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I love my mailman. I still live with my parents, so I've had the same mailman for about 23 years. He knows all about my family and anytime he brings the mail to the door, he'll ask about my wedding plans. Heck, sometimes if it's raining, he'll bring the mail to the door so we don't have to go out in the rain. So yeah, we always get him a Christmas gift!
Our mailman may just get coal from us. We live in a duplex, one attached behind us. The mailman just dumps the other houses' mail and packages at our door. It's so annoying. One day, I came home to a giant parcel meant for the neighbour behind us.
I'm indifferent? We don't know our mailman/haven't lived here long enough to learn if there are annoying habits to be aware of. My Nanny does like her mail-woman quite a bit, and I think leaves a Christmas card with Candy Cane attached each year. My Nanny has lived in the same house for 40 years though, no telling how long she's done this. :p
I made ours a goody box and a small gift card to a local coffee shop. We have known ours since he started the route earlier this year. He delivered a package and we got to talking about our dogs, we have the same breed. Now, whenever he is delivering up in our corner, he stops to see the dogs and brings them treats. He even gave us a bottle of wine for our wedding and made sure my invites went out fast since we sent them so late.
I hate our mail man. We have like two different ones but they're not consistent on what time they come and don't ring the doorbell when delivering packages. Then they do things like yesterday, I'm standing in my driveway and see them coming so I walk toward the street. They drive past me, stop in front of the mailbox and put it in the locked mailbox when I was standing right there walking towards them. And yes they saw me, and just went on their way. I had to go get the mail key and come back out and get the mail, it was just annoying.
@CorgiTales: Oh my GOD! Our freakin' mail-lady does the same thing. Gets out of her car (slams the door) and drops a package (and not gently) on our porch and leaves. No knock, no courtesy doorbell ring. If it weren't for the angry door slam I would never know. And sometimes I'm asleep and don't hear even that.
And seriously, she has left packages on our covered porch when it's raining, but leaves it just close enough to the edge so that it will get soaked.
And if she sees me out coming to get the mail she will not even wave. And I have blatantly raised my hand in greeting to her several times.
So no, no gift. She's lucky she doesn't get a bitch slap.
ha.
(I'd rather have a mailman like the one on the movie Funny Farm)
I live next door to the house I grew up in. So i have lived on the street for almost 30 years, (minus about 4 years where I was living elsewhere). I do not know my postie from a bar of soap. He never stops, just stuffs the mail box and drives on by. I have no idea how long we have had the postie or if he changes. As for people who bring packages to the door, that can be a different person ever other day of the week.
So no, no Christmas Presents here either.
He delivers my post. He plays music too loud (he drives). Mmm, that's about it. He's always nice enough I guess. I never understood the post man gift giving thing. It's like saying thank you to him for doing his job, especially since he's a stranger. Do do gifts for the hairdresser and my mum has a cleaning lady and gardener she gives a token to. But we've actually engaged in conversation with them.
I guess I can see giving a gift for those above whose mail people go above and beyond in actually chatting/being friendly. But, as you can tell from my post, I have no idea who ours is. Not even if its a man or woman. How could I know, they never ring the freaking doorbell! lol.
Perhaps its just a city/country thing? I guess perhaps mine is too busy for pleasantries? I dunno. Regardless, no gift for her/him.
@CorgiTales: I would never do it with any of our old postal workers. This is the first one I have ever even met (in 40 years) let alone be that nice to us. I had one, back when I had my house, that was such a nasty person. I could be standing at my mailbox and he would not give me the mail, he would still put it into the box with a scoul on his face. I think that like anything else in life, you will always find a handful of people that are going to be super friendly and go out of their way for you, but they are few and far between.
I do treats for the trash guys too and once in a while, when it's super cold, I will go out and refill their coffee mugs. They are really nice to us and the old people next door. If we forget to put the trash on the curb, they will go get it and they always put our cans back by the house instead of leaving them on the street like they do for everyone else.
You know... I never thought about leaving the mail man a gift, but this post has inspired me and I think I'll leave one tomorrow!
Our mail man is actually always right on time, he delivers the mail consistently before 1pm even when it's raining or snowing, he always rings the doorbell when I have a package waiting even if I don't need to sign for it, and he's just an overall nice person to chat with for a minute. I wonder what would be a good gift... maybe a tin of chewing gum?
