USPS refuses to deliver on my private road (not your average read) (crickets, house)
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This is not just a status qo refusal to deliver to my home.
I live off of a private gravel road. It has lots of potholes and it is in pretty bad shape. I have several neighbors and they all live off of this gravel road. There is no HOA and there is a roadside agreement where we must all chip in to fix it. However, no one wants to so it is a sit and wait situation.
However, the USPS had no problem driving 40 mph on it until the situation below started.
Anyways, these huge potholes are caused by 18 wheelers, UPS, Fedex, and the rat race of Amazon drivers coming through. All of these entities still somehow manage to get through without complaining.
Below is where it gets interesting...really interesting.
My neighbor told the USPS carrier to slow down as they were going like 40 miles per hour on the private road.
The carrier responded with "Ok I will fix you. Now you and all of your neighbors will be getting the 3849 sorry we missed you Orange slip and you can come pick up your large packages at the post office."
Sure enough that is how it has been ever since.
I complained to the Postmaster and he denied she ever said that and blamed the issue exclusively on the road citing that it was impassible even though he could somehow make it to my door to make that statement.
I then complained to the USPS and all I get are surveys back via email asking how they did with no recourse.
No one ever gets back to me.
I then complained to my State Senator who has always been able to fix issues with the USPS. Now it is crickets from the Senator.
So the other day, I happened to be outside and noticed the mail carrier on this "impassible road" delivering mail to the neighbor who they had the altercation with!!
Said neighbor lives further down the road than I do!
My entire town of 800 in rural northern Indiana has no mail delivery at all. We all have PO boxes it's becoming very common in rural areas. The lobby at the post office is open 4 hours a day but you have access to the boxes 24/7. Just thought I would share I realize it doesn't answer your questions or suggest a solution.
Maybe order things through Amazon Prime next day delivery through USPS to get the process going? They even come on Sunday. If your neighbor can get Amazon deliveries through USPS then they should be able to deliver regular mail, too.
I have actually done the opposite with Prime. I have it set up with Amazon so that they only use UPS and Fedex to deliver to my home. The staff at Amazon promises until they turn blue that Amazon will deliver the next day but the package never comes and USPS just sticks a 3849 in my mailbox and another neighbor's asserting that we weren't there even if we were standing outside.
The problem is not so much the procedure of manipulating a scenario where they should in theory show up by using Prime. They are not afraid to NOT show up and don't seemingly care whether or not I notice USPS is delivering to another neighbor.
I don't know what USPS obligation is. I don't know if there is an entitlement to deliver to my doorstep. Even my lawyer doesn't know. This is a question he said that I should find out.
The problem is that I cannot connect to a human to find out and if they have the sand to ignore the Senator they certainly have no problem ignoring me.
If they are delivering to someone else living even further down the same "impassible road" (especially someone they had a yelling match with) it seems like "address discrimination" to me. Is there even such a thing?
My entire town of 800 in rural northern Indiana has no mail delivery at all. We all have PO boxes it's becoming very common in rural areas. The lobby at the post office is open 4 hours a day but you have access to the boxes 24/7. Just thought I would share I realize it doesn't answer your questions or suggest a solution.
Same with my town. And I live within 10 miles of nyc. No mail delivery. I can recycle at the post office and only deal with mail a few times a week. Who needs all those catalogues and junk mail coming in to my house.
Contact your Congressman in the House of Representatives. If he/she ignores you then try your State Rep. Even though a State Rep has nothing to do with Fed Gov't they often know people.
If I recall correctly the USPS can refuse to go down your private road if it is more than a half mile. Also, if the road is in bad condition. I have a private road. At one point it got rough, but we had 4 wheel drive vehicles and put off dealing with it. Eventually we had it graded and fresh gravel put down. One other thing - do you know if it was your regular mail carrier or if it was a substitute that you saw? Subs will sometimes do things the regulars won't, and vise-versa.
Location: Was Midvalley Oregon; Now Eastside Seattle area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ccc123
My entire town of 800 in rural northern Indiana has no mail delivery at all. We all have PO boxes it's becoming very common in rural areas. The lobby at the post office is open 4 hours a day but you have access to the boxes 24/7. Just thought I would share I realize it doesn't answer your questions or suggest a solution.
Coast house also no delivery. House is on a private road however road is accessible by anyone. PO is just a few blocks away and is open half days. Small town living.
I don't know if this is the regular carrier. Good point. I asked my neighbor who forewarned me that all of this would happen as a result of this argument and it has been crickets. He now ignores my phone calls. I guess he doesn't want things to get messed up for him is my assumption. The distance between my home and the mail truck is too far to identify who is coming by. The private road probably stretches about 1.5 miles. I don't think it is .5 mile to my door though...probably just under that. The thing is, it sure wasn't in bad enough condition prior to their altercation.
Ditto on Congress Representative. Is that the normal path of escalation prior to contacting my U.S. Senator?
My State Senator REALLY made me feel like he didn't want to help me last time I asked something of him. It was all about "why not" instead of why. I hate feeling like that.
To the point about 4wd, that is what everyone here is beginning to do. There are a few beater FWD cars with low ground clearance around here. I am pulling out the popcorn.
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