How is the post office by you?

[Another Fan]

Growing up I always saw the post office/mailman as cool people/places.  I still remember being in pre-school and taking a tour of the local branch.  To this day I still think it was cool and one of my favorite memories of extremely early for me.

 

Where I grew up the local mailman was like everybody's friend.  Was a very outgoing/friendly guy.  The local news even did a news piece on him when he saved someone's life.  Up the street where I used to live was a widow who lived alone.  He saw her mail was growing in her mailbox and her car was still in the driveway....  so he sensed something wasn't right.  He was able to crawl into the house and saw this lady had fallen and was unconscious.  So he called 911 and was able to revive/save her life little there.  She was an older widow alone so she died soon after that.

 

 

Bottom line the post office/postal workers I always saw fondly.  Until recently

 

 

 

Their website I find very antiquated still from the 90s.  There was an organization I belong to I tried to change the address for on their website and couldn't......  then I tried to do it in person and got told you have to do it on the website.  Bottom line I got nowhere.  

 

Mail consistency comes where I live around 7pm every day.

 

Part of my job at work is following up on payments/claims.  I've never seen until recently this many pieces of mail the company I work for isn't getting for one reason or another.  One was denial/appeal information that is now un timely.

 

 

But maybe that's just my experiences here? 

 

 

[Augie]

There is a small post office near the food court at the mall by us. What a great find!  There’s usually no more than one other customer in there, and the employees are friendly and helpful like an Ace Hardware store!  Plus, it’s near the endless chicken-on-a-toothpick samples if you keep circling the food court. I don’t think there is a point where they cut you off. 🤷‍♂️

 

[Wacka]

I did environmental due diligence for a while and one time I had to look at the Palo Alto CA, Half Moon Bay CA, and another I forget that were going to be sold.  One  place I could not go to in them was  the catwalk above the floor where the mail was sorted,  The catwalk could not be seen into and had small slits as to look out too the floo, You could not tell if anyone was up there  observing you.  

[Just Jack]

5 hours ago, Another Fan said:

Where I grew up the local mailman was like everybody's friend.  Was a very outgoing/friendly guy.  The local news even did a news piece on him when he saved someone's life.  Up the street where I used to live was a widow who lived alone.  He saw her mail was growing in her mailbox and her car was still in the driveway....  so he sensed something wasn't right.  He was able to crawl into the house and saw this lady had fallen and was unconscious.  So he called 911 and was able to revive/save her life little there.  She was an older widow alone so she died soon after that.

 

We have an elderly neighbor that that we do not see outside that often, but these past several weeks we noticed his vehicles have not been moved. But we did take note that his mailbox was not getting filled, so we figured he was still alive inside. Verified eventually by calling him. 

 

3 hours ago, Augie said:

There is a small post office near the food court at the mall by us. What a great find!  There’s usually no more than one other customer in there, and the employees are friendly and helpful like an Ace Hardware store!  Plus, it’s near the endless chicken-on-a-toothpick samples if you keep circling the food court. I don’t think there is a point where they cut you off. 🤷‍♂️

 

Back when I was living in an apartment and not trusting my neighbors, because I worked a lot on the road and would not be home during the week, I was deciding where to get a PO box. The mall (Carousel/Destiny) was one I was considering. Ended up going to the regional Post Office since access their to the PO boxes was 24/7, whereas the mall was only during mall hours. 

[Wacka]

They monitor how long it takes the carrier to do routes.  My sister and I I've on the ends of two routes.  There is a UPC in both our mailboxes that the carrier scans  when they come by.  My downstairs neighbor used to work at a PO on the west side until last year. That's why it's in our box although we're not the last house.

[ExiledInIllinois]

The PO is the cornerstone of democracy, first thing we establish when we nation build.  Reason why we have roads, etc... 

 

My wife is the #1 PostOffice FanGirl.  They can do no wrong... Even when my sister sent a Vermont wreath to us that burned 🔥 up in a postal truck fire (so they say) in Nashua, New Hampshire... She blamed it on my sister's packaging. 

 

😆

 

Dear Abby,

I think she's cheating on me with a postal carrier... 

 

Postal Envy in Illinois.

[Fleezoid]

When I moved into my current home, i continued to get mail from the previous owner and a few others that may have been previous owners as well. I would write "return to sender" with additional comments like "individual no longer resident." They would pick up the mail and then redeliver them a day or two later. I even put one of those new resident cards in the mailbox, but the mail continued. It was a lot. So I decided to save it all and after a few weeks, took a good sized box with all the mail to the post office. They collected it and thanked me for bringing it in. Two days later there was a post office tote with all the mail sitting in front of my door. I took the tote back which solved the current problem, but the mail continued. Now I just throw it away. 

