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Mail Box Replacement For No Reason

4K views 33 replies 16 participants last post by  lt230s 
#1 · (Edited)
My old mailbox was just fine but the new post office delivery punk has decided that he is just to dang lazy to do his job and deliver outsize mail to my front door.

We had the same person deliver our mail for the fifteen years and he never had a issue of opening the gate at the driveway and bringing us our outsize mail until he retired. That is when the Post Office went to a contract carrier that is lazy, not motivated to even do proper deliveries like actually insuring that the mailboxes in the area are closed before speeding to the next box. I mean the speed limit in this neighborhood is 15 MPH not 30 and this guy is a pain in the rear.

Well today I finally went to Lowe's and since I had a $50.00 gift card that my employer gave me I used it and bought the largest available box for $37.00 since the box was black and I want white I went over and got 2 rattle cans of white and sprayed it good.

Now the idiot better deliver my outsize packages as the box I have is big enough for almost everything I receive instead of me having to go ten miles one way to get my mail from the main office...

The outsize package in the box I had to get Thursday
 

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#2 ·
What is a contract carrier? Is he delivering in a USPS truck? I'm not aware of any outside services delivering door to door for the post office. Trucking from building to building, yes, but not City Letter Carrier or Rural Carrier work.

And if he or she is not delivering to your satisfaction, get a hold of your local post master and file a complaint.
 
#3 ·
We had contract carriers for a while out here as the old rural letter carriers retire the post office is replacing them with contract rural carriers, I have got hold of the post master and the company and this moron just keeps doing the same thing. for the most part the contract carriers only last a year and then we have to train a new one again. The deliver is not the post office vehicle but a right hand drive Jeep with no markings.
 
#4 ·
Sorry to say Mike that those multitudes of us in the rural areas all have contracted carriers. They are private individuals using their own cars.

I live off of a little one lane road very close to the post office. We had a General Delivery address for years and years. The PO did away with Gen. Del. and gave us a PO box at no charge. Now that the PO has cut the hours to two hours a day at mid day through the week, the only chance I have to get my mail is a three hour window on Saturday mornings. If I have something that I have to do then it'll be two weeks before I can get my mail. All of that to say that the private carrier refuses to add the 3/4 mile length of the road to their route. I'm in the process of filing a petition with the PO to force the addition of the route so that I can have a mail box like a normal person. It's tough to get one's mail in the country at times.
 
#5 · (Edited)
That's interesting, all the Rural Carriers I know are USPS employees. I've never heard of any of the work contracted out to a private party.

Good luck with your petition, they are sticklers for long driveways. For the most part, they don't allow driving down anyones private drive for fear of children running out, no place to turn around the vehicle, snow not cleared, damage to one's property while turning around etc. Generally, the reason is safety.
 
#6 ·
Yeah I understand DJ the post office is losing money I do not even wonder why. With service that is not even barely acceptable I can see why. The folks that have had really good deliveries are now dealing with these contract idiots that are not even motivated to do the job that they should and trying to get them to do it the correct way forget it. It is like yelling about something and nobody even listens.
 
#7 ·
our office is literally next door to the post office. a few years back they sent out letters informing everyone on the highway to either put in a drive up mail box or stop getting street mail. The postal carriers were refusing to get out and walk to deliver the mail! so now almost anything sent to our street address is returned undeliverable! I've place forward notices, even requested all mail to the street address be placed in our PO box but nope, unless it is a fill in driver we don't get it!

our home address is rural so we have a rural carrier. she would either walk the 120 ft driveway and place the package on our porch or leave a note saying I could get it at the post office by my work the next day.
 
#8 ·
The thing is the main post office for some of us is ten miles out of the way from where we live. The nearest post office is actually three miles away but the way the post office gerrymandered the area we have to go ten miles for our mail. I think that the areas we live in should be delivered from the nearest post office it is not how they work. Not efficient by any means. I have no issues for over fifteen years until our carrier retired and they went to a contract carrier.

OH well at least I get my mail but you have to wonder if Fedex and UPS can do it simply by wrapping my packages in plastic and either tie the package to the gate or open the gate and bringing to house if they need a signature at least the post office can. Since I had the $50.00 gift card and I was just a tick over on cost I can put up something larger and see what happens when the idiot try to deny service again.
 
