Mail Forwarding

[fjr vfr]

We are not full timers, but we "snow bird" and will be gone about 5+ months.
We had someone looking after our mail, but this year we need another way.
We're not looking to establish out of state residents, just to not have the mail box back home flowing out onto the road. http://www.5thwheelforums.com/forums/images/smilies/icon_eek.gif
Looking for a recommendation for a good mail service.


Thanks,
John

[sourdough]

I know others probably have better plans but we just have our mail carrier hold our mail in large PO boxes. They aren't supposed to hold over 30 days but she just holds it for us for the duration - great gal. We've tried forwarding 2 times and it is a fiasco ending up in lost mail and who knows what. Thankfully everything we have is paid automatically because mail forwarding, even by USPS admission, doesn't work worth a flip.

[bobbecky]

Americas Mailbox in South Dakota will do mail forwarding and you don't have to establish a domicile there, and they will do partial years. We've been with them for six years now and have NEVER had an issue, always reliable. Give them a call or check their web site- http://www.americas-mailbox.com/

[notanlines]

No company in this country performs as badly and with as little regard as does the US Postal Service when it comes to forwarding mail. Danny only scratched the surface when describing how bad the experience is. I have nothing but disdain for the workers handling the "forwarded mail" duties. I don't just have a few examples of lost, returned and delayed mail, nay, I have DOZENS.
Wedding invitation, Christmas cards, personal letters returned to sender marker Address Unknown. This action happened in the neighborhood of twenty times in three years. We have lived on the same street for 35 years! How about a two pound box of Apple Pie Cheddar from Hickory Farms, sent from the distributor in December, finally found us the end of March.
We solved our little problem by having the neighbor put everything in FedEx envelopes every ten days or so and send it down. He is rewarded with a king's ransom of chocolate cheese and 10 year old cheddar when we return from Wisconsin.
As Daniel Day-Lewis said in the end of There Will Be Blood; I'm finished.

[busterbrown]

No company in this country performs as badly and with as little regard as does the US Postal Service when it comes to forwarding mail. Danny only scratched the surface when describing how bad the experience is. I have nothing but disdain for the workers handling the "forwarded mail" duties. I don't just have a few examples of lost, returned and delayed mail, nay, I have DOZENS.
Wedding invitation, Christmas cards, personal letters returned to sender marker Address Unknown. This action happened in the neighborhood of twenty times in three years. We have lived on the same street for 35 years! How about a two pound box of Apple Pie Cheddar from Hickory Farms, sent from the distributor in December, finally found us the end of March.
We solved our little problem by having the neighbor put everything in FedEx envelopes every ten days or so and send it down. He is rewarded with a king's ransom of chocolate cheese and 10 year old cheddar when we return from Wisconsin.
As Daniel Day-Lewis said in the end of There Will Be Blood; I'm finished.

Jim, Are you saying that our government is incompetent, deficient, and flawed? I've never heard such things before. I'm quite astonished and alarmed by this news! :eek::eek::eek:

[bobbecky]

It isn't just the USPS, but also others as well. We just had a package that was sent to us returned as undeliverable because the UPS driver couldn't see the entire address on his computer screen where we are in Arizona. The address had the street address of the park we are in and Amazon included the space number after the street address on the same line, so the computer display wasn't long enough to see the space number, even though the address was clearly displayed on the package with the space number.

[Local150]

I have tried holding my mail at the po and having family mail it once a week, and also have address switched to the campground and all worked well. But will fill out change of address again this year as it worked fine for me, and no hassle for family . Even though my sister is the post master here at home , I get no special treatment

[66joej]

Just a quick comment about Canada Post. They have been on a rotating strike for almost a month now and nobody has noticed.:lol::lol::lol:

[Eastham]

You can have the post office put all your mail in a priority mail envelope and ship it to you every wed and you will have it on fri or Saturday. Have done it for three winters and no problems.about $18.00 a week.pricey but you get the mail like clock work.

[Local150]

Great idea there too

[fjr vfr]

Still thinking about this. Last year we had our son taking care of it, but it all changed when he received an offer for a new job in CA. So, in mid Feb. he left and we had to come up with a new plan with a couple more months away.

Everything worked out, but this year I'm looking for a more "fail safe" option.
On another note, I haven't experience much trouble with the Postal service over the years. I know some people have though. It seems to me it's all dependent on how well run your local office is. They have thousands of offices around the country so there's bound to be a few not very well run. I guess mine have been among the better ones. Hope to stay on the lucky end.

