are new postal regulations tied to government surveillance...? [View all]

[mike_c]

OK, this sounds paranoid but here it is. I've lived at my current address for almost 15 years, and our rural western town does not have home mail delivery. Everyone in town gets a free P.O. box. I've had mine for nearly 15 years. Every now and then, maybe twice in the time I've been here, the post office asks me to sign a form saying I'm still at my address and still need the P.O. box. No worries.

Recently however, we got a notice in our box saying that it would be terminated unless we provide the USPS with two forms of identification, one a government issued photo ID and the other either a lease, mortgage, deed, or my vehicle registration number.

Why does the USPS have any interest in my vehicle reg number? I don't have any of those housing docs-- I rent my house, but there is no lease, just my 15 year old agreement with my landlord. Why does the USPS even have an interest in confirming my identity? They move mail from sender to recipient, and what difference could it possibly make if the recipient is really who they claim to be? After all, as long as someone has the key to the P.O. box, the mail gets picked up, and the USPS has done it's job.

My partner and I are discussing how to respond to this. We've always been great supporters of the USPS but this is unwarranted. I spoke with someone at the PO this afternoon and he confirmed, if we don't cough up the two forms of ID then they will close our PO box, even though we still live in the town they serve, and after 30 days they won't hold any mail for us at all. We're talking about simply not having a postal address. The PO confirmed that they would accept our mail as general delivery for 30 days, but after that it's return-to-sender. Parcels can be sent UPS or other parcel service, and we already use them extensively because of our rural location. We have a proper street address that we can use to fill out forms and such-- but the USPS says that unless we produce the ID, they won't even hold our mail for pickup during open hours after the first 30 days. To be clear, it's not that they will hold mail for 30 days-- after 30 days they simply send everything back to the sender as soon as it arrives.

So here we are, on the verge, apparently, of opting out of the USPS. We'll have a physical address but no mailing address. I'm speechless.