As we travel this country, we sometimes need our mail forwarded to us. During this trip, we have a couple of young men in our neighborhood monitoring our mailbox for us. Shout out to R and K! They are doing a great job.
To get our accumulated mail forwarded to us, if we don’t have a friend’s or campground’s address to use, we’ll do General Delivery. I asked for our mail to be sent to us via “General Delivery” in Fairbanks. The envelope is addressed as such.
Name
General Delivery
Fairbanks, AK [zip code]
Easy, right? Apparently not so…at least not where a city in a big, remote state is concerned.
This is not my first rodeo, we have used General Delivery in the past. I know the best way is to use the zip code of the main post office. If you use a small town that only has one post office, it could take a week longer to get the mail to that small post office…not good if you aren’t in town for a long time (we’ve been burned before). And always check the USPS website to make sure that zip code accepts General Delivery. Like I said, not my first rodeo.
So off I go to USPS.com and look for the main post office in Fairbanks.
On June 27, our mail was sent from Las Cruces address to me, General Delivery, to zip code 99701.
We arrived in Fairbanks on July 10th, two weeks after our mail went out. From the tracking number, I knew our mail had arrived. So I dragged James to the post office nearest the campground, being too lazy to look up exactly what zip code I had used but certain it was the one near the campground. Surely, they will have it.
Post Office 1
C: “Can I have my mail? General Delivery.”
USPS: (Not even looking up) “All General Delivery goes Downtown.”
Oops…wrong post office. But as you see from above, I had sent my mail to the “Downtown Post office” at 99701. Again, note the ONE.
Post Office 2 (downtown)
C: “Can I have my mail? General Delivery.”
USPS: “Sorry, we can’t find it. Did you use zip code 99707. All General Delivery should use that zip code.”
Did you catch the SEVEN?
C: “How am I supposed to know that?”
USPS: “Yeah, the website is wrong, sorry about that. Give me your name and number and I’ll have a supervisor look into it. It will take a couple of days.”
C: “Which post office is 99701? I think I’ll ask there.” Note the ONE.
USPS: “Down by the airport.”
Post Office 3 (by the airport)
C: “Can I have my mail? General Delivery.”
USPS: “Sorry, all General Delivery goes downtown.”
C: (almost in tears) “But they don’t have it. Can you help me?”
The USPS employees at Post Office 3 / 99701 (note the ONE) were more than helpful. They pulled up the tracking info.
USPS: “Oh oh. Coldfoot.”
C: “Coldfoot???”
Now look at this map of the 99701 (note the ONE) zip code. A teeny tiny portion of Fairbanks shares the 99701 zip code with Coldfoot.
C: “Can you call them in Coldfoot?”
USPS: “We don’t have a phone number for them.”
What the heck? Don’t bother looking on the USPS post office website, all you will see is a general 800 number.
Post Office 4 (Coldfoot)
I pulled out my phone, googled “Coldfoot Alaska Post Office” and immediately got a phone number. I dialed and got a human. Gasp!
C: “Do you have a General Delivery package for Corinne?”
USPS: “Yes, I have it right here.”
Sure enough. They had my mail up in the Arctic. They offered to put it on the next day’s truck and get to me via the Downtown Post Office 2 / 99707 (note the SEVEN)….in 3 or 4 business days. They really couldn’t tell me when exactly, the truck is a delivery truck run by an independent contractor and probably carried more than just the mail since this was a remote part of the state.
C: “Can you scan the tracking number and get it back in the system?”
USPS: “No, we don’t have the kind of equipment here.”
At this point, I just had to let USPS do its thing. We went off and had some other adventures from our Fairbanks home base. Still, I kept checking the tracking number…no change in status.
Fast forward a week later and I get a phone call from the USPS employee at Post Office 2, the REAL downtown post office, whose zip code of 99707 did not show up on any list I saw.
USPS: “Hi, this is E. I have your mail.”
This is the woman I talked to at Post Office 2 initially.
C: “Really? I’ll be there tomorrow!”
In hindsight, I should have called one of the post offices in Fairbanks and asked for the correct zip code for General Delivery. You can’t count on the USPS website to be correct. Lesson learned.
In all honesty, the employees at Post Offices 2, 3 and Coldfoot were very helpful. Post Office 3 found my mail. Post Office 2 took the time to keep tabs on it and called me when it arrived.
And that is how to NOT have your mail forwarded to you. Thank goodness most of our bills, etc. are online.
Glad to see that you still have hair!!!! I would have had mine torn out — have noooooo patience!!!!
BA
Yup, I still have my hair. It was an exercise in patience, that’s for sure.