[Local150]

Still thinking about this. Last year we had our son taking care of it, but it all changed when he received an offer for a new job in CA. So, in mid Feb. he left and we had to come up with a new plan with a couple more months away.

Everything worked out, but this year I'm looking for a more "fail safe" option.
On another note, I haven't experience much trouble with the Postal service over the years. I know some people have though. It seems to me it's all dependent on how well run your local office is. They have thousands of offices around the country so there's bound to be a few not very well run. I guess mine have been among the better ones. Hope to stay on the lucky end.
You hit the nail on the head. Depends some on people in your local post office. I find that IMO a lot of it also depends the date you start it and date you stop it. I started mine 3 days before I left and started it going back to my house 4 days before I left Florida. When I got to florida my mail was waiting for me and when I got home same thing,, just what works for me

[sourdough]

Well, not to keep harping about USPS, but.....

Ordered several components as I upgrade to a new Weber Q2200, cart, covers etc. - 6 items from Amazon Prime. Was to receive 3 packages today; 1 from UPS and 2 from USPS?? Received the first USPS box at 9am, UPS at 12:30 but the 3rd parcel (USPS) didn't show. Looked at the Amazon tracking and it was shown as delivered by USPS??? I called Amazon and they said that USPS sometimes will mark them as delivered if they missed them during deliveries....just wait a day or 2. Wait a day or 2? Marked "delivered" because they missed it during deliveries?? :banghead: Irritating. Guess tomorrow will be another fun time trying to figure out if they are going to deliver it or not. Guess I'll show my face at the local PO and start "grilling" folks.:D

[CaptnJohn]

Have been forwarding my mail for years, just 3 1/2 months at a time. Never missed a beat! Yesterday, the 3rd time this week, I have to deliver a package UPS screwed up again because they cannot read?

[sourdough]

Well, not to keep harping about USPS, but.....

Ordered several components as I upgrade to a new Weber Q2200, cart, covers etc. - 6 items from Amazon Prime. Was to receive 3 packages today; 1 from UPS and 2 from USPS?? Received the first USPS box at 9am, UPS at 12:30 but the 3rd parcel (USPS) didn't show. Looked at the Amazon tracking and it was shown as delivered by USPS??? I called Amazon and they said that USPS sometimes will mark them as delivered if they missed them during deliveries....just wait a day or 2. Wait a day or 2? Marked "delivered" because they missed it during deliveries?? :banghead: Irritating. Guess tomorrow will be another fun time trying to figure out if they are going to deliver it or not. Guess I'll show my face at the local PO and start "grilling" folks.:D


Wanted to update this to correct any misperceptions.

Went to the post office yesterday to run down the lost package. I related the story of the first package arriving at 8:53 and then the other showed delivered at 10:48. I then commented I was sure they didn't make 2 mail runs to the same address. "Oh yes we do" was the reply. "We make a parcel run and a mail run." When asked about the package in question she took the tracking number and put it in the system. She then told me the time it was delivered (10:48) and the gps position. She advised any time a package/parcel is dropped off and the carrier leaves it they are required to post the gps position. The position? The front desk of the RV park! I was impressed.

Back to the park. I asked the lady about the package again and she said there were no packages. I told her USPS had recorded it being dropped at their desk. She thought a moment and said there was a large envelope that they had moved down to their "mail room". I drove down there and on a table there was a large envelope with.....my little cover for the Weber grill!

I wanted to post this to clear up the implication I made that USPS had fouled this up. Instead, kudos to them on their package/parcel delivery methods (Again, I was impressed) and note to self; I need to learn how this new RV park works!:o

[RoscoeV]

Our USPS driver just retired a few months ago. He was great, mail was delivered pretty much like clock work around 4:30 pm during the week and very seldom had any issues. We have a new driver that's pretty young and he makes his deliveries about 2 pm. The issue is we are constantly getting our neighbors mail and that is pretty much the same for everyone on our street. I called the PO a few times and asked if they would make it a requirement that their employees were able to read.

[Local150]

Wanted to update this to correct any misperceptions.

