Mail delivery from the past
October 25, 2017 5:42 PM Subscribe
Something funny happened. My mailbox today (in the US) included not one but two issues of the Consumer Reports magazine, along with my other mail. One was the December 2017 issue: not surprising, because I'm a subscriber. The other was the December 2013 issue, neatly packaged in plastic, and including, as it often does, an envelope with a notice asking me to resubscribe—no later than 11/26/2013. What happened here? Is this a unique occurrence?
The magazine is obviously new, just as new as the up-to-date one. It's not yellowed or abused. It certainly doesn't look like it's been kicking around a post office substation for four years. The clear plastic bag looked original, the type they sometimes use to hold a resubscription notice envelope together with the magazine; it wasn't like the bags that the post office sometimes uses when items get damaged in transit. The address label was just like the one on the 2017 issue, including the same subscriber number, which isn't surprising since I've been a subscriber for years. I don't recall failing to receive an issue, back then.
I looked inside and found that an article evaluating phones included an Apple iPhone 5 in its listing, so it really is from 2013. It's not a new issue that somehow had a typo on its cover.
Has this happened to anyone else?
The magazine is obviously new, just as new as the up-to-date one. It's not yellowed or abused. It certainly doesn't look like it's been kicking around a post office substation for four years. The clear plastic bag looked original, the type they sometimes use to hold a resubscription notice envelope together with the magazine; it wasn't like the bags that the post office sometimes uses when items get damaged in transit. The address label was just like the one on the 2017 issue, including the same subscriber number, which isn't surprising since I've been a subscriber for years. I don't recall failing to receive an issue, back then.
I looked inside and found that an article evaluating phones included an Apple iPhone 5 in its listing, so it really is from 2013. It's not a new issue that somehow had a typo on its cover.
Has this happened to anyone else?
Might be someone with a weird sense of humor.
When Mark McGuire got 62 home runs, I bought out the newspaper boxes the next day, then forgot about it. Fifteen years later, I found the stack of newspapers in my garage. On the anniversary of the papers' publish date, I went around and placed one of the old papers in each of ten different boxes (which had become much more rare in the interim).
posted by notsnot at 6:41 PM on October 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
When Mark McGuire got 62 home runs, I bought out the newspaper boxes the next day, then forgot about it. Fifteen years later, I found the stack of newspapers in my garage. On the anniversary of the papers' publish date, I went around and placed one of the old papers in each of ten different boxes (which had become much more rare in the interim).
posted by notsnot at 6:41 PM on October 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
Similar to gregr's story, my former roommate once got a years-late letter that was a little ragged and delivered in a postal service plastic bag. The envelope had been stamped "Found in supposedly empty machinery". He was less interested in the letter itself than the idea that "they have a STAMP for that?".
posted by NumberSix at 9:42 PM on October 25, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by NumberSix at 9:42 PM on October 25, 2017 [13 favorites]
I didn't think they were obligated to deliver an old magazine though. They'll always deliver first class mail, even if they find it behind the sorting machine 40 years later. But I didn't think they were so obligated with magazines or bulk rate stuff.
posted by COD at 4:59 AM on October 26, 2017
posted by COD at 4:59 AM on October 26, 2017
Maybe it was not the postal service, but Consumer Reports itself that found an older issue somewhere "supposedly empty".
posted by capricorn at 6:37 AM on October 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by capricorn at 6:37 AM on October 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
I have family and friends that work (or have worked) as postmen and women for the Royal Mail in the UK and this kind of thing does happen. Letters can get lost in the sorting machinery or fall down behind the pigeon holes and then get found months or years later.
In one sad case one of my relatives delivered a letter five years late. Unfortunately it turned out to be a condolence card for a widow whose husband had died five years previously. Even worse, the couple who had sent the card had both died in the intervening years. Nobody was very happy.
The letter had been in perfect condition and nobody noticed it was years old. It had probably been stuck behind one of the sorting frames. Something knocked it loose and it was then picked up and put with all the other mail for delivery. Though even if they had noticed it was delayed they still would have had to deliver it.
posted by antiwiggle at 8:32 AM on October 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
In one sad case one of my relatives delivered a letter five years late. Unfortunately it turned out to be a condolence card for a widow whose husband had died five years previously. Even worse, the couple who had sent the card had both died in the intervening years. Nobody was very happy.
The letter had been in perfect condition and nobody noticed it was years old. It had probably been stuck behind one of the sorting frames. Something knocked it loose and it was then picked up and put with all the other mail for delivery. Though even if they had noticed it was delayed they still would have had to deliver it.
posted by antiwiggle at 8:32 AM on October 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by gregr at 6:02 PM on October 25, 2017