I think I got our mail straightened out – finally.
Back in the early 1990s (maybe even the late 1980s) my husband and I opened a USPS Post Office Mail Box at a local Post Office. At the time we lived in an apartment and did not want the mail for our craft business to come to our apartment lest the landlord think we were running a big time business in our apartment. The Post Office which was in walking distance of our apartment did not have any available boxes, so we went to the next nearest Post Office and opened the box there. When we we bought this house it was in a third local community so we kept the box where it was to avoid having to change addresses on various items. The Post Office that our house mail goes to is actually much further away from where we live than either of the two mentioned and is not in a direction we go to often. So we left our craft business mail going to its PO Box. Originally I would go to this Box and pick up the mail daily Monday to Friday and mail out any outgoing mail we had. When husband retired it became something we both did together.
About 7, maybe 10 years ago, we started having problems with mail deliveries to our house – we had several pieces of mail that we should have received and did not - and that was just the mail we were expecting – we did not know what other mail might have never have made it to us. We also received pieces of mail that had been opened and taped closed again. Having done this myself once or twice – I knew it probably meant that someone else had received these pieces of mail, opened it without looking at the name it was addresses to, and then when the error was realized, taped it closed again and dropped into the mail for delivery. We also received mail for people that not only had we never heard of, we had never heard of the streets which they lived on – and husband has lived in this area since he was 7 (and I for 30+ years when this happened) so the streets were not anywhere near us - so they were probably not just misdelivered by the local mail carrier. We decided we need to have our mail not go through our home post office for security and safety. Rather than open up a second Post Office box, we just changed our mailing address for almost all of our mail to our business box. This has worked very well – until now.
Back in mid March husband decided we should not be going into a Post Office in general and this one in particular (the local community has a much higher number of Covid-19 cases than ours and others in the area do). I came up with the idea of making a once weekly run to this Post Office on late Sunday nights – on the logic that since it closed at 1pm on Saturday and was closed on Sunday – it would mean that than the few people who went in to pick up mail from boxes or to mail something out with the computer setup in the lobby, Sunday night , it would have had the fewest people in it, for the longest time. So on the last two Sundays in March we picked up mail at 11 pm – using a credit card to activate the door unlock. After that, though, husband thought it too unsafe to go at all.
Thinking quickly the last Sunday night we went, I went online and put in a “temporary change of address” for 2 months for the mail in the box to be forwarded to our house. I had to do it in the name of our business as that is all that the USPS website would let me do. Since it said that the mail could only be forwarded to the business name in which the box was held and that the business would be responsible for all forwarding all mail to anyone receiving mail in the Box. Sounds like we would be getting all the mail - right?
No, only mail with the name of our business could be forwarded. I found this out when I called after 2 weeks had passed and we had not received any mail forwarded. Our business generally receives only it's bank statement and credit card statement – and we have not used the credit card since maybe mid March. This is not much of a help. The very nice female Postal employee I spoke with offered to mail us the accumulated mail to give us some time to figure it out. I thanked her and she put the mail in an envelope and mailed it to our house. Two weeks later I called again and apologized and asked if I could pay the postage for her to again send mail to us – she said she just could just mail it the same way again. Three weeks later I called her and – well, you can see where this is going.
Luckily I use Quicken for our accounting and had an ongoing, constantly updated list of when our bills would be due. I would call up each credit card – even ones I was sure we had not used – to make sure of the amount due and when or that no amount was due. I did the same with the utilities and any other bills – such as insurance. I write a cover letter and send the check with it, except for the few bills that I have received in time to pay normally.
Last time I called to have the mail sent to us, I asked if there was way to close the box in the name of the business and immediately reopen it in one of our names as a personal box – I even offered to pay the annual fee again. This started a discussion among several employees at this Post Office and myself – they did not know about a difference between “business” and “personal” boxes and did not have any record of same – though the main computer did. Apparently one has to come into the Post Office to close a box – so that would not work. One employee spoke with the employee in charge of the boxes and they worked it out so that he would change the name and status of the box for us. I did go online and change the mailing address for my 2 magazines.
This was finally done!! While we have not received any forwarded mail as of yet (well, I only check it on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday and it is Wednesday so there may be mail sitting out there in the box from today's delivery that I will get tomorrow), it is done. I went online and was able to put in similar temporary changes of address for my maiden name, our craft business (since the original one has ended), our reenactment unit and my embroidery chapter – the latter two do not have their own mailing address and I receive the business mail for them as I am the treasurer of each.
Hopefully we will start receiving our mail from the box here at our house.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
What works well for one in normal times, might not work well when one should stay home. There is always some way to deal with problems and people are very understanding and nice right now due to the pandemic. Be sure to thank those who help you and let their bosses know how helpful they have been (as I am going to do) so that they know that their help is appreciated so they will go out of their way to help others in the future when they need help.
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