USPS making important changes to the Hold Mail process

[Al F]

The USPS (Post Office), starting in early October 2019, will start requiring "ID verification" in order to complete a "hold mail" for your address.  They caution that it may take up to a week to  complete the ID Verification.  

They do say that if you are registered for "Informed Delivery" then that can/will be used for the ID Verification.  To sign up for "Informed Delivery" go here:  https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/start.action

Here is a quote from the email I received:

Quote

Dear USPS^® Customer,

You are receiving this notice because our records indicate you have previously placed your mail on hold with USPS.

To provide you with greater security, USPS is making several changes to the online USPS Hold Mail™ process. These improvements will require additional action from you before you submit your next hold mail request.

What is changing?

Beginning in early October 2019, to place an online hold mail request in the future, you will be required to:

1. Create or sign in to your USPS.com^® account
2. Verify your identity

Note: There are several identity verification methods available, with some methods taking up to one week to complete, so please plan accordingly.

How can I prepare?

To complete account creation and satisfy the Hold Mail identity verification requirement ahead of these changes, you can sign up for the free USPS Informed Delivery^® feature - the only feature that currently offers identity verification. Once you are identity verified, you will not have to complete this step again for your current address and will be able to hold your mail. As an Informed Delivery subscriber, you will also be able to digitally monitor your mail while it is on hold. To learn more and sign up, go to the Informed Delivery Homepage. See more details in the Informed Delivery FAQs.

What if I already scheduled a USPS Hold Mail request?

If you placed a USPS Hold Mail request before these changes are implemented, your request will not be affected.

If you have other questions related to this upcoming change, please feel free to Contact Us or reach out to the USPS Helpdesk at 1 (800) 344-7779 for more information.

 

[Al F]

If you don't know what the USPS "Hold Mail" is:  The post office will hold all the mail for your address for up to 30 days.  When you return they will deliver all the held mail to your house, or you can pick it up at the post office.  

If you return early or your return is delayed, you can change your return date online.  Just be sure the save the confirmation email you receive when you sign up for the hold mail.  There is a link in the email to click on to take you to the change process. 

[Ray,IN]

The USPS website will not allow me to sign up for informed delivery, I do not have a mobile phone.

[chirakawa]

41 minutes ago, Ray,IN said:

The USPS website will not allow me to sign up for informed delivery, I do not have a mobile phone.

Then what need do you have of the postal service?  Can't you just send smoke signals?  🙂

[TexasPSDX]

Completed Hold Mail form before our last trip and received confirmation from USPS via email.

Returned home and all our mail was crammed, packed in out small mail box.  2 weeks worth.  

[Twotoes]

Not sure if this would work but if you remove your mail box in front of your home the post office won’t delever your mail and will  just hold it for a period of time before returning it to sender. 

[Al F]

9 hours ago, Ray,IN said:

The USPS website will not allow me to sign up for informed delivery, I do not have a mobile phone.

The sign up page asks for your zip code to verify if that zip code is eligible for informed delivery, so maybe your zip code isn't eligible.  

There is no requirement to have a mobile phone, that I know of.  I have informed delivery notification come to my computer via email. 

[Al F]

8 hours ago, TexasPSDX said:

Completed Hold Mail form before our last trip and received confirmation from USPS via email.

Returned home and all our mail was crammed, packed in out small mail box.  2 weeks worth.  

Yep, the individual postal carriers and post offices, can and do give very poor service sometimes. The online system sends some sort of notice to the individual post office.  However, somehow the notice needs to get that notice to your carrier so they know to hold the mail.  I think service is even worst when you live in a neighborhood that has centrally located clusters of mail boxes, instead of a mail box at each house.  

I make it a point to meet and get to know our mail carrier.  As a precaution I also personally tell our carrier that I have submitted a hold mail request and when we set up mail forwarding I let him/her know that as well. 

Once I submitted a hold mail or forwarding request (I forget which it was) to start a couple of days before we left.  Our regular mail carrier was on vacation.  I caught the backup mail carrier putting mail in our mail box and when I told him I submitted a hold or forward request, his response was, well your regular carrier is on vacation.  I just stared at him, until it dawned on him that he should have paid better attention when he was picking up the mail that morning.  He then told me he would be sure to take care of it.  

Screw ups happen.  However it is really great that the post office holds or forwards the mail for free.  Also, all it takes is a couple of minutes on my computer to set it up.  It is also easy to change the end date when I need to.  

[LindaH]

I just tried to sign up this morning, but I keep getting a 405 error when I try to sign in to my account.  Hopefully, they'll get this problem fixed soon.

