Writes our submitter in Boston: “Our mailman always finds the most creative and effective ways to convey his thoughts to those who neglect their mail.”
related: Apartment D is NOT vacant!
You’ve got mail!
February 28th, 2013 · 63 comments
FILED UNDER: Boston · going postal · public shaming
63 responses so far ↓
#1
Pam
As if it were important to pick up junk mail in a timely manner…
Feb 28, 2013 at 1:43 pm rating: 28
#2
Incunabulum
I’d tell the mailman to go feth himself – 99% of my delivered mail is junk mail.
I’m not wasting time emptying my mailbox just to make it convenient for him.
Feb 28, 2013 at 1:44 pm rating: 13
#3
Star Truong
I just hope the recipient isn’t laying dead in their apartment for months…
Feb 28, 2013 at 1:44 pm rating: 111
#4
metoo
yeahhhhh massholes!
Feb 28, 2013 at 1:48 pm rating: 7
#5
H for Toy
How does the mailman know 2D has never left the country? Maybe that’s why they haven’t picked up the mail. They’re on vacation. Somewhere warm.
Feb 28, 2013 at 1:53 pm rating: 11
#6
Tesselara
Wouldn’t it just be delicious to roll up that enormous note and stick it in with the neglected mail? Third box ftw.
Feb 28, 2013 at 2:14 pm rating: 28
#7
designphd
I regularly “neglect” mine: It’s 99% JUNK. Stop delivering Saturdays NOW. Heck, cut back to one or two days a week: I won’t miss the useless ads, worthless coupons, fake magazines, supermarket leaflets, realtor notepads, gardener cards, taxi magnets, & other cr@p!
Feb 28, 2013 at 3:16 pm rating: 17
#8
Lisa
Wow, harsh responses so far! Not that I condone snotty notes from service providers (if you don’t like the conditions, find another job), but how exactly is it the mailman’s problem that most mail is junk? What you have here is a lazy apartment dweller who most likely walks past that box at least twice a day and can’t be bothered to empty it. It’s not fair to dump your issues with the USPS on the mailman.
Feb 28, 2013 at 3:32 pm rating: 84
#9
Charlie
Yea, sorry I have to side with the mailman on this. Maybe he or she knows they haven’t left the country- maybe they are selectively picking up some mail and leaving the junk. There is recourse for the dweller of 2D, and the rest of us, to stop junk mail. You just have to do the work to get yourself removed from these lists.
If your mail is 99% junk, it’s not the mailman’s job to take out your trash. Go to catalogchoice.org or somewhere and take care of that problem yourself.
Feb 28, 2013 at 3:58 pm rating: 50
#10
AP
The person needs to empty their mailbox, but the mailman is in the wrong. He stuffed the overflow mail into an “empty” mailbox. Who says the tenant has access to it? Who says the tenant isn’t away, relocated, or simply never lived there (we get mail like that all the time.)
This is probably a huge sore spot with me, because I also live in Boston, and my mail delivery is wildly erratic. My mailbox is pristine, yet I’ve had bills go missing, received angry notes from the mailman because there was a typo in my address, and been told that I can’t expect the substitute mailman to figure out which mail goes to which address- so he sends it all to the dead-letter office.
Then they wonder why they’re going broke. I signed up for e-billing because of this.
Feb 28, 2013 at 5:01 pm rating: 9
#11
Elle
There’s a way to stop delivery if you leave the country. My guess is it’s a repeat offender and this wasn’t the first time. If your mailbox gets too full, they have to bring it to the post office and you have to go pick it up (I admit this has happened to me, but I realized it was my own fault and felt chagrined when I went to pick it up). The letter is a bit rude, yes, but don’t stand up for the person not picking up their mail.
Feb 28, 2013 at 6:24 pm rating: 13
#12
Nami
Haha, I’m now curious to go see which apartment in the Back Bay area has this PA note! LOL jk
Feb 28, 2013 at 7:39 pm rating: 0
#13
Red Delicious
I’d be more apt to side with a mailman if the ones I’ve come into contact with actually did their jobs correctly. Half the mail I get isn’t even mine. I don’t mean for someone who used to live in my apartment, I mean addressed to a completely different apartment. And if that’s the case, then who has MY mail? What about the stuff that just gets crammed in there and ruined? What about the mail that’s been opened? What about the mail that never gets there because it’s been stolen BY THE MAILMAN because he thinks it has birthday money in it? Seriously, fuck USPS, they can deal. That’s why USPS is in debt up to it’s eyeballs. Because none of them can do their fucking jobs.
Feb 28, 2013 at 8:04 pm rating: 8
#14
Catsigh
I’ve had the mailman walk across my yard, two steps from my mailbox, and not pick up my outgoing mail. When I called the Post Office to complain they told me that he doesn’t have to pick anything up if he doesn’t have anything to deliver. I figure if he doesn’t have anything to deliver he can walk around my yard.
Feb 28, 2013 at 8:25 pm rating: 16
#15
Tard
If the mailman is demonstrating an actual sense of humor, then good on him, it was funny!
Otherwise, if he’s being a dick, I’d put up a note apologizing, but explaining you were depressed from the recents deaths your family (yes, plural) and you would try to improve. Let him feel bad, never admit the ruse.
Feb 28, 2013 at 11:26 pm rating: 3
#16
jj
My postman does a much better job than UPS or FedEx, who seem to make a game of sneaking onto my porch, not ringing the bell or knocking, and leaving an “undeliverable” slip for me. As I stand at the window and watch.
