new beta USPS service available in Hawaii

[terracore]

There is a new USPS service available in Hawaii where you can view electronic images of the outside of your mail that is on the way.

It is available for residential or PO box. I think there is a fee for it if you have residential service but maybe not during the beta period. (I'm not sure, I signed up for my PO box and there was never an indication that there was a fee for it).

Thank you for expressing interest in Informed Delivery®. We are excited to announce that the feature is now available in your area! With Informed Delivery, you can receive a daily email with grayscale images of the exterior, address side of letter-sized mailpieces arriving in your mailbox soon.

If you have already signed up for this feature, then welcome aboard! If not, in order to sign up, you will need to create a personal usps.com® account and verify your identity. Please follow these simple steps:

1. Register by going to usps.com/interest and click ‘View My Mail’
a. If you already have a personal usps.com account, sign in.
b. If not, create an account
2. Once signed in, go to ‘My Preferences’. Under ‘Account Management’, you will see a box for Informed Delivery. Click ‘Manage your Mail’
3. Opt in to Informed Delivery by selecting the check box and confirm your address. Complete the identity verification process (if you have not already done so)
4. You should start receiving notifications within the next few days. Click the blue Informed Delivery button to continue to your dashboard.
Visit informeddelivery.usps.com and click
Informed Delivery gives you access to your mail anytime, anywhere. We are proud to offer you more insight into your mail delivery, and thank you for being a valued USPS customer.
Sincerely,
Your United States Postal Service

[DTisme]

It's free. http://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer...il-n741926

[terracore]

Here's the page with the FAQ. It says its not yet available to PO Box customers:

https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/faq

[hotinhawaii]

"Informed Delivery is currently available in areas of California, Connecticut, Maryland, New York, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. The feature will be rolled out nationwide in 2017. You can use the ZIP Code™ lookup tool to see if Informed Delivery is offered in your area."

[PaulW]

That's amazing!

[terracore]

""Informed Delivery is currently available in areas of California..."

They emailed me and said it was available here now. Their address thingie during signup also said that my PO box was a valid address for the service. But it hasn't started working yet.

[randomq]

USPS has been digitally recording the outside of every piece of mail since at least 2001 for the spooks. Now we get to use it too? Interesting.

[terracore]

I worked for the USPS briefly about 15 years ago. Machines read the address but not everybody's handwriting was legible. The image was beamed to a clearance center where a human read the address and typed it in, then the machine would spray a tiny barcode onto the mail to route it. The system was developed in the 80's and implemented in the 90's. They may be offering this as a "new service" but I think Reagan was President when they were planning it.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

This is terrible news for Puna renters:

Monday
Hilo Landlord: "Your rent check is over two weeks late. Again."
Puna Renter: "Oh gosh, I'm sorry. The check's in the mail. You should have it tomorrow."
Hilo Landlord: "OK."

Tuesday:
Hilo Landlord: "I checked my Post Office Informed Delivery account and they show no scanned image of your check."
Puna Renter: "I'm sure I mailed it. Let me look... oh! Here it is! Now I remember, I ran out of stamps the day I was going to mail it. I'll run it down to the PO today."

Wednesday:
Hilo Landlord: (leaving a message on voicemail) "Hello? Hello? I still don't see confirmation that your check was mailed. Let me know when you're home and I'll drive down to pick it up. OK? Call me as soon as you get this message. OK?"

On the fifth day - the scientists who studied the rivers - were forbidden to speak - or to study the rivers. -Jane Hirshfield's poem on creation

[terracore]

Well I got images of my mail in my email this morning, so I can vouch the service 1) Works here in Hawaii and 2) Works for a PO box.

And of course, it was only junk mail.