Mother of all postal messups

[Sphexi]

So I just checked my mail, got a bill, a bill, another bill, and a letter for someone who wasn't me. Now, I get other people's mail sometimes, cause I live on a street that has a very similar name to like two others in the same town, and the USPS gets messed up sometimes.

But I live in VT. The northeast. 05452 is my zipcode. This was sent to someone in ALABAMBA. 35452 is their zipcode. NOT EVEN CLOSE. I mean, the only thing about it that could've even been confused was the name of the street, Pine. But how would the post office in Alabamba know about me up here? I mean hell, this is just sad. Now I gotta be the nice guy and remail it to the right people

 

[ToeStub]

Just write "wrong address" on it and stick it on your mail box. No biggie.

 

[xirtam]

Sometimes life deals injustice. I feel greatly sorry about the loss of 15 minutes worth of your time, plus whatever it took to post this, and possibly the additional financial expense of a stamp if you're too lazy to write "Please forward to the correct address" on the envelope.

 

[Sphexi]

Still...you think someone along the line would've seen the zipcode and gone "Huh, this should be going the other way." and fixed it. Nope, my mailwoman just tossed it into my box and moved on.

 

[NTB]

why not just stick it back in your mailbox tommorow morning with a post-it note stuck to it that says "wrong address?". Make sure you put the flag up

Nate

 

[Lucky]

from what i understand, letters are initially sorted by machines that read the zip codes. It's probable that the zipcode's first digit was misread and sent to yours. From there, it was sorted into mail for your street. How it got beyond that, barring no similarity in your names or street numbers, is a bit more puzzling.

 

[xirtam]

Considering the sheer volume of mail, I'm surprised it doesn't get messed up more often.

 

[Sphexi]

Originally posted by: Lucky
from what i understand, letters are initially sorted by machines that read the zip codes. It's probable that the zipcode's first digit was misread and sent to yours. From there, it was sorted into mail for your street. How it got beyond that, barring no similarity in your names or street numbers, is a bit more puzzling.

That's very likely true, I'm looking at it now though and the first digit isn't written sloppy or anything, the woman who wrote this actually has very neat handwriting. If anything it could be an 8 rather than a 3, but not a 0? Oh well, gave me a chuckle at least, and got me over the three bills I now gotta pay.

 

[xirtam]

Put a "STUPID!" sticky on the envelope and stick it in your box. See what happens.

 

[Sphexi]

Originally posted by: xirtam
Put a "STUPID!" sticky on the envelope and stick it in your box. See what happens.

Nah, I like my mailwoman. She's a very nice young lady, and the fact that she can carry a bag as big as she is for miles down our street is pretty impressive.

 

[poopaskoopa]

05452 is my zipcode. This was sent to someone in ALABAMBA. 35452 is their zipcode. NOT EVEN CLOSE

Well.. In their defense, 4 of the 5 digits are the same...

 

[xirtam]

Originally posted by: Sphexi

Originally posted by: xirtam
Put a "STUPID!" sticky on the envelope and stick it in your box. See what happens.

Nah, I like my mailwoman. She's a very nice young lady, and the fact that she can carry a bag as big as she is for miles down our street is pretty impressive.

Pics!

 

[Sphexi]

LOL

I think it's against federal law to secretly take pictures of your mailwoman. Especially when you're at work most days that she comes by.

 

[xirtam]

Originally posted by: Sphexi
LOL

I think it's against federal law to secretly take pictures of your mailwoman. Especially when you're at work most days that she comes by.

Use a security camera. They can't nail ya for that, particularly if it's on your own property and you're at work.

 

[Sphexi]

Yeah, I got better things to do then try and set that up ...but the next time I see her (Monday) I will try and snap a picture. With any luck, it'll be warm out!

 

[xirtam]

Originally posted by: Sphexi
Yeah, I got better things to do then try and set that up ...but the next time I see her (Monday) I will try and snap a picture. With any luck, it'll be warm out!

