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Old 10-31-2007, 03:43 PM   #21
simonsrf
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Just a suggestion.

Most UPS neighborhood stores have mailboxes. You can have your stick house forwarded to the UPS store. When you want your mail, you can specify the location you want it sent to ie. general delivery, a friend or relatives house or another neighborhood UPS store.

We notify them via email or telephone for the forwarding service. The cost is ~$140 per year.

We have used this sytem for a year and it has worked very well for us.
 
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Old 10-31-2007, 05:39 PM   #22
Rondo
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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
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Old 10-31-2007, 05:40 PM   #23
Rondo
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OOPS! Sorry Rich, I thought you made the comment about UPS instead it was Robbie!
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Old 11-01-2007, 12:14 AM   #24
richfaa
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As I mentioned you need to be very careful. Go to the P.O and do the temporary change...Do NOT do it on line..make sure the postal person at the P.O understands what you want to do..A temporary change of address" a be sure to state that clearly. my problem came about because of a poorly worded ONLINE form then a lack of communications and understanding at the Local P.O. and this from me a 40 year federal employee..you would think I could sort out weasel worded Government forms. The P.O is the worst I have ever seen.I will do a temp change of address for 90 days to a single Florida address then follow up with a 30 day hold on the mail while we are traveling home. Study and understand the forms well BEFORE you fill them out or submit them.Your everyday carrier CAN be a great help..IF they are there every day.. Part of our problem occurred because of a substitute carrier that did not know what was going on and ASSUMED we were a Permanent change of address??? We are still recovering from that..
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Old 11-01-2007, 03:34 AM   #25
simonsrf
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Rondo,

We have not had any problems from UPS, not one. We had nothing BUT problems from USPS. Weeks after having our mail forwarded, USPS would fill our old mailbox up with junk mail. Our tenants were nice enough to forward that junk to us so we could cancel the mail from being sent.

You are a saint that should be recognized, not all mailmen are so deserving.
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Old 11-01-2007, 03:55 AM   #26
Rondo
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Thank you for the compliment! I understand the problems of the many that have had problems with the PO. As Rich said the forms the PO use are made up by people that have never carried or worked with the mail and/or with the customers. It's to bad the PO and other government agencies don't let the people that actually have contact with the customers set up things. It would be a much smoother operation! I agree that if you don't have a carrier that cares for their patrons or have a "sub" that doesn't care or know what's going on, you will run into problems but in most cases if you talk to your regular carrier and ask for help most will be more than happy to help you in any way they can. I meant no disrespect to the UPS on my comment because I have several friends that work for UPS but the patrons I had on my route that used them for the forwarding had nothing but problems. Best of luck on your trip down South and enjoy the warm weather while the rest of us are up North freezing our rearends off!
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Old 11-02-2007, 04:48 AM   #27
mail2us
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This thread has some valid address change information and while all well-intentioned, the customer, not just the mail carrier can do their part as well.

For instance: Temporary address changes only will forward the 2nd Class mail for 60 days. 2nd Class mail is mostly magazines and newspapers. If a customer is going to knowingly be gone longer than 60 days, it is advisable to notify all 2nd Class subscribed publishers (online if possible) of the address change at least 30 days prior to the 60 day expiration date. Most monthly magazine publisher mail their issues the month prior and need 4-6 week notices.

Remember too, all change of addresses are entered initially by a carrier, city or rural at their desks, then sent to a Forwarding center usually removed from their office, where the mail is electronically keyed from computers and forwarded from there. In Richfaa's case, my guess is his mail goes from the carrier in No. Ridgeville to Cleveland to be forwarded.

This is long, but gives many a better insight on the Postal forwarding system. Yes, errors are made and this explanation makes no excuses for them.

Dennis
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Old 11-02-2007, 05:13 AM   #28
richfaa
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Dennis...You are correct. I fill my change of address out at the local P.O in N.Ridgeville. The actual forwarding takes place at the Cleveland office. According to The N. Ridgeville P.O they never get the mail it is as you say forwarded from Cleveland. You are also correct about 2nd class mail. Since we became longtimers we have done away with 99% of our subscriptions and the ones that we have give you the choice of Magazine or no magazine such as the NRA so I stop the magazine with the Dec issue and start it Back up when we return.. This can be done on line. Actually the only important mail we need while wintering are the W-2 forms and the 1099's. We do ALL of our bill paying online and ALL of our keeping in touch with family online. So that mail does not pile up in our home mail box and we do not have to bother anyone to pick it up everyday we start a HOLD MAIL starting when we leave our winter site.. You can do this for 30days as it usually can take us that long to get back home. As Dennis says with a little pre planning and of course self education on how the P.O system works you can keep it simple.. I will say that MOST of the problems we had were my own fault.. I should have known better ..but I learned from the mistakes both mine and the P.O's and it will not happen again. The P.O system of mail forwarding DOES work once you understand HOW it works..Do NO Tt automatically assume that the P.O employee does know..do your homework...
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Old 11-08-2007, 03:05 PM   #29
chas
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Depends where you are at I did a temporary change of address until the house sells , I am in key west it takes 20 days to get mail here it goes to PA and stays there 1 week and the post office sends it to escapees mail forwarding service then it takes 7 to 10 days to get here , I had credit cards sent directly to escapees and other monthly bills that the people would agree to but some you have to be careful about like car insurance and home owners insurance coverage if you are out of state for a long time . Escapees offer a specal fed-ex 2 day and 3 day delivery time but - it is expensive .
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Old 11-09-2007, 03:34 AM   #30
simonsrf
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chas,