#14 ·
The thing is the main post office for some of us is ten miles out of the way from where we live. The nearest post office is actually three miles away but the way the post office gerrymandered the area we have to go ten miles for our mail. I think that the areas we live in should be delivered from the nearest post office it is not how they work. Not efficient by any means. I have no issues for over fifteen years until our carrier retired and they went to a contract carrier.

OH well at least I get my mail but you have to wonder if Fedex and UPS can do it simply by wrapping my packages in plastic and either tie the package to the gate or open the gate and bringing to house if they need a signature at least the post office can. Since I had the $50.00 gift card and I was just a tick over on cost I can put up something larger and see what happens when the idiot try to deny service again.
How big a building is the closest one to you? Most of the small town offices are just that, small offices to house the PO Boxes and a clerk or two to man the counter for shipping, stamps etc. The bigger buildings, the ones in bigger cities or towns house mail route cases where the City Carriers, Rural Carriers and the sub contractors (?) put together the mail route for delivery. The cases, work areas, parcel break down areas, parking areas for the USPS owned vehicles, freight docks, unloading areas indoors etc. take up space that the small buildings generally don't have. The indoor work has to be done somewhere and the bigger buildings are where it's done to keep it all in one place, rather than one or two routes in this building, two or three in that building etc. Logistically speaking, it makes more sense that way.
 
#9 ·
This is a state owned and maintained roadway Mike. I understand and agree completely about the private roads. That's what burns me so bad. This has been a state owned highway since the state bought all of the public roads back in 1933. Even the local elementary school, on the same roadway, has to send an employee to the PO each day. There's no delivery.
 
#10 ·
Ahhh I am on a private paved 2 lane road. No excuse that as a public paying for the service and to be denied
 
#11 ·
This is the main reason I was P.O.ed by the post office. My younger brother sent me in Washington state some collector license plates for my 1966 Ford Falcon in a outsized cardboard mailer and I had to go to town and get them. I grew up in Iowa and transplanted to work at a major aerospace firm after I got out of active duty Air Force and went in to the Reserve. I intend to use the plates only when I take my Falcon to car shows. I simply take the Washington state plates off and put on the Iowa plates when there at the show and reinstall the Washington plates and drive home
 

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#15 ·
:sidelaugh I have a friend who lives in WV and that is his source of income a contract mail carrier. To hear him tell it from his side is interesting and I know for a fact just driving down my road about any time of the year and day he has hit the nail on the head. Mail boxes all beat to crap so the door won't close and some cases open. Boxes leaning back into the ditch because the post was not installed properly and the snow not being cleared away.

From my point of view I got to know my local post master and the state post master when I failed to get the local post master to get the carriers head out of her rectum. I my self didn't under stand what the problem is. All boxes are numbered, mine is 2525, the one before me is 2555. So any mail addressed to 2525 should go in my box pure plain and simple. But when 2555 became a non lived in property so there was a stop mail to that address in place my mail every stinking day ended up there and I only knew because the stuff was falling out of the box and the guy across the road at 2449 box was next to it and told me about it. Post master gave me this crock of bull that the carrier a USPS driver what doing the mail by count. sort it so the first hundred goes in the first hundred boxes and so on. After 3 trips to town and seeing that local post master and not getting the problem fixed I made an appointment and visited the state post master. Amazing I got a new post master at the local office and a new driver.

Ya the new guy has skipped my box but I fully under stand why and I have made efforts to stop that problem on my end.
We have a lake a half mile down the road where super spoiled rich kids live and a favorite sport is mail box polo, worth less LEO can't or won't do any thing about it so I made a ball bat proof box of 3/16 inch steel. When the county was redoing my road it was set back a full lane off the road. I have a arm on the box so the heavy door doesn't fall but stays flat, That has froze up during a freezing rain event so the door won't open, I try to grease that arm up so it doesn't freeze up. Also because the box sets off the road a full lane when the snow plow comes by in the winter I can clean around my box early and in the early afternoon the plow truck will lay a 2 foot deep 3 foot wide pile of snow in front of the box. Stuff happens.





Yes I do put wood ashes down in the winter around the box too.

Moral is to visit the post master file complaints learn who the state post master is. There is no excuse for crappy mail delivery and you do pay for that crappy driver thru your federal income taxes not just the postage you and others pay.

Yes the mail box has a tilt to it. That so called Fed- EX driver backed into it after another time backing into my honey house and my removing his head and spitting down his neck.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Moral is to visit the post master file complaints learn who the state post master is. There is no excuse for crappy mail delivery and you do pay for that crappy driver thru your federal income taxes not just the postage you and others pay.

