Postal Letter

Can the U.S. postal service refuse to give you your mail at post office?

As of yesterday we we're informed that mail delivery to our residence would cease until we provided the post office with proof of our dog's license and vaccination records. However, after visiting the post office to pick up the mail we we're told that they would not give us our mail even if we pick it up ourselves until the license and vaccination issues we're resolved. Is this legal? I can understand their refusal to deliver mail, but it seems unconstitutional to withhold anybody's mail which may contain vital medical information. Can anyone shed any light on this issue? Thanks...

Public Comments

1. You may have a point. You might want to take this to a higher authority.
2. I'm assuming that there was a problem with your dog threatening or even attacking the carrier for your residence. USPS has the right to suspend delivery until you take what steps they deem are necessary to insure the carrier's safety. I'm sure they required you to do more than just provide documentation, such as proving that gates and fences are strong and secure, for example. Until you provide what they require, your only means of getting your mail is by renting a PO box. Mail will be held for a customer who requests it for cases where they will be away (for up to 30 days) and the customer is allowed one pickup only. At that point, delivery is resumed. You want to come pick up your mail, but if you haven't met their conditions, you can't have delivery resumed. This is your problem to fix, USPS is acting correctly here.