I don't have anything against our postal delivery person, but I DO have a grudge against the people that work at our post office...omg they are the worst! Right after the wedding I hadn't had a chance to change my name yet but my photographer mailed our wedding images to our place, but we weren't home. I went to go pick them up but the postal worker wouldn't let me even though I had the orange form signed with my address and my driver's license. She said she couldn't do it because my name didn't match the form...I tried to explain I'd just gotten married and that my husband had picked up TONS of packages meant for me that weren't in his name over the course of our engagement and she told me I was LYING and I had to bring in proof. I went to the car and found a copy of my marriage license to bring in and show her and she was TALKING SHIT about me to the other customers and apologizing because a RUDE customer held up the line. And I wasn't even rude!
We just have one letterbox for our whole street so I have never ever seen our postman/woman and there's no way I even COULD leave them a present! I have no strong feelings towards whoever they are either way!
Growing up, we knew out mailman and loved him. I remember dashing to open the door before he put the mail in the slot on our front door to say hello. He retired when I was away at college.
Where I live now, I see our mailman once in a while, but he comes around 4:30 PM and I'm usually at the office. If I happen to be coming home early and see the mail getting delivered, it's not always by the same person. If we put something out for him, I have no idea which of the 3-4 guys I've seen would get it...and I doubt they pool their gifts.
I LOVE my post office people, though. I mostly use the automated kiosk, but I like going up to the desk because mine are so nice.
I have only ever had my mail lady ring the bell if I've had to sign for something, so I really don't believe its part of their job to ring the bell or let you know you have a package. UPS and Fedex,yes...USPS,no.
UPS guys drive me insane! They ring the bell and by the time you get to the door, they're taking off down the street. I keep getting my neighbor's packages then have to walk them over. So annoying that they don't bother to check the name and just go by the house number (her street veers off mine and is the same house number,different street).
Is it possible on the days you say you've not gotten mail delivery it's because you really didn't get anything? There's many times my mailbox is empty, so I think it's pretty common that people don't get some mail every single day. I see her zoom by and not stop, so I know there's nothing for me.
I give mine $20. cash every year and she always gives us a thank you card the very next day.
Our mailman is not the greatest. Like yours, he doesnt come every day. Or the worst is that we will leave mail in the box to be taken out and he 1) wont take it and 2) will just pile other mail on top of it. He's done this many many times. It's gotten to a point where we dont mail stuff out by leaving it in our box anymore - DH just takes it to his mailroom at work. I wouldnt get him anything because I dont know him and he doesnt do a very good job.
I hate my mail lady. She decided I moved out sometime before Christmas last year, and has since then about 60% of my mail is returned to sender for the reason that I "moved and left no forwarding address." I have called the post office literally thousands of times to tell them that I DID NOT move, I still live there, and to please stop returning my mail to sender, and over a year later I still don't get most of my mail.
@smyley: My FI delivers for UPS. They literally do not have time to stand and wait for you to get your box from your door, so they ding the bell to let you know it's there - at least your guy is taking the time to do that! They are usually timed as to how long each stop takes..so there just isn't time. Leave a note on your door about getting the house numbers/names mixed up, if you have the same guy, he will get it and fix it. Or call the center and leave a message with a supervisor about it - they can change the way the stop is listed.
I never met my mail man. We live in a townhouse development and our mailboxes are in the center of our circle, so he just stops everyday and puts everything in the boxes and leaves. If our mailman dropped things off each day at my front door, then I'd probably give him a tip or a card with a gift card in it, etc. Sometimes FI gets tips from people he delivers to, but since the economy has been cruddy it's been way less.
I don't see our mail carrier, I am never home when the mail comes. Hopefully I will by this time next year, we have only lived at our current place for about 4 months now.
Funny story, last year at our apartment we had a mail "room" outside with about a hunderd small mailboxes, like the post office. For about a week we didn't get ANY mail. I didn't think much of it at first, we do a lot of bill pay online and don't get statements, but after a few days I started to worry. Keep in mind this was about a week after we sent out our wedding invitations. Turns out for some reason they decided we didn't live there anymore, and had crossed our names off of the box. LOL.
