PSA/Vent: USPS change of address

leia1979

So more than a year and a half after moving, I'm still having issues with the post office because I filed a change of address form. It may work just fine for some people, but for me, it's been nothing but a headache.

1) They still continue to forward my parents' mail to my house, even though I only filed (and they confirmed it) an individual change.

2) While the people I spoke to at USPS deny it, they inform businesses of your new address. They told Costco that my dad now lived at my address, and we had to jump through hoops to prove to Costco that USPS lied to them. Kohl's somehow thinks my grandmother (who died in 2002) lives at my house (I moved in 2009). When I called Kohl's about this, the poor woman in customer support was mortified.

3) I asked the post office how to cancel this, and they couldn't tell me. I found out today--over a year later--there's now a way to cancel it online, but my email confirmation letter (which I still have) does not have the confirmation code required to do this. It sounds like if I physically go to the post office and raise a fuss, they should be able to fix it. I guess I'll have to, which is a pain in the ass, since they open at 9am, and I kind of need to leave for work before that.

4) Okay not really related, but the stupid postman continues to put packages in my mailbox that I can't get out. The opening on his side is slightly larger. I have to dismember the package to get it out of my mailbox. Between that and getting important DMV mail for my mom in my mailbox today has made me very cranky. Obviously, if I tried to mail it to her, it would just come back to me again.

Anyway, I'm totally whining. Just take this as a word of warning.

paintgirl

I feel your pain. It is SUPPOSED to be easy but when I moved here the USPS totally jacked up my mail. It took months to sort out and in the meantime, I had to pick up my mail in my old city. Luckily I was there for work often anyway, but it was still stupid to fly to another city to get the mail.

I kind of figure that's what happens when they only charge us 44 cents to take a letter across a continent, but really - charge me more and actually get the mail TO me!

bakes218

Thanks for the PSA, I am going through this right now. It is a pain in the butt. But what is worse is changing your name. I am dreading that.

PaigeMcC

What a pain!!  I'm not looking forward to forwarding our mail when we move in Feb/March.  Dang post offices.

nottheonlydreamer44

Ouch Leia, I totally feel your pain, the USPS is a hot mess. My friend is a mailcarrier and she hates life most of the time.  Your struggle for Post Service happiness sounds as bad as mine.

If it makes you feel any better whatsoever - I moved 4 times in 2.5 years (with a brief stay with FI's parents not included) and I have had to change addresses with the DMV. In Ohio, if you get pulled over and have lived at another residence than the one on your DL for longer than a month - they will fine you.

In two years, I have had 5 drivers licenses *$30 for each one*, had to re-register my car 4 times *$60 each time* and change my address to have my mail forwarded 4 times. My friend lives in my old house and still gets my mail and I am still getting mail MONTHS late from my address 2 years ago.

The post office and this state give me the sads.

calindi

Oh gosh, been there, done that, have the souvenier.

When I lost my job in DC, I moved back in with my parents for 3 months so I forwarded my mail to my parents' home.  Then I moved to Florida, so I forwarded mail here.  Somehow mail that gets sent here sometimes gets sent to my parents, sometimes mail sent to my parents gets sent down here, sometimes mail shows up several weeks/months later after hanging out in DC for awhile.

I will say, we put a "hold" on our mail while we were gone for Christmas break, and while we were afraid of things piling up on the front stoop while we were gone, we had no such problems.  That went rather smoothly, considering how inept they all are.

MLekathLEEN

What a pain!! One time, we went out of town and forot to get our mail for about three days. The next week after we got back, we didn't get any mail. My mom called the post office about it and apparently our mailman had them hold our mail because he believed we moved. I could see a week or no mail being picked up but three days?!

marleylikeair

Leia, sorry to hear it. What a PITA. For me, it's always the important stuff that takes forever to get to your new address, like the remaining balance you need to pay from a doc visit. I've had bills almost go into collections because it takes so freakin' long.