Went to the post office yesterday to run down the lost package. I related the story of the first package arriving at 8:53 and then the other showed delivered at 10:48. I then commented I was sure they didn't make 2 mail runs to the same address. "Oh yes we do" was the reply. "We make a parcel run and a mail run." When asked about the package in question she took the tracking number and put it in the system. She then told me the time it was delivered (10:48) and the gps position. She advised any time a package/parcel is dropped off and the carrier leaves it they are required to post the gps position. The position? The front desk of the RV park! I was impressed.

Back to the park. I asked the lady about the package again and she said there were no packages. I told her USPS had recorded it being dropped at their desk. She thought a moment and said there was a large envelope that they had moved down to their "mail room". I drove down there and on a table there was a large envelope with.....my little cover for the Weber grill!

I wanted to post this to clear up the implication I made that USPS had fouled this up. Instead, kudos to them on their package/parcel delivery methods (Again, I was impressed) and note to self; I need to learn how this new RV park works!:o
I showed your post with my sister as she is a postmaster. She appreciates your post as she usually only hears complaints,, kudos to you

[compcons]

We have used the Good Sam mail forwarding service over a couple of years. You can sign up for it, pay for a year (cheaper rate) and suspend it when you are not travelling. You can log into the service and see what has been delivered to them, have them open it and view it if you so desire. They will send a package of the mail that you choose to wherever you are and it is fairly reasonable.

They are located in Florida.

[cshrader]

We are in the last week of a 9-week trip. We forwarded our mail to the iPostal mail forwarding service before we left. The USPS has constantly screwed up the forwarding of the mail. For the first week, they continued to deliver mail (had to call them to get them to stop), have returned mail to senders as undeliverable, and several items have just disappeared. For our next trip, I think we need to commit and just change our address with the senders. That would eliminate the USPS forwarding component.

iPostal has been ok, but I think I will switch to another company next time. The one thing I don't like about iPostal is I have to request for items to be consolidated (takes a couple of days) before I can get the cost to send them to me. Even then, I don't get to choose the carrier. I had a bunch of letters put in an envelope and had it sent from Georgia to Maine. Unfortunately, they used USPS. A week later, it still hadn't arrived and we moved. I had the Maine campground forward it to us in Boston. Another week and it still didn't arrive and we moved. That campground forwarded it to our next campground and it arrived 7 days later on the day we were moving. I want to be able to choose the carrier so I can be sure it isn't USPS.

Can anybody recommend a better mail service?

[bobbecky]

Like my earlier post, Americas Mailbox works for us. You can select the carrier if you want, and you will get a tracking number emailed to you when the mail to you is sent. We have never had to wait over three business days for our mail to arrive, wherever we may be parked. You do not have to use the address there except for your mail you want forwarded. We pay a little extra for the next level of service which has them discard all the junk mail, so we don't have to pay for that to be forwarded.

[Eastham]

Cshreader
I really don't think you will find a better mail service. You say the campgrounds keep forwarding to you.was that all for the original postage?if so sounds like a pretty good deal. It pretty hard for the mail to catch up if you move every week.

[mazboy]

it is simple IF you are at one place for the 5 months. Just have it forwarded to your temp. address.

2nd way is a mail service...several around the country.

3rd way is to just have it become a big pile of mail and think of it as neat christmas when you get home....

[notanlines]

“is simple IF you are at one place for the 5 months. Just have it forwarded to your temp. address.“
If you read the remainder of the previous posts you will learn that it is NOT simple. Forwarding seldom works the way it should. There are many, many horror stories in the RV parks concerning the post office and forwarded mail.

[ctbruce]

The best way to solve this is to go electronic on everything. Then it doesn't matter where you are. Some things cant be done that way for legal reasons. Those could be done with an upcharge and sent next day with tracking.

[johnlewis]

We used Escapees' mail service when we were full-timing, so we used it last summer when we RV'd for 3 months. The USPS forwarded mail to them, and we would call Escapees and tell them where to send the mail. They were still getting mail from USPS for about a month after we stopped forwarding, but since we get almost no time sensitive mail any more, it wasn't a big problem. Would do it that way again, if we are on the road that long again.

[Teatimeteri]

BEWARE of Americas Mailbox
The company seems to be falling apart.
HORRIBLE customer service including owners who don't listen. Can't wait to leave them.

[Local150]

Hmmm, I have never had a problem with USPS,, but maybe because I live in a town of 2500 people,, and everyone knows each other, and when you are gone or not,, and probably where you are lol