I absolutely love my mailman. He is the nicest guy - always so personable. He always comes at the same time, rings the doorbell for packages, etc. We've had him forever and he's great. Love Lenny :) We get him a card and $50 tip at Christmas.
My father in law is also a mailman, so I'm pretty biased. He was actually named Mailman of the Year in Massachusetts a couple years back! They have to put up with some pretty tough conditions throughout the year (if they walk like ours do... if they drive I have no sympathy) so it's funny to hear the "other side" of things... especially at Christmas when he talks about who does/doesn't give him gifts!
I just picked up my mailman a gift on my way home from dropping DD off at school. I got a big tin full of Doublemint, Juicy Fruit and Big Red gum, with a card from our family. I can't really afford to do much more than that, but hopefully it will make him happy! It's cold and rainy here today and he walks.
Sorry this is longer than I intended..
I don't see our mail carrier since I live in a doorman building, but my concierge is responsible for bringing up my packages and he does a pretty good job. He's been really annoying though lately, the front desk is crazy about everyone picking up packages since there are so many due to the holidays and he has absolutely no qualms piling 10 heavy packages into my arms when I clearly can't even carry 3. I try to sneak by him on my way home by going in the side entrance and I'm only in front of the elevator for about 5 seconds, but he must be looking at security footage constantly because the SECOND I walk into the building he's yelling my name and running over to me with 10 packages.
Last Friday, I drank waaay too much (mixology class with friends) to the point where I was probably the drunkest I had ever been in my life and I thought I would have to go to the hospital. So clearly I was in no shape to stop and talk to anyone, let alone receive packages. Instead of letting me go up to my apartment, he stopped me and piled 6 packages into my arms on top of all the other stuff I was already carrying. I don't even know how I made it inside, I was completely blacked out. When I woke up the next day I was so pissed at him for doing that, it could have waited until the morning! And of course 3 days later he did the same thing to my DH who had been drinking all day with coworkers for their holiday party AND he had gotten injured.
So yeah, long story short I will tip my concierge, but not as much as I would have if he hadn't been pulling all those package stunts!
my mail lady is awesome!!! she is super super sweet and she is very good about being consistant with her job. Plus, her daughter goes to school with my son, they are in the same class. So I see her a lot at school functions and when i pick my son up. I gave her a dinner gift card for her and her husband for xmas.
@smyley: why shouldn't the USPS ring your bell? I don't want my packages sitting outside where 1) they could get rained on and 2) they could be stolen. Especially since they don't come at any specific time. How hard is it to press the little doorbell just so that I am aware that there is a package-- they don't have to wait for me. Just alert me!
And also, yes I am sure that they really aren't coming. First of all, I get mail every day. We get so much crap all the time that we always get mail. I guess I can't say that *every* time I think they're not coming I have mail... but I can say that many times I am positive he isn't coming. Like yesterday when I had a package that was supposed to be delivered, and I could see the tracking that it was scanned for delivery yesterday, and yet no package and 0 mail whatsoever. Also I send a lot of stuff from my house because I work at home, and there are more than a few times when I put stuff in the mail at end of business or at like 8am in the morning for delivery and the whole next day will go by and it never gets picked up and no mail. So yea-- I think the mailman just decides to not deliver sometimes.
I've never even met our mailman so - no - no gift for him.
I've never met any of my mailmen... They just seem to go to the mailboxes and get it over with, move on. Plus I'm usually at work... BUT, they did put a package into a plastic bag one day when it was raining really hard, which was SO AWESOME. And they (and the UPS and FedEx guys) are usually pretty creative about hiding packages that they deliver. You can see our porch from a loooong ways away, and can see packages just sitting there, but they do a good job of concealing them, so much so that we haven't noticed them while driving up occasionally!
How do people give their mail-people gifts? Do you leave it by or in the mailbox? Hope they come to the door? Our mailboxes are practically apartment style, though we live in a house, so I wouldn't know where to leave it so they got it and knew it was for them.
We LOVE our mail lady! We've been in our building for 3 1/2 years. The first 2 were spent right next to the mailboxes. We always stop to chat with her and the older lady that waits for her. She was always asking about our wedding and honeymoon plans and is now asking to see pictures.
Last week we found a gift from her in our mailbox, it was 2 keychains that together make a heart. They each have our names and wedding date on it, his has his name first and mine has my name first. It was really touching that she did that for us.
