View Full Version : legal issues with mailboxes?
quamen
07-16-2004, 11:06 AM
I got a call today from the post office and they say it is illegal to put flyers on or around a mailbox, I never ever put them inside a mailbox cause i know that illegal, but i always put them between the flag on the mailbox. Anyone know the legal standing on this? I have gotten so much business by this way of advertising , but i dont want to get into trouble with the law either!
Bill D
07-16-2004, 11:14 AM
Yes,
I heard technically you shouldn`t do that. Around here occasionally a Chinese restaurant gets away with putting flyers in plastic boxes reserved for newspapers on the same pole mailboxes are on. Guess they don`t count as federal property.
Your best bet may be to roll the flyers with a rubber band and place them at the base of driveways/near mail boxes.
stilez
07-16-2004, 11:16 AM
I do em between the flag and the mailbox as well and never had a problem.
Maybe you pissed the wrong person off or did a neighborhood that wasn`t supposed to be solicited?
quamen
07-16-2004, 11:48 AM
yeah that is what i think happened i caught someoneon a bad day. Im very respectful of peoples mail and would never put on directly in a mailbox, however on the flag to me is no big deal. Maybe ill starting putting them next to the box,but im worried they will blow away??
imported_kgb
07-16-2004, 11:54 AM
Yeah, if we or our contractors, have to put notices throughout neighborhoods we always put it in the doors. If the doors are locked and there is no good place then I through it in the mail box. We are government anyhow so nobody complains. :lol
jason rawls
07-16-2004, 02:01 PM
Most well to do neighborhoods have newspaper boxes which do not belong to the post office - you shuld be able to put flyers in them.
It is also possible that the postal driver that day noticed that they were on the box and decided to complain. Personally, I think its goofy to have to have to pay postage when you`re in the same area. I would just put it in the newspaper boxes like others said, it isn`t as effective but atleast it circumvents the government property laws.
quamen
07-16-2004, 10:32 PM
well i was thinking today of what i was going to do for advertising, and i got a cool/different idea. I dont know if it will work, but it will be more work. Im going to use the same bags as the post place does for newspapers, you know the thin clear platic type. I put my brochure/flyer/certificate in each bag and buy some fancy kinda gravel and put some in each bag so it is weightd. I will then just throw them out the window by the mailbox or driveway!
imported_Intel486
07-17-2004, 12:45 PM
Originally posted by quamen
well i was thinking today of what i was going to do for advertising, and i got a cool/different idea. I dont know if it will work, but it will be more work. Im going to use the same bags as the post place does for newspapers, you know the thin clear platic type. I put my brochure/flyer/certificate in each bag and buy some fancy kinda gravel and put some in each bag so it is weightd. I will then just throw them out the window by the mailbox or driveway!
Interesting idea... keep track of how much each advertising package costs and let us know the return you get.
jimmybuffit
07-17-2004, 12:47 PM
If the Federal Government called me and told me to stop doing something, I`d stop.
The last thing you need is a Postal Inspector bringing charges against you!
Take their `warning` seriously. They will win.
Jim
NavindraLR
07-17-2004, 01:20 PM
Originally posted by quamen
well i was thinking today of what i was going to do for advertising, and i got a cool/different idea. I dont know if it will work, but it will be more work. Im going to use the same bags as the post place does for newspapers, you know the thin clear platic type. I put my brochure/flyer/certificate in each bag and buy some fancy kinda gravel and put some in each bag so it is weightd. I will then just throw them out the window by the mailbox or driveway!
that could work.. but wouldnt people get mad if the gravel flings out ontop their driveway? around where i live, people get mad at the stupidest things.... their driveway always has to be clear, with nothing on it, and no stains... i couldnt drive my car up someones drive way to detail their car cause they dont want any oil drippin on their driveway, even tho i have a brand new car... i wonder if it leaks if its 5 months old?
quamen
07-17-2004, 11:14 PM
the gravel would be inside the bad,very small peices.
DaGonz
07-17-2004, 11:47 PM
Nothing ticks me off more than finding the "note in a bag weighted with gravel".
There are a couple of landscaping companies that try to drum up business that way in the neighborhood. Their "baggies" get recycled in the trash...
Want to advertise? Let your work do the talking!
BlueRanger
07-18-2004, 02:02 AM
If you decide to follow through with the baggie idea (not my first choice, but hey, if it works...by all means) MAKE SURE you dont get these bags on the grass. If they were mowing the lawn and ran one of those bad boys over, I guarantee they would be pissed.
quamen
07-18-2004, 08:57 AM
Yeah im going to go with the baggie idea and see what happens. Im really not that concerned with the paper issue of making copies or whatever cause my parents have in our house a 12 thousand dollar copier, so im set with copies.:) free of cost.