Paying online for insurance and such takes the worry out of the situation for us.
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Old 11-09-2007, 04:42 AM   #31
richfaa
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That is why we will not use Escapees as a TEMPORARY mail forwarding service. The USPS system Will work for you IF you understand how it works. Our mail would normally enter the system at the Cleveland office then be transported to the N. ridgeville office then to our home. With a properly done Temporary change of address it still enters the system at the Cleveland office. The yellow forwarding sticker goes on and it is sent to our temporary address..3 days in most cases. Online bill paying takes the worry out of bill paying..and 128 bit encryption is a tough nut to crack. Check it out///
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Old 11-09-2007, 06:26 AM   #32
mail2us
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As a Postal Service retiree, I can honestly say that I do most mail activities online as richfaa and others do. I know that where possible I notify all banks, magazine publishers, utilities, etc of my Temporary address. While using the Net, much of our mail comes direct (without those yellow stickers) to our summer home from the Orlando Forwarding Unit for our town of Clermont FL. When I return to Fla (before Thanksgiving) I notify the magazines and others of our return. I ask the Clermont Post Office by official card to HOLD all of our mail about a week or so prior to actually returning. Once home in Clermont, I then give the rural carrier another official card requesting Resume Delivery and Cancel Temporary Forwarding Order. I place that verbage in the area on the Address Card where it asks for the new or Forwarding address and sign and date it. The carrier gets that card, enters it at their desk and sends it to the Central Forwarding unit in Orlando. At Orlando, they key my name, and remove that Temp forwarding order from their computer file. This ensures any relief carrier, in error, for any reason sending my mail to the Central Forwarding unit. If there is no entry at the CFU, that "good" mail comes back to the carrier to deliver and not return it.

I wish I could help on all of the Forwarding Services available, UPS, USPS, etc. Because I'm a new 5th wheeler, my experience with these entities is non-existent so far.
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Old 11-09-2007, 01:15 PM   #33
bigmurf
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We do use Escapees mail service and it works GREAT.
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Old 11-09-2007, 01:36 PM   #34
8.1al
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SKP's mail service has been great
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Old 11-09-2007, 01:48 PM   #35
richfaa
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mail2us..There are a couple things in your post I did not know.. Thanks.. We in general do exactly what you do and it works fine. It is a matter of learning how the system works. Those other mail forwarding service also work fine and if you are a full timer that is the best way to go..But..The USPS system for a TEMPORY change of address works fine also and it is free and from what I have seen..much faster..Now..If you do not do it right it can be a nightmare...as we found out...the hard way. But it was mostly my fault.
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Old 11-09-2007, 03:17 PM   #36
mail2us
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The USPS mail forwarding system is tricky, and I must admit, the customer can often be the receiver of fouled up service. When it works right, it's cheap and helpful. When it doesn't it can be a nightmare.

These other services that many endorse are alternatives that most likely work well also. I have learned as an individual to do what I can to lessen any bad outcome or unexpected poor service.

I know from living in Florida, the state is like a funnel with many coming to it for the winter months. We receive mail volumes that rise sharply...no problem, however, when many return to their homes in the north in the spring, mail forwarding can be a large task. I suspect that other states like Arizona have a similar situation.It's always easier processing and delivering mail than it is to interrupt the flow with changes. No excuses here, we do well and when we don't it can be really um...not so well. Most customers don't make the mistake, it's that they simply don't have enought info.
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Old 11-11-2007, 02:46 AM   #37
gojodo
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We are on the way home from our first big trip (7 months) and the mail has been an issue. Six months before we left I canceled all magazines, contacted a service (can't remember the name off hand) that prevents all junk mail. That worked. We pay all bills on line. We physically went to our local post office to see how the mail forwarding system works and were told that we could forward our mail for 364 days out of a year without being a change of address. So we forwarded our mail to my cousin. Well, that worked fine until someone at the main post office in Richmond decided that this must be a mistake and the mail returned to our stick house. After many phone calls to both our local post office and to the forwarding post office both said the problem was at the main post office. We lost medications and some financial statements were returned even though we had not had any prior problems. We are pretty sure that we will not use them next year but need more research. We are considering using a post office box and having my cousin pick up and send.

Dorothy Weber
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Old 11-11-2007, 04:51 AM   #38
simonsrf
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Dorothy,

Check with your local UPS store that has mailboxes, or one of those places that rents mailboxes. We have used UPS for over a year now, and it has worked flawlessly. We ended up changing our address to the mailbox at UPS. So far, so good except for the problem mentioned above by us from the Department of Licensing...I don't believe that is something that will occur again.
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