Mail forwarding dilemma

[Moving Along]

I am just wondering if anyone else has seen this delima and has successfully addressed it. I use a mail forwarding company when on extended RV trips and they do their part as promised. However, its the USPS that seems to have stopped forwarding our mail even though I'm only one month into a 6 month request to forward the mail to my mailbox at Traveling Mailbox. We started to receive mail at our Traveling Mailbox account this trip and got about 8 pieces about 2 weeks ago, none since then. In previous trips the USPS was always slow to respond to the mail forwarding request so the initial delay is expected. But now its been about two weeks since we receive any mail at our traveling mailbox. We have a neighbor check our home mailbox and its not there either. Heaven knows what is happening to it. Contacting the USPS office for help is a long and tedious process and is as responsive as their mail delivery service.

[RPR]

I understand they will not forward certain types of mail. Also you have human beings involved. We are selling our house and travel for six months then buy small place closer to our daughter. Changing our address to our daughters for now. We have everything set up so we have been paperless for awhile. We get bill notices by email. Daughter will let us know if anything else comes by mail that needs attention.

[Moving Along]

Thanks. We already have our bills electronically transferred. I don't miss the junk mail at all so in a way the USPS is performing a service, but its that miscellaneous unexpected notification that was important that I am concern3d about. Good luck with that move.

[bigironcoder]

While snowbirding, we've used USPS forwarding to a retail mailbox office several times with no problems. A few times, we paid for the setup where USPS collects a week's worth and then forwards it in a single package. That worked ok, too. I imagine it all depends on your local USPS office and carrier.

[Mustang65]

We have been using myrvmail.com (located in Florida) for the last 5 years. Never had an issue with them.

Now the USPS, well that is another story.
- First off, there is a delay in starting the service.
- We go online and do the forms there about a month in advance of leaving.
- Our forward start date is always 2 working days prior to our departure, this way we can see on the 2nd day prior to leaving that the forwarding went into effect. If not DW heads over to the Post Office and talks to the location manager. Twice this was necessary as the clerical person in charge of posting the yellow forwarding form on our mail slot, did not do it.
- The USPS holds the mail for 1 week then forwards the mail
- The post office will keep our mail up to a week after the "Stop Forwarding" date.
- The USPS will forward only (1) magazine of a subscription. The next month's subscription copy will go to the postal locations coffee room table for everyone to read. You need to change the address on your subscriptions to the mail forwarding service, or a friends house.
- The USPS in most cases will not forward important documents that have a "Do not forward" stamped under the return address and envelopes marked "Forward information requested", those are returned to the sender and we get an email from the originator that the mail was not deliverable.
- We set up the "End Forwarding" date to the day after we get home. They ALWAYS get that one correct!! I wonder why?

MYRVMAIL.com service is FANTASTIC.
- We sign up for 6 months.
- We changed our magazines address to the MYRVMAIL address
- We can look at our mail (picture of envelops) on line.
- We can then tell them to shred any envelops that we do not want
- If it is an important item, we can have them scan them and send via email

VA Prescriptions:
- I change the send to address with the VA for my prescriptions to the CG that we are at, but I have used MYRVMAIL for this also. Do no to forget to change the address back to your home address before returning.

Don
My Registry

RVing with SOLAR

[Moving Along]

Thanks Don. Your mailing forwarding company sounds a lot like mine. We have no subscriptions. I try to keep it as simple as possible for the USPS.

[SloPoke]

We had an awful experience last year when we headed to Florida for the Winter. We forwarded our mail from SLC to our friends house in Tampa. A forwarding order they started out with OKay... but with one critical exemption, they will not forward our Prescriptions - period!. They delivered our Rx to our mailbox at the house anyways, instead of returning them to the pharmacy as required.

Then, in the 3rd month of our 5-month trip, they stopped all mail forwarding and returned all of our mail "Not deliverable as addressed - unable to forward" and there was no notice sent to our mailbox or forwarding address either. When we called, they said that the house was empty (it was not, snow was shoveled every day, house was checked once a week for mail in the mail box). They just essentially abandoned us, returning everything like we died. Companies were trying to reach us to see if they should continue to do business with us, even our Vet called us to say that they were sorry to see us go... That was the first indication that we got screwed by the USPS once again. It is still almost a year and a half and we are still dealing with the aftermath, as they are still returning mail to this day for some companies, and we don't know who that is!

So now this year, we bought a huge locking mail box (like this one) and will have someone come by once a week and empty it, then place our mail in a Priority Mail package and send it to us where we might be. Then we can get our Rx and magazines too...


We will NEVER use mail forwarding that is provided by the USPS! NEVER AGAIN!

Even this month, we find another returned undelivered mail returned.

[michael.g]

We've had a few issues over the years with our Mail Forwarding and even Hold Mail orders. The first year it was a mess, my wife had to go home about a month in and got it straightened out. It turns out, we got a new carrier that started about 3 weeks after we left and she had no idea our mail was supposed to be forwarded. After that, it was okay.

Last year we were on an auxillary route, meaning many different carriers deliver our mail. I went to the Post Office and told them the dilemma we had the last 2 times we asked to have our mail held and the forwarding the previous year. The guy at the counter assured me had take care of it. I asked him how and he told me he'd tape my order to my box (at the PO, not house) so all the carriers would see it. We got some mail after about a week. Then it stopped. I called the Post Office (local office, national number was a total waste of time). The person I talked to told me she'd send the carrier out to get the mail in my box and forward it and that she'd tape the mail forwarding order to my box. I asked her how would that be more effective than what the guy in person told me. She told me, she would make sure that it gets forwarded. We didn't get any of the mail that was in the box, had to ask a neighbor to get it and send it to us.

