The large blue mailboxes are gone. No explanation. My PO box is now 280 dollars annualiy and now the lobby is locked after dark. The written explanation for the closure is "Due to unforseen circumstances. Lines are a mile long when they are open and their internet is down meaninng cash only.

Those blue boxes are no longer secure from today's thieves. That's probably the reason.
Many master keys for them have been stolen.
It even happened in my town - a mail carrier was held up at gunpoint for his keys.

They have also done away with the "hopper" door and only leave you a narrow slot. This is fine for paper & envelopes, but I had to send a postage-prepaid package roughly the size of a CD or DVD and it wouldn't go into the slot. I went to the downtown post office and found a differently configured box (still no door but a wider slot) that the package would fit through.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: egregore,

Blue box is still outside the PO here, and the flapper slot is closed, just envelopes slot is open for drive up or walk up.

Lobby on ours stays open 24/7, same for the one nearby in the next city, the area where PO employees work is closed off with retracting metal gates but that would be normal anywhere, you can still get to the slots for both packages and mail, or a PO Box

And yes the PO Box rate has gone nuts $300 a year for an average size box.

quote:

Originally posted by WaterburyBob:
Those blue boxes are no longer secure from today's thieves. That's probably the reason.
Many master keys for them have been stolen.
It even happened in my town - a mail carrier was held up at gunpoint for his keys.

The blue boxes are being/have been updated since February. There is now a 2-factor authentication procedure that requires the scanner and key in order to open the boxes.

No more blue boxes for me... To many getting broke into by the thieves using stolen box keys.. Now I go into the actual building and drop it inside. .. In these days and times a lock only slows a honest man down. ......................... drill sgt.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

And yes the PO Box rate has gone nuts $300 a year for an average size box.

The UPS Store rents boxes in that price range. They also accept package delivery on the customer's behalf at no additional cost, to keep your ammunition orders safe from the Porch Pirates!

Better, all around, than home delivery. All of the delivery services -- postal mail carriers, Fed Ex, Amazon, and of course United Parcel, know the address, so there's very low likelihood of your package going to the wrong house. When you receive mail for your box, or a package, The UPS Store notifies you via text or email.

Mo' better than a P.O. Box

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
Mo' better than a P.O. Box

A lot of things come to my PO box, but a UPS Store box isn't out of the question (despite the address change hassle).

My PO box used to cost me $60 a year. I think now it's $230. Grrr.

quote:

They also accept package delivery on the customer's behalf at no additional cost, to keep your ammunition orders safe from the Porch Pirates!

UPS Stores will accept ammunition? They don't consider it hazmat?

They won't.

I tried shipping a box of bullets at Mailboxes Etc... The UPS Store and they would not allow it.

Even worse than going to the post office until you remember how shitty the Palmetto, Ga. distribution center is.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:

UPS Stores will accept ammunition? They don't consider it hazmat

I have received many orders of ammunition at The UPS Store, from various online merchants. Got some from sgammo just last week. Never had a problem.

I am not aware of any restriction on receiving ammunition at The UPS Store. I know the owner of the local store where I have my account. He knows what's in the package; if there were a problem, I'm sure that he would not hesitate to tell me.

If United Parcel can deliver it to me at home (where the Porch Pirates can snag it), I don't really see any difference with the UPS truck delivering it to me via The UPS store.

Sometimes the clerk who retrieves my package from the back says "This is pretty heavy."

quote:

Originally posted by .38supersig:
They won't.

I tried shipping a box of bullets at Mailboxes Etc... The UPS Store and they would not allow it.

Bullets? Plain bullets, as opposed to loaded cartridges? Why in the world would they not accept these for shipment? Maybe the clerk did not understand the difference between "bullets" and loaded cartridges?

quote:

Originally posted by Orguss:

quote:

Originally posted by WaterburyBob:
Those blue boxes are no longer secure from today's thieves. That's probably the reason.
Many master keys for them have been stolen.
It even happened in my town - a mail carrier was held up at gunpoint for his keys.

The blue boxes are being/have been updated since February. There is now a 2-factor authentication procedure that requires the scanner and key in order to open the boxes.

It also seems that the internal hampers are not secure. On either Sunday 3/10 or Monday 3/11. my wife dropped two birthday cards and three bills into the drop hampers inside of the post office. As I have taught her, she opened the hamper twice to verify that the letters had dropped completely. Several weeks later, our fiends told us that they had not received their cards and I received past due notices for two of the three bills mailed. A quick trip to the bank let us know that one of the delinquent checks had been stolen, bleached, pay to changed, the amount changed to $2000, and cashed or deposited on Tuesday 3/12. Now, please tell me that this was not an inside job. Although the bank replaced my $2000 and I filed a complaint with the postmaster general, I still plan to file an incident with the FBI as these actions were a federal violation.
PS - The same thing happened to us five years ago when dropping off mail into the external, big blue postal boxes. I guess it's time to go digital and then worry about the cyber thieves.

quote:

I still plan to file an incident with the FBI as these actions were a federal violation.

Try the Postal Inspectors or OIG.

It could be worse! The Richmond, VA regional postal facility that my area uses has just been declared the worst in US.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: fiasconva,

The postman that delivers to my workplace told me years a ago he picked up outgoing mail at a residence that included a number of envelopes that had different return addresses and they appeared to have been tampered with. He reported it to his office and upon investigation it was determined that one of his coworkers had stolen the letters from her route. The dumbass stole cash and gift cards, half-ass re-sealed them and then placed them as outgoing mail at her OWN RESIDENCE.

On another note, I've read that gel ink pens should be used to write checks because the gel ink tends to penetrate the paper to the point that it can't be "washed" out.

Uni-Ball 207 pens are advertised as fraud-proof. I use them, but it hasn't had the acid test, so to speak, yet.

The large blue boxes are still in my area, still with the flapper door on top.

I hope they don't go to the slit-only style - I often send out mailings of many hundreds of letters (tax assessment notices), and it would be a real pain to have to go the the USPS when it's open... Which seems to be every 6th Thursday of the month in odd-numbered leap years.

quote:

Originally posted by fiasconva:
It could be worse! The Richmond, VA postal facility that my area uses has just been declared the worst in US.

We are in that boat as well, then add the “arrow keys” that are being stolen.

It seems there’s a story on the news about a mail carrier getting robbed at gunpoint about once a week now.

Can’t trust the postal system nor the internet.