Yes the mail box has a tilt to it. That so called Fed- EX driver backed into it after another time backing into my honey house.
I agree with the first highlight, onward and upward!

But the second is false.(No offense) The USPS is a self supporting government entity and no tax payer monies are used to fund it. It supports itself by services paid for by consumers.

From the horse's mouth, see #1:

https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-facts/top-10-things-to-know.htm
 
#17 ·
I have a great rural mail carrier. In more recent years, as I would buy more stuff online and have the packages delivered, she would leave a post-it note on a piece of mail indicating she had put a package either in a car in the driveway, or in my shed (right by the mailbox). I asked her what I could do for a delivery box (like the old milk boxes) and she suggested that the large "farm or rural" mailbox would hold most packages. I did that, it works out fine, and I select USPS for most package delivery preferences.

I think mail delivery would be fine just a couple of times a week, though.
 
#18 ·
my grandpa lives on a small road that is a dead end he used to have problems with kids smashing his mail box untill he built a new one.

the top is made out of 3/4 plate steel/the door is the same thickness with 1 inch pins holding it on. the bottom is 1 inch plate and is anchored to a 3 inch solid steel pipe that goes 6 feet deep into concrete.

now when those kids try to hit it with there car it wrecks the car. the mail box is offset from the road by 2 car widths so he can turn around. so he is not liable if some one hits it and he has it insured as a building.
 
#19 ·
I've had a tough time with our letter carriers too--one lady we used to have had a regular Jeep Cherokee,no post office markings,etc,and she was a pain--we always got other people's mail left in our box,sometimes not even a person who lived on my street--or TOWN!..it was like she had to dump her "leftover" mail somewhere,and picked our box to dump it in..

She also rarely ever pulled into the driveway,if we had a large package that did not fit in the mail box--if she did,she'd either plop it on the deck beside the house,where it wasn't found for days in some cases--one time a friend sent me a box of music CD's,and she pulled into the driveway,rolled down her window,and simply shoves the box out--it was rainy,and it landed in a nice puddle--I watched this happen,and wished I had a video camera !..

She denied ever doing so,when I approached her a few days later at the mailbox,and a few days later,I got a card from the post master saying "your mail box is not at the correct height--please correct this or else your mail delivery will be stopped,until repairs are made..

The card also stated I had been "hostile" towards the delivery person,which was BS--I simply told her I did not appreciate fragile merchandise being tossed out of her Jeep like it was garbage,that's all--no finger pointing or cuss words,just a disgusted tone of voice..
"If further hostility is encountered--your mail delivery will be terminated"..

So,I re-hash the mailbox so it now sits at the correct height,and no troubles for a few weeks..she even thanked me for moving the box...!

Then a new neighbor moves in the new house next door,that was built on our former "extra lot"my parents had sold--and lucky us,he has the SAME last name as us,but is no relation to our family..:rolleyes:

I think it took 3 years,before I got that woman to stop leaving THEIR mail in our box --I wore a path to his front lawn,I had to trot over there so often,to hand him HIS mail--meanwhile,I'm "missing" important letters and bills more and more often,and I wondered if they were left at his house,and he just threw them out...(he has never once handed ME any mail!)..eventually I learned to read the adresses before going back in the house--if I had any that were not adressed to me,I'd simply put them right back in the box,and put the flag up..
Then,if I got no mail for a few days,she'd sail right by my box,and not pick up the "outgoing" mail!...

Shortly after that,I guess that woman retired--figures,just as I got her "trained" right ?...
Now we have a younger woman,who has an "official" mail Jeep,but I am pretty sure my town uses private "independent contractors" to deliver the mail,and they dont have to use an "official" mail jeep,but many buy one at auction and use them anyway...(safer,with the proper strobes and markings)...

Now this lady comes flying down the street going 50 mph every day,always in a big hurry,and floors the truck between mail boxes only a few hundred feet apart,I feel bad for her Jeep's tranny and brakes!..--she has almost run over animals and kids in the street too...and I've had to tell her about 40 times the neighbors house with the same last name is NOT related to me,and I'm tired of trotting out to my box in bad weather,only to find THEIR mail,or some worthless advertising flyers adressed to them,in MY mail box !..

