mail?

[Kelly]

.....

[tinkerbell]

The US postal service introduced computarized sorters in January 2006.  In Northern California, you are supposed to write the full names of the persons who live in your house/apartment and place the list in your mail box; otherwise, the sorter will not be able to match the names with the address on your correspondence and your mail will be returned to the sender.  Fedex, UPS, and DHL usually require signatures  upon delivery, so as long as there is someone at home to sign, you shouldn't encounter any problems.


tinkerbell

[HelenW]

I use my first two initials and then my last name.  All of them are gender free.

smiles n hug
helen

[SusanK]

Hey, this might be a dumb question.

Umm...did you all use your old name or new one for mail when you were starting out?

As said, it depends on your Post Office operation and carriers. Here they go by the last name only, and I've received all my mail under both names. Fully computerized ones may require your register both names, but that shouldn't be any problem because it's simply part of your agreement to receive mail, and can't be used for other purposes, such as lease agreements (where tenants have to sign and have limitations on temporary visits). We here obviously haven't caught up with the 20th century, we still have rural route carriers who know longtime residents.

--Susan--

[Melissa]

The US postal service introduced computarized sorters in January 2006.  In Northern California, you are supposed to write the full names of the persons who live in your house/apartment and place the list in your mail box; otherwise, the sorter will not be able to match the names with the address on your correspondence and your mail will be returned to the sender.  Fedex, UPS, and DHL usually require signatures  upon delivery, so as long as there is someone at home to sign, you shouldn't encounter any problems.

How does it know when you've done a legal name change then?

For me, I probably received 95% of my mail in my male(mail?) name.  However, I had gone online and changed many places where I was registered under a male name to female.  Once the name change went through, I went around to a bunch of places and submitted my new name.  At my apartments, I only receive mail in my female name.  I do know that at the house, there's a big pile accumulating in my male name.

Melissa

[Sheila]

It will change slowly and the more things you put your new name on the more times they will use your new name. It just takes time. Now for bills, when you change them they will be immediate, like water bill or some utility bill. I still get my old name on lots of things and it has been, gosh it has been almost 7 years now.
Sheila

[angelsgirl]

Jocelyn and I have both put only our first initials on our mailbox, followed by our last names. However, we receive mail addressed to everybody who ever lived in or around our apartment. It's a bit frustrating!

[tinkerbell]

How does it know when you've done a legal name change then?

As far as I know, this system was implemented in January of last year, so it is fairly new and I am not sure whether it is available in all states or not.  You will now when it is time to do something when you don't receive your mail because it has been returned to the sender...

New machines with a recent Optical Character Recognition (OCR) upgrade have the capability to read the address information, including handwritten, and sort the mail based on local or outgoing ZIP codes.

Mail with typed addresses goes to a Multiline Optical Character Reader (MLOCR) which reads the ZIP Code and address information and prints the appropriate bar code onto the envelope. Mail (actually the scanned image of the mail) with handwritten addresses (and machine-printed ones that aren't easily recognized) goes to the Remote Bar Coding System, a highly advanced scanning system with a state of the art neural net processor which is highly effective at correctly reading almost all addresses, no matter how poorly written [7]. It also corrects spelling errors and, where there is an error, omission, or conflict in the written address, identifies the most likely correct address. When it has decided on a correct address, it prints the appropriate bar code onto the envelopes, similarly to the MLOCR system. RBCS also has facilities in place, called Remote Encoding Centers, that have humans look at images of mail pieces and enter the address data. The address data is associated with the image via an ID Tag, a fluorescent code printed by mail processing equipment on the back of mail pieces.

Mail with addresses which cannot be resolved by the automated system are separated for human intervention. If a local postal worker can read the address, the appropriate bar code is printed onto the item. If not, mail is either returned to the sender (first class mail with a valid return address) or is sent to one of three Mail Recovery Centers in the United States (formerly known as Dead Letter Offices, originated by Benjamin Franklin in the 1770s) where it receives more intense scrutiny, including being opened to determine if any of the contents are a clue. If no valid address can be determined, the items are held for 90 days in case of inquiry by the customer; and if they are not claimed then they are destroyed.