[Kirk W]

19 hours ago, Al F said:

They do say that if you are registered for "Informed Delivery" then that can/will be used for the ID Verification.  To sign up for "Informed Delivery" go

This is interesting as I have had "informed delivery" for about as long as it has existed, yet when I did a mail forwarding order they charged my credit card $1.05 which they said was to verify my identity. Could be that is what everyone will have happen?

4 hours ago, Al F said:

There is no requirement to have a mobile phone, that I know of.  I have informed delivery notification come to my computer via email. 

The same with my informed delivery. I may have listed a phone number as I signed up long enough ago that I don't recall but my informing notice is via email.

19 minutes ago, LindaH said:

I just tried to sign up this morning, but I keep getting a 405 error when I try to sign in to my account.

I just signed into mine as a test and it was successful. Might be worth another try.

[Ray,IN]

23 hours ago, TexasPSDX said:

Completed Hold Mail form before our last trip and received confirmation from USPS via email.

Returned home and all our mail was crammed, packed in out small mail box.  2 weeks worth.  

I made it a point to become acquainted with our local postmaster and our regular mail carrier. When I want a hold or forward placed on my mail I phone her and make the request. I have never use the USPS website. Our main has never been  mishandled by my method.

AL F, The identity verification is where you are required to submit your mobile phone #. I just repeated the process and noticed the option to have a code snail-mailed to me, which is then submitted in place of a mobile phone #. I selected mail verification, we shall see what happens.

Edited September 15, 2019 by Ray,IN

[Dutch_12078]

25 minutes ago, Ray,IN said:

AL F, The identity verification is where you are required to submit your mobile phone #. I just repeated the process and noticed the option to have a code snail-mailed to me, which is then submitted in place of a mobile phone #. I selected mail verification, we shall see what happens.

It doesn't even need to be your phone. You could easily use a friend's phone for the one time verification. They don't use the phone number for anything else...

[Ray,IN]

10 minutes ago, Dutch_12078 said:

It doesn't even need to be your phone. You could easily use a friend's phone for the one time verification. They don't use the phone number for anything else...

The USPS website is kinda screwed up. When I registered  via the link AL F provided, it said my user name has to be at least 8 characters long. I had already input my user name, which was too short. No way to change that. I went to the official USPS home page and my log-in, with too-short user name, was already signed up, and works. Then I clicked the link to informed delivery and it also worked.

Edited September 15, 2019 by Ray,IN

[Dutch_12078]

Great! I'm glad you got it sorted, warts and all...

[rynosback]

I always just told my carrier directly. He then placed a rubber band on the opening tab so it would not open. I also had Neighbors collect me mail once a day. As they lived next door.

[Al F]

On 9/14/2019 at 9:40 AM, Kirk W said:

This is interesting as I have had "informed delivery" for about as long as it has existed, yet when I did a mail forwarding order they charged my credit card $1.05 which they said was to verify my identity. Could be that is what everyone will have happen?

The same with my informed delivery. I may have listed a phone number as I signed up long enough ago that I don't recall but my informing notice is via email.

I just signed into mine as a test and it was successful. Might be worth another try.

For as least the the last 5-7 years USPS has charged the $1(or $1.05) to your credit card to set up mail forwarding as a way to verify identity.  They charged me the $1.05 last May (2019) even though I am signed up for informed delivery. 

[LindaH]

On ‎9‎/‎14‎/‎2019 at 7:40 AM, Kirk W said:

I just signed into mine as a test and it was successful. Might be worth another try.

Just tried to sign into my USPS account again this morning.  Still getting the same message.

[Kirk W]

1 hour ago, LindaH said:

Just tried to sign into my USPS account again this morning.  Still getting the same message.

And as of 10:25 today, Central Standard Time, it works just fine for me. The problem is not the USPS website. 

[RV_]

I just went through a move and mail holds. I went to our local post office and put my mail on hold there. It is a small post office for a small village my old home is in. It was supposed to be effective the next day but we were delayed so was there two more days. Glad we were. The post office did not put our mail on hold, and a check came in for a minor amount of ten bucks and change. I went there that day and asked if they had my hold and they said yes. Then I showed them what was delivered. She said the carrier just took it? That post office has never handled anything as agreed. We had mail theft in the USPS system getting an empty large bubble wrap without the 16 Amazon Basics batteries in them. Had these issues for the whole time we've lived here on and off. The Colorado Springs post office is a delight compared to the Lousyana Office. Sometimes moving is the only solution when federally entrenched employees go beyond disdain for customers. I do have USPS daily informed delivery by email and the regular USPS account.