[ExiledInIllinois]

15 minutes ago, Fleezoid said:

When I moved into my current home, i continued to get mail from the previous owner and a few others that may have been previous owners as well. I would write "return to sender" with additional comments like "individual no longer resident." They would pick up the mail and then redeliver them a day or two later. I even put one of those new resident cards in the mailbox, but the mail continued. It was a lot. So I decided to save it all and after a few weeks, took a good sized box with all the mail to the post office. They collected it and thanked me for bringing it in. Two days later there was a post office tote with all the mail sitting in front of my door. I took the tote back which solved the current problem, but the mail continued. Now I just throw it away. 

First world problems...

 

Gee... Coulda just threw it away in first place...  That's what the savants @ The PO were hoping you'd do, they do it & it's Leavenworth for them.😜 

 

Oh... Anything good?  Like the previous resident's PornoMags?

[Fleezoid]

9 minutes ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

First world problems...

 

Gee... Coulda just threw it away in first place...  That's what the savants @ The PO were hoping you'd do, they do it & it's Leavenworth for them.😜 

 

Oh... Anything good?  Like the previous resident's PornoMags?

 

Nothing good. They were an older couple, so lots of retiree membership stuff. 

 

On a separate note.....the amount of junk mail I get is staggering. I throw it all away, every last piece. 

[US Egg]

21 hours ago, Augie said:

There’s usually no more than one other customer in there, and the employees are friendly and helpful like an Ace Hardware store!

Routinely bought Benjamin Moore paint at a Ma & Pa like Ace Hardware, always pleasant folks. Once ran short and needed another gallon, it didn't match, went back to see if they could re-tint it. They weren't receptive but not hostile, then I made the ultimate mistake, I said they do it at Home Depot. Their reaction was like the Abbott and Costello "Niagara Falls"slowly I turn bit. 

[Royale with Cheese]

I have only been to the Post Office once in the last probably 10 years?

 

It was to mail Christian Benford my son's flag football jersey, the Bills of course, with a letter stating he was my son's favorite player.  My son wrote it, not me.

He sent it back with it signed.

[Augie]

On 8/4/2025 at 12:15 PM, US Egg said:

Routinely bought Benjamin Moore paint at a Ma & Pa like Ace Hardware, always pleasant folks. Once ran short and needed another gallon, it didn't match, went back to see if they could re-tint it. They weren't receptive but not hostile, then I made the ultimate mistake, I said they do it at Home Depot. Their reaction was like the Abbott and Costello "Niagara Falls"slowly I turn bit. 

 

Just yesterday my wife brought up a butcher shop in Buckhead that is supposed to have a great reputation. We went there before a dinner party a few years ago to get boneless beef short ribs. The guy gave me a funny look, like I asked for a T-Rex tenderloin or something and said they could not accommodate me. He acted like it was impossible, but I knew I had prepared them before….and I knew where I got them from. While standing right in front of him I called Whole Foods and made arrangements to pick up a boatload of boneless beef short ribs in 10-15 minutes. 

 

I never understood why I got such a strange reaction……instead of boneless short ribs.  🤷‍♂️

 

 

.

 

Edited August 6 by Augie

[Fleezoid]

I haven't heard the term "Postal" when referring to an actual P.O. employee in a long time. They must be taking care of their employees better and doing better psychological background checks. 

 

Or maybe it's because they don't have to deliver the phone books every year anymore. 

[Just Jack]

On 8/4/2025 at 9:46 AM, Fleezoid said:

When I moved into my current home, i continued to get mail from the previous owner and a few others that may have been previous owners as well. I would write "return to sender" with additional comments like "individual no longer resident." They would pick up the mail and then redeliver them a day or two later. I even put one of those new resident cards in the mailbox, but the mail continued. It was a lot. So I decided to save it all and after a few weeks, took a good sized box with all the mail to the post office. They collected it and thanked me for bringing it in. Two days later there was a post office tote with all the mail sitting in front of my door. I took the tote back which solved the current problem, but the mail continued. Now I just throw it away. 

You probably did not black out the bar code on the envelopes, so the sorting machine sent it all right back to you. 

[Pete]

People don't like Socialism.  Post Office used to be so efficient, and such a great career.  Then it was privatized, sold off to make make a profit, and its gone to *****

[Orlando Buffalo]

35 minutes ago, Pete said:

People don't like Socialism.  Post Office used to be so efficient, and such a great career.  Then it was privatized, sold off to make make a profit, and its gone to *****

It is still a government agency, what are you talking about? 

[Pete]

3 minutes ago, Orlando Buffalo said:

It is still a government agency, what are you talking about? 

decline started 1986.  They used to care about customers.  Now they dont care about customers, just numbers

[BillsPride12]

15 minutes ago, Pete said:

decline started 1986.  They used to care about customers.  Now they dont care about customers, just numbers

The post office has been on a steady decline since this man retired