so that the automated mail sorters won't automatically kick the mail back to our address.

Mom to a spunky toddler (3/04) and a new spunky Christmas baby (12/06)

[kozachka]

>After 6 months, the PO no longer forwards mail anyway - it
>expires.

Mail gets forwarded for 1 year, at least in California.

I'd take the envelope to the postmaster and let him/her deal with the mailman.

[tarabenet]

Go get 'em, P! Clearly your mailcarrier is not the brightest street lamp on the block.

[bubbaray]

I would keep putting the mail that isn't yours in the outgoing slot. Screw the postie. Those outgoing slots in a superbox are supposed to be for any mail you would otherwise put in a mailbox.

Demand to speak with a supervisor at CP, BTW. The line staff at the CS number are the same union as the postie, so they won't do squat for you. You have to speak with a supervisor -- IIRC, they aren't union or are a different union.

FWIW, CP is BRU-TAL to deal with. They SUCK.

HTH

Melissa

DD#1: 04/2004

DD#2: 01/2007

[Melanie]

That is bizarre.