What should I do with misdelivered mail?
A reader we’re calling Cliff wrote thatevery time his regular U.S. mail carrier goes on vacation, he ends up gettingmail meant for his neighbors that is misdelivered to his house.
“Ican always tell when there’s a substitute on duty,” Cliff wrote, noting thatoften it’s only the mail from his next-door neighbor, but sometimes it’s mailmeant for four or five different houses along his street.
IfCliff happens to be on his front porch when the substitute mail carrierarrives, he checks the mail and will hand back any misdelivered pieces. Butmost often, Cliff only discovers the errors long after the mail carrier isgone.
Cliffwants to know what the best thing to do is. Put the mail back in his own boxwith a note to the mail carrier? Drop the mail meant for others into a postalbox up the street from his house? Call the local post office? Or simply put hisneighbor’s mail in their mailboxes? Cliff also wants to know if it’s OK tosimply toss anything that looks like it’s junk mail with a neighbor’s name onit.
Iam not an expert in federal laws regarding U.S. mail, but Cliff should notdestroy any mail addressed to someone else even if he deems it to be junk. Thatdecision about junkiness should be left to the intended recipient.
Anyof the options Cliff asked about seem reasonable, though it’s not likely thatcalling the local post office will help a great deal if the substitute mailcarrier changes every time the regular carrier is on vacation.
IfCliff knows his regular mail carrier well enough, he might want to take the timeto let her know about the recurring misdeliveries when she is on vacation. Theregular mail carrier might have advice on how best to proceed.
Shemight advise Cliff that calling the local post office might actually have somepositive affect. Or she might be willing to let others at the post office knowabout the recurring issues.
Myexperience with local postal carriers in the city where I live has been largelypositive. I once wrote about my former mail carrier (now retired) who spentmonths tracking down three boxes of books meant to be delivered to me thatsomehow ended up on someone’s porch several blocks away.
WhileCliff putting the misdelivered mail back in his box or dropping it in themailbox up the street might get the mail to its intended recipient at somepoint, the most expedient thing might be for Cliff to walk next door or up twoor three doors to give the intended recipient his mail.
Granted,Cliff has no obligation to do the mail carrier’s job for him. But the simplestand most direct solution seems to be to just give the right person their mail.
Again,I’m no expert in federal U.S. mail laws, but taking a few moments to getsomething that belongs to someone else strikes me as a neighborly and rightthing to do.
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of "The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice," is a senior lecturer in public policy, emeritus, at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues.
Do you have ethical questions that you need to have answered? Send them to jeffreyseglin@gmail.com.
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