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I advise everyone not to put in a change of address too far in advance. I made the mistake of putting mine in almost 2 weeks ahead of time. Well, I noticed only things in my mailbox last week was junk mail but wasn't too alarmed. Then I get a piece of junk mail with my name crossed off and "current resident" circled. Well now I become alarmed cause that means they think I am gone already even though my foward request was dated for Sept 19th. It wouldn't have been such a big deal if I wasn't expecting a pretty big check and of course now I have no idea where it is!
I then ran into the carrier and showed him the piece of mail and asked if he was forwarding my mail already and he replied yes and nodded. I asked WHY? I am not moving until Sept 19th. And he replied "Oh Sept 19th, well it's okay your mail will just get there a little bit ahead of you!!!
Was he for real! Lucky for me I actually have the new apt as of Sept 11th since I didn't want to wait days after my arrival for the next available. But it still does me no good as far as getting my check!!
By no means am I bashing carriers. Been there done that job. But do your job and do it right. The most important aspect of a change of address is the date it takes effect.
I advise everyone not to put in a change of address too far in advance. I made the mistake of putting mine in almost 2 weeks ahead of time. Well, I noticed only things in my mailbox last week was junk mail but wasn't too alarmed. Then I get a piece of junk mail with my name crossed off and "current resident" circled. Well now I become alarmed cause that means they think I am gone already even though my foward request was dated for Sept 19th. It wouldn't have been such a big deal if I wasn't expecting a pretty big check and of course now I have no idea where it is!
I then ran into the carrier and showed him the piece of mail and asked if he was forwarding my mail already and he replied yes and nodded. I asked WHY? I am not moving until Sept 19th. And he replied "Oh Sept 19th, well it's okay your mail will just get there a little bit ahead of you!!!
Was he for real! Lucky for me I actually have the new apt as of Sept 11th since I didn't want to wait days after my arrival for the next available. But it still does me no good as far as getting my check!!
By no means am I bashing carriers. Been there done that job. But do your job and do it right. The most important aspect of a change of address is the date it takes effect.
When you do a change of address now, you should get a letter at the old and new address confirming the change. Unfortunately for me, the old address doesn't enter into the system properly (the complex did a change of address in the past and their address isn't in the computer correctly) and almost none of the mail is forwarded. Well, it was mostly junk I guess.
Did you put the date of the move on there? Did you use the change of address card or do it online? We didn't think about doing it online until we had filled out the card and mailed it. There is a place for the date on the card.
Yeah, the carrier is supposed to watch the dates-all that mail he/she forwarded is going to come back to him since the COA is not yet effective.
I'd call the po and talk to the supervisor-explain you are looking for your check. The carrier can grab it out for you if it comes, or comes back from CFS.
I did it online and I got the confirmation at my old address. Yes, when you do it online you have to fill in the date effective. The substitute carrier acknowledged that he was forwarding it already.
Well, my Broker was decent enough to wire the money to my account. So I guess the original check is floating out there somewhere.
I still advise everyone to submit it the week of your move to cut down on any more added stress to moving as if it's not stressful enough.
Wander I did talk to Supv and she was very helpful. She went and printed out the forward and highlighted the effective date. A couple days after that I ran into another sub and she had the paper in her hand while delivering to my apt boxes.
I think doing it a few days ahead of the move is a good idea; not too early and not the day of. We changed our address with the post office the day before we moved, and then I worried that something might come the day we moved and we wouldn't get it (we left before the mail came). We didn't get the confirmation at our new address until we'd been there a week, so who knows if anything got sent to the wrong place? Also, we didn't start getting mail at our new apartment until we'd put our name on our mail slot, even though mail was addressed to our unit number and the number was on our slot (I thought that was odd).
We've been in the new place almost three weeks now, and there are still some places that don't have our new address...
Last edited by ElleBebe; 09-17-2008 at 12:14 PM..
Reason: comment about apartment mail issues
I'm bringing this thread back to life because the same thing happened to me that happened to the original poster. Everything I read about moving recommended putting in a change-of-address to the post office 3 or 4 weeks ahead, so I submitted one online last Friday (having $1.00 charged to my credit card to do so) for my move that'll happen in mid-August.
The Netflix DVD that was supposed to arrive yesterday didn't come, so I began to wonder whether my COA had happened early. I live in a large apartment building and the mail carrier comes at a different time each day, so it's not possible for me to speak to him when he comes, but this afternoon, instead of a Netflix movie in my mail box, I found a blue post-it note saying 'vacant - no mail.'
I printed my receipt from the USPS web site showing that my move is happening in August, ran over to the local carrier station and spoke with someone who promised to speak with the carrier when he comes back to work on Friday (a sub will be working tomorrow). The person I spoke with said my Netflix movie would not be forwarded to my new address because the COA isn't in effect yet, but would be returned to the carrier station and eventually to my mail box.
So I agree with the OP, who recommended not putting in the change order early. As a test, I addressed an envelope to myself and mailed it today. If it doesn't arrive in a day or so I'll know the forwarding error is still happening. My recommendation is to wait until a few days ahead of the move before submitting your COA to the Post Office. Also, if you submit the change order online, be sure to print a copy of the "official change of address form" so you can prove that you did it correctly. With that, I proved to the person in the local carrier station that my move date is in August, not July. Without it, he might have thought I had written the wrong date.
I think the number one thing to do 2 weeks before the move is call all credit cards and personal info like banks and such and change your address with them personally. This way you can't blame or rely on the mail for personal info. I always do mine online about 2 weeks ahead (I assume the original poster meant she did it 2 months not weeks if moving in sept) and we were lucky to move a few miles away and swing by the old mail box still (house is still empty) and it still gets some of our mail, but nothing important. I always have a day or two of an empty mailbox after the move at the new place and then it starts pouring in. This has just been my experience.
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! Lucky for me I actually have the new apt as of Sept 11th since I didn't want to wait days after my arrival for the next available. But it still does me no good as far as getting my check!! 
