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Mail carrier gift idea?


heatherkw

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Does anybody give their carrier a gift at the holidays? We have a rural route carrier who goes out of her way to bring us our packages so we don't have to go up town. Our old carrier was awful! Anyway I was wondering if you guys leave a gift for your carrier and what you leave? I know we have some postal workers on here also. What would you like to get?
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My mail lady is awesome too. Brings stuff to the door, leaves it where it is safe and dry if we aren't there, etc. We so far have a candle for her and we are going back and forth on leaving some homemade goodies, some boxed nice chocolates, or a giftcard for a restaurant. I don't personally know any mail carriers but I am going to assume that their "gifts" are few and far between and that they appreciate any recognition they get for coming out and bringing us all of our freebies and bills. Of course, she could keep the bills..... :tongue1:

 

We are going to do the same for our daily newspaper carrier.... we had 3 bad ones and finally got a good one so we want to make sure she knows she is appreciated as well so she won't quit.

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We are a training route :( which means we may have a new mail carrier every 2 weeks or so-our local news station did a bit on Mail carrier gifts last night-stating they cant recieve gifts in excess of $20. Seems like I heard this last yr...anyways

 

We will probably do some shortbread cookies with a Mug & snowman soup

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I was a mailcarrier for 9 years & my husband still is ........ finding anything in the mailbox for you is great, but def. not expected!! Some of the things that stick out & were great were gc for local fast food (close to the route) so you could get a free lunch. Most places sell them for as little as $5 & at a fast food place that usually covers the bill!! Not to sound rude but I was always leary of homebaked goods unless I really knew the people, but I'm very picky about my food, when I did receive some I would just take it back to the office & lay it in the breakroom for other carriers to help themselves! Over the years me & my husband have gotten many things & it did'nt matter if it was a simple card or an expensive gift they were all appreciated the same.......just to know someone thought of you!!:)
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We have a wonderful female mail carrier. Last year we had bought our house just a couple months before Christmas. She would always go out of her way to make sure we were well taken care of. We gave her last year a gift card to Bath and Body works. I am thinking this year I will do a Target GC instead for 20.00 dollars. We also always tip our trash men and the lady that cuts our hair. I think it's important not to forget these people. It's just a little way to say thank you for all you do.
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Guest mldepalma

I was a mailcarrier for 9 years & my husband still is ........ finding anything in the mailbox for you is great, but def. not expected!! Some of the things that stick out & were great were gc for local fast food (close to the route) so you could get a free lunch. Most places sell them for as little as $5 & at a fast food place that usually covers the bill!! Not to sound rude but I was always leary of homebaked goods unless I really knew the people, but I'm very picky about my food, when I did receive some I would just take it back to the office & lay it in the breakroom for other carriers to help themselves! Over the years me & my husband have gotten many things & it did'nt matter if it was a simple card or an expensive gift they were all appreciated the same.......just to know someone thought of you!!:)

That was a really nice response... I just read a short article in Reader's Digest about how this person's mail carrier and trash collectors left empty, blank Christmas cards or envelopes for them to leave a holiday tip. (It was a funny article about the etiquette of tip giving , but I'm assuming it had a little bit of truth to it, too.) I was thinking a little stooge-ish about that sort of thing. Your response just put me back into the Christmas spirit again, so thanks!

 

I've been leaving a Blockbuster giftcard for our mail carrier for the last few years, but I skipped the trash collector last year - oops. Maybe I need to make a list...:g_think:

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What happens tho if you leave a gift in the box and it is a substitute mail carrier?

 

Is it like tips then? Do they make sure the right one gets it?

Well that's a tough one, when I was a substitute carrier I would always take the gift to the regular but I know that is not always the case, unfortunatley!! But on the other hand if you are the t-6 (the replacement carrier on 5 different routes for the regulars day off) then most of the regulars would give them 20% of what they got, not always easy to break up but the regular would usually somehow show their appreciation to their helper!! My advice is to find out when your regular carriers day off is & don't leave it out that day or catch them in person, then you know for sure they got it. & also if you do leave something most of them will acknowledge it w/ a card , if you don't get one they may not have received the gift.

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What happens tho if you leave a gift in the box and it is a substitute mail carrier?

 

Is it like tips then? Do they make sure the right one gets it?

The sub SHOULD give the tip to the regular (the regulars do "take care of" their subs), but who knows if that always happens.

If you are curious as to whether the regular got the tip, casually ask them if they had a nice holiday or if they have used what you gave them yet. You will then at least know if the sub is honest.

BTW, most regulars will leave a thank you card in your box when you do tip them with anything.