I use the USPS Informed Delivery App that tells me what mail and packages are arriving, so I know what I should be getting. You don't need a smart phone to use the service, they send you an email each day you are expected to receive mail and/or packages. You can also log into their web site to review what is coming.

For last year, it seemed as though whoever was the first carrier to see the mail forwarding order was the only one of the 6 different carriers we had that would forward the mail. We got a lot of email notices and phone calls that letters they sent were being returned. All of our bills are electronic, but as a small business owner, except for 1 client, all of my clients pay by check. Last year was a real mess.

Finally in October, we got a new dedicated carrier. She is great. When we have a forwarding order or mail hold order, she puts a sticker in our mailbox at the house with the dates so if someone subs for her, they know not to deliver mail. We had our mail forward for 6 weeks at the end of last year without issue. Hopefully this summer will be better.

I would call your Post Office at home and ask. I just assumed mail was forwarded at the point of origin (meaning if a letter is mailed from California to me in Georgia, it gets forwarded in CA, but that is not the case). Mail is delivered to the local PO first, then forwarded from there. Perhaps you have a new carrier or your normal carrier is out on vacation, disability, whatever. The new carrier might not know to forward your mail.

Since you use a forwarding service, it would probably be best to just have your mail sent to them, instead of having your mail forwarded to them. That way it is only forwarded one time, by the forwarding service. Then when you are home, have the forwarding service forward to your home.

-Michael

[ChaosTheory]

I've used Traveling Mail for a couple months now and only have one issue-- it takes SOOOO long to get mail with a Seattle address. Mail has to go to Seattle, then back to North Carolina where Traveling Mail is based. I don't understand why they don't have a West coast processing location.

I may try that RV mail site.

[FPM III]

One service from USPS that's been helpful for us is their Informed Delivery service. Unfortunately, it's only available in certain areas so you have to check first by going to usps.com, mousing over Quick Tools and clicking on Informed Delivery from the drop down menu.

If you're eligible to enroll in Informed Delivery, the USPS will notify you by email whenever there's mail scheduled to be delivered that day by sending you a scanned image of the front of the envelope(s).

There are some limitations, though. Basically anything that's not a standard sized envelope or post card will not be scanned, so any catalogs, periodicals, magazines, bubble envelopes, booklets, advertisements (like Retail Me Not), etc. won't be scanned or reported. Occasionally, I've had mail show in the scanned items that wasn't delivered until the next delivery day (and shown again in the scanned items for that day). There have also been times when I received an email saying I have mail coming that day, but no mail images at all in the email.

It's an 8-10 minute walk to retrieve the mail from our rural mailbox that's located down the hill on the next street. It's good exercise, but I hate trudging through "X" inches of snow or enduring other inclement weather conditions only to find the mailbox is empty. While the Informed Delivery has it's limitations, it's eliminated a lot of unnecessary trips to the mailbox.

The Informed Delivery compliments the Mail Hold nicely because while no mail gets delivered, the emails will show what mail arrived at the PO. Most important mail is in a regular business envelope, so when that court summons for you report for jury duty arrives out of the blue, you'll probably see it, thus eliminating the bench warrant issued by the judge for your arrest because you didn't appear.

[Mustang65]

Originally Posted by FPM III

It's an 8-10 minute walk to retrieve the mail from our rural mailbox that's located down the hill on the next street. It's good exercise, but I hate trudging through "X" inches of snow or enduring other inclement weather conditions only to find the mailbox is empty. While the Informed Delivery has it's limitations, it's eliminated a lot of unnecessary trips to the mailbox.

I can relate.... I have an 8 - 10 Second walk from the front door to the mail box by the street. I hate heading out there when the balmy winds are blowing and definitely do not venture that far out in the tropical outbursts. So that I do not have to make the unnecessary trips out there, I installed a door/window sensor in the mailbox sends that me a text message on my iPhone when the mailman (sorry, mail person) arrives. Wait, is that him/her? I guess I will go and get the mail, probably should sweep the light layer of sand off the driveway. It is a tough life, but someone has to live it!

Don
My Registry

RVing with SOLAR

[SloPoke]

Originally Posted by michael.g

I use the USPS Informed Delivery App that tells me what mail and packages are arriving, so I know what I should be getting. You don't need a smart phone to use the service, they send you an email each day you are expected to receive mail and/or packages. You can also log into their web site to review what is coming.

Do they forward Pharmacy? They told us NO, they will not forward medicine shipped via the mail from our home address to any other address out of our home state.

[Les7h]

We have our mail sent to my Dad and then every 2-3 months he will fill a one price box ( if it fits it ships ) they are almost always 1-2 days late on the delivery date that they provide- the tracking is pitiful - it would be great if they were a private company so they could out of business and be replaced with a more competent delivery service Les

[michael.g]

Originally Posted by SloPoke

Do they forward Pharmacy? They told us NO, they will not forward medicine shipped via the mail from our home address to any other address out of our home state.

I've never had USPS forward a package, only mail.

-Michael