Postpeople and Porches

I happen to know an ex postie. I asked him why, when we are away, our post is put into the letter box but often not pushed completely through. His answer was that they are told not to not even put their fingers through letter boxes as it can be classed as trespass, and they don't know if there are dogs or whatever else on the other side. Just the other day I read somewhere of a postie having fingers bitten off by a dog through a letter box. We now live in a world riddled with compensation claims,  and not all homeowners are perhaps as sensible as you. In addition employees can feel very much at risk and sometimes whilst being so wary, can make bad decisions with no malice intended. However, I would agree with, return it to the delivery office if in doubt.

Has common sense completely gone out the window?

Of course it has David, as soon as 'jobsworth' was invented.  Usually backed by a stroppy union leader

(Don't get me started on a certain rail franchise)

David , is the glass clear or obscure? I only ask as my job involves me regularly having to knock or ring customers door. Have had the odd occasion when I have opened a porch door only to be confronted by a snarling set of gnashers . Abrupt exit stage left and straight on photo to them 😁😁.

We've got an open porch plus a box for the post, one of our dogs used to jump up and grab the letters coming through the letterbox, the box has saved us from further problems. The dog is deaf now and doesn't react to post arriving but the box has been useful for all types of post. We're lucky we know our postmen well, they'll even leave parcels in the greenhouse if it's raining. 

not knowing the customs, laws, and practice that is required when you are a postperson (see - my E&D training paid off there) but if I was personally delivering a birthday or Christmas card to your house David I wouldn't feel happy about opening your door, or even trying it to see if it was locked. I would probably try your doorbell or knock then if no answer go away. We have a porch and also I would be very annoyed if a postie opened my door to put in an item that wouldn't fit in my letterbox, maybe that's just me?

Could the post persons not be issued with a device - a bit like a potato masher - to use to push the mail right through?  Leaving half hanging out to get wet is probably against the law, and there are all sorts of dishonest Johnnies about who would pull it out to look for credit cards and such.

When we had a door without letterbox I fitted a box to the wall of the house which took all but larger parcels.

We have an inner glass panel door with glass panels either side, so nowhere sensible for a letter box. We also have a fair sized porch with double outer solid wooden doors so have a letter box in them, however mainly they are open, hooked back, unless we are away or the weather is inclement.

The post person used to just fling the letters on the mat in the porch, we had thought they might drop them through the letter box in the hooked back door so they would end up out of sight, and we had intended to get a cage to fit behind the letter box. However this rarely happened.

We therefor got a bright red, lockable, mail box, it says "post" on it and has a nice slot to put the letters through, it hangs on the wall inside the porch area. Our regular post person did eventually figure out that he/she should put the mail in it, but when we get a new post person they revert to just leaving it on the mat. Occasionally we do find things lying behind the door with the letter box in it.

I am not surprised that they leave your mail on the mat David, our post person is always in a hurry, dropping the mail on the mat is the quick and easy option.

Would never have thought that coming into a porch to put mail through a letter box could be considered as trespass!

Not  sure  if  they  would  do  that,  Navigateur,  more  likely  they  would  keep  an  eye  on  them  &  if  still  there  after  a  couple  of  days,  accept  the  occupants  were  away  &  the  property  available  for  breaking  into  !!

I've  known  parcels  etc  too  big  for  letterboxes  to  be  put  'somewhere  safe'  like  a  dust  bin  and  they  have  been  duly  recycled  by  the  council  operatives  --  not  a  Tall  Tale  but  factual  alas 

The glass in the porch is clear. We don't have a dog. What I don't understand is that someone would open the door of the porch and not extend their arm enough to post the letters through the perfectly visible letter box in the main house door. As I said 99.9% of the time they do just that but we have had sufficient number of instances to cause concern. It is clearly against the rules to throw letters into a porch which anyone has access to. On the point of larger items we do instruct the likes of Amazon to put a note of parcels to be left behind a large plant pot we have in the porch but this is usually accompanied  by a red slip put through the letterbox. I was chatting to a neighbour tonight who used to be a postie and he said that if it was a women it's possible they might have concerned about entering into a porch which might have more solid features because they were concerned about their own safety which I can understand but that does not apply to our porch.

David