People give mailmen a lot of shit over their percieved grievances with USPS or mail in general. So perhaps don’t hurt the messenger, eh?
I’m inclined to side with the mailman after all the shit I hear people talk about USPS when they’re no saints themselves.
Mar 1, 2013 at 3:25 am rating: 8
#17
Kate M
My postman found a much more effective way of shaming me into checking more frequently…he used an official note that said my mail has been removed from the box and would be available at he post office. I had to wait in line for 30 mins and then get a stern, loud, long talking to in front of what seemed like every parent and teacher from my kids’ school. All to get 10 lbs of junk mail and 3 birthday cards for my daughter! I deserved it – letting it go almost two weeks was an asshole move.
Mar 1, 2013 at 6:04 am rating: 21
#18
Eileen
Maybe they’re students away on Spring Break? Lot of colleges in that area. (I went to one of them.) Maybe there are three or four kids in the apartment, each of whom thinks one of the other three is responsible for picking up the mail.
Mar 1, 2013 at 7:40 am rating: 1
#19
Dane Zeller
I’ve got it! I’ve got it! If he (she), the postman, has found an empty mailbox for 2D’s overflow, he can just put a note (or a key) to a secondary box in the main box. Then, when the secondary box is overflowing, he can put a note (or a key) to the third box, and can chain them all around until he runs out of boxes! Problem solved. Privacy and security maintained.
Mar 1, 2013 at 8:56 am rating: 5
#20
A
I personally check my mail daily. I guess I’m not that bothered by having to go through all the junk mail and toss it away. When I do go away on vacations, I always put it a request to hold my mail and have it delivered when I get back.
Mar 1, 2013 at 3:27 pm rating: 1
#21
notolaf
I keep waiting for my mail carrier to take out a hit on me.
Mar 1, 2013 at 11:57 pm rating: 3
#22
kbee
Maybe it’s the super large double-shot daiquiri I’m sailing on, but I found this note hilarious. Revel in the glory… of being a colossal slob!
I’m one of the worst felons when it comes to checking my mailbox. I just can’t be screwed going out to pull out all the trash in it. Because it is all trash, and the drivers on my road are psychopathic vehicular slaughterers in the making. I don’t want to risk my neck for a Pizza Hut ad.
But if I had a note from my postie waiting for me like this, I’d crack up laughing and think, “Well played, sir, well played”.
This is, of course, assuming the postal worker has a sense of humor like me, and the tenant isn’t away on vacation or dead, but rather a lazy ass like me.
Mar 3, 2013 at 3:46 am rating: 4
#23
Val
All the people above complaining about junk mail: I’m in Canada so maybe USPS is different but can you not just put a “no junk mail/flyers please” sticker on your box? It’s pretty common to do that here.
Mar 3, 2013 at 11:44 am rating: 0
#24
Vulpis
Now I know I’m tired…when reading this my mind immediately came up with ‘Of course it can’t hold the mail, it’s 2D…it needs to be *3D* to do the job!
Mar 3, 2013 at 1:12 pm rating: 7
#25
Jami
Gee, whenever our mailman was mad at us he just would refuse to deliver the mail. Well, except for that time that one of our idiot neighbors decided that parking directly in front of our mailbox instead of in front of his house next door was the perfect thing to do while he was off in Hawaii for a week. Then the mailman wrote us letters threatening to have “our” car towed even though we told him to his face it wasn’t our car and we wish he would have it towed because our neighbor’s a jerk! (The city wouldn’t let us tow it until it had been there a certain amount of time. We tried. But if the mailman had just carried through with his threat….)
Mar 3, 2013 at 1:37 pm rating: 3
#26
Kris
Considering I have neighbors across the street who let their boxes overfill regularly, I say good on the postal worker and slightly wonder if this is a new england thing.
Yes we get it junk mail sucks. Guess what? Man up and clean your damn box out. Ohhh you’ve lost all of five minutes out of your day, however will you manage?
Mar 4, 2013 at 2:50 am rating: 1
#27
Janie4
OK, to defend junk mail, the reason there’s a lot of it — is that junk mail people are the ones willing to pay to send the mail these days. It’s class D mail, and they pay less for it, but they pay. Otherwise, the post office would be enough in the hole that they would have no revenue.
I’m torn. On the one hand, the public shaming is a little over the top. On the other hand, as someone whose former roommates have left my address on some of their billing statements and whose current roommate never sorts out his own mail, I am deeply sympathetic to the mail carrier.
Mar 5, 2013 at 3:37 pm rating: 2
#28
Robyn
This one made me laugh. I’m with the mail carrier. Junk is junk, but this gets chops for sarcastic hyperbole.
Mar 6, 2013 at 4:10 pm rating: 0
#29
Melissa
The postal worker has NO right to leave such a snarky note – or ANY note at all. It’s their job to deliver the mail – not take the time, trying to be witty, writing a note. They also do not have the right to fill up another mailbox. They’re suppose to stop delivery.
Mar 6, 2013 at 4:41 pm rating: 0
#30
Um Yup
Maybe they lost their key. I lost mine and it took the maintenance guy at least two weeks to replace the lock because he didn’t have an extra key. And I lived in an apartment complex with less than 24 apartments
Mar 6, 2013 at 5:23 pm rating: 0
#31
kye
Hahah, I think this is a great note. If I got a note like this, I would laugh about it and pick up my mail. So what if they’re away or otherwise unable to pick up their mail? It’s hilarious. I love this postman.
Mar 16, 2013 at 11:16 am rating: 0
#32
cicQuieve
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Apr 9, 2013 at 11:16 pm rating: 0
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