Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

informeddelivery.usps.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 201 posts

Re: Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

#111

Post by george_perez »

a-wu wrote: post #78
lacey wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did file a change address a year ago and yet continued to receive the emails from my previous address. As mentioned in my reply to another comment, I tried unsuccessfully to convince them that this was a problem, and they told me it was my responsibility to also discontinue the emails. Perhaps they have changed their position in the last year.

It sounds like they changed it then since I moved only 6 months ago.

I moved two years ago and even then it unsubscribed me from my previous Informed Delivery subscription. I really don't know what the user above is talking about.

Re: Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

#112

Post by turc1656 »

I recently moved and found out about this when I signed up for the change of address and mail forwarding. It works well for me. I get daily emails with photos of what's coming. The image sizes are small but still clear - which is good because that keeps the email size to a very small level, even on days with a lot of mail. There's some things that don't have images for some unknown reason, but overall it works well for me and I'm impressed with the service.

Re: Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

#113

Post by PascLeRasc »

ams6110 wrote: post #104
crazygringo wrote: post #38

I tried signing up for this 3 months ago, and was shocked to receive images for the mail of literally everyone in my building (I'm one of seven apartments). Huuuge privacy violation. (It's just images of the envelopes, but that still tells you a lot.) I unsubscribed and then went to file feedback, and got an immediate reply explaining this was by design : > Thank you for participating in Informed Delivery®. You recen…

I frequently get actual mail addressed to my neighbors, so IMO that's a worse problem than seeing the images of the envelopes or packages. I also don't know what problem this really solves. Grasping at straws for the USPS to remain relevant I think. Big waste of money in my opinion.

It solves the problem of wasted energy delivering mail people don't want, like junk mail/spam. I'd be very interested to see how much wasted paper and gas goes into producing and delivering junk mail. Mail processing centers already use computer vision to see where a parcel's going instead of manually sorting, so this is a logical step forward.

Re: Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

#114

Post by mwexler »

Seems like it should be more useful than it is. I unsubbed after 3 months. Seeing an envelope didn't really give me much info as a consumer. Perhaps on a long trip or something, it would be more useful.

Now, if I could have selected things to trash immediately to reduce the waste, or if the entire message could have been digitized... well, that would be helpful. Companies have come and gone offering services like this, but no one has gotten it quite right for now.

Re: Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

#115

Post by rootusrootus »

dylan604 wrote: post #47
omilu wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure it's all photographed and stored wether u sign up or not.

Not sure of the down votes, but I have the same assumption. Actually, my guess is that they were doing this first, and then someone said, "Hey, we could charge people for this as a service, and then that would offset some of the costs." Of course that person would not have received a raise or bonus for the idea though.

They do not, however, charge for the service.

Re: Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

#116

Post by WrtCdEvrydy »

wang_li wrote: post #106
logfromblammo wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The workaround is to do a temporary change of address, and contact each company that sends you mail forwarded from your old address individually, to update your address record. When the mail stops forwarding, you stop getting mail from anyone that you didn't explicitly inform of your new address. The permanent change of address triggers advertising that targets new residents. Restaurants want to try to snag your regu…

>The workaround is to do a temporary change of address, and contact each company that sends you mail forwarded from your old address individually, to update your address record. When the mail stops forwarding, you stop getting mail from anyone that you didn't explicitly inform of your new address. This is a real dick move. Someone will have that address after you and you leaving your junk behind for them to deal with…

> leaving your junk behind for them to deal with

This assumes the spam through mail is yours... it is the company's.

Re: Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

#117

Post by logfromblammo »

wang_li wrote: post #106
logfromblammo wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The workaround is to do a temporary change of address, and contact each company that sends you mail forwarded from your old address individually, to update your address record. When the mail stops forwarding, you stop getting mail from anyone that you didn't explicitly inform of your new address. The permanent change of address triggers advertising that targets new residents. Restaurants want to try to snag your regu…

>The workaround is to do a temporary change of address, and contact each company that sends you mail forwarded from your old address individually, to update your address record. When the mail stops forwarding, you stop getting mail from anyone that you didn't explicitly inform of your new address. This is a real dick move. Someone will have that address after you and you leaving your junk behind for them to deal with…

The dicks are the ones sending out the junk. Don't blame the victims.

The remedy for the next guy is to use a "return to sender: moved, left no address" notation or ink-stamp (or just "refused"), and to leave the articles in the mailbox. If they keep coming, a form 3575z (reason: MLNA) is a little more work, and the postal employee has to submit it, but is like a permanent change of address to /dev/null .

Re: Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

#120

Post by eli »

cphoover wrote: post #119

Product idea: Image classification for incoming mail to set alerts when you are sent certain mail... Some things that come to mind: bills, jury duty, speed camera tickets... etc. Anyone interested in working on this? LMK

https://www.earthclassmail.com/ among others
Post reply on HN