The last time we moved was prior to the post office's standardization of addresses. Last time we moved, we notified the local [small town] post office and then they forwarded whatever came to them. It's not working that way this time.
When we moved last time, there was only a church mailbox at the new place. We wanted our own mailbox with a separate address. What they used to do, once upon a time, when there were two homes at the same farm (like when the kids built a house next to Grandpa's) was to give the second house the designation "A" after the address. For example, there might be four rural routes for a city, and the boxes were lined up in order. If George was "Rural Route 3, Box 42" and his neighbor Betty was "Rural Route 3, Box 43" then when George's son grew up and built a house next door so as to live close enough to help with the farm, then George's son and daughter-in-law got "Rural Route 3, Box 42-A."
So that's what we did at church. Church was 1584 and we were 1584-A. However, when the post office did their fussy fussy standardization about a decade ago or so, somehow the post office changed our address. We ended up as "Apartment A" or some such thing. None of the people who wrote to us had the "correct" address according to the post office. But the mail came. We had a smart mail-lady and smart real-life people at our local post office.
Problem is, now none of the mail gets forwarded. We can't give our correct address to the post office because they don't recognize it as a real address. Nobody sends mail to the address which the post office recognizes as the so-called correct address. And the mail that comes to the church address for us cannot be forwarded. So what do other pastors do when their personal and family mail is delivered to the church address, and they must move?
The moral of the story is: make sure NOW that your mail is coming to the address that the post office says is your proper address.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
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Have you tried manually filling out the form at the post office?
ReplyDeleteIt won't automatically standardize it like they do on-line... and Liz says when they do redirection, they type in the old address as it is on the envelope- and if its in the system- the new one just comes up.
That might be an option- unless they insist on standardizing it... in which case- have you tried talking to your local (in sharon) postmaster?
We just did it online. So it would help to do it in person too, huh? That's good to know!
ReplyDeleteI think Gary said he did talk to the local postmaster and ask them about the situation, so that they could forward the old-fashioned way. Or maybe he hasn't yet, but said he was gonna???