So we don't get mail everyday anymore.

[Sympthsical]

This started a month ago. There would be days we didn't get mail. It's highly unusual. Both of us work from home and receive various work things in the mail regularly. During early Covid, we had family living with us for the first year, and we were getting tons of mail. Because we're both home all day, people send things here and we're kind of friends and family's mail depot. So having 6-8 pieces of mail daily is about our usual.

We started noticing it when I ordered a new debit card because my old one was wearing out. I kept checking the mail daily, and more and more days didn't have mail. At one point, we went from Thursday to Tuesday with no mail. Clearly something was up. Neighbors started posting on NextDoor about not getting mail.

Finally, people started going to the post office about it. And these are some bullet points of what is being said:

- They are extremely short staffed and we may or may not receive mail on any given day.

- Some areas no longer have assigned carriers

- If they have time, sometimes they will deliver another route’s mail, but if your at the end of the route and they run out of time, you are out of luck.

- You must ask if it's wise to order your medical supplies and medication by mail order or if you should go pick it up. There is no guarantee your medication or medical supplies will arrive in a timely manner.

- You can choose to go pick up your mail at the post office if you wish. You must make allowances for them to put it aside. Unsure how many days.

- You must be aware, because they are so short handed that mail can be delivered as late as 1015 pm.

This is suburban Bay Area.

Can we fix the Post Office now? Mail only twice a week is kind of not great for even vaguely timed things.

Still don't have my debit card.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

1. That sucks ... whereabouts in the Bay Area?

Flying in from AZ, I'll be sleeping in Walnut Creek tonight at my folk's house.

I'll ask 'em how their mail delivery has been and update this post later.

[Sympthsical]

2. In North Bay, next to Napa a bit north of Vallejo

What's really funny was the Post Office's first explanation was to say we are a rural route - we are not. It's a major suburb. There are probably about 15,000-20,000 people clustered around my neighborhood.

But I almost admired the attempted explanation.

Apparently, a neighbor who went in person was told by a worker there that the people the USPS does hire don't last more than a week or so, which is inneresting.

[onethatcares]

3. first time ever today

I mail a package of homemade beef jerky to my grandson once a month. First Class/traceable.

This morning I checked and got a notification the package is "return to sender" because it could not be delivered as addressed.
That's really strange because we use template for the address and have been doing the same for three or four years now. Same address/no changes.

Stranger still, the time stamp on the notification was 5:07 a.m. today. I sure as hell know they don't deliver mail that early in that locality

[csziggy]

11. My incident happened about 3-4 years ago

My brokerage office mailed me a receipt for a deposit. Their zip code is sorted and delivered out of the same PO branch where my PO Box is located - all important mail is sent to the PO Box and not the street box on my rural road where it is not visible from anywhere on my property.

Six weeks after the standard #10 business envelope was mailed their office got it back stamped that the Post could not. All it had to do was to be picked up at their office, carried a little over a mile, and stuck into my PO Box. It took six weeks for that to NOT happen.

Coincidentally, I got an email the next day from my Congressman asking about mail problems. I scanned that envelope (which I picked up from the office) and emailed it to him. Never heard back if it made any difference, but I hope so.

Our county has had problems so bad for the last five or six years that there have been several articles in the local newspaper about deliveries. One person, not far from us, lost their eBay business because the delivery person skipped their neighborhood for a month. The fire station wasn't getting their mail at all during the same period.

[Novara]

4. Informed Delivery: be informed what mail to expect every day

You can sign up for Informed Delivery. They send you an email every day with scanned mailpieces. You can complain if you don't receive them.

My delivery started getting spotty before the 2020 election, about when DeJoy was appointed. It's been spotty ever since.

[Sympthsical]

7. Today I learned this existed

I almost wonder if it's better and less stressful not knowing, lol.

My partner was supposed to receive something for his job no later than last Friday. Still waiting on that one. He's getting salty.

[bif]

5. That was happening to us until a couple months ago.

We were getting our local paper which is supposed to come on Thursdays the following week. Sometimes as late as the following Thursday along with the regular paper! Our delivery has gotten mostly back to normal. They still routinely lose books I order however.

[Sympthsical]

10. Same with the local stuff

We get the Safeway insert every week and like to peruse it while planning weekly shopping. It doesn't matter if we get it or not, because it's also posted in the app that I use to clip deals. Some weeks we get it before shopping, some weeks not.

However, about two weeks ago, we got one in the mail that had already expired the week before. We just kind of side-eyed each other.

But hey, it was delivered!

[HariSeldon]

6. You might report this

Probably the Postal Inspection Service (https://www.uspis.gov/), or your US Senators.

[Sympthsical]

8. You know, I'm going to try that

I'm going to contact my representative. I generally like the guy, and he's probably feeling quite pleasant about last night's victory.

That's a good thought. I will do that, thanks.

[XanaDUer2]

9. Same here, NC

And it's making me anxious. I'm awaiting things from SSDI. they delivered 2 bills to my neighbor. Mail comes late in the day.

[onethatcares]

15. that's where my problem lies

Statesville to be exact.

[Beausoleil]

12. Waiting for a change of address for my driver's license since October.

Every time the state attempts to deliver it to my address, the post office steps in and intercepts it and sends it back to the state.

I have had the state resend it 4 more times and it was returned every time.

I have submitted 3 USPS Service Requests, spoken to the local branch on the phone several times and the only thing I can conclude is that something is broken and can't be fixed. I didn't even know that there was a problem until my insurance company called and asked if we had moved, they got a mailing back with "Moved - Left no Forwarding Address" stamped on it. We had not moved of course.

The Post office told me that they would set up a "watch" on my name and address and would talk to the carriers. What I'm hearing when they tell me that is that they have done everything they can and if there's still a problem, it can't be fixed.

I have "reviewed" each service request with the worst rating possible and have complained in writing. I have told them that since the fish rots from the head down, maybe things will get better when they root out the corruption at the Postmaster General's office.

I have concluded that this is impossible to fix. I still get mail, my prescriptions and Amazon deliveries arrive just fine, my wife has no mail delivery issues. Even after trying to work with the post office, I still have no updated driver's license, no voter registration card and I do not know what other mail I am not getting (I know Informed Delivery will answer that question but that won't fix the problem).

I ended up having to go to the Driver's License office to tell them about the issue and they were able to attempt to have my driver's license sent to my address "in care of" my wife. We'll see if that gets around the issue.

I would not have imagined being accidentally permanently and irrevocably blacklisted by the post office. And I have no plans to move.

[Floyd R. Turbo]

13. We haven't gotten daily delivery for a couple of years now. A few months ago our USPS carrier put a

a notice on the community mailbox that he would no longer put parcels on porches. If they didn’t fit in the package section of the mailbox, they would have to be picked up at the local post office. Additionally he refuses to pick up mail that doesn’t fit in the outgoing mail slot.

[Hekate]

14. Interesting & disheartening thread. DeJoy's assignment: wreck the PO permanently. ...

His performance review in Hell should be sterling.

[onethatcares]

16. I'm thinking along the lines of my cable bill

having to be sent to the other side of the country and making it in time or at all. As their paper bill says, "A late fee will be assessed for past due charges for service"

It doesn't give a charge or percentage charge so that's a wide open mess just waiting to happen.

[usonian]

17. My auto loan payment invoice arrives the last day of the month, unfailingly. Due on the 13th.

This month, it arrived on the 6th.
It's a fixed payment, so I paid it off an old invoice at the bank.
Something very wrong is going on.
Sierra Foothills.
But I think it's widespread.