Well, I'm at my wits end!!!

Ever since we moved to our new house it has been one disaster after another with the post office. In our neighborhood, we have one of those big community mail boxes with a key and for months my neighboors and I have been getting our mail mixed up. So far I've missed two credit cared bills and I'm still waiting for my W2's which are probably in someone's garbage. I've called, and others have called to complain to no avail. This last mailing I've recieved a certified letter reciept for the guy across the street for a insurance bill he hasn't paid. How ebarrassed would you be if you find out your nieghboor (an almost complete stranger) knew you were having money problems? I'll probably have to get my W2's resent to me because I'll most likely never see the original copy. The situation is getting worse not better, I have no idea what to do at this point.

Mystery Man said:

In our neighborhood, we have one of those big community mail boxes with a key and for months my neighboors and I have been getting our mail mixed up.

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What's a "big community mail box"? Can't you get an individual mail box? Where lies the problem exactly? Do you mean that mail for Bob Doe goes to Marcus Jones' mailbox while mail for Marcus Jones goes to Bob Doe's mailbox?

Mystery Man said:

The situation is getting worse not better, I have no idea what to do at this point.

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Buy a Smith & Wesson, then prepare to end your life in jail. But at least your honor will have been spared... Anyway, it's always extremely difficult to do anything against civil servants who have sworn to remain dumb and incompetent until the end of their days.

Turanil said:

What's a "big community mail box"? Can't you get an individual mail box? Where lies the problem exactly? Do you mean that mail for Bob Doe goes to Marcus Jones' mailbox while mail for Marcus Jones goes to Bob Doe's mailbox?

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It's the nu-wave-hooker way of doing things nowadays. No longer do you have a single mailbox at the end of your driveway or off of your house. It's a great-big metal box with individual boxes for each house. That part really doesn't matter since the problems starts at the sorter, and the fact that our mailman (I'm almost positive) is a stoner.

Turanil said:

Buy a Smith & Wesson, then prepare to end your life in jail. But at least your honor will have been spared... Anyway, it's always extremely difficult to do anything against civil servants who have sworn to remain dumb and incompetent until the end of their days.

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Winchester...2 actually, one is a pump action the other is a semi-automatic.

Post Office Box? Although that's a last resort, since it's out-of-pocket expense. Sorry, man. That's rough.

I can empathize, at least somewhat.

In our previous house, we were 20191 W. 219th Terrace. The Brownings, one street up from us were 20191 W. 219th St. We got their mail all the time. And through some clerical error, some of their mail was actually address to us on Terrace, not street. So, we were always having to take their mail to them. We even moved to Virginia and took several things with us which we forget to give to them, and which got packed up with our stuff by people who didn't know any better.

But we also had a grouping of mailboxes which was a post with 4 boxes on it for our house, the house next to us, and the two across the street. We occasionally got a neighbor's mail, including a bill for a Playboy subscription.

Update:

Called the local post office directly instead of the 800 number.

The post office tends to perk up when you mention that they may have lost your W2's, I wouldn't know why.... At any rate the lady I was talking to was going to oversee the sorting personally as soon as she got off the phone with me. They're going to send another notice to my poor neighboor who may not even know he owes anyone any money. There is a new full time girl on the route as of today.

We'll see what happens.

What a mess.

Mystery Man said:

It's the nu-wave-hooker way of doing things nowadays. No longer do you have a single mailbox at the end of your driveway or off of your house. It's a great-big metal box with individual boxes for each house. That part really doesn't matter since the problems starts at the sorter, and the fact that our mailman (I'm almost positive) is a stoner.

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These clusters of mailboxes have been required by the USPS for years now. Its largest expense, by far, is manpower and delivering to individual houses is time-consuming. Even businesses are getting caught up in this, with the post office refusing to pick up mail from individual businesses, requiring them to take their mail to a nearby (?) box or to a postal station.

As for the problems with your carrier, I'll echo J. Dyal's suggestion - a PO Box may be the easiest solution.

Also, have you gone into your local station to discuss this with the manager? I've found that I often got better results that way, rather than just using the phone. Scheduling a meeting with the manager and several of your neighbors may also get their attention. Just keep in mind that he/she probably wants the problem to go away as much as you do - the manager may not have as much control over the situation as we'd like, given the employment laws governing the USPS.

If this doesn't work, another option is to try to kick the problem up the chain of command by contacting the postal manager over the entire city or region. Larger cities will have Business Service Centers with staff who (IME) are excellent resources for getting problems like these solved. Their focus is their business customers, but I'm they'll probably be able to steer you to someone who can help.

I've seen some folks forward their personal mail to their business address - usually when an employee is relocating. I do NOT recommend this. Besides the problems if you change jobs, most companies start to get paranoid when bank statements show up addressed to individual employees instead of the company, especially if they both use the same bank.

how many neibhors use the shared mail box? Write a ltter and hand delive it to each one asking that they not throw away mail not to them, but to get the mail where it needs to go. Constant complaining to the Post Office is good to, but I'd also try to ge tthe neibhors to help out.

Crothian said:

how many neibhors use the shared mail box? Write a ltter and hand delive it to each one asking that they not throw away mail not to them, but to get the mail where it needs to go. Constant complaining to the Post Office is good to, but I'd also try to ge tthe neibhors to help out.

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We do, but man it gets old. Once or twice, that just happens but when its a weekly problem we all get tired of griping to each other. Positive; its a good way to meet your neighbors I guess. We'll probably all get together and do something about it soon if it doesnt get better.

Mystery Man said:

We do, but man it gets old. Once or twice, that just happens but when its a weekly problem we all get tired of griping to each other. Positive; its a good way to meet your neighbors I guess. We'll probably all get together and do something about it soon if it doesnt get better.

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do you have kids? its a perfect job to make the kids do

I understand it being a hassle but it has to be better then someone throwing away your W-2's