Postal Letter

How reliable is USPS mail forwarding?

I lived at my parents' house for awhile and moved out last summer. My father and I share the same first name but I have a middle name, he does not. Worried that whoever was sorting the mail wouldn't notice whether or not an address carried my middle initial, I hesitated to use the USPS forwarding because I didn't want to begin receiving his mail by accident. But already it is getting tiresome for them to keep having to give me my mail. I changed most of my mail by just notifying the senders on my own, but there are those pieces that slip through the cracks. Is the postal service reliable enough to distinguish between an addressee with a middle initial vs. one that doesn't when forwarding? For example: Bob Smith vs. Bob W. Smith Thanks!

Public Comments

1. The scenario you describe is going to be problematic. The mailman does not take long to sort the mail. Your dad is going to get lots of your mail. Even if you use a nickname for a first name, a lot is going to dad's house by mistake. Otherwise the Postal Service is great about forwarding first class mail.
2. Contact your local post office and explain your situation to a supervisor.