John Conway paid $1,300 for a lamppost and matching mailbox, but the Thiensville, WI postmaster refuses to provide service because the mailbox is on the wrong side of the street. The disputed mailbox is part of a new housing development located twenty minutes north of Milwaukee.
“I’m sort of the guy who set the pace here,” Conway said, pointing out that he and his wife are the first residents of Concord Creek. “I’m cemented in.”
The Conway’s concrete stance has the post office in a tizzy. They have refused to answer the Conway’s phone calls, and a local paper quoted one postal supervisor threatening to mark the Conway’s mail “return to sender.” A killjoy postal spokeswoman later retracted the statement, adding “We don’t do that.”
Postal regulations require new developments to place mailboxes on one side of the street so mail carriers don’t need to venture far from their trucks. Several nearby developments have mailboxes on both sides of the street.
If you plan to install a mailbox soon, something you probably only do once or twice in a lifetime, check with the postmaster ahead of time. Tell us in the comments who you think is right: the postmaster with the rule book, or the resolute homeowner. — CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER
Mail is signed, sealed, but it won’t be delivered [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
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@WV.Hillbilly: The mail service IS somewhat of a private entity with officials appointed by the government, but controlled by a board of directors and not by the executive branch per say (though the board is appointed by them). Its status is actually for major legal reasons as they are a entity that must be part of a government in order to negotiate trade and mail regulations with other governments (hence legally you could never possibly privatize it without changing a slew of federal and world trade laws) Also the USPS are the only entity who can legally deliver first and third class mail.
And people stopped the walking the route. In the city and burbs walking the route still goes on, but in new developments and around most of the country as people branched out, the USPS couldn’t possibly pay the number of people they would need to do a walking route. Like I said 1 truck can do 2-3 walking routes. Thats 2-3 people it would take to deliver mail, over one guy in a truck.
Also mailmen walked more back in the days when you got 1-2 letters and maybe a magazine. The typical mailbag these days is 40-50 pounds per 2 blocks while you arm load (the letters and mags in the arm) is about 15-20. Normal “walkers” are typically more prone to sick days and early retirement due to job related injuries than truck route people.
Maybe the guy’s new to suburban Generica, and didn’t know that the Post Office can’t be bothered to actually deliver mail to every address out in cookie cutter house land.
If I were in his position, I’d be inclined to ask the Post Office and/or developer to move the box to the right location. If they refused, I’d put the most ass-ugly cheap mailbox possible on the other side of the road, maybe paint it pink with yellow spots or something, and ask them if they’d like to reconsider.
This is common where i live in a rural area. Its so the mail man doesnt have to drive up one side of the street and back down the other so he can put the mail in all the boxes. Its great for him. Unfortunately it means my wife and I have to cross the street. Big deal you say? Well considering the street is a rural two lane road with about 150 feet of visibility either way (we are in a dip) and considering there is a rock quarry down the street and the gravel trucks seem to think 70 is the speed limit instead of 35….
You may see my point. A mail box should be up to the resident as to placement. To heck with the post office who keeps raising rates.
I made sure that the house I purchased had a slot in the door for mail. I turned down houses with out one.
All the new houses in my county have one mail box location for the whole block. It is a set of 20 PO Box type boxes in the middle of the block. One guy has to walk 20ft the rest up to a block to get their mail every day. Thats wrong.
And if they get a package larger than a breadbox…
Generally the people hating on the guy about his house are the dirtbags that can’t afford a house and are eeking out a life on the public dole.
Is it really so hard to expect the postal worker to go to the other side of the street? WTF? I have never lived in a neighborhood where we didn’t have a mailbox in front of our house. Are they walking or just driving RH drive vehicles and dont’ want to make a second pass?
Where else in the suburbs does the post office only service one side?
Here’s my question: I assume there will be houses built on both sides of this street, correct? If that’s the case, does that mean that every homeowner on the non-mailbox side owns a small piece of land on the mailbox-side for their mailbox? You can’t just go & plant a mailbox on a piece of land that you don’t pay for, and I know I wouldn’t want anyone else’s property within my lot lines. Anyone?
