[ankeny]

This Christmas (2016) I mailed from my village mail station two Christmas cards with cash inside (Never mail cash) to family members located in different Cities. The cards were never delivered. Four weeks later in a conversation with a neighbor we somehow got on the subject of mail in The Villages and she told me that at Christmas (2016) she mailed four cards to the same address two with gift cards and two without. The Two without gift cards made it to the destination the two with gift cards never arrived. This seemed odd so I called the Postal Service Fraud division to report my missing mail they opened a case and told me that they would investigate. After three days I received a response that surprised me and I wanted to share what I was told with other Villagers.


1) The Village mail station are not secure locations and many people have keys to access anytime day or night.

2) The delivery people are not Postal employee’s just contractors.

3) No one monitor these location they are not the responsible of the Postal Service.

4) Since they are not the responsible of the Postal Service there is nothing that can be done to keep this from happening again

5) I was told by the case worker that I should never use the mail drops at The Village mail stations and only deposit mail at actual post office.

I am sure the majority of the contractors that handle our mail here in the villages are honest hard work people but it only takes one maybe extra Christmas help to destroy our trust in the system. I know I have learned a lessons and hope by sharing this it may save someone else from making the same mistake.

Also if you sent cash or gift card this Christmas (2016) that never got delivered please response to this thread.

[janewk]

That is very interesting and something I was totally unaware of. Thank you so much for sharing.

[DeanFL]

Yikes! Thanks for the heads-up on this. Hmm, don't remember if we put some envelopes with Xmas gift cards in there or at the PO.
Forewarned is forearmed. I was going to ask which TV mail station this was - but doesn't really matter; apparently this applies to any/all.
Appreciate your notification on this...

[Bay Kid]

The United States Postal Service... we should feel secure using government services....

[valuemkt]

I can understand the "architectural" reasons for not having mailboxes in front of each home, but I don't understand the lack of US mailboxes in commercial areas .. whether it be squares or shopping centers.. It certainly would not be an eyesore to have a box outside a Winn Dixie or a PUBLIX .. The trip to a Post Office to mail a letter is near pilgrimage .. There must be a logical reason why this can;t happen ?

Regarding the Post Office response on contractors .. Who hires the contractors ? If the Post Office hires them, then they shouldbe responsible for vetting the people, and bonding them, or insuring they are bonded .. If many people have access to the mail area, then perhaps they need to be upgraded with individual key cards ..
Or, perhaps the repositories need to be secure boxes only capable of being opened by Post Office personnel . All probably expensive solutions to a one per cent problem ,

But back to the original question .. A city of 120,00 tax paying citizens that don;t have basic US Post Office Service ..
What gives ?

[ankeny]

What I suggested to the mail inspector I talk to on the phone was the Postal Service need to do two things, First install video monitoring equipment inside each station and second put a sign on the outside mail drop box to tell people that they are putting mail in an unsecured mail drop.

[Bogie Shooter]

Originally Posted by valuemkt

I can understand the "architectural" reasons for not having mailboxes in front of each home, but I don't understand the lack of US mailboxes in commercial areas .. whether it be squares or shopping centers.. It certainly would not be an eyesore to have a box outside a Winn Dixie or a PUBLIX .. The trip to a Post Office to mail a letter is near pilgrimage .. There must be a logical reason why this can;t happen ?

Regarding the Post Office response on contractors .. Who hires the contractors ? If the Post Office hires them, then they shouldbe responsible for vetting the people, and bonding them, or insuring they are bonded .. If many people have access to the mail area, then perhaps they need to be upgraded with individual key cards ..
Or, perhaps the repositories need to be secure boxes only capable of being opened by Post Office personnel . All probably expensive solutions to a one per cent problem ,

But back to the original question .. A city of 120,00 tax paying citizens that don;t have basic US Post Office Service ..
What gives ?

You should check with the local postmaster. It has nothing to do with TV.
The postmaster likely will tell you there is no $ for this additional service.
There fore you need to contact your Representative or Senator. BTW they continue to cut the USPS budget each year.

"only capable of being opened by Post Office personnel"
Now an employee will have to be hired to drive around all the stations in TV and pick up deposited mail.....really?

