For a while my neighbors and I found ourselves playing daily guessing games of who would get whose mail. We often found ourselves redelivering mail meant for our neighbors, but erroneously delivered to us.
Some days there was no mail delivery at all, or it would come well into the night, or we’d have multiple deliveries on the same day. And so it went, with everyone receiving “anyone’s guess” in the mail.
I still don’t know why our mail was often misdirected, but I know we have that in common with communities such as Grant Park, Inman Park, Peachtree City and Cabbagetown who also complain of sporadic and non-delivery.
I’m not complaining, as I’d rather have these mail issues than others I’ve experienced over the years. In Michigan, I didn’t get mail on the days that my next-door neighbors had their house cleaned. Twice a week, every week, their cleaning lady parked near or in front of my mailbox, and the mail carrier wouldn’t deliver my mail on those days. I wish my mail had been delivered to my neighbor’s box! My mail would’ve been right next door for me to retrieve, and maybe my neighbors would have taken the hint and insisted their maid park elsewhere.
While in California, we had neighborhood community mailboxes that could only accommodate standard letter-sized mail, required a key and appropriate clothing. No running to the end of the driveway wearing “whatever” there, as these communal mailboxes were located too far away for that.
Over the holidays, missing mail delivery was a more nefarious issue, with theft a problem. But most of those deliveries were expected. Now the holidays are over and my neighborhood’s delivery issues seem to have subsided. Still, it’s hard to know when general mail is missing.
Informed Delivery from the United States Postal Service helps provide insight about what mail to expect. I signed up for the service in September, and it has consistently let me know, via e-mail, what snail mail should be coming each day. That includes showing me if my neighbor’s mail is due to hit my mailbox.
Prior to this month, there were only “knowledge-based authentication,” questions asked to validate residency. But those questions could easily have been answered by stalkers, identity thieves, private investigators or disgruntled ex-partners, who could then set up an account and access information about otherwise private mail.
However, according to Roy Betts, of USPS, beginning February 16, written mail notification will be sent to the mailing address of new Informed Delivery accounts which will contain a link and deactivation code, should the account have been fraudulently established.
USPS Informed Delivery started in select areas as a pilot program in 2014 and is serving more ZIP codes now.
Information: informeddelivery.usps.com
Vicki Griffin has lived in Roswell for over 25 years. You can reach her at vlg1230@hotmail.com
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