Personally I had to call my local post office to let them know that my parents were going to be staying with me until Feb 2007, and that they were going to be receiving their mail at my address until that time.  The post master then instructed me to write my parents' names on a label and stick it on my mail box for the postal employee to see (apparently this info is entered into the system, I am not sure how it works).  The next day the label was gone, but now my parents are getting their mail without any problems.  Weird, huh?


tinkerbell

[HelenW]

Tink,  I noticed that the quote from the USPS website mentioned addresses only.  The subject of recipient's names was not brought up.

I suspect the label with your parent's names was for your letter carrier's benefit more than the sorting machines.

I just recently used my initials to purchase a bra online.  It arrived in my mailbox with no problem.

hugs & smiles
helen

[Chaunte]

I have mail addressed to both my male and female name.  Both are on the apartment door and mailslot.  So far, this has not been an issue.

Chaunte

[Rachael]

ive started to use my new initial on my mail. and sometimes add Miss, but not full first name yet, soon as im out to my flatmates i will ><

[Ricki]

All i know is out here in the country we have a mail lady who walks up and puts the letters in our box on the side of the house!
Postal kisses
Ricki
p.s. the price of stamps are too high too!

[Laurry]

I have had mail delivered in both my male and female names.  I figured if I were ordering girly things, it was only right that it be sent to my female name...after all, I didn't order it for the male side of me...well, maybe sometimes. 

Then again, my male and female names are so similar, the post office could just figure they were typos.

And Ricki...us big city folk have the drive-up mailboxes, so the postal worker doesn't even have to get up off their seats...kinda like the rest of the postal service, eh?  Took me 20 minutes to pick up a package at the post office the other day...and I was 3rd in line when I got there.

And no, the price of stamps isn't too high, it's the quality of service you get for that price that is too low!

And yes, I should say that complaining about the Post Office is an American tradition...dating back long before the Pony Express...so griping about them is my Patriotic duty.  Not every postal worker is lazy and worthless (some are great shots!..Oops) and the amount of mail delivered daily is staggering.

I'm gonna quit before I dig myself in deeper.

.....Laurie

[Terri Gene]

It would seem to me that receiving signed for mail or packages might require a valid identification in that name.  There are a couple of states that won't do it, but for the most part  in all other states there is a name change proceedure and the sex register that can be changed, usually by a form filled out by your treating doctor.

You go to the Drivers License Department and pick out thier form for name and/or sex change and take it to your therapyst and let them fill it out, then you take it back to the DL people and put it through as the name on your drivers license.  Had mine done years ago, I have been under my chosen name as a female since on my DL, once that is done you go to SSA and give them the form of the Dr. permission and they will change the name, but not the Sex Marker unless you have a letter from the DR. who did your operation.

Your old DL is now invalid and thy keep it anyway, so the only DL you can present is the new ID as a Female.  Credit cards and bank records are changeable by going in and presenting your new ID.  I no longer have any identification at all of male representation.

I spent 5 years working for the hospital that handled my Transition, HRT etc working as a female under female conditions and though everyone knew I was a TS, it never once became an issue under any circumstances.

Terri

[Sheila]

Terri,
I did the samething. It has been about 5 years since I had everything changed over. I found out the reason I still get thing delivered in my old name is that I a second on my home about 6 years ago and it is one of those you get a credit card and use it. We had done this before I changed my name. I haven't change the name on the loan yet, I did on my home and everything else, just didn't think it was necessary. Well, it isn't. All I get is junk mail for my old name. So when I see my old name I just throw it away. I look inside to make sure that it isn't important, like someone giving me money.
Sheila

[Terri Gene]

Yeah, that one little piece of ID is about all you need to buffer up things and get looked at clean and nice.  It's a big decision when you first make it, but over a little time it smooths things out without all the squeeling screaching stuff. 

Hell, show em the ID and what else is ther to worry about?

Terri