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April 12, 2008
trouble with mail delivery
We are having trouble getting our postal carrier to divide the mail delivery at our building, a legal two family brownstone. There are two mailboxes set apart by the stoop (one up the other below). Our carrier says it is USPS policy that he only makes one delivery per building, that if we mounted the boxes side by side,he would separate the mail, but as it is, our mail will be co-mingled with the tenants and vice versa. Anyone have experience with this?
Comments
Yes! They won't put the mail at each door. And, if you go on vacation and just ask them to stop your mail, they will stop your mail and your tenant's mail!
Posted by: guest at April 12, 2008 5:32 PM
Yes you need to install a side by side mailbox that conforms to us postal code
Posted by: guest at April 12, 2008 5:50 PM
It doesn't seem to me that blaming the postal carrier is the way to go. Decide what works for you (1) a normal, postal approved mailbox for a multi-family, or (2) having whoever gets home first sort the mail and leave a pile inside somewhere for the other apartment (this worked well in a 3-family I lived in - the carrier put the mail in the slot in the door, and whoever got home first sorted it into three and left two mail piles on top of the radiator cover in the hall for the other 2 apartments. Works too when someone is away - you just stick it in a box for them. What's the big deal?) Since you don't use the same entrance, then why not install the box the post office requires?
Posted by: guest at April 12, 2008 7:20 PM
Can you install a box for the tenants that's more of a mail shoot so their mail drops down the side of the stoop to a box they open below?
Posted by: guest at April 12, 2008 7:42 PM
Hard to imagine how a chute could be added to a postal approved box. Get the postal approved box. I'd put the box in the parlor floor lobby or vestibule (safest place to have it is inside, in my opinion - you can give the keys to the outside door upstairs to the tenant so they can fetch their mail, and use a different key on the inside door, if your house has two sets of doors). Or, install it outside down near the garden entrance (you'll want to recess it into a wall and have it very securely attached), and you'll just have to get your mail down there.
Posted by: guest at April 13, 2008 1:44 PM
We have an 8 family and the post office has refused to separate the mail.
Posted by: guest at April 14, 2008 10:24 AM
you should be thrilled you even get your mail! most of the mail goes undelivered as the postal workers do not know how to deliver the mail to the correct address, let alone sort between upstairs and downstairs. move to Kansas they sort mail very well there.
Posted by: guest at April 14, 2008 11:42 AM
10:24 - do you have a postal approved mailbox and key keeper? I bet not...
Posted by: guest at April 14, 2008 1:02 PM
Mail is pretty much over; get have your bills sent to a dedicated email adress and throw out whatever crap they shovel through your slot unless it's marked final notice. They are awful in Brooklyn no matter what you have.
Posted by: guest at April 14, 2008 5:13 PM
we are at the mercy of usps carriers. I try to be nice to my carrier because he has returned a few items of mines whenever I requested too much from him (like not delivering the past owners mail).
Posted by: guest at April 15, 2008 1:14 AM
I live in a two family building and our mail boxes are on the first level, separated, USPS certified, and we still get all our mail mixed up with the other apartment. I am just constantly dropping mail at their apartment and they do it with ours. Oh well.
Posted by: Lark at April 16, 2008 1:27 PM
sounds basic, but in addition to having the proper mailboxes installed (you can call the USPS 800 number) try to get to know your carrier.
our postman, not surprisingly, seems happier when he's treated respectfully. we found simply saying hello if we pass, leaving him a copy of our Hold Mail requests, and a small annual thank-you tip makes a difference. when we do have trouble with delivery these days, we find it's been due to substitute carriers.
Posted by: guest at April 28, 2008 1:36 PM
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