So we moved into our place (rental) in July of 2010 and for some reason we always get the previous tenants mail. They were (for lack of better terms) plain white trash and disappeared into the night when they moved. We get their cedit card bills, medical bills, Kohl's bills, Verizon, Cable and even a pile of crap for their trash removal business. We have notified the post office at least once a month for the past year and it never ceases. We honestly get more of the previous tenants mail than we do our mail. The kicker is the mailbox fills up very fast then the mail lady complains that we dont clean it out. If it were just our mail it would never be full. We leave it in there and put up the flag but half the time they wont take it back.

Anyway we have tried white pages, google, bing and every other people search on the web and can not find a new address for the old tenants. Their business is still registered to our address and they are still listed as residents here.

Has anyone else had this issue? If so what did you do to make it stop? If we were getting nice packages we would not complain but we just get millions of catalogs for trash bags and bio waste and a bunch of bills. I know its considered illegal to toss it out but their crap is in MY mailbox and the post office wont take it back. Returning it to the post office in person is a 15 mile drive out of the way and what we return at the post office comes right back to the mail box the next day.

 

Write your congressmen. They're not doing anything else at the moment....

 

I would try writing return to sender on each one in sharpie, keep them in a box until it is a massive amount, and then take it to the post office. If that doesn't fix it go to the post master, if that doesn't work write the Grand Master Pooba Post Master General in Washington. Other than that I don't know what to tell you. You can burn it then there is no evidence that it existed. As for the catalogs just contact those companies and tell them what's going on and notify them to stop sending to your address.

 

You need to "return to sender" all of it, just write on the front is plain clear letters with a black ink pen and drop it in a street mail box or take it to your post office and give it to them at the counter.
You can also write "no longer at this address", eventually it will stop.
If you really tried you could fine them as long as they have used their name and not a alias.

 

If it says a name and then says 'or current resident', the Post Office will not take it back. I tried that, even told the mail lady that my name wasn't 'current resident'...she didn't think it was funny.

 

Guy I work with delt with this the post office said if it is addressed to your house its yours. You can do whatever you want with it. It's their fault for not notifying people of an address change. Open them and call whoever is sending them, tell them that the person they are trying to reach no longer lives at your address and all other mail for them will be put in the trash. Hopefully they will stop sending it.

 

Open it and leave it laying around at the mall, maybe someone will steal their identity.

 

Haha that's on the top of my list. We've gotten wrist cramps from writing return to sender so many times. All of the stuff is simply addressed to the old residents or their trash removal business, every now and then it says or current resident so we just toss those as they are usually just coupons or sales papers. It's the credit card bills, social services papers, doctors bills, insurance crap and god knows what else that we just cant get rid of no matter how hard we try. We call the post office non stop, leave notes on the mail box and go in the post office and it never ends. The supervisor has told us multiple times it will be taken care of, it stops for a week and then starts right back.

I honestly think the people are still using our address as their residence because we get pretty much everything that a normal person would get when it comes to bills. They even have bills coming here from companies such as Comcast and Verizon that dont offer service out here.

One guy told us to carefully open the envelopes, insert heavy items such as rocks and magnets and then reseal it and put return to sender. Apparently the company it came from will be charged for the extra postage, is that true?

Also it does have my address on it and it keeps coming here, since its in my box doesnt it technically belong to me to do with as I wish. It's really not my problem the white trash that lived here before dipped out and didnt change their address. As we speak I have crap from Geico with their name on idling in my mailbox with a return to sender note on it and the mail lady just leaves it there. As much as the Postal workers make you would assume reading English would be a basic skill but that's proven to be pretty false, at least around here.

 

As far as I know, if it doesn't have your name, it is a felony to open, even if it shows up in your box. You could just take the mail to the post office and hand it to them. If they refuse to take it, just leave it there on their counter and walk away. Eventually they will get the idea.

I used to open up mail from credit card offers and put rocks, dirt, pickle spears, used tissues and such in the return envelope and mail them back! The companies only get charged postage if you mail the envelope back. They also will get charged extra if the item is over weight. Also, if you make it bulky, they have to pay an actual person to handle the envelopes instead of a machine. I figure it is my way of helping the economy by forcing the companies to provide jobs for people to open my envelopes of crap.

 

I have the same thing going on. People who had my house before me got foreclosed on. I get their bills, stuff for their business etc... Hell I even had a pair of headers for some kind of vehicle show up. I just throw it away. I figure if they want it bad enough they will change their mailing address.