I’d also like to add when an occupant requests a change of address, two forms are mailed. One to his new address with his name, and another sent to his old address with his name “and/or current occupant”. It explains the process of ensuring their mail will be correctly forwarded, and what they need to do on their side, as far as letting senders know they have moved. Sometimes a carrier won’t know a customer put in a change of address until he delivers the change of address letter to the recipient’s old address.

Routes are ever always changing. Carries occasionally get a day off, vacation, get hurt, bid to a new route, and even the dreaded route adjustments. Some routes are intentionally left “unstaffed” or not placed up for bid, so you may have a new carrier every day. The first day on a new route is like taking a sip from a fire hydrant. It can be overwhelming.

quote:

Originally posted by ASKSmith:

I’d also like to add when an occupant requests a change of address, two forms are mailed. One to his new address with his name, and another sent to his old address with his name “and/or current occupant”. It explains the process of ensuring their mail will be correctly forwarded, and what they need to do on their side, as far as letting senders know they have moved. Sometimes a carrier won’t know a customer put in a change of address until he delivers the change of address letter to the recipient’s old address.

I can tell you for sure, that the second form, "sent to his old address with his name 'and/or current occupant' ,” did NOT happen.

I know this because I have the only key to the mailbox, so I am aware of every item that is placed in it.

I am in touch with the guy, he was my partner, ownership of the v-tail, for a couple years, I know that he submitted a COA form when he relocated, and over the months he re-submitted COA forms at my urging because I did not want to deal with his mail (I sent it on to him, using his FedEx account). He submitted COA forms MULTIPLE times. It appears that none of them has had any effect, the carrier continues to load the box with mail for him.

quote:

Some routes are intentionally left “unstaffed” or not placed up for bid,

The NALC allows that eh? Aren't routes required to be put up for bid within 14 days unless a local agreement specifies otherwise?

The main takeaway from the USPS rules on COA's is:

Remember: You can ensure a smooth, Change of Address transition if you do some legwork up front, and notify anyone who sends you mail of your new address and your move date.

So even if the carrier isn't looking at every piece of mail in her pre-sorted stack, which I would seriously doubt any carrier is doing, the responsible party is the person making the COA to contact people to change addresses.


COA USPS FAQ'S

Change of Address Options

A Change of Address (COA) request can be temporary or permanent. Both options can be requested and completed online or by filling out a PS Form 3575 acquired from your local Post Office™. The PS Form 3575 form can no longer be printed from your home computer.

What Happens Next

On the designated Change of Address (COA) start date, USPS stops delivering mail to your previous address. As we redirect mail to your new address, you can expect it to start arriving within 7-10 Postal business days from the COA start date.

Temporary COA forwarding time limits: The minimum time period for temporary forwarding is 15 days. Temporary COAs, or seasonal forwarding, provide forwarding of mail to a temporary address for a maximum of 364 days, starting with the listed start date. Mail will stop being forwarded on the end date you listed on your COA request.

Permanent COA forwarding time limits: Mail sent to your old address will be forwarded to the new address for a certain amount of time, depending on the mail class (see chart below). Forwarding time limits for specific mail classes is as follows.

First-Class Mail® / First-Class Package Service-Commercial™ / Priority Mail® service (bills, invoices, personal correspondence, reply mail)

12 months

Priority Mail Express® service (merchandise, printed material)

12 months

Periodicals (magazines, newsletters)

60 days

USPS Marketing Mail® (advertisements, catalogs, retail offers)

Only forwarded IF the mailer specifies forwarding instructions

USPS Retail Ground®

12 months (Forwarded only to domestic addresses)

Library Mail, Bound Printed Matter, and Media Mail®

12 months (Forwarded only to domestic addresses)

If you are still getting his mail, and he's been notified that the mail is still coming to the hanger, and he's in no rush to change it, I'd simply toss it in a box, trash, or mark it Return to Sender.

Reminds me a few years back I was getting the bank statements for a husband and wife at my P O box... I would write on the letter not at this address and just put it back in the out going box... this went on for about three months and then one day I got two letters from the bank for them that obviously had credit or debit cards in them.... I decided to take this to my bank, same as theirs, and give it to the manager and told him straight out they needed to take care of this. never got another thing for these folks....

My second wife (of 18 months) didn’t want to have a forwarding address on file. In her paranoia and schizophrenia, she felt I and the others would hunt her down.

I ending up buying a custom stamp from Office Depot which reads “Return to Sender. Forwarding Address Unknown”

After a few months of bills and other important documents were stamped as such, her mail stopped coming here.

Can not tell you how many pieces of mail that came to our PO Box in Delta Junction, Alaska that had large red stamped notices of single or multibles NO Such Address in Arizona /No such Address in Arkansas / No such Address in Alabama even though the state name was spelled out as well as the correct zip code. Both personal hand written address as well as sticker label address and typed addresses. Did not seem to matter how the envelope was addressed. Not trying to say all postal workers should look for a different career but some need to go. My father started out as a mail sorter / then window clerk / station supervisor / incoming Parcel post supervisor / station post master at several locations till he retired . My local carriers for the last 15yrs have been awesome and could not ask for someone better. ............................. drill sgt.

