bummed: postal mail

[shootingstar]

Say you were going to be out of town for a week or two, or a month, or as is often the case in Alberta, 6 months. And you don't have someone to check your mailbox for you, or for whatever reason you don't want to inconvenience a friend by asking them to empty your mailbox every day. You can fill out a request with the postal service to automatically hold ALL of your mail at whatever postal location normally serves your address. It's a great alternative to having your postal carrier stuff and overflow your box and then leave a pissy note about how your box is full, and having your mail spilling out of your box while you are away, alerting any passing opportunists that you are out of town and no one is looking in on your home.

And then you can opt to pick it up or have it delivered when you return.

So, CP charges for this service; USPS does not.

I'm actually not surprised there is a charge. As long it's a small charge. Pile up of mail takes up (leased commercial) space. Multiply that.. by number of customers. But hey, you no longer need to worry in the U.S. now.

That's really sad about the ring.

[NbyNW]

I'm actually not surprised there is a charge. As long it's a small charge. Pile up of mail takes up (leased commercial) space. Multiply that.. by number of customers. But hey, you no longer need to worry in the U.S. now.

Here's what they charge:

• $20 for the first 10 weekdays.
• $8.50 per additional week (5 weekdays).

You're right, it probably does make sense to charge. But I guess I was surprised, and thought that it was a lot, given that I'm accustomed to having this service for free in the U.S.

[Koronin]

IMO, that seems excessively expensive to hold you mail.
In the US they don't charge to change your address or to hold mail. I should know, have had to do both recently. Changed addresses twice in the past two years and have mail held for the minimum 3 delivery days twice a year when we go to the races.

[badger]

my mother had her mail re-directed to my brother's place when she was out of the country for 3 months. When she returned 3 months later, she assumed that her mail would resume, but she realized she wasn't getting a lot of regular mail like bills and stuff.

Turns out the post office assumed that she had moved and was returning all the mail to the sender. It was a lot of hassle for her to get the post office to resume her regular mail.