The mail ..... as bad as during covid.

Some of my neighbors' important mail ended up in my mailbox this week (I walked it over to their mailbox). In this cold, the mail carriers' fingers may not be working as well as they usually do.

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

We received two mail deliveries this week, Wednesday and this morning.  Scully's mail-in ballot hasn't arrived. 

Three 1099's. haven't arrived. One is from the state and probably was mailed from Trenton.

My mail in ballot just arrived two days ago.  According to the post office, it was supposed to have been delivered on 12/24/2025.  I waited a few days because my mail has also been intermittent. Then I called the County Clerk's Office to report the missing ballot and reported the ballot missing or stolen with the Postal Inspector using the online form.  I received a "second ballot" about a week after my call to the County Clerk.  At this point in time, I doubt there would be time to get a second ballot before 2/5.  I would still report the missing ballot to both the County Clerk and the Postal Inspector and then vote a provisional ballot either at one of the early voting voting sites or the poll on 2/5.  

sprout said:

Some of my neighbors' important mail ended up in my mailbox this week (I walked it over to their mailbox). In this cold, the mail carriers' fingers may not be working as well as they usually do.

There have been lots of problems with mail delivery in Maplewood over the past few months. My experience is similar to what jack reports.  Despite seeing scanned mail in the daily Informed delivery email, I am likely to receive mail only a few days a week.  I have been using the feedback form on the Informed Delivery site to provide daily feedback on what is or is not delivered.  I also keep a record of what is missing and report that daily until it is found. This helps when something like a missing ballot, 1099, EOB, financial statement, or credit card or utility bill goes missing.  In a few cases, I have had to request a duplicate copy of important items that have gone missing.

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

We received two mail deliveries this week, Wednesday and this morning.  Scully's mail-in ballot hasn't arrived. 

Three 1099's. haven't arrived. One is from the state and probably was mailed from Trenton.

Have you checked both entrances to the house?  With two marked addresses on the property, it is possible that your mail is being delivered to the door that does not have the mail receptacle.  

There is a sign on the other door, saying to deliver mail and stuff to the other door.

sprout said:

Some of my neighbors' important mail ended up in my mailbox this week (I walked it over to their mailbox). In this cold, the mail carriers' fingers may not be working as well as they usually do.

We got that worse ... Years ago, some brainiac decided that there should be an Essex Avenue AND an Essex Road in Maplewood. We are forever driving each other's mail and packages to each other's house.

It never happened to me before:

Two days ago I received an envelope from the post office.  Inside was a partially mutilated envelope addressed to me and containing a partially mutilated check. 

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

sprout said:

Some of my neighbors' important mail ended up in my mailbox this week (I walked it over to their mailbox). In this cold, the mail carriers' fingers may not be working as well as they usually do.

We got that worse ... Years ago, some brainiac decided that there should be an Essex Avenue AND an Essex Road in Maplewood. We are forever driving each other's mail and packages to each other's house.

I've made that mistake and went to the wrong Essex for a playdate long ago. There's so many annoying pairs in town: Highland Ave / Highland Place. Park Ave / Park Rd.  On the bright side, you're not on Burnett, which has at least three: Ave, St, and Terrace. 

Maplewood is not that large... they couldn't come up with anything different?

Someone I know in FL lives on a Place. The first time I mailed her a package, the lady at the post office told me the town has a Place, Road, Street and I think even Court with the same first word. Seriously!? That has to be a nightmare, especially in today’s world of FedEx, UPS, Amazon, Door Dash, Uber, etc. 

I can do you one better.  When we downsized and moved to North Plainfield (= Somerset County), we quickly learned that there is a duplicate address on the same street, across the border in Plainfield (= Union County).

However, the postal service uses the same post office (ZIP 07062) to serve both towns.  Even if you use the 9 digit zip, there is a 50% likelihood of your mail/packages/deliveries/visitors ending up at the wrong house.

tomcat said:

I can do you one better.  When we downsized and moved to North Plainfield (= Somerset County), we quickly learned that there is a duplicate address on the same street, across the border in Plainfield (= Union County).

However, the postal service uses the same post office (ZIP 07062) to serve both towns.  Even if you use the 9 digit zip, there is a 50% likelihood of your mail/packages/deliveries/visitors ending up at the wrong house.

That is really bad.

It reminded me of a issue we've experienced just a few times across the decades of living here: The zip code of 07040 (Maplewood) looks a bit like 07090 (Westfield). Turns out, we have the duplicate address of someone in Westfield! So when the '9' looks too much like a '4', we've gotten their mail.

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

sprout said:

Some of my neighbors' important mail ended up in my mailbox this week (I walked it over to their mailbox). In this cold, the mail carriers' fingers may not be working as well as they usually do.

We got that worse ... Years ago, some brainiac decided that there should be an Essex Avenue AND an Essex Road in Maplewood. We are forever driving each other's mail and packages to each other's house.

The following names are on more than one street in Maplewood:
Ball, Beach, Boyden, Burnett, Cedar, Claremont, Clinton, Collinwood, Essex, Franklin, Highland, Lenox, Maple, Marion, Meadowbrook, Oakland, Park, Pierson, Plymouth, Ridgewood, Tuscan, Van Ness, and Wellesley. 

We reside in the Kendal Valley area. There has been no mail delivery since Thursday of last week, though I did see a mail vehicle delivering something to someone on our block yesterday. Had to have been a package since that’s all USPS delivers on Sundays.

I just reported the lack of mail delivery to our address on USPS.com and urge others to do the same.  If you do not already have a login for the site, you will have to create one. Hopefully if we can get a critical mass of residents complaining, the deliveries will resume again. 

yahooyahoo said:

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

sprout said:

Some of my neighbors' important mail ended up in my mailbox this week (I walked it over to their mailbox). In this cold, the mail carriers' fingers may not be working as well as they usually do.

We got that worse ... Years ago, some brainiac decided that there should be an Essex Avenue AND an Essex Road in Maplewood. We are forever driving each other's mail and packages to each other's house.

The following names are on more than one street in Maplewood:
Ball, Beach, Boyden, Burnett, Cedar, Claremont, Clinton, Collinwood, Essex, Franklin, Highland, Lenox, Maple, Marion, Meadowbrook, Oakland, Park, Pierson, Plymouth, Ridgewood, Tuscan, Van Ness, and Wellesley. 

I live on Oakview Avenue and there are no other Oakviews in town (although there is an Oakview Terrace in Short Hills but we've never gotten mixed up with them, knock on wood!)  However there is a same number address on Oakland Road that gets our mail and other deliveries get mixed up from time to time. Once it was a grocery delivery during Covid that included ice cream and wasn't tracked down until the next day ... what a mess!  We have exchanged phone numbers with our Oakland Rd counterparts.

Mail delivery has been dreadful ever since it was switched from Maplewood to Union. Through much of December and January it was close to non-existent at my address. I strongly recommend signing up for Informed Delivery and checking it daily to see what is supposed to arrive.  Doing this has enabled me to follow up with missing credit card and utility bills thereby avoiding late fees.  It helped me learn that my mail in ballot which was supposed to have been delivered on 12/24 was missing in time to request a second ballot from the County Clerk's Office.  Keeping a journal of missing mail and providing daily feedback through the Informed Delivery website have helped with the eventual delivery of important items though in some cases it has taken over a month for missing items to be found.  Through the Informed Delivery website, it was possible to report missing possibly stolen items to the Postal Inspector which resulted in the eventual delivery of the missing mail in ballot.