post office policies

[low_delta]

If you walk into the post office and say, "I have the old address of this guy, and he has his mail forwarded to his new address. Can you tell me his new address?" they will say, "no, I'm sorry that is a violation of our privacy policies." But if you mail a letter to the person at his old address, and write "return service requested" on the envelope, it will be returned to you with the new address written on it.

So basically, you have to pay 37 cents and wait a day.

Comments

[cynnerth.livejournal.com]

I'd say it's worth the low price and the 1 day wait. I wonder if anyone has pointed that out to the post office?

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

I'd hesitate to do so. they might close up that loophole. They could easily decide to forward it without returning the new address to the sender.

[marswalker.livejournal.com]

That's a somewhat amuzing example of "government intelligence".

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

It almost makes sense.

[emschin.livejournal.com]

It's a funny mix of privacy rules, isn't it? The Return to Sender rule probably came about first as a service, mainly to business.
(That's my guess) Then the Don't Tell rule to individuals probably
came later as privacy became more of a concern.

In my own corner of the great spreading beaurocracy employees could get small awards if they noticed something like that and submitted it through channels along with 'how to fix it'.