I did a change-of-address from my parents' house a few months ago. (Don't ask me why I never did before.) It was working fine, until a few days ago, when I got a piece of mail from AARP with a membership card inside, addressed to my dad. Nice. I wrote "please forward to" and my parents' address, then left it with the other mail to be picked up. The mail carrier here at work was kind of a d!ck about it. He said "he's just going to throw it out anyway. It's from a non-profit, see?" (points to "no postage necessary" square in upper right corner) I was like, "so, will they forward it or not?" He kept insisting that the recipient would discard it. Um...I DON'T CARE if he throws it out, it's his mail, and I'm sending it back. You can tell me how to do that, or not. I don't need a spiel about people throwing mail from non-profits away. I had to go all NYC on his a$$. GPB, know what I mean?

marleylikeair

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_psavent-usps-change-of-address?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:136Discussion:18bfe342-514e-403f-8361-24dbbe0e788aPost:93147843-7471-45ce-82bc-0cd03cd6ec08">Re: PSA/Vent: USPS change of address</a>:
[QUOTE]What a pain!! One time, we went out of town and forot to get our mail for about three days. The next week after we got back, we didn't get any mail. My mom called the post office about it and apparently our mailman had them hold our mail because he believed we moved. I could see a week or no mail being picked up but three days?!
Posted by MLekathLEEN[/QUOTE]

Wow...they held it because the mail carrier randomly decided you moved?! That's effed up.

Blue & White

nice, our "hold" on our mail didn't start for like 4 days after I told it to start.  So that was annoying (primarily because they left a "we tried to a deliver this package" notice on my door the DAY WE LEFT (we were gone for 2 weeks, thanks for alerting any potential burglars we were gone...)

We also get mail addressed to BF's brother...BF never forwarded his mail and BF's brother has never lived within 400 miles of here.  Never.

jnurse19

I've had the same issues!
When my dad moved out of his condo and I was still living there he forwarded his mail and I left mine the same. Well for about 3 months 90% of my mail was getting forwarded to Arkansas with my dad's. And now that we just moved last month we have a hold on all our mail until the 8th at our new place. I hate the USPS.

leia1979

Well, I spent 40 minutes at the post office this morning, and I'm not sure if it's fixed.  One lady said "Fill out this form." I did, then she said I did it wrong, even though I tried to clarify it with her before I filled it out. Then she said I had to talk to the supervisor, because my mail shouldn't be forwarding at all any more (it has been almost two years).

When I finally got the supervisor, she had me fill out the same form again, but only the top part of it. Then she disappeared and didn't come back, so I handed it to another worker who said, "You didn't fill out the rest." I told him that's what the supervisor said to do. Fingers crossed!

Dreamer - What a pain with the licenses! Here you just write your new address on the back, and you only get one with the new address when it expires (or in my case, you lose your license).

[Deleted User]

Ugh - USPS is irritating us a lot lately.  FI submitted his forwarding when he moved in 3 1/2 weeks ago.  He got a confirmation in the mail that said if you don't have any forwards within 10 days call this #.  We gave it a full 2 weeks and nothing (he'd already gotten most addresses changed, but there were a couple he forgot about).  So he called and mentioned that he thought there might still be mail in the box at the old apartment (which of course he no longer has a key for the box, nor access into the locked building) - the lady told him she'd have the carrier pull any mail out and forward it and gave him another confirmation.

As of today, we still don't have any forwarded mail - this is getting ridiculous. He's going to call again tomorrow morning and speak to a supervisor and see what's going on.

The other irritation I have with them right now - on Monday my mom took all of the wedding invites to the post office and put them in the box inside instead of in the blue box.  Yesterday (just the next day), one of them came back to them - stamp cancelled and everything.  There was no "return to sender" or anything on it.  We confirmed with the recipient that we had the correct address.  My dad took it back to the post office today and the lady said that someone had put it in the machine upside down and the carrier was an idiot for delivering it back to my parent's.  So, the lady put it back through and hand stamped it to make sure it would go through this time and thankfully didn't make us use another stamp.