WWYD? Report this to my local USPS or not?

[TheReader]

Walked the dogs this morning. Coming home from the walk, I encountered one of the mailbox banks --- we have those metal mailbox "banks" where several addresses all have a small mailbox in one central location in the neighborhood. The mail carrier has to open the whole bank with a key to deliver the mail, and then lock it all back up when done. Boxes at the bottom are there for packages. 

 

Well, I came up to one of those, and TWO of the main doors (exposing about 20-30 mail boxes, I guess...?) were WIDE OPEN. The mail carrier was nowhere to be seen. I had my DH pass me his phone to take the picture; it took me a couple of minutes to get the phone, access the camera, get a few photos. As I'm snapping the last photo, the mail carrier came up behind me (in his car) and snarkily asked if he should pose for the picture. 

He admitted yep, it was a big deal. Yep, I have a right to be mad. yep, I should report it. Want his picture, too? (I went ahead and took his picture, yes). He closed/locked the boxes after that, and went on to the next box to deliver the rest of the mail (we have several of these throughout the neighborhood). 

On a previous encounter, I was leaving the neighborhood and came upon a package in the street near this same mailbox bank. I stopped, picked it up, and planned to deliver it to the listed house when done with my errands. On my way out, though, I came upon the mail carrier at a nearby house; stopped him, asked if this was one of his, returned it to him, he said it must have fallen out when he was sorting mail, thanked me, and I went on (and the person never came on the FB group wondering where the package was, so presumably the mail carrier did deliver it). 

We have missing/late/misdelivered mail all.of.the.time. in our neighborhood. All the time. Only/usually only via USPS. 

My intent was/is to send in the photo to the local USPS (and maybe also the main reporting office) and perhaps we finally get someone competent on our route. My DH thinks I'm overreacting and should let it go since the guy showed up, was embarrassed, closed the mailboxes, etc. 

So....report it? Don't report it? Do we really think the mail carrier is going to straighten up and do better since he got caught?? 

[itsheresomewhere]

Honestly, based on my experiences and neighbors’ they won’t do a thing if you report it.  Maybe your post office different.  

[RootAnn]

I agree it will likely not change anything, but I would report it anyway.

[prairiewindmomma]

In our area, when the entire bank is open it’s because someone pried it open for mail theft. I would report it, but I wouldn’t expect anything to change/improve long term.

[gardenmom5]

14 minutes ago, TheReader said:

Walked the dogs this morning. Coming home from the walk, I encountered one of the mailbox banks --- we have those metal mailbox "banks" where several addresses all have a small mailbox in one central location in the neighborhood. The mail carrier has to open the whole bank with a key to deliver the mail, and then lock it all back up when done. Boxes at the bottom are there for packages. 

 

Well, I came up to one of those, and TWO of the main doors (exposing about 20-30 mail boxes, I guess...?) were WIDE OPEN. The mail carrier was nowhere to be seen. I had my DH pass me his phone to take the picture; it took me a couple of minutes to get the phone, access the camera, get a few photos. As I'm snapping the last photo, the mail carrier came up behind me (in his car) and snarkily asked if he should pose for the picture.    ~~~ why yes, he should.

He admitted yep, it was a big deal. Yep, I have a right to be mad. yep, I should report it. Want his picture, too? (I went ahead and took his picture, yes). He closed/locked the boxes after that, and went on to the next box to deliver the rest of the mail (we have several of these throughout the neighborhood). 

On a previous encounter, I was leaving the neighborhood and came upon a package in the street near this same mailbox bank. I stopped, picked it up, and planned to deliver it to the listed house when done with my errands. On my way out, though, I came upon the mail carrier at a nearby house; stopped him, asked if this was one of his, returned it to him, he said it must have fallen out when he was sorting mail, thanked me, and I went on (and the person never came on the FB group wondering where the package was, so presumably the mail carrier did deliver it). 

We have missing/late/misdelivered mail all.of.the.time. in our neighborhood. All the time. Only/usually only via USPS. 

