postal follies

For the last week or so I haven't been receiving any postal mail, so I contacted the USPS about it via e-mail asking why delivery had stopped. I got a response in less than 24 hours (very good) that said my inquiry had been received and sent to the local postmaster for where I live.

Today I decided to call USPS just to double-check and see what's going on. After getting routed around a few times I got a hold of the local office. They said my mailbox had overflowed (too much mail) and immediately started sending everything back (i.e. "return to sender").

I let them know I'm still here, still alive and to please resume sending mail to my address.

This is what happened (or at least my best guess):

I live in an apartment complex, and as you know, those mailboxes are pretty small.

If I don't check the mail at least once every three days, the box gets overflowed with junk. Flyers, ads, etc.

I hadn't checked the mail in about four days. Didn't think too much of it. I figured I'd just have a box full of crap - but to my surprise there was nothing in the box.

A week goes by - no mail.

That's when I called.

From what I understand, the USPS was supposed to notify me (usually by a small slip in the box) that mail delivery had ceased - but they didn't.

If I hadn't e-mailed and called, I never would have known the USPS purposely stopped delivering mail due to overflow.

Tomorrow I should start receiving mail again.

Hopefully...