Retired letter carriers warn: You don't have to accept a Postal Service cluster box
EUGENE, Ore. -- Retired mail carriers in Lane County want to send out a message: You have a choice when it comes to a Postal Service request to change the way your mail is delivered.
Some residents may have seen an ad in the newspaper from the Retired Mail Carriers of Lane County letting you know that you have rights, but what exactly do they mean?
"They have the right to have their mail just the way it currently is," says Retired Mail Carriers member Mary Hackbart. "If they have a door slot, it goes there,"
The group is concerned about a letter the Postal Service recently sent out to some Lane County residents asking them to opt for cluster box units instead of private mailbox delivery.
(The document states, in part, that it needs "your signature so that we can we can install a CBU in your neighborhood at no cost to you."
Hackbart says that line in the letter makes it sound like customers don't have a choice in the matter when in fact they do.
If you don't sign the letter, it doesn't happen.
The group says once you change, you can't go back to individual delivery.
We reached out to the US Postal Service to learn more about why the change is necessary.
"It's gotten to the point where individual mailboxes were just being attacked far too often," says Ernie Swanson with the Postal Service, "and there were far too many problems. That's when we decided to go with the cluster box units."
But Hackbart says in her 24 years as a mail carrier, she has seen otherwise.
The Retired Letter Carriers of Lane County say they just want to clear up any confusion the letter may have caused within the community.
We're told this will likely be the only ad the group posts but they're hoping that's all they need to catch the right attention.
