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Refused Halloween card

4K views 31 replies 22 participants last post by  halloween71 
#1 ·
Well, the first thing that popped into my head is . . . what the?! This was a very unexpected delivery to my mailbox this morning. My homemade Halloween card was sent out on October 14th and now it's back. It got refused perhaps by the card exchanging forum member. I dunno what else to say except that I'm saddened and that I'm sorry you didn't get a Halloween card from me this year but I did try. Yours as is everyone else's are still hanging up in my office. I suppose I will add mine to my desk. Paper Illustration
 
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#5 ·
The USPS doesn't go out of its way to find people anymore. I've had things returned because the address was one digit off but that one digit put it right next door to the actual address but it never got delivered.

At work we send out calendars this time of year & I usually get a bunch back right away but there's always stragglers. I got one back in August. It was sent December 2014 & we didn't get it back until AUGUST 2015!!

PM the recipient, you never know they may have given you a wrong zip code or they may have moved, who knows?
 
#9 ·
Wow nice card.... I would have enjoyed getting that one too. Yes the USPS is getting terrible at it's job. I had a Red, White and Dead exchange card returned almost 2 months after I sent it with insufficient address stamped on it. I was really puzzled because it was to my sister who has lived at her address for over 15 years and whom I've sent many things to over all those years. In fact I sent her a Halloween card with the SAME exact address and she got it just fine. I"m hoping her Krampus Day card arrived now. I've had things requiring a signature get lost forever at least twice now, thankfully it wasn't anything irreplaceable. Packages I"ve gotten of late have been looking like they have been tossed around till the boxes are crushed and torn and the contents do not always survive the USPS does little about it. Yet the cost to send things is ever raising. One of those things that make you go GRRRRR.
 
#12 ·
Has Fed-Ex and UPS hired sub-contractors to actually make some deliverys now? Seems as if something like that has happened.
A Fed-X truck delivered here a month ago from Wisconsin?
It looked like their regular delivery Van except down low was a painted sign saying leased to XXXX?
Did the UPS drivers have to buy the trucks? Or are they now just responsible for repairs to their own trucks? Did something like this happen?
My house had 5 apartments in it. For years I would get 5 of every piece of junk mail! Five little advertising rulers=OK Five free samples of laundry soap=OK ,five pieces of political literature=no!
We are at 411 North Carroll St, There is also a 411 South Carroll St but the street is disected by a block of old school buildings,making driving from one end to the other impossible to do in a straight line.
We have sometimes been delivered what seemed to be some Very Important Mail that belonged to 411 S,Carroll..........
 
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#13 ·
Yeah I totally understand that mistakes happen. A couple of weeks ago I got my neighbor's mail and I just walked it over and put it into their mailbox. No biggie. I would hope if this card got delivered to the wrong address that the person would maybe just say, that's not me and point to the right house since this was not just regular mail. I have sent a PM and I'm just waiting for a response. Thank you for the compliments as well. :)
I will be back at it again next year despite these sorts of mishaps. I will give it some time for a response (maybe until Christmas or New Years) since it is or can be a busy time of the year and then the card will be sent on down to a friend in the Caribbean.
 
#15 ·
Gym, Fed Ex & UPS use rental trucks this time of year to deliver stuff. Our regular UPS guy is in some Enterprise rental truck until after the holiday. They have also subbed things out to the post office so if you see a postal truck on a Sunday don't panic that you slept through the weekend, that USPS truck is just delivering your Amazon stuff on time.
 
#17 ·
I think them HAVING to deliver to an address no matter the name is a mixed bag. Frog has a PO box in town and when he first got it he'd get mail from the previous owners all the time. The first time it happened the Postmaster had a fit because he didn't turn it in to the counter right away. He claimed he was stealing mail by keeping it... How can he be stealing mail if the postal worked put in in his box, it's not like he walked behind the wall and grabbed mail. So it seems like they will deliver to the address no matter the name BUT if it's not YOU then YOU become responsible for getting it to the right person or else you are stealing the mail.