My intent was/is to send in the photo to the local USPS (and maybe also the main reporting office) and perhaps we finally get someone competent on our route. My DH thinks I'm overreacting and should let it go since the guy showed up, was embarrassed, closed the mailboxes, etc. 

So....report it? Don't report it? Do we really think the mail carrier is going to straighten up and do better since he got caught?? 

Report it.  You're not over reacting.  The mail carrier "might straighten up" for a month or two (if that long) - and will go back to his sloppy ways.  Because unless he is *really* remorseful (which it doesn't sound like he is), he won't care enough to actually change for the better. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

I'm wondering if he opened it and then realized that he had to dart behind a bush to do his business. 

[Tiberia]

I would report it. My dh is a mail carrier, and that behavior is really strange and unprofessional. It's very hard for the Postal Service to get rid of bad employees, but if enough reports come in, it will build a case. If he's a good worker overall, and it was a one-time thing, they won't punish him for it. They'll just talk and get his side of the story. 

[Carol in Cal.]

Report it.  This is a significant security risk.

[EmseB]

Call and ask to talk to the postmaster. Tell them what happened. I personally would be conciliatory and acknowledge this must be a stressful time for carriers, but that this seems very unprofessional.

Edited May 20, 2020 by EmseB

[mom2scouts]

I would report it, especially after the mail carrier got snarky with you. We had a mail carrier who messed up mail in our neighborhood all the time. Neighbors spent time every day redistributing the mail. Several people complained, they said they knew it was a problem, and he was reassigned to a different neighborhood. 

[barnwife]

Yes, I would report it. However, my experience in doing so is not positive. IOW, nothing really changed. Perhaps it may help if other people from the neighborhood report issues, perhaps not. It might get a carrier assigned to a different route, but that just makes the carrier someone else's problem. 

All that said, I'd still report it. 

[SereneHome]

I've long given up on any changes being made to get a better service. I think no one cares there anymore. We've had so so many issued, I even tried calling all the way to DC postal something or other. Nothing happened.

Oh the stories I can tell...

[TheReader]

2 hours ago, happysmileylady said:

I think I am not understanding.  You came across the open boxes, but didn't see the carrier, however, he was close enough that he came by as you were taking a pic?  He would have to have opened them initially, right?  Did he give a reason for leaving the boxes open, leaving, then coming back?   

 

I don't know where he was. He drives his own vehicle, and it was not on the street with the mailboxes or the side street we'd just passed. Now, the way our neighborhood is laid out, the street we were on (with the boxes) has 5 streets that dead-end to this street (the main street). Four of those 5 are really just 2 streets that loop (so, U shaped streets, one nested inside the other, making what we refer to as "the short loop" and "the long loop").  We'd just come off of "the long loop" (where we didn't see him) and passed one leg of "the short loop" (where he easily could have been, delivering their mail). So presumably he came up the "leg" of the short loop that was behind me as I took the photo (in his car), stopped by me and the open mailbox, confronted me, locked them up, and then proceeded to the final stop in our part of the neighborhood, which is where my actual mailbox is. 

He did not give any reason; he asked me, rudely, if he should pose for the photo as well, and was just oddly rude/snarky while verbally agreeing yes, it was serious, etc, yet being snarky and rude. 

I presume he opened them, delivered the mail to those boxes, and failed to properly secure them before driving off to deliver the next round of stuff to the next bank of boxes. Whether by accident (he didn't try to say that), or someone opened it after he left (he definitely didn't say that), or what, or he just plain forgot to close them at all, or whatever. He gave no reason for leaving and coming back; I would assume he left, did the little loop, was heading to the back box and saw this one open and me taking a picture, so came back to close it. 

[TheReader]

2 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

In our area, when the entire bank is open it’s because someone pried it open for mail theft. I would report it, but I wouldn’t expect anything to change/improve long term.

I can't imagine that; this is a residential subdivision, main street through our section where this happened, directly across from houses.....we've never had problems like that, at all. And the mail carrier definitely did not respond in a "oh my word, what happened? Did you open this? How did you get it open? Did you see who opened it?" kind of manner when he returned to close it. 

