What do mailmen do if the mail doesn’t fit in the mailbox (e.g. if the mailbox is full)?
In: Other
They clear the box out and leave a note telling you to pick it up back at the station. If it’s not claimed within a certain amount of time (a week or two usually), the mail is Return to Sender as unclaimed.
Generally, if a package is oversized, then USPS will either attempt delivery to the door if this is feasible or leave a notice in the box for pickup at the post office.
If instead the problem is that the box is completely full and the box appears to be unattended, the carrier might recollect all of the mail from the box and leave a notice that it will be held at the post office for pickup.
A couple weeks ago I had a package delivered by USPS that was pretty much the exact dimensions of my mailbox. So they shoved it in there. But didn’t account for the fact that there’s a lip on the opening, so the opening is actually a fraction smaller than the inside. Which resulted in me having to cut the box to pieces with a box cutter while it was still inside in order to get it out. Funny because there are a bunch of those larger package lockers for them to use right beside the mailboxes to my building. If any USPS workers are reading this, don’t be like my mailman.
If we have an oversized package, my mail carrier leaves it on the fucking ground. And if there are any envelopes that day, he just leaves them on top of the package. I found my tax papers in the woods last year.
Our mailperson…uh… finds a way. I have had some absolutely mangled packages shoved in the mailbox.
Our mail service has a separate route for packages though, they will walk it up to the door when that happens.
From someone who hates mail and almost never checks it, one thing they can apparently do (if your mailbox is inside) is to put a plastic USPS box underneath your mailbox and start throwing your mail there.
When I lived in a college apartment, none of us checked the mail because none of us received mail. I went to check out of curiosity one day and there was a pink note in there that basically said the post office assumed our apartment was vacant because the mailbox was so packed. The note said when someone moves in, just remove the pink note and the mail will resume coming.
In Canada, they leave a card in your mailbox and take the package back to the post office.
The card has a barcode associated with the parcel.
You take the card to the post office, show them ID that proves you live at that address, and they give you the parcel.
If your box gets too full then sometimes a wellness check is called in, just to make sure you’re still alive. Usually if someone’s going to be gone long enough for their mailbox to get jammed full, they stop their mail.
My mailperson will just jam things in the (spacious) mailbox, fold things up that don’t need to be folded – not sure why.
Generally they’ll take it back to the local Australia Post branch and leave a card informing the household that it is there to pick up.
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