Neighbour delivers my mail

[Ppffw]

AIBU to think if you had an ongoing dispute or you had fallen out with your next door neighbor (none mail related) that you wouldn't want his person delivering your mail each day and also having to open your door quite often to sign for your mail (outside of coronavirus).

What happened to that thread about the woman whose postie was deliberately damaging her post?

I know a now retired postie and he said they wouldn't be assigned to work where they live, for exactly this sort of reason and also for issues of confidentiality.

I think it's unusual.

I’m surprised there is not a rule that says a postman/woman can’t deliver to their own street. Both from a privacy perspective and to prevent theft.

Not that that helps you OP. I think you will need to try to think of the postman/woman as a separate person, and don’t engage in conversation or look up at them when signing for parcels.
Do you have to order things as ‘signed for’?

One of my neighbours is my postie. We have never spoken in almost 20 years but when I sign or receive (as is now no signing) a parcel or recorded mail he acts like a professional and is civil. I am civil back. When he is not working we would walk past each other in the street

I would have thought the postmen/ women are assigned to an area outside of where they live. Very strange!

@TheOrigBrave

I know a now retired postie and he said they wouldn't be assigned to work where they live, for exactly this sort of reason and also for issues of confidentiality.

I think it's unusual.

This is what I was wondering

I know a now retired postie and he said they wouldn't be assigned to work where they live, for exactly this sort of reason and also for issues of confidentiality.

I think it's unusual.

I was thinking the same thing TheOrigBrave. I'm sure they would have a policy about this and am very surprised that your situation is allowed to happen.

Can't you try and make up? Life is short.

I said that too. I’m 99.9% certain it’s not normally allowed.

@TheOrigBrave

I know a now retired postie and he said they wouldn't be assigned to work where they live, for exactly this sort of reason and also for issues of confidentiality.

I think it's unusual.

It's quite common in my small town. My postie is my neighbour. My dads postie lives on his street - much further up but he obviously delivers his own neighbours too. It's always been the case. The thing is living in a small town (that is town status but local high street no big name shops) the changes of delivering to people you know and your own area are much higher than for people living in cities where they can easily assign another route. My neighbour has delivered this street for over 20 years.

Another who thinks it's odd that a postie is delivering in his own road!

What on earth are people having delivered that makes it a confidentiality issue? All postmen and women know that LH Trading is LoveHoney.com and the bigger the parcel the bigger the ...er...content. Apart from that, what is being delivered that you might not want your postie to know you are receiving - genuine question please.

In the village where I live, the postman delivering our mail also lives in the village. He's had this round for years.

I must surely be common in rural areas or small towns where the rounds cover a large geographical area.

As long as they are behaving professionally, even if a bit cold, I wouldn’t have problem

But if they were being passive aggressive, losing post, damaging post, then I would complain

If they're behaving professionally and delivering your mail in the way it should be done then I don't see what your issue is. He/she is behaving professionally.

In big cities it’s easy to ensure that postmen work outside their own neighbourhood but it’s not so easy in smaller towns and remote communities.

I would take this as an opportunity to adjust your relationship OP. Just accept your mail, smile politely, sign and say thank you, just as you would to a stranger. After a few months of doing this, hopefully the memories of the argument will fade and you can just continue being civil and remote (the best sort of neighbours IMO).

If you don't want your postman knocking then you can always sort out picking up your post from the sorting office OP.

Op loads of posters have jumped to the conclusion that your post may be being tampered with. Is this the case?

You can’t dictate to the Royal Mail who your postman is. Do either arrange to collect post, get a P.O. Box or suck it up

@Ppffw

This person is my postie. Unfortunately I have to sign for parcels a few times each week as I'm self employed (which isn't a problem at the moment because of coronavirus). This is a long standing disagreement turned into a verbal argument (sorry trying to keep this brief as it's already quite outing).

No one is signing for parcels currently .

@TheOrigBrave

I know a now retired postie and he said they wouldn't be assigned to work where they live, for exactly this sort of reason and also for issues of confidentiality.

I think it's unusual.

Yes I think this is unusual too. Never heard of it actually.

I can see why you might feel uncomfortable about having to see your neighbour regularly about the post but there is nothing you can do about it. You can't expect Royal Mail to reassign the round to someone else just because of that and nor should your neighbour lose their job.
If they are behaving unprofessionally eg. speaking to you aggressively when asking to sign or damaging or withholding mail, then you could complain to Royal Mail about it.
What was the dispute about in the first place?

@cuntryclub That makes sense. Don't know why I didn't think of it that way.

My friend is a postman and he delivers to his local area sometimes plus my grans neighbour also delivers to her