My town has two post offices, and two ZIP codes. They overlap, geographically. They will not deliver mail, to any address, ever. We all (2,500 in the winter and 10,000 in the summer) have to rent a P O box and drive to one of the two buildings every day. The population has expanded during COVID to the summer numbers, as the summer people have become the year-round people. 5,000 people, figure over half are retired age, up to 100 years old, each driving on narrow roads daily, in all kinds of weather, and in various states of mental acuity.
The USPS will not divulge the P O Box number of any customer. If a piece of mail does not have a proper box number, it is returned to sender. If you don't know the box number, you are SOL.
Companies that will not ship to a P O box refuse to service us via the USPS. If a package is sent via UPS or FedEx (who each have some sort of "last mile" arrangement with the USPS) to a street address, and the package winds up at one of two post offices, the package, even having been originally sent via the other carriers who insist upon a street address, gets sent back because it lacks a P O box number.
Government documents (enhanced driver licenses, tax bills, jury notices, registration renewals, etc.) without a P O box number get sent back, causing legal problems for the (non-) recipients. Prescription drug companies who offer a monthly automatic delivery of pills often will refuse to ship to a P O Box. People who depend upon drugs to stay alive...well...
The lines to send or pick up packages are out the door most days. The poor dears who work in the buildings are old and feeble, in the last throes of their careers, because no one wants to serve at these two offices. The post-mistresses, being, by regulation, "in charge" of the offices, set their hours at will. One closes at 4 pm, the other at 5:30 pm.
Questions are answered with a snarl, if at all. Neither office has a listed telephone number.
There used to be two slots for outgoing mail at each building. One slot said "OUT OF TOWN" and the other said "LOCAL 11964 - 11965." The local slots are now blocked, and all mail, even from one building to the other, a distance of 3 miles, or even from one box in a building to another box in the same building, a distance of, say, 4 feet, goes to a place on Long Island about 75 miles away, across the bay, in a private truck, to be processed, then sent back, possibly to be delivered. In the past, mail within one building got delivered the same day, or even within the hour. Mail between the buildings got delivered the next day, at worst. People have taken to leaving their boxes unlocked so that birthday cards and invitations from friends can be illegally placed in the boxes and therefore will arrive in a timely manner.
We have learned, through experience, to sneak in a phrase like "suite 474" at the end of a character string that includes a street address, to indicate that the delivery needs to go to P O Box 474. Many companies' software will immediately kick out an address entry that includes the word "box." Like this: "53A West Neck Road, suite 474..." and we always use ZIP+4, to include the box number, like 11964-0474. Sometimes these ruses work.
Kindly tell me if you think that the USPS is doing a good job. Move here, and find out. Drop me a line to let me know when you're coming! ha ha ha
