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Post by penguy on Feb 9, 2019 21:33:24 GMT
I am wondering what sort of interaction you have had with your mail carrier and/or post office?
I had a neat thing happen today, when I went to get my mail I found a Thank You card in my box from the mail carrier. The day before the carrier had either slipped or missed the last step on our porch and fell. I went out to ask if they were OK. Evidently they appreciated my concern because I found the card in the box this morning.
In the winter I blow a path from our house to the house to the north and between our house and the end of our lot to the south. I notice the neighbor to the south connects my path to her's so the carrier doesn't have to trudge through 10" of snow going between our two houses. it probably is appreciated.
Our post office is an inviting place to do business as well. I've gone in and the clerk has been singing, one time singing with a customer. There are always smiles and small talk as you buy your stamps or take care of a package. Maybe it is that way with all post offices or maybe it is just our small town, population 11,000.
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Post by rosesnbrambles on Feb 11, 2019 0:54:19 GMT
In the past 5 years I've interacted with postal staff at 4 different post office locations and have found the staff to be helpful and friendly except for the one location inside a local hardware store. I haven't been there in a long time. I now work across the street from a post office so that's my primary point of service for mailing packages which is the only reason I ever visited the hardware store location.
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Post by allanorn on Feb 11, 2019 4:13:06 GMT
I’ve seen so many carriers work my route that I don’t know if we have a consistent one. Generally we have one or two consistent carriers and a couple that rotate on their off-days. However, the mail seems to be delivered at a relatively consistent time window regardless of who’s walking the route.
My parents once bought a house in a new developement where their route was marked as an “overtime” route. It would get picked up by random carriers and they had no idea when their mail was going to get delivered that day. Sometimes they swung by at 9am, while other days the mail wasn’t delivered until 6 or 7pm. They’re no longer in that house though.
As for the local post offices, they’re generally okay where I live. The post office nearest me was closed during the last major reorganization, which was a short walk with nice staff. If I miss a delivery or have to pick up something from my home address, the distribution post office is something like ten miles away with poor service. The post office where my PO Box is is pretty good and is about a 30-minute walk one-way, which I try to do on my lunch hour when I work from home.
However, I’ve been in some amazing post offices; I’m thinking of Idyllwild and Avalon, CA in particular. They also know everyone in the town and most likely live there, so it’s a different story than a large city like San Diego.
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Post by distractedmom on Feb 12, 2019 13:31:28 GMT
My mail carrier has changed quite a few times over the nearly 20 years that we have been in our home. A couple of years ago, I asked my carrier what his name was, thanks to one of Mia's 5Q questions. But I can't remember if that was the current carrier or a previous one. The current one is quite friendly and always smiles and waves when he sees me out walking the dog. My post office is a pretty friendly place, but like allanorn said, part of that is probably a function of it being in a small town.
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Post by Mia on Feb 12, 2019 17:26:46 GMT
I had a lovely little post office to visit a few miles out of town. The lovely old gentleman was passionate about stamps, and had previously worked for philatelic companies including Stanley Gibbons. I would love to have a few hours to talk to him, but he has retired and I only see him occasionally in town.
The main post office has improved since his retirement and I can get stamps and sheets of airmail labels from there without much hassle, unless they've run out (and occasionally, this has been the case). Some post offices won't hand them out and I experienced this on one visit to my mother's, the large post office insider the stationer's wouldn't let me have any. I picked up a sheet of airmail labels both today and yesterday from different post offices.
As for my main postie, he used to work for the same company my husband did. When a neighbour's bunny escaped into my garden, it was him I asked to find out if he knew whose bunny it was. Bunny hopped back home later but I did put out the tops of my allotment-grown sprouts for it to nibble, and it did! Also left some things in return!
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Post by motsamicaux on Feb 15, 2019 0:13:57 GMT
My letter carrier drives a truck and delivers to our curbside mailbox, so I don't see him very often. But if I know a package is due, I usually meet him out at the mailbox to save him the trouble of getting out of his truck to place the package at our front door, and in those cases we chat briefly.
As for the Post Office, I go there every day that it's open, to mail correspondence, pick up mail from my PO box, and buy stamps. I guess I know all the clerks there, and most of them say "Hello" to me even if I'm just checking my PO box. Service is friendly and helpful, always. Sometimes I chat with them about Postcrossing, InCoWriMo, stamps, the weather.... Oh! One of my pen pals is a... postie.
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Post by PhotoJim on Feb 15, 2019 2:33:05 GMT
I have two sets of answers for this question, because I have interactions with postal services in two different places.
At my home in my Canadian city of about 250,000, we get delivery to the door by letter carrier. I have no idea who my carrier is. I am almost always at work when he comes. If I am off work on a weekday, it is probably a day without mail delivery. Occasionally, if I am off work on a normal work day, I might hear him drop the mail off, but I haven't ever talked to him. Packages are delivered by truck, and I'm almost never home when they are delivered. If I am, I definitely try to be polite and always say "thank you".
I also have a post office box in a tiny town just across the US border in Montana. I receive packages from US shippers there, plus subscribe to some American magazines. It saves me quite a bit of money on shipping. (Things from the US aren't always cheaper, but they are often enough that the address gets enough activity to justify the drive.) I am on a first-name basis with the postmaster there (and was with the prior one, who is his wife, but she got transferred to another town nearby). The post office's customers are about half people like me, who live in Canada and get shipments there, so the place is very familiar with my situation. Still, my contact there is very patient with me (I only go about once a month to get mail; it's a couple of hours of driving) and will put my packages in lockers if I happen to be driving through on the way to or from somewhere in the US on a trip. It's very convenient. We usually a nice chat when I go to get the mail.
Outgoing Canadian and international mail, I mail here in Saskatchewan, almost always at a mailbox near my house or another near my office. I mail things to the US from Montana most of the time because it's cheaper (and faster, if I'm going there soon), but I'll occasionally mail things to the U.S. from Canada if I don't be going down there soon enough and the item is more pressing.
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jejemunk
Crayons
Posts: 15
Country I live in is: Canada
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Post by jejemunk on Feb 23, 2019 3:18:09 GMT
I am rarely home when my mail carrier comes but I was very impressed a year or so ago when a letter arrived for me which only had my name, a drawing of a house, my street (no number and my street runs for 30+ blocks) and my city and country and only half of my postal code on it!
I suppose the half of the postal code got them to the right area and the sheer volume of mail I used to receive meant they recognized a funky envelope from a far off place with my name on it. I was very impressed with Canada Post after that!
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Post by distractedmom on Feb 24, 2019 17:42:41 GMT
I am rarely home when my mail carrier comes but I was very impressed a year or so ago when a letter arrived for me which only had my name, a drawing of a house, my street (no number and my street runs for 30+ blocks) and my city and country and only half of my postal code on it! I suppose the half of the postal code got them to the right area and the sheer volume of mail I used to receive meant they recognized a funky envelope from a far off place with my name on it. I was very impressed with Canada Post after that! What a great story!
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