Tim beat me to my comment! I'm a retired letter carrier and I used to have numerous "snowbirds" on my route! I worked with each customer as they would approach me on their forwarding. Several would use the premier program from the PO and I would forward any first and second class to them as Tim said every Wednesday via Priority Mail. If you talk to your carrier, normally he/she will forward any certified or registered letters if you request them but he/she cannot sign for them and put them in your packet on the Wednesday mailings. I was instructed by most of them to "kill" (toss) any bulkrate mail-- but that had to be done in the form of a letter from them so I didn't get my rear in a jam with the PO. If they didn't want it tossed I held it and they had 30 days to pick it up-- not the best thing to do! If they would move to another CG they would just contact me and I would change the forwarding address. I had several that I did on my own also and would pay for the postage to foward the items and they would reimburse me on a monthly basis. If you know or get to know your letter carrier and talk with him/her about your move MOST will work with you on your temp forwarding. Just remember to let the carrier know about three weeks before you return to your stick and he can stop forwarding the mail and start holding the mail for you to pick up upon your return and IF you are nice to him/her they might even bring the held mail out to you if you call them or stop them on the route upon your return. Don't forget him/her for the Holidays either. It's nice to know they are there to help you out if you run into a problem!
Rich-- GRRRRRR UPS !
) LOL I knew of a few people that did use the UPS box deal and it ended up messing their mail delivery up pretty bad! Not saying it happens with everyone but these people came back to me for help and I couldn't help them because of the different companies---USPS vs. UPS. The people did contact me the next year and the USPS took care of them with no problems.
If anyone has any problems, let me know and maybe I can give some advise on how to straighten things out. Devildog could probrably help also!
Rondo