[Bogie Shooter]

Originally Posted by ankeny

This Christmas (2016) I mailed from my village mail station two Christmas cards with cash inside (Never mail cash) to family members located in different Cities. The cards were never delivered. Four weeks later in a conversation with a neighbor we somehow got on the subject of mail in The Villages and she told me that at Christmas (2016) she mailed four cards to the same address two with gift cards and two without. The Two without gift cards made it to the destination the two with gift cards never arrived. This seemed odd so I called the Postal Service Fraud division to report my missing mail they opened a case and told me that they would investigate. After three days I received a response that surprised me and I wanted to share what I was told with other Villagers.


1) The Village mail station are not secure locations and many people have keys to access anytime day or night.

2) The delivery people are not Postal employee’s just contractors.

3) No one monitor these location they are not the responsible of the Postal Service.

4) Since they are not the responsible of the Postal Service there is nothing that can be done to keep this from happening again

5) I was told by the case worker that I should never use the mail drops at The Village mail stations and only deposit mail at actual post office.

I am sure the majority of the contractors that handle our mail here in the villages are honest hard work people but it only takes one maybe extra Christmas help to destroy our trust in the system. I know I have learned a lessons and hope by sharing this it may save someone else from making the same mistake.

Also if you sent cash or gift card this Christmas (2016) that never got delivered please response to this thread.

How were you able to determine that the cards never left The Villages mail station?

[villagetinker]

Along a similar line, I sent out a check (early December), the person knew it was coming, and let me know about 3 weeks later it never arrived. It turned up 2 weeks later (January) all torn, in a postal envelope. The person told me it looked like the envelope got caught is a machine. I have had occasional problems with 'thick' envelopes (typically birthday cards) that get jammed or rejected. A few years ago, I had cash disappear on the way to my mother (in assisted living), could never prove or figure out where it disappeared, lesson learned.
Going forward, if I am sending something of value, it usually goes FedEx or UPS with tracking, in a cardboard envelope.

[ankeny]

I could not prove it happen in the village mail station, But after talking with the Postal agent in the fraud department I do believe it happen at the mail station. What I wanted this post to do is make readers aware that when they drop a letter in the box at the mail station it is not a secure area and is not the same as taking it to the post office.

[billethkid]

How about we hear some comments from the 99.76547% of the rest of us who have never had a problem and never even heard of an incident?

The isolated incident(s) do not a general condition make!!!

[redwitch]

For those who wonder how the system works here, here's a brief synopsis. USPS asks for bids to run all the stations in TV. The winning bid then gets bids from subcontractors to do the actual work. Both the contractor and subs must pass background checks. The subs are lucky to make minimum wage. hope this helps a little.

Most of the station workers have been at their station for years and are very honest. one very common way for money and gift cards to come up missing is at the point of delivery -- the mail is left in an unsecured mailbox in front of a house. It is very easy for a passerby to open the mailbox, look for birthday/holiday cards and take them. Kids are often the culprits.

[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by billethkid

How about we hear some comments from the 99.76547% of the rest of us who have never had a problem and never even heard of an incident?

The isolated incident(s) do not a general condition make!!!

Agreed. Our mail person is wonderful, and I've never had a problem with the mail

That being said, two thoughts---

1) Why does anyone but the vetted subcontractors have access to these stations. And if you go mess with one of those nice blue boxes on any street corner, you are looking at time in the federal pen. Why would these substations being different? Isn't it still a crime to interfere with the US Mail?

2) If people have had problems with outgoing mail that had checks or gift cards in them, haven't they also had a problem with INCOMING mail?

[John_W]

Originally Posted by Bogie Shooter

How were you able to determine that the cards never left The Villages mail station?

I'm with Bogie, in fact I would be willing to bet these theifs happened on the receiving end, probably from the individual mail box sitting at the end of the driveway. The postal mail stops we have are way safer then the unsecured mail box in front of a home. Especially at Christmas time it's not uncommon to have mail box and UPS and Fedex packages stolen from private homes.

[JoMar]

You do remember the story of the all the mail that was find in a dumpster in Illinois (?)....a postal worker put it there. We have never had an issue with lost mail when put at a mail station. Like VT, we send anything valuable via FedEx. Also, if the drive to the post office is so arduous you can take them to the drop and ships to mail and get a tracking number.....wait, they aren't postal employees either. What to do?