2 hours ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

I'm wondering if he opened it and then realized that he had to dart behind a bush to do his business. 

Hmm. I don't think so. His car wasn't on the street, at all. I looked, thinking maybe he stopped to drop off a package across the street or something. (also, see above, we're talking a busy subdivision, not a rural mailbox bank with no one/no houses around). 

2 hours ago, Tiberia said:

I would report it. My dh is a mail carrier, and that behavior is really strange and unprofessional. It's very hard for the Postal Service to get rid of bad employees, but if enough reports come in, it will build a case. If he's a good worker overall, and it was a one-time thing, they won't punish him for it. They'll just talk and get his side of the story. 

Thanks; this guy has never seemed professional. :sigh: I wish I'd asked him more about it; I was very flabbergasted with the whole "should i pose for the picture too?" remark so didn't really converse with him. 

1 hour ago, Dreamergal said:

Report it. You may not change anything but if there is a pattern of behavior it will show up in a paper trail. I try not to make anyone's life difficult especially a person's job by complaining. But if they seem callous about their jobs I have absolutely no pity on them. The mail is important, it does not have only frivolous amazon things, but people like my old neighbor had switched to online ordering of prescriptions because it was safer for them than going to the store. At a time like this especially mail is vital. Please report it.

 

1 hour ago, Carol in Cal. said:

Report it.  This is a significant security risk.

These two are my main concern. We're talking paychecks (which we've personally had misdelivered), right now, stimulus checks, credit card statements, medicines, etc. Regular theft, identity theft.....having 20 people's mailboxes, open to anyone on the street,  it's not just "oops, I goofed."  (and both doors were standing fully wide open, not just barely ajar or one blown open by the wind or something). 

[happi duck]

I would not report it.  Seemed like a mistake and I know I'm making a ton of mistakes due to stress nowadays.

Our entire street gets mail in unlocked boxes so it doesn't alarm me the way it might if someone was used to always having a locked box.

Just my two cents!

[katilac]

8 hours ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

I'm wondering if he opened it and then realized that he had to dart behind a bush to do his business. 

The thought of my mail carrier peeing in the bushes would not make me feel any better 😅

[kbutton]

18 hours ago, happi duck said:

I would not report it.  Seemed like a mistake and I know I'm making a ton of mistakes due to stress nowadays.

Our entire street gets mail in unlocked boxes so it doesn't alarm me the way it might if someone was used to always having a locked box.

Just my two cents!

I would report it, but I think this the open box point is a good one.

We had a lot of issues with a regular person and a sub, and we reported many issues. Ours were mostly people making judgement calls that they shouldn't be making; you want someone to use their brain on the route, but use it to follow the rules or to ASK about inconsistencies. Reiterating that there are rules to protect THEM as well as our mail helped in one case--a sub was putting people letter mail on the porch on top of package mail to blow away. A customer had given him a really hard time about putting packages on the porch but not the regular mail, and the carrier was trying to please people. I told him he could lose his job over that, and I think he stopped. Sigh. 

We reported the other issues, and I think I did report the sub guy putting letter mail on the porch but made sure the post office knew he was trying to be nice.

We did have some major problems on our end from the stupidity, like being sent to collection when our bills didn't show up (some were healthcare bills that we thought were being paid in person--that was a separate procedural mess from the medical facility!). We were in the process of fixing up a house to move into, but we had not filed a change of address. We had mail coming to two addresses (including utility bills for each house), but since the same carrier serviced both houses, the carrier stopped delivering the mail, assuming something was wrong. The same carrier wasn't at all bothered by the fact that the new house kept getting mail for about 8 people who no longer lived there (all different names/families), and kept delivering all of that to us over and over. 

[Tree Frog]

I would absolutely report it. My concern would be that the mail carrier might be working with someone else. He leaves the boxes open, someone else goes through them, he returns to lock the boxes, and no one is the wiser. 

We've had problems locally with the master keys being copied and used by thieves. The PO won't replace them because they're used in several different neighborhoods and it would be expensive to replace all the locks.