Neither of my children still live at my address nor used it for years yet I still get stuff for them. My brother lived with us for a time almost 20 years ago and I still get stuff for him, as recently as last month. My mom passed almost 3 years ago and I still get stuff for her. We live on a rural route and I've gotten mail from all over the route but mostly the next door neighbor. If it's next door I just walk it over and let them know it's happened again... if it's for somewhere else I write on it delivered to the WRONG address try again, to let both the mail person know they mucked up and the people it was addressed know the USPS mucked up.

Also being on a rural route I've had the USPS deliver UPS things. Seems it's sometimes easier to just drop off things in town at the PO and have them run the 5 miles out to the house.
 
#18 ·
TropicalJewel, in my neighborhood the post office won't pick up things we put back in the mailbox, so we have to make a lengthy trek down to the post office (An hour or so by bus) to hopefully get it in the right hands - which was extra unfortunate when we ended up with someone else's invitations to a funeral. I imagine some folks in my area don't bother. Perhaps your intended card recipient lives in a similar place?
 
#19 ·
Figured I'd jump in here, since it was me.....I didn't refuse any package - heck, I got two packages delivered to me today! I have no idea what happened...judging from the picture, it looks big enough to have fit in my mailbox. I get manilla envelopes in my mailbox all the time, as I'm active on Bookmooch. I'm just as much in the dark as you are.....:(

And the card looks so cool too....could you try to send it again?

I'll PM you my address again in case there was an error of some kind (like a zip code error).

We've been in this same house for 4 years now, so it's not like there's a forwarding address problem or something.....
 
#23 ·
I tell you the postal service is getting worse and worse with every price increase. I believe I mentioned my sister's July 4th card this year got returned to me stamp insufficient address almost 2 months after I sent it. She has lived at the same address for over 20 years.

In the past when I haven't received an expected card a reasonable time after the holiday we're exchanging for I'll pm the sender ask if my card arrived and then let them know theirs. I've had a couple of yes I sent you one... if it's not gotten there yet let me know. Once I had someone respond with OH yes I got your card but I ran out and I'm not going to make anymore maybe we can exchange next year.... Ah nope. More times then not when I inquire about a missing card I never hear back, never get a card....
 
#24 ·
I work for the usps as a carrier.if something is returned its either addressed wrong...refused..or mishandeled by a office for which it was misdelivered to.I am in a rural area so we get some jacked up mail pieces with just granpa jones...really????If I could read minds wouldnt be at this job lol.I have had customers tell me that thier mail has been sent back and 99 percent of the time its addressed wrong the other 1percent it was delivered to another office and they didnt process it right.mistakes do happen we do way more work now with less people.I personally delivered 126 packages on monday before christmas plus 18 feet of mail on 100 miles route per day.so if we are getting worse its because the work demand has increased ..me I think we do a good job considering we deliver mail plus ups smart post packages...fedex smart post packages as well as our own.I couldnt drive a letter to california for 49 cents.
 
#25 ·
Maybe I have a run of bad luck but USPS has messed up more then usual in the past few years. Letters needing a signature have been lost twice never to be seen again. A third came back MONTHS later ripped open and the contents looking like they have been rifled through. A CD arrived CRUSHED, like it had been rolled over by a car or something, was it insured??? oh well too bad for you. OHHH and the dang tracking I STILL have a package sitting several towns over according to the USPS tracking, it was for the summer reaper gifting. I only know it arrived because the victim posted photos of my gift, so much for paying for the extra security of knowing where my package was and when. Explanations or refunds for these "mistakes" are nearly impossible. My rural carrier has placed the wrong mail in my box more times then I can count...the occasional next door neighbor understandable but folks over a mile away, not so much. It only serves to make me wonder how much mail am I missing because the carrier got it into the wrong box.

Frog has a PO box and they mess up that too. Even worse is he works during the times the counter is open and calling to speak to a live person about problems is met with a too bad tell someone who cares response, no help what's so ever. He can't get packages that don't fit into his PO Box because when we got a new postmaster the early morning pick up only hours disappeared as did Saturday AM hours. They have lost packages in the "back" only to find them weeks AFTER stores have resent things. As mentioned tracking is only as good as the person scanning the packages. I hate going into the PO these days, the lines are LONG no matter the time of day or year, once it took nearly an hour waiting just to get helped by the ONE person at the counter, didn't make a difference the line was wrapped around the lobby and OUT the door and this was in the SUMMER not the Holidays. What well run business allows lines like that to form without adding more clerks??? the USPS and Walmart. The people behind the counters are unfriendly and almost rude most days. The one time I sat jury duty the case was a mail clerk being rude and "foul" to a customer who pressed charges. While I did think it was silly to press charges on the other hand using foul language and racial slurs in front of the customer's CHILDREN was wrong. When there is an issue it's met with blank stares or not my problem, no sense of customer service at all. When I am met with unfriendliness and disrespect it's hard to be compassionate and understanding to the overworked clerks and drivers.
 