I had a similar problem with my mail service, where first they refused delivery after the city snow plow guy put a big mound of snow in front of the mailbox. If the guy just stepped out of his truck, he could have stepped up on the now solid mound to put the mail in, but instead, no mail.
A week later after it melted, I finally received mail. There was a time that there no mail trucks that postal workers walked door to door. And I think they had some motto about delivering the mail no matter what.
Last week, the city waste department left the garbage cans in front of the mail box, and so guess what? That’s right, no mail. I think this mailman has it out for me.
I love it when I read about these things happening to developments.
It’s just funny when people with too much money (1300 for a mailbox + lamp post??) decide to live in cookie cutter house that once was wild life habitat and then complain when they can’t follow the rules like everyone else.
Zoning laws ring a bell??
@bambino: Its called an “easement”. It’s part of the “right of way” for the street and technically, although you probably paid for it when you bought your house, it actualy belongs to the city/county/state and the utility companies. It’s usually a 5-10 foot wide strip that runs along both sides of the street.
And if you’re bitching about the postman not walking the route, don’t bitch when they raise postal rates.
@joopiter: Joopiter, you left out the time when a postal employee wrote “Lesbian Pigs” on my mail from National Organization for Women. Another example of the stellar level of customer service the post office provides.
One advantage of living in a 40-year-old house, I guess. My “mailbox” is a slot in the front door. Our mailman parks the car and walks a loop to make the deliveries.
Now, I guess I’ll be dreading the day the PO decides that’s inefficient and requires everyone to plant an (approved) box at the curb.
My postman has threatened to stop delivering my mail if I don’t check my very inconveniently placed mailbox more regularly. Nevermind that I never get any real mail, as all my bills come online and I don’t get any correspondence via snail mail. Let’s also not forget the fact that it’s illegal for him NOT to deliver mail, but he stops by every few weeks to make an ass out of himself anyway.
I see the issue this way:
From a constitutional prospective, the government is required to perform certain (albeit few) duties. One of them is to deliver the mail. They make every excuse not to do it, they change the rules, make new rules, etc to avoid delivering the mail to your HOUSE.
On the other hand, there are lots of things the government shouldn’t be doing but is doing that aren’t in the constitution.
Maybe we should put homeland security in charge of delivering the mail?
@Falconfire: Also the USPS are the only entity who can legally deliver first and third class mail. Maybe if that changed (i.e. competition) USPS would get off their asses and feel the need to please customers. I’m sure Fedex, DHL or UPS would love to provide a better system.
@SimonGodOfHairdos: Forgot about that. Perhaps we should make a gallery of our destroyed mail courtesy of the good ol’ USPS.
I just took a look at the USPS website, and, as many people here have stated, they do explicity say that you must get permission from the post office before placing your mailbox. I would think, though, that since it’s the developer that’s making demands on the homeowners to purchase the $1300 mailbox, it is the developer’s responsibility to confirm where said mailbox should go and that it conforms to the postal regulations. I will concede in this situation the post office may not be at fault.
I still think they can get out of the damn truck, though. Considering I’ve had letters take over a week to go from Bridgeport to Hartford, efficiency and speed does not seem to be a major concern of the USPS, at least not in Connecticut.
I think ALL new subdivisions should require those communal mail thingies
I hate mine and misery loves company. This guy is a schmuck and I hate to say this but….I hope USPS knocks him on his hindparts with this one! Follow the rules man!
Hey, it could be worse – my parents’ mailbox is three miles from their house. That’s how it is here, though, and nobody has any problems (except for that highly inconvenient postal strike a few Christmases ago). We do things differently in Canada, I guess.
Hopefully his address doesn’t include any “9″s.
