HOW YOU CAN SEE INCOMING USPS MAIL VIA AN EMAIL

USPS INFORMED DELIVERY ~ Receive FREE Mail Delivery Notices On Your iPHONE and/or Your MAC & PC…. BOB SKIDMORE CORRESPONDENT © 2022 BOB SKIDMORE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (Please note that Google’s BlogSpot, the provider we use to publish this monthly column, has changed the allowable format style. So, if the column’s format looks a bit strange it’s due to Google and BlogSpot, not THE GADGETEER.) Here’s a FREE SERVICE from the United States Postal Service (USPS) that lets you know what mail is being delivered to your USA residential address today, or the next business day, whichever applies based on normally serviced, non-holiday, days of delivery. A business address is not eligible unless it’s your home address. Once you’ve signed up and activated this feature, you’ll receive images of the First-Class Mail coming to your address as well as a notice of any parcels scheduled for delivery that same day. Note that this is not name sensitive, but rather by the registered address used when you applied for the service. In other words, almost anything scheduled to come to your address no matter to whom it’s addressed to will be shown. It’s really easy to apply. Simply access the INFORMED DELIVERY WEB SITE at: https://bit.ly/3tRnr4k. Be careful to follow each registration step as the instructions can be a slight bit misleading, or confusing, a common phenomenon with many government sites and documents. The designers of many web related sites assume everyone is a tech guru like them and thus understands what they’re saying in a very condensed form. Lol! Once you’re informed by an acceptance of service email that you are successfully registered you can expect your daily notifications to begin within a couple of business days thereafter. As an Informed Delivery client, you can view and manage your scheduled mail and parcel delivery for that day on your computer, iPad or Smartphone. You’ll receive Informed Delivery email notifications that show you what incoming mail you have being delivered that day. Simply use the Informed Delivery dashboard, or mobile app to monitor your delivery status, reschedule deliveries and much, much more. Informed Delivery lists what’s coming to your mailbox, anytime, anywhere, even when you’re traveling. If you don’t have any mail or packages scheduled to be delivered that day no email notification to that affect will be sent to you, however, junk mail and magazines may still arrive. As I stated notifications are geared towards First-Class Mail only, so junk mail and magazines are not listed even though they’re being delivered that same day. I find INFORMED DELIVERY to be about 95% accurate and thus can be a useful tool, especially if you have a second residence. Receiving this type of information from second residences would require a completely new registration, as though you were first signing up for the service, since the address is different. Note, such registration is only necessary if you want the same information available for mail coming to that different address. I wish they would add a notification as to when delivery of the posted items were actually in your mailbox. Maybe that’s something planned for the future? We can at least hope so!

Another USPS feature and site that could be useful for many people is TRACKING PLUS at: https://bit.ly/3rIgorW. This feature is not free and can cost as much as $10 per item being tracked depending on the length of time you select to track a particular package. The cost varies on the individual parcel size and the length of tracking time you select for that parcel and could be for up to ten years. This can be a useful tool for lost or delayed shipments? Check out some of the other unique services available too. Hats off to the USPS for using technology to help us know more about our mail! GADGETEER’s RATING: ★★★★★ MSRP: $0.00 For more information go to: https://bit.ly/3FU5Lai Tech Support: 800.344.7779 Graphic credits: Google Images Bob Skidmore is a freelance writer, who may be contacted at bob.thegadgeteer.skidmore@gmail.com, or followed at twitter.com/bskidmore for the latest gadget industry news. He does not represent, or endorse any of the products he reviews and his opinions are solely his points of view and not those of the manufacturer, or any legal resource. The manufacturer generally supplies products and press releases at no cost for the articles and no other compensation is received. THE GADGETEER is highly selective as to products he feels worthy of review so as not to waste the reader’s time, thus the reason for many superior ratings. ## Check out Bob’s Twitter page for up to the minute gadget news. Available at: https://twitter.com/bskidmore