My next door neighbor has been the postmaster for at least 10 years in my town now,and I'm good friends with her and her family..she too,gets disgusted,even SHE gets other people's mail left in her box,and she gets "numerous" complaints about delivery issues daily..but I guess that it is hard to get "new" carriers once they are hired without going thru a lot of red tape,so the situation stays the same..
 
#20 ·
"But the second in false.(No offense) The USPS is a self supporting government entity and no tax payer monies are used to fund it. It supports itself by services paid for by consumers.

From the horse's mouth, see #1:"


Your right I knew they were asking for subsidy from the feds and I thought (I shouldn't do that) they had gotten it.
 
#21 ·
You are not alone, here's one from Canada......

We live in rural Ontario and our mail is delivered by contractors. Basically anyone who is out of work and willing to use their own car.

One summer the road out front was being rebuilt and the driveway culverts and mailboxes were ripped out. This went on all summer and everyone's mail was being delivered to a "SuperBox" a couple miles down the road.

When they finally finished, I was working lots of hours away from home and soon winter was upon us. My Wife continued to drive to the SuperBox to get our mail.

When spring arrived and I wanted to put up a new mailbox at the end of the driveway, I had the Wife go to the local post office and request a copy of the installation requirements so I would get the new box at the correct height and distance from the road on the first try.

She was then told we had exceeded the replacement time limit, 90 days or whatever, and this address was no longer entitled to home delivery. Our glorious government had been in the process of trying to discontinue home delivery and this was one of their tactics. So for the past 10 yrs, the mail car has driven right past our house on its' regular route and put our mail in that SuperBox. My Wife then drives 2 miles (in the wrong direction for us), picks up our mail from our designated hole in the SuperBox and drives 2 miles back.

Yep, the Canadian Government can be just as boneheaded as yours.:banghead3
 
#22 ·
Well Mike here's another "contract" player in the postal service. It's the Community Post Office. Here is a portion of a story from the local paper (Times Herald Record) about the closing.

Some residents still rallying to save Westbrookville post office

Marlene Roe is retiring March 31 after running the Westbrookville Community Post Office for 30 years, and the U.S. Postal Service has decided to move Westbrookville's services to the Cuddebackville post office.

With less than a month before the U.S. Postal Service is scheduled to shut down the Westbrookville Community Post Office, residents still want answers from the postal service.

The tiny post office sitting on the border between Sullivan County and Orange County is a bustling place that provides services to nearly 500 families who do not receive home delivery.

Its budget is small. The person who has run the post office for 30 years gave six months’ notice of her retirement, and at least two local residents expressed interest in taking over the contract and the position.

So, residents ask, why has the USPS decided to shut down the hub of their small community?

USPS spokesperson George Flood says it’s all about continuing to provide the best possible postal services. The 486 post office boxes in Westbrookville will move 3.75 miles down the road to the Cuddebackville Post Office in Orange County. Cuddebackville has less than 300 post office boxes, and the building has enough space to fit the additional boxes.

“Our goal here is to maintain the level of services for our customers in Cuddebackville, as well as Westbrookville,” Flood said.

Cuddebackville’s post office is a regular federal post office, with a postmaster and a federally employed clerk.

As a community post office, Westbrookville was contracted by independent vendor Marlene Roe, a Westbrookville native. Roe had a fixed contract, but nationally, Flood said, USPS is turning to performance-based contracts for community post offices, which means the vendors' salary is a percentage of the postage sales.

Several Westbrookville residents expressed interest in taking Roe’s place, including Julius Greenberg, who followed up with USPS multiple times, but the new performance-based contract terms were not considered profitable enough, Flood said.
 
#23 ·
Well so far so good with the large rural mailbox. I got a package today and it "Surprise" was delivered and no pink slip to go out of my way to get the package. The package had 4" of room on top and a inch on each side and 3" from the front of the box and maybe a inch in the back. That is probably going to be the limit of the out sized mail I will get but I was really happy to have it fit in.

Personally I prefer either Fedex or UPS for delivering packages but some companies have the post office to do it and it actually worked this time. Only time will tell if this becomes the fix I hope it is.
 
#25 · (Edited)
Well so far so good with the large rural mailbox. I got a package today and it "Surprise" was delivered and no pink slip to go out of my way to get the package. The package had 4" of room on top and a inch on each side and 3" from the front of the box and maybe a inch in the back. That is probably going to be the limit of the out sized mail I will get but I was really happy to have it fit in.