Any gift is always appreciated...and I know carriers who have received a crisp $100 bill every year...that $20 rule is the "official USPS" policy...but rules were made to be broken. right?!! :D

I have never heard of a carrier being disciplined for accepting a tip over $20.

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I'm going to get my mail carrier a subscription to OK! magazine, since I've caught him (more than once) sitting out in his truck flipping through mine before bringing it in. ;)

Lol...yeah I never bought magazines when I was a carrier, I read all of them free @ work!!

Guess that was a little perk w/ the job, now that I'm not working I have no clue whats going on in hollywood;)

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ok ,, my mail man is the best.. we have become such good friends .. over the yrs .. my hubby and him play ball now.. so i always get him something started with candy then cash .. last yr i got him orniment irsh and it had his name on it .. but it had nothing to do with name it was the name of the orniment.. lol pretty cool.. one yr i got him a carton of cigs.. this yr .. he is getting my cooking.. as he walked in one day two wks ago and saw my brownies i had made and while at work he had some .. lol so every day he comes in and says where are my brownies.. lol he is funny i will be sleeping he walks in says hi honey im home.. lol and goes to the bathroom then the fridge.. he kills me .. sat. after black friday i was so tired laying on the couch he walked in went to the bathroom then came over to me said u ok? felt my head gave me a hug said feel better.. i did not dare tell him i was up for two days lol he would have said ohh then suffer lol..
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ok ,, my mail man is the best.. we have become such good friends .. over the yrs .. my hubby and him play ball now.. so i always get him something started with candy then cash .. last yr i got him orniment irsh and it had his name on it .. but it had nothing to do with name it was the name of the orniment.. lol pretty cool.. one yr i got him a carton of cigs.. this yr .. he is getting my cooking.. as he walked in one day two wks ago and saw my brownies i had made and while at work he had some .. lol so every day he comes in and says where are my brownies.. lol he is funny i will be sleeping he walks in says hi honey im home.. lol and goes to the bathroom then the fridge.. he kills me .. sat. after black friday i was so tired laying on the couch he walked in went to the bathroom then came over to me said u ok? felt my head gave me a hug said feel better.. i did not dare tell him i was up for two days lol he would have said ohh then suffer lol..

Lmao..Thats great about the cigarettes.....If your a smoker I bet that is a great gift, $4.00 a pack now!!!:eyepoppin

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do you just leave a Christmas card in the mailbox for the mail carrier?? I mean do they look at the outgoing mail or do they just throw it in their sack?

 

Also how do you leave the trashmen a gift card or such? Tape it to the trashcan? But what if someone saw it and steals it? i'm confused :confused: so if my trash men forget to take my trash about once every two months should i give them a tip so they remember me or do they not get a tip because they cant do their job right...hmmm

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do you just leave a Christmas card in the mailbox for the mail carrier?? I mean do they look at the outgoing mail or do they just throw it in their sack?

 

Also how do you leave the trashmen a gift card or such? Tape it to the trashcan? But what if someone saw it and steals it? i'm confused :confused: so if my trash men forget to take my trash about once every two months should i give them a tip so they remember me or do they not get a tip because they cant do their job right...hmmm

Make it obvious if you think the carrier may miss it. Put a small bow or some ribbon on the envelope.

 

As for the trashman...If he is a lousy collector, don't tip.

I try to hand it to ours, since he never leaves the truck.

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spatel49.ordermygift.com

 

It is a giftalbum site that ranges gift albums from $20-$750

 

Ribbon Variety Gift Card/Album which is $25 was the one I found it to be the most useeful.. it has varity of gifts that a person can choose from! So they can enjoy what they really wanted.. This is great to give out to employees, co workers,teachers,postman, boss etc... Because u don have to keep guessin what they want, They can just choose what they like from many choices.

 

spatel49.ordermygift.com

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My mailcarrier is "okay". So last year, I wanted to give her a small jar'd candle, and a card.

It was the subs day (which I didnt realize), and I never got any thank yous or anything.

Not even a nice smile.. sheesh! So I dont know if I"ll be doing anything this year or not.

Last year really left me with a raw feeling.

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also how do you leave the trashmen a gift card or such? Tape it to the trashcan? But what if someone saw it and steals it? i'm confused :confused: so if my trash men forget to take my trash about once every two months should i give them a tip so they remember me or do they not get a tip because they cant do their job right...hmmm

We started off on the right foot with our trash guys...we give them booze every year. Beer, hard liquor, whatever, they take it all and leave a little smiley face sticker on the bottom of our cans for it.

 

DH is convinced they'd cart off a dead body for us at this point. We consistently have more cans than we're supposed to and they never hassle us about it, or the leaves that sometimes find their way in with our trash. We've put out a lot of heavy concrete siding this year so I'm thinking we'll have to up the ante for Christmas. :)

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