VTail,

Some big red flags thrown. The previous tenant had filed COA’s multiple times over multiple years. He basically had many times to fix this situation over many years. Almost 99% of mail has barcodes on it, it is sorted by machines. The carrier will not physically touch it, in most cases, until he is at the mailbox. You have probably had as many new carriers, as the old tenant filled out COA’s.

Talk with the carrier if you see him. Other than that, mark your box with your business name, and your last name. Add “Return to Sender” all names that shouldn’t be delivered to that address. Business COA’s can be tricky due to multiple names at one address, it gets forwarded by the business name, and not the individual names. Again, talk to the carrier.

Carriers have little, if anything, to do with COA’s. And if they aren’t aware, they deliver mail as addressed.

But this is not the fault of the carrier, the previous tenant had years to correct it, ie, contact the people who were sending him mail.

quote:

Originally posted by Ogie:

quote:

Some routes are intentionally left “unstaffed” or not placed up for bid,

The NALC allows that eh? Aren't routes required to be put up for bid within 14 days unless a local agreement specifies otherwise?

Every 6 weeks in our area. But it can vary pending route adjustments, etc...

quote:

Originally posted by ASKSmith:

Talk with the carrier if you see him.

Her. It's a "her." She is an arrogant, belligerent, bitch who has antagonized every mail patron at the airport.

Talk with her? It is not possible to have a polite conversation with her. Whatever the topic is, she is right, you are wrong. Even if you assert that it is usually light during the day and dark at night.

Example of her behavior: The entrance road to Our Little Airport is divided by a grass median, inbound on one side, outbound on the other side. Speed limit, clearly posted, is 25 mph on the entrance road (15 mph inside the airport). I was inbound on the 25 mph portion, driving 25 mph, maybe 26 or 27. She (mail carrier) crossed the grass median to pass me and drive inbound on the outbound side (against the traffic direction) at speed approaching double the posted speed limit.

I was not able to get my phone out fast enough to record this, else I would have had a conversation with her supervisor at the Apopka Post Office. As it was, without documented proof, it would have been her word against mine, and my word would not have been sufficient, as many complaints have already been made about her by other airport occupants, with no change in her asshole-ness (is that a word?).

Holy Shit!!! It's not the previous tenant"s responsibility to put the right mail in your mailbox. It's the carriers job to get it right!!

You need to find out where the delivery is out of (sometimes its the PO in the city, smaller areas may have a regional delivery annex) and speak to the delivery supervisor/manager for that facility. Many local PO's have no connection to the carriers anymore.

I'm a contractor in the PO and ran into a missed delivery for a package, was told by the Postmaster of my office that "sometimes it happens, nothing he can do, maybe the person that got it will return it".
I then brought it up in conversing with someone at the site I work at (Processing Facility) and they told me to contact the regional delivery staff. I did, they found that a weekend driver (not my normal carrier) misdelivered it to a similar address on a different road.
The supervisor had my carrier knock on the wrong address and asked for my package, luckily the the recipient gave it back.

As for where COD actually take place, in the Processing and distribution facility, the mail gets scanned by cameras for sorting. When a "flagged" address gets hit, they look at the name attached. If it matches the change form, it'll get a replacement barcode with the new address and sorted to the correct location.
If the name does not match the change of address form, the mail continues to the old address.
This is important as the name becomes the key for change. If your name is "James Smith" and that's how your CoD form was filled out, mail sent to "Jim Smith" won't get flagged for the change, and will still go to the old address.

quote:

I was not able to get my phone out fast enough to record this, else I would have had a conversation with her supervisor at the Apopka Post Office. As it was, without documented proof, it would have been her word against mine, and my word would not have been sufficient, as many complaints have already been made about her by other airport occupants, with no change in her asshole-ness (is that a word?).

Use these words: "Safety violation"

Tell them she wasn't wearing her seat belt, with the door open.

quote:

Originally posted by ASKSmith:

quote:

Originally posted by Ogie:

quote:

Some routes are intentionally left “unstaffed” or not placed up for bid,

The NALC allows that eh? Aren't routes required to be put up for bid within 14 days unless a local agreement specifies otherwise?

Every 6 weeks in our area. But it can vary pending route adjustments, etc...

We have "unassigned regulars" while we have routes without a regular carrier...
It's not like it used to be, one guy retires, a PTF makes regular, maybe a little shuffle, every ones got a route. They convert CCAs in batches, then let them bid on routes...
Years ago we had TE's carrying routes for years, not being converted.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by Graniteguy:

This is also how identity theft can occur.

Yup. Several pieces of the mail that should have been forwarded are bank statements and / or loan documents.

If the former resident isn't updating the address with their bank/lender, that is on them. Seems like this wouldn't be an issue if the former tenant just informed them of their NEW address.

They move and don't notify the bank that mails them statements? WTF?

quote:

We have "unassigned regulars" while we have routes without a regular carrier...
It's not like it used to be, one guy retires, a PTF makes regular, maybe a little shuffle, every ones got a route. They convert CCAs in batches, then let them bid on routes...
Years ago we had TE's carrying routes for years, not being converted.

I've been out of the Post Office for quite a while. I will defer to your current experience on this subject.