USPS having difficulty delivering to my house

I live in East Bay, California and in the past few weeks I've had some paychecks be sent back to the sender because of "insufficient information", I've missed two paychecks this way and because of that we went under in our checkings and overdrafted. I live on a street, in a house, with not a complicated address it's a simple number then street name, right off the freeway infact. My clients sent me an e-mail of what they put on the envelope and it was right, with my name and all.

I think we've been missing other mails as well such as bills for the landlord. I was wondering how I might go about doing a small claim like this and get at least my overdraft fees back.

Thanks for your time.

Does your house have a number on it? (That may sound like a stupid question, but a lot of houses are missing the number which should be posted on it).

Have you discussed this problem with the postmaster at your local post office?

scrubbicus said:

I live in East Bay, California and in the past few weeks I've had some paychecks be sent back to the sender because of "insufficient information", I've missed two paychecks this way and because of that we went under in our checkings and overdrafted. I live on a street, in a house, with not a complicated address it's a simple number then street name, right off the freeway infact. My clients sent me an e-mail of what they put on the envelope and it was right, with my name and all.

I think we've been missing other mails as well such as bills for the landlord. I was wondering how I might go about doing a small claim like this and get at least my overdraft fees back.

Thanks for your time.

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What about a post office box for your important mail? Is direct deposit available for the paycheck?

Q1: Ya my house has the number posted up on the garage in nicely sized letters.

Q2: I haven't. I should.

Q3: These checks are from clients, most of which don't have my social because it's a quick freelancer job. I try to use paypal if they have it (although they have quite a nice fee so I might not use them) and they live far enough away for local pick-up to be inconvenient.

I just received some mail here for bills and such and all those mails are exactly the same as what I tell my clients to put on their envelopes but they all have the area code extension (9 digit area code), my city isn't nearly that big for me to think I'd have to use a 9 digit area code, could that be throwing them off though?

Have you seen a pattern for your non-deliveries? I ask this question because a "temporary" post person (whatever the correct term is these days) delivers our mail every other Monday and whenever our regular person takes off. If you live in a small town, there shouldn't be a problem with a temporary postal person (whatever) not finding your house unless you live in a strangely numbered area or are hard to find.

I thought everyone had a zip+4. Run your address through USPS - ZIP Code Lookup - Search By Address and see what it says.

Make sure you speak with the postmaster when you go to the post office. Be nice and be factual. That's why it would help if you noticed a pattern.

One other thought, although I am a believer in having the process work correctly - does UPS or FedEx ever deliver to your house? Have there been any problems with them?

You may want to consider one of them an alternative for the larger checks until you get the situation with the post office resolved. You can provide your clients with prepaid envelopes.

Just a suggestion.

Tinker gave a good suggestion about getting a PO box. Don't discount having one for all your monitary payments just because it's not as convenient; but, it is more secure. The only downside of that is I think the PO makes all mail go to a PO box if you have one and eliminates home delivery. It's a question to ask your postmaster.

scrubbicus said:

I've missed two paychecks this way and because of that we went under in our checkings and overdrafted.

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No, you overdrafted your account by spending money you didn't have.