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United States Postal Service [USPS]

United States Postal Service [USPS] review: junk mail - possible fraud

H
Author of the review
3:50 pm UTC
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The Greenbriar Station is the worst in Houston. We are having ongoing problems with Greenbriar. Ms. Flanagan, the Greenbriar Station Manager who is abrasive and rude. We’ve asked multiple times not to receive mail not personally addressed to us (which would exclude junk mail, advertisements and circulars). At his request, I gave my carrier at letter to this effect and for 8 years, he kindly abided by our wishes. Then about 3 months ago, we began receiving tons junk mail and circulars from a new postal carrier who I saw placing these in our mailbox. I told her of my agreement with my regular carrier. She stated that she is required to deliver all junk mail and a letter from me stating that I don’t want this does not matter. In the weeks that followed, she began putting multiple Wednesday’s circular in my mailbox out of spite. In return, I put the unwanted circulars in the outgoing mailbox. Everyday she stuffs them back in my mailbox. Therefore, we have a daily “battle” of the circulars and junk mail going to-and-fro that continues even now.

I have spoken with Ms. Flanagan multiple times. She told me that her carriers are required to deliver all mail and that there is nothing a recipient can do to stop or refuse mail. She also told me that delivering junk mail is the “bread and butter of the post office’s business” and that if they lose this business, “post office employees will not be able to feed their families”. She then asked me if I wanted her and the carriers to lose their jobs for not delivering junk mail. This was bizarre since I don’t know why they would lose their jobs by following the rules in USPS Domestic Mail Manual which allow a recipient to request withholding of certain mail.

Whys is it that neither she nor her carriers are required to follow or be familiar with USPS Domestic Mail Manual #508 Recipient Services? Her stubborn and false insistence that an addressee has no way to opt out or refuse mail (despite clear USPS rules to the contrary) makes me wonder if there is fraud or if she has some kind of performance incentive which is linked to the amount of mail that her carriers deliver.

I am in the midst of reporting her to Houston Postmaster Ellis (her boss) and the USPS Headquarters.

Update by Houston Consumer
Dec 16, 2010 4:42 pm UTC

Please see USPS Domestic Mail Manual #508 Recipient Services 1.1.4 http://pe.usps.gov/text/dmm300/508.htm Also see 1.1.2 and 1.1.3 which allow an addressee to refuse mail.

Update by Houston Consumer
Dec 16, 2010 10:28 pm UTC

That may be your view but the Houston, TX Postal Consumer Affairs Dept. told me yesterday that if I wrote my Post Office a letter specifically stating that I did not want to receive delivery of certain types of mail (and specifically stating what types, ie. no "current resident", "occupant", etc. " so the carrier is clear), then 1.1.4 gave me the right not to receive it. 1.1.4 does not say that they have to "hold" my mail. It says that they have to "withhold" it from delivery - ie. not deliver it to me.

Personally, I think that I should also be able to have a note on my Mailbox saying much the same thing as above and that I hereby "refuse" specific types of mail, then per 1.1.2 they should be required to accept my refusal and take it away with them.

However, the reality is that they are not even allowing me to refuse mail. Mail that I refuse gets stuck right back in my mailbox!

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