Talk:Dead letter office
![]() | This redirect does not require a rating on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||
|
![]() | The contents of the Dead letter office page were merged into Dead letter mail#Dead letter office on 9 February 2020. For the contribution history and old versions of the merged article please see its history. |
Worldwide view
editWhat about dead letter offices in other countries? These should be mentioned and discussed. --Daniel C. Boyer 18:43 20 Jul 2003 (UTC)
- This article is very US centric. Almost as if the USA is the only country to use such a service. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 58.166.3.111 (talk • contribs) 06:45, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
- In Australia, "dead letters" are any undeliverable items that have no return address on the outside of the envelope. In each delivery centre, one or two postal workers are authorised to open such letters and discern their origin. If a sender can be identified the letter will be returned, regardless of value. If not, the material is destroyed. Any property of value is stored and sold from time to time. It is illegal to send money in the Post in the US. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.59.11.215 (talk) 08:19, 25 December 2006 (UTC).
- "It is illegal to send money through the post in the US"? Uh, no it's not. --MicahBrwn (talk) 06:09, 15 January 2009 (UTC)
- In the UK there is the 'National Returned Letter Centre', see here. Gaz (talk?) 22:20, 8 August 2007 (UTC)
Could anyone write some sentences in the beginning part? The article starts the description only on the United States Postal Service, although it also describes on the dead letter offices in other countries (in short). --Kazov (talk) 02:15, 29 August 2014 (UTC)
Misleading?
editThe USPS article states:
- or is sent to one of three Mail Recovery Centers in the United States (formerly known as Dead Letter Offices, originated by Benjamin Franklin in the 1770s) where it receives more intense scrutiny, including being opened to determine if any of the contents are a clue. If no valid address can be determined, the items are held for 90 days in case of inquiry by the customer; and if they are not claimed then they are destroyed.
I would assume this is the most likely case. However this article seems to suggest mail sent here is automatically auctioned and not even kept for 90 days. But it seems more likely mail sent here, regardless of value is opened and attempts made to identify the owner or intended receivee from the content. Obviously if it's just a letter say or something of little value, it would be difficult to identify unless there is something obvious and little further attempt I suspect is made beyond the 90 days but it still might be possible. I would assume nowdays it's even more difficult to identify mail from the content then before. Given that urbanisation of modern life, even if the letter mentions it's destination and a few names, there would still be little hope in most cases. However I would guess that in the past, if the letter identified the location, it could easily have been a small rural location e.g. with a few thousand people. With a few names, it would probably be possibly to identify the intended receivee or at least likely candidates... Nil Einne 19:45, 9 August 2006 (UTC)
External links modified
editHello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on Dead letter office. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
- Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090509190637/https://www.usps.com/strategicplanning/cs06/chp2_005.html to http://www.usps.com/strategicplanning/cs06/chp2_005.html
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at {{Sourcecheck}}
).
An editor has reviewed this edit and fixed any errors that were found.
- If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
- If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 18:43, 8 November 2016 (UTC)
Merger proposal
editI propose to merge Dead letter mail into Dead letter office. Addedentry (talk) 12:03, 20 January 2019 (UTC)
- Please see discussion at Why not merge this with Dead Letter Office? Bus stop (talk) 13:59, 31 March 2019 (UTC)