The post office still doesn’t realize they must compete for our business. Deliver the guys damn mail. Is it worth all the negative publicity? With commercial delivery services, email and online bill paying, your local postmaster is on the verge of becoming irrelevant. In the old days, postmen would hand carry the mail to little old ladies. Now they bitch over little shit. I had a postman literally rip off my mailbox door then left a note that he would not deliver anymore mail until I fixed it. I’d had to be his boss on his bad days.
The guy is whining way to much, if he considers this something worth whining about he must have a heck of a stress-free life. He should move the mailbox to the other side of the street and quit complaining.
However, the development probably only has one entrance so the mail carrier will be returning on the other side of the street. Of course, I know that if you allow one person to do it everyone else will want to do it as well.
…best to choose your battles carefully with an opponent as hefty as Uncle Sam/USPS… however, there’s nothing in the U.S. Constitution giving the USPS authority over somebody’s personal mailbox.
“Neither rain nor snow nor sleet nor hail shall stop us.” Just don’t put your mailbox in front of your house OR ELSE!
We’ve lived in our current house for almost 10 years. Getting our own mail has always been a challenge. I’d get mail for people who lived 30 miles away. I can only assume other people got my mail because I certainly wasn’t.
After many telephone calls and complaints to the post office, I finally uprooted my mailbox and placed it in the trash.
We now have a PO box. I check it every week or three or else I get note saying they’re holding my mail (which is almost all junk anyway) because the box is full.
We use FedEX and UPS for most of our packages now. Almost all of our bill-presentment is online. We don’t miss the mailbox at all.
Steve
Dear “Consumerist” readers with regard to the mail box problem–
I have heard just about all the comments on mailbox trouble but I give in! I have to add a few of my own. First of all it is a real shame when a publication had to coin a new version of a “4 letter” word to use in place of the usual “F word”; another sick shame is that many of those who sent comments about the $1300 mail box installation also used some pretty unprofessional language. I would think that someone who wants to make the claim that someone else has less knowledge or intelligence then he does would at least use the proper form of a word. There is no such word as “stupider”, though it is possible that the person in question was more stupid; besides if the man is smart enough to live in a decent looking house like that and has the money to pay for a fancy light and mailbox then I say let him do it. I bet it would be rather telling if we all had to make and submit a list of all the “too expensive” items we sometimes buy. Often when we look back at a specific purchase after a few weeks we find that the perceived value originally place on that purchase has dropped quite a lot.
There is a good reason to have a rule on keeping the snow away to make delivery easier. This is not because the mailman is lazy. I live in a rural area where some of the rural delivery routes are up to 60 miles long. If the post office was not strict in enforcing this rule, the mail would never be delivered. The people who are calling the mail carrier lazy, because he can’t walk across the street, are really the lazy ones because it seems clear that they can’t even shovel a bit of snow from around the mailbox.
I can’t believe there is so much rotten language used in writing these comments; the one that really gets me is the one where the mailman ( or whomever ) wrote a two word “translation” for the name of the women’s group normally called NOW or National Organization for Women. The one who wrote that complaint is only “fueling the fire” and adding a name to the list of very unprofessional people but this list of people are all criticizing the mailman for basically the same thing. Did that person ever consider the possibility that the writer of that two word “translation was telling the truth. The few comments that explain the mail problem are very obvious and those people along with most of the others know what those sensible explanations are.
When UPS came along and provided excellent service for a good price it was clear that private enterprise working under competition, capitalism and the free market has provided the solution as it has in so many other scenarios.
With regard to the cost of a stamp, consider this: I can go on the Internet and obtain a list of recorded inflation rates. If I take the average inflation rate, which seems to be about 4 1/2 %, a 3 cent stamp ( price in 1908) compounded to 2008, is equivalent to a stamp costing $2.45. If one calculates back from the actual price of 41 cents to 3 cents in 1908, the effective inflation rate is only 2.65%. I wish that was the inflation rate for real all the time. I think the 41 cent stamp is a pretty good deal.
Signed, John W. Ross, P.E.