Fort Worth residents spent hundreds relocating mailboxes after erroneous USPS notices; the postal service later apologized.
FORT WORTH, Texas — The United States Postal Service has apologized after incorrectly notifying residents in a southwest Fort Worth neighborhood that they needed to relocate their mailboxes closer to the curb.
Residents in the Bomber Heights neighborhood received notices saying they had “illegal or inappropriate” mailboxes and needed to install new ones that postal carriers could access without leaving their vehicles.
Marshall Jackson III, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1983, said he was surprised by the notice.
“One of the boxes that was check-marked was that I had an illegal or inappropriate mailbox. I’ve had that mailbox there since ’83 basically,” Jackson said. “I found that to be a little curious.”
Jackson said a postal worker told him the post office would withhold mail if he didn’t comply with the relocation request. The postal service did not offer to reimburse residents for the cost of moving their mailboxes.
“My first thought was, if I was going to be reimbursed by the post office for doing something like that. The answer was a no-go,” Jackson said.
The threat to withhold mail particularly concerned Jackson in a neighborhood with many retirees who depend on postal delivery for Social Security and other essential correspondence.
“You’re going to withhold in an older neighborhood that’s predominantly populated with retirees whose got stuff coming from social security?” he said.
Resident Lona Helm spent nearly $200 to move her mailbox closer to the curb after her mail carrier told her it would make his job “more convenient and easier to do when he can be inside the car and not get out and walk.”
“It’s kind of embarrassing, but I had to put off one of my bills that needed to be paid,” Helm said of the unexpected expense.
A USPS spokesperson later confirmed the notices were sent in error and that customers do not need to relocate their mailboxes. The postal service apologized for the inconvenience but did not specify who was responsible for the mistake.
When asked whether USPS would reimburse affected customers like Helm, a spokesperson did not directly answer but said the postal service would “work with the customers impacted.”
Helm said she feels betrayed by the situation, noting that the erroneous notice was delivered directly to her mailbox by her regular mail carrier.
“It was in the mailbox. I don’t ever get mail in my mailbox that’s not supposed to be there,” she said.