#26 ·
There were a few glitches here this Christmas season, but a couple were with items I'd ordered and I'm not sure whether the fault lies with USPS or the company from which I ordered. I just got something Sat that was due here Nov. 26th, a couple things were slightly delayed, and and one entirely lost. But considering the volume of mail my husband and I deal with, both business and personal, the USPS does a very good job. The holiday glitches were unusual.
Overall we get wonderful service from our local PO, and we generally have very few problems with the mail. They have cut the local PO hours, which is inconvenient but understandable. From what the local postmaster told me, they are assigned counter hours in part according to the volume of packages they process. (Stinkerbelle, if you have that much demand on a regular basis, maybe it's time for locals to organize a letter-writing campaign to the district office-- or to whomever makes the decisions about hours. It might be an oversight on someone's part. I doubt our tiny town PO has enough package-mailers in an entire day to form a line far out the door!)
I used to trade a lot of tropical plant cuttings, and I could do that all year. When it was 30 below 0, our carrier would put my boxes on the front seat by the heater. When I ordered live chicks (spring only!), they'd call me the morning they came in and ask whether I wanted to pick them up (get them watered & fed right away) or whether I wanted to wait for the carrier to bring them. We don't have a porch, and if there are packages that don't fit in the mailbox, our carrier will drive into our lower driveway and leave them inside the machine shed. They go the extra mile all around-- extremely nice and helpful. I guess we're very fortunate.
 
#27 ·
I don't think mailmen look at the names anymore, just the address. I have been getting mail for the lady two houses down for years, even though she passed away three years ago....her husband passed away last year and I still get there mail. I think that they actually had our house number to begin with and then they renumbered the houses....

This year, everything the neighbor across the street has gotten from the IRS has come to me....obviously, someone entered the wrong address at some point, but the mailman keeps delivering without noticing as he is driving around the cul de sac that he already delivered mail with that name to a house across the street two minutes ago
 
#28 ·
they don't look at names i.e.occupant !
just an address should work
maybe the usps should have sundays off again!
 
#29 ·
As mobile as people are, I can see how mail carriers can't really keep up with who moved in or out, who is living in rental properties, who had their adult son or daughter or move back in, and who took in an elderly parent.
USPS works Sundays? Hmm, not here! Sat afternoon and Sunday they close. Maybe that's why they tend to give it their best during the work week.
 
#30 ·
Everything was addressed correctly before and I paid the extra fees for delivery of a fragile and uniquely packaged item so we will never know what the problem ended up being. I live in a semi rural area and my postal people know me by name and know exactly what P.O. Box I own and my home address. I can't hold a grudge against all the postal service just for this mishap. Poopie happens!
However, I will re-send this card to the Meyer family this month :) :)
On an aside, I have to go have a talk with the postal inspector and my post office today because my home mailbox was stuffed full of other people's mail yesterday. The mail is all opened and gone through and they include people's bills and Christmas cards and a slew of other important mail. The mail wasn't all from my area either, it came from people in the surrounding city and other villages. I am not sure why thieves would go through the trouble of putting that in my mailbox and not throwing it away. Bizarre.
 
#31 ·
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On an aside, I have to go have a talk with the postal inspector and my post office today because my home mailbox was stuffed full of other people's mail yesterday. The mail is all opened and gone through and they include people's bills and Christmas cards and a slew of other important mail. The mail wasn't all from my area either, it came from people in the surrounding city and other villages. I am not sure why thieves would go through the trouble of putting that in my mailbox and not throwing it away. Bizarre.
Maybe the thief had the ghost of Christmas past, present and future spook them into doing something to correct their bad behavior and your box was handy. I would guess some people will be happy to know what happened to those missing bills and greeting cards.
 
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