Personally I prefer either Fedex or UPS for delivering packages but some companies have the post office to do it and it actually worked this time. Only time will tell if this becomes the fix I hope it is.
If the package fits in your mailbox, why wouldn't he or she deliver it? That's the point.

Here's a bit of reading, the "Rural Carrier Duties and Responsibilities" handbook. It spells out the rules that the Rural Carrier's play bye. I'll assume the Contract Carriers play bye the same rules.

https://www.apwu.org/sites/apwu/fil...Carrier Duties and Responsibilities 09-13.pdf
 
#24 ·
Why do I picture the guy in "Funny Farm"?


My carrier is fine. I have a bigger box that will handle most Amazon boxes, but would like to go even bigger. I'd rather not have people on my property at all and have gates and fences and hedges to make that point. I've had delivery drivers open gates or crawl under them. I try to remember to leave them open when tracking shows 'Out For Delivery" but sometimes I forget.

I'm considering a larger wheeled trash can that I can mark "Packages" and put out by the gate for them to use. No issues of package theft here that I know of.

There are some USPS regulations on boxes, but I'm thinking of making or modifying one to handle larger boxes.
 
#26 · (Edited)
One year and the new mailbox is toast. Seems that it was a magnet that attached a speeder who had to serve to avoid hitting a vehicle coming out of my neighbors place across the street. Of course the field fence suffered minor damage with a T-post bent over a small branch broke of the tree a ways away from the mailbox and a direct hit on the mailbox and post. The guilty party left a note and they are buying me the material to replace the box post and cedar boards that I had put on the post. The bad part was I added cedar boards to dress the post up and I also replaced the post last fall because the old post was rotted. When I did it I put in 4 sacks of 60 pound cement Now it will take a couple extra sacks and I am going to modify how the post is put in. I am going with a steel collar embedded in the cement and then thru bolt the post to the collar.
 

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#28 ·
The person who hit the mailbox stopped by today with a new 6 foot post, 6 sacks of cement, a new mailbox and cedar fence boards to wrap the new post. This young man so impressed my wife with his honesty to make it right that my wife gave hime a package of lumpia (Philippine egg rolls). I was very appreciative of the kids integrity that to try to make it for his error. He wants to help tomorrow with the planting of the new box but I really do not need help. If he wants he can stop by and help if not I let off the hook. On the way to work Friday I stopped at Home Depot and got 2 shelf brackets, deck column base and two 5" long 1/2" bolts with washers and nuts. I plan to plant the post with the column base bolted to the bottom of the post and let the post stay 6' tall and use the shelf brackets mounted to side of the post with the mailbox to side of the post. I have pictures of the entire set up tomorrow.
 
#29 ·
Well today was the day and I got my electric mixer out, the John Deere 2305 and went to work. 5 hours later the new post was up. The young man that hit the box did not show up but we are back in receiving the mail. Using a Simpson column base and a 2 Simpson shelf supports the entire box is back. I got a new box but decided to use the old box and save the replacement for later. I had a couple rattle cans of white and touched up everything so the box is visible and 30" off the main travel area of the road. I still plan to wrap the post in cedar that is stained but I just ran out of time and was getting tired so I do that later when I have some time. The whole project took less time then the setup and clean up and I still need to clean up around the post.
 

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#31 ·
Well thats a wrap on this little project. Now that the new post and wrap is done with a new post I think it came out way better. the main reason that I did it the way I did it is I am a bit on the fussy side. There are certain ways I want something to look and if I am fixing it. I want it to last ten years or better. The old mailbox post was replaced last year and it was crossed drilled in case it got hit. I just did it the same with the new and covered it up with the cedar wrap. So in the future if it is hit again I simply unbolt the post from the column base and slip in the new post. I think that I went for the the last 18 years without one hit on the mailbox and I was lucky. My younger brothers place has had 4 new post in the last 15 years. He only gets about 4 years and then is replacing it because of idiots.

Our home owners road association has finally agreed to installing speed bumps because of the fact that this could have been much worse. The road here is on a easement that is on everyones property that fronts the road. I have the longest easement in our neighborhood that is straight and the speeds have been climbing for the last 3-4 years. The speed limit is 20 MPH but I regularly see folks traveling down the road 10-20 MPH faster. Well there is going to be 3 sets of speed bumps near or on my property. Guess we will slow everybody down.
 

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