If it's against federal law to do it privately, then once it becomes public knowledge, it's not illegal, right?

 

[Sphexi]

Originally posted by: xirtam

Originally posted by: Sphexi
Yeah, I got better things to do then try and set that up ...but the next time I see her (Monday) I will try and snap a picture. With any luck, it'll be warm out!

If it's against federal law to do it privately, then once it becomes public knowledge, it's not illegal, right?

Perhaps


BTW your name is slightly familiar, do you play Earth perhaps?

 

[Vic]

We had this problem for a while because some neighbors a block over have the same house number. Luckily, they were very cool, we did a few mail swaps, and it gave a chance to meet some neighbors. No biggie in this case, but it would have sucked if it had gone to people less nice and honest.

 

[Sphexi]

I almost, for just a second, considered seeing if I could find this person's phone # through Switchboard or something, and use my Vonage unlimited calling to give em a ring and let them know about it and that it'd be going back out. But then I figured they probably wouldn't appreciate that too much.

 

[sao123]

or you could be like many people... tear it up as junk mail... and laugh... knowing you just caused someone a late fee on their bill.

 

[Sphexi]

This looks like a personal note, card or something. I have done that before when I get crap mail for the previous tenants of the house I rent (I've been here three years now, they obviously don't need it), but something like this I'll make a slight effort to get to them.

 

[xirtam]

Originally posted by: Sphexi

Originally posted by: xirtam

Originally posted by: Sphexi
Yeah, I got better things to do then try and set that up ...but the next time I see her (Monday) I will try and snap a picture. With any luck, it'll be warm out!

If it's against federal law to do it privately, then once it becomes public knowledge, it's not illegal, right?

Perhaps


BTW your name is slightly familiar, do you play Earth perhaps?

Earth 2150? Been awhile since I've played that.

 

[Sphexi]

Originally posted by: xirtam

Originally posted by: Sphexi

Originally posted by: xirtam

Originally posted by: Sphexi
Yeah, I got better things to do then try and set that up ...but the next time I see her (Monday) I will try and snap a picture. With any luck, it'll be warm out!

If it's against federal law to do it privately, then once it becomes public knowledge, it's not illegal, right?

Perhaps


BTW your name is slightly familiar, do you play Earth perhaps?

Earth 2150? Been awhile since I've played that.

lol Earth 2025, over on Swirve. Guy has your same name, he posted only a month back or so, must be somebody different then

 

[xirtam]

Originally posted by: Sphexi

Originally posted by: xirtam

Originally posted by: Sphexi

Originally posted by: xirtam

Originally posted by: Sphexi
Yeah, I got better things to do then try and set that up ...but the next time I see her (Monday) I will try and snap a picture. With any luck, it'll be warm out!

If it's against federal law to do it privately, then once it becomes public knowledge, it's not illegal, right?

Perhaps


BTW your name is slightly familiar, do you play Earth perhaps?

Earth 2150? Been awhile since I've played that.

lol Earth 2025, over on Swirve. Guy has your same name, he posted only a month back or so, must be somebody different then

Yeah, somebody else decided to be clever like me and use backwards "matrix" as his username. I'm not responsible for his crap.

 

[marvdmartian]

the fact that she can carry a bag as big as she is for miles down our street is pretty impressive

So then, basically, you're afraid she'd kick yer butt if you called her stupid, huh?? hehehe :laugh:

Hey, another thing that happens from time to time is that mail sticks together when going through the sorting machine. Trust me, mail delivery people seldom really notice what's on the address, especially once it's been sorted for delivery. I get mail here all the time for other people, sometimes on my street, most often elsewhere in town. Likely it stuck to one of your pieces of mail when going thru the sorter, and then just got jammed in between your bills for delivery. Just write "delivered to wrong address, please re-deliver", or something to that effect, and they'll drop it back in the outgoing.