DH wrote her a very sweet card and enclosed some cash, it was the least we could do.
We live in a gated community, so we don't have USPS come to our door but our mail room. Anyways, I have gotten to know our mailman and his is the bomb! He is so cute and always talks to us about life, love, adventures and full of advice. He lets our dog come in and go in the back where they sort and do the mail ( he likes to bring the packages in his mouth lol). He personally saves our packages and hand delivers them if he doesn't see us that tday because our family owns a business nextdoor so he knows our names and adresses ;)
Growing up I lived in a small town and my mail man was always very nice. My grandmas mailman would come in for lemondade or a glass of tea on a hot day. Its just a nice thing to have some community and not feel like everythign is from cold strangers.
I even love my UPS man. I use amazon, which uses them 99 % of the time. He always rings the bell, waves and says hey if he sees me out and about working out or walking the dog.
D'aw. Growing up, I had the best post man. He still delivers in the neighborhood I grew up in. As for now, she's quite nice, but I don't know much about her since I've only lived here for aout 1.5 months. She always rings doorbells and/or knocks on the door to deliver our packages though. Seems to be really nice when you get a quick hello in as well. I'm sorry some of you are experiencing such horrible times with your post men!
My family (when we lived in the country in a giant farmhouse) would always gets gifts for the post man. We really relied on him. I recently moved so I don't know my new postal person that well, but he seems pretty great. He always buzzes me when I have a package when he first arrives, so it gives me a few minutes to get decent and get down there. Our last one at our old place was the pits. He was creepy and weird and smelled like cat pee and he would never buzz me and when he had a sub a package went missing forever that they claim was "delivered."
I don't even know our new one! But the last one was okay, not on my gift list, but almost no one is now.
Found out a few facts from my friend's husband who's been a mailman for over 30 years. He said it depends on what type of delivery route your house is located in, and whether or not you have a 'walking' or 'driving' mailman and notification of packages.
Years ago, it was standard for the walking ones to ring the bell and wait for the door to be answered and hand the packages over. With many people not home during the day anymore, they've had to streamline it to save time and will just leave the packages (in a covered area, concealed if they can, or put them in clear plastic bags to protect from the elements in inclement weather).
I'm considered 'rural' and we all have to have our mailboxes at the curb, so ours is a driving route. Our mailboxes also have to be large enough to accommodate an average sized package, or they have to bring it to the house. Our houses are too far apart, so they've eliminated a lot of walkers in many areas now. With all the recent and to be enacted budget cuts, many people won't even get delivery and will have to actually pick it up themselves at their local PO.
I guess we'll see what happens in the next year or so.
Our postman continues to deliver the old owners' mail to our house; we've been in the house since June. I've left notes, called the post office, etc. but we still get the old owners' mail. It is annoyig because you have to "return to sender" just about everyday. So, no, my postman isn't getting anything for the holiday season.
We love the one that comes to my workplace. One of my co-workers always do a treat for the mailman at all the holidays.
I really don't know the one that comes to the house though but whenever the one that comes to the restaurant is our regular one we usually give him something to drink just because we know they can get really dehydrated.
I find it strange to get gifts for the mail carrier, as well. I live in an apartment, so I never see the mail man/woman. But even when I did live in a house, I didn't have much interaction with the mail person, and it wasn't always the same person, either. I guess it just varies house to house and area to area what the relationship between people and their mail carrier is.
When we're at our condo during the school year we don't get our mailman anything. We barely ever see him because he just delivers it to our lobby. I grew up in the country though and we always got the school bus driver and mailperson a box of chocolates (:
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Beekeeper
So its the holiday season (obviously) and I hear so many people talking about what they get their mail man. And honestly.... that seems so strange to me. Because 1) s/he is a stranger. and 2) I don't like my mailman!
First of all, s/he doesn't deliver the mail every day. I'd say on average once per week, s/he simply does not show up. Like... aren't they supposed to come no matter what? And we're not talking blizzard conditions. We're talking like... today. When it is in the mid 40s. No mail today. WTF.
Second, s/he never rings my door bell when s/he brings packages to my door. Which pisses me off because how hard is it to ring the damn door bell so I know something is sitting on my porch.
So... yea. No christmas present from me. Am I the only one? How do you feel about your mail man (or woman)?