[Kirk W]

13 minutes ago, RV_ said:

It is a small post office for a small village my old home is in. It was supposed to be effective the next day but we were delayed so was there two more days.

The postmistress in Lindale, TX told me last spring that even when you put in an address change or a forwarding order at your local office, an employee then types it into the computer in very similar fashion to what you would if doing it online. She also said that all mail sorting is done at the central sorting center and it arrives at the local office, presorted by carrier and is only corrected if your carrier happens to notice some problem. I'm not sure if that is true for help mail as well. 

[pjstough]

59 minutes ago, RV_ said:

... We had mail theft in the USPS system getting an empty large bubble wrap without the 16 Amazon Basics batteries in them. Had these issues for the whole time we've lived here on and off. The Colorado Springs post office is a delight compared to the Lousyana Office. Sometimes moving is the only solution when federally entrenched employees go beyond disdain for customers. I do have USPS daily informed delivery by email and the regular USPS account.

As a retired postal employee I can understand your frustration and disappointment.  During my years working for the USPS, I saw some pretty bad mangers.  Many knew little about their job, and were unwilling to learn, and never forced to learn the job.  Others knew their job, but just didnt care enough to do it correctly, and were covered for by management levels above them.  Whenever an employee violates the law or the regulations, it is up to the manager to deal with it appropriately, but some see doing their job as too much work, so they just let things go and blame the union for the manager not doing their job.

Another misconception in the USPS is that employees cant be fired.  That is not true, as employees are fired all the time, sometimes for some pretty lame reasons, such as, an employee can be fired for letting a dog bite them.

In regard to the union "protecting" employees, unions are required to do so under a law of "the right to fair representation", where the union can be held liable if they dont provide and "adequate defense" of the carrier even if they know the carrier has done something wrong.  It is pretty much the same standard lawyers are held to when representing a client.

I hope things work out better with the USPS in Colorado Springs.

[RV_]

Yes mine said that too and I specifically asked how I make sure the hold started with the next day's mail and she assured me my mail would all be held from (then) tomorrow's mail on. Taking off the hold was done by computer after I picked up my hold mail. The Post Office in Colorado Springs explained all that and made sure I had my code or incident number. All went well once I started to check that it was done both ways.

[RV_]

PJ,

We are in a subdivision with a community mail box with boxes for each address, and if a parcel a parcel box on the bottom. Our carrier made it a point to stop by and explain how to get my two keys at the post office. We also have a local Amazon warehouse for same day delivery. Colorado Springs is a breath of fresh air after here. No one says "You ain't from around hyar are ye?" Our neighborhood is a good one and clean. Service personnel for our water company and our Fiber Internet only provider gave us personal cell numbers, and spent time with us to be sure we were online with them as did the Colorado Springs Utility company, they handle electric, sewage, and gas, an independent does our water. The bases are as they should be. People are far more friendly in town there too. We can't wait for a real winter with snow, even if it melts away completely within a day or three in town, with snow plows getting the roads clear as the snow falls. Our front yard and driveway face South and melt away the same day if the sun comes out at all. Unlike back home in Connecticut, at 6000 feet the sun is much more intense and so snow and ice go away fast, except in shaded areas if the temps are low. But we've had 75 degree days there around Christmas, as well as heavy hail and 60degree weather in summer! We've been warmly welcomed and are enjoying all the culture there. There's always art, music and outdoor areas to experience, and just fun events.

And the people are just great. Maybe they're all stoned? Just kidding. I don't smoke cigarettes nor any wacky weed! I'll do edibles if I choose. Haven't done drugs at all during active duty to date except by prescription. I don't drink alcohol either. I did use recreational drugs occasionally in the sixties as we were within the NY City metro area, and all us teens would hang out in Greenwich Village often. I was 8-18 in the sixties. I think marijuana tourism helps with the welcome of new locals. 

[pjstough]

One of the negatives about Colorado Springs is that you cant stay overnight at Walmart.

[Al F]

1 hour ago, pjstough said:

One of the negatives about Colorado Springs is that you cant stay overnight at Walmart.

In late August 2019, we stayed O/N at the WM in southern Colorado Springs on I-25 Exit 135.  Called and asked permission and lady that answered the phone said:

Quote

I don't see why not. 

We parked back by the auto service area.  There was quiet a bit of room back there.  Three 18 wheelers joined us for the night.  They parked a little ways away from our RV so there wasn't a noise issue. 

There are signs all over the main parking area about no O/N parking, but no one bothered us. 

Also this WM is shown on at least 2 lists as allowing O/N parking.   BTW, the WM we stayed at is the only one in CS that shows as allowing O/N parking.

Edited September 16, 2019 by Al F