USPS Forcing All Walnut Hill P.O. Box Holders To Change Addresses

April 8, 2019

Updated: One week after our request for more information, the USPS has responded. The story below has been updated.

Post office box holders in Walnut Hill are being forced to change their mailing addresses with very little advance notice.

There are about five dozen post office boxes in the 32568 Walnut Hill ZIP code. They are located inside Escambia River Electric Cooperative’s office next to Ernest Ward Middle School.

In late March, boxholders received a “Notification of Mailing Address Change” from Ramona Hunter at the Century Post Office stating that their addresses will change on April 15. Instead of the “Post Office Box (insert number), Walnut Hill, FL 32568″ address that many customers have used for over two decades, addresses will become “PMB (insert number) 4950 Highway 99A, Ste 1, Walnut Hill, FL,” which is the physical location of the post office. [Read USPS instruction letter ...]

“PMB” is the abbreviation for “private mailbox.”

If customers do not complete a change of address form by April 15, their mail will be returned to the sender, according to Twana Barber, spokesperson for the USPS.

“Our goal is to deliver all mail to our customers as efficiently as possible.  Customers who complete a COA will have their mail forwarded from the old P.O. Box address to the new PMB address for a period of one year.  Mail addressed to the old P.O. Box address, for customers who do not submit a COA, will be returned to sender, effective April 15, 2019. This is why it is so critical that customers complete PS Form 3575 to prevent service disruptions,” Barber said.

“EREC has recently been informed that during a USPS audit, it was discovered that EREC’s contract was incorrectly set up by the USPS and would need to be updated to a new contract postal unit model,” said Nick Jackson, vice president of energy and member services for EREC. “Under the new model, post office box holders will have to change their address to a longer contract postal unit address. EREC contacted the regional management office for any alternative options that EREC could provide in an effort to prevent this inconvenience to members. However, federal guidelines require this change be made. The Century postmaster notified EREC that all changes must be made by April 15.”

EREC said the member-owned cooperative does not operate the post office for profit but as a community service.

“In 1999, EREC planned to open a satellite office in Escambia County in Walnut Hill. At that same time, residents of Walnut Hill, who had worked hard to get their own post office for their community, were looking at its eminent closure by the U. S. Postal Service due to low volume,” Jackson said. “EREC stepped up and agreed to operate as the post office as a contract station to keep it from closing. EREC would operate the post office and its own satellite facility from the same building using EREC representatives to operate both businesses in an effort to serve the needs of the local community.”

Because the post office boxes are becoming private mailboxes, customers are required to submit two forms to the USPS by April 15. A normal change of address form, and a PS Form 1583 “Application for Delivery of Mail through Agent” must be completed before April 15. The mail agent form must be delivered in person to the Walnut Hill post office with two forms of valid identification.

Customers will also need to update items printed with the post office numbers such as checks and stationary.

The changes do not apply to street addresses.

Pictured: Post office boxes in Walnut Hill. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.

Comments

4 Responses to “USPS Forcing All Walnut Hill P.O. Box Holders To Change Addresses”

  1. MMcClint on April 8th, 2019 3:57 pm

    USPS is all about themselves. Do they realize the trouble each boxholder will go through to change their address on ALL their correspondence? It’s evident that they don’t care about you receiving your mail.

    USPS complains that they don’t take in enough money because the internet has basically taken over their business. That’s probably true, but if you can’t provide a decent service then this is what happens as an end result. Look at the mess in Milton,Fl that they have with the USPS.

    Sometimes putting up a street box makes a person vulnerable to identity theft. I know myself for a fact, that a neighbor was to receive a large sum of money from paying off a loan early. They never received the check, but the company said the check had been cashed. Later they found out that the person responsible for cashing the check goes around neighborhoods looking in mailboxes. They take what they want and leave the rest. I know this for a fact that it happened on Cerney Road just a few months ago. Three males were searching through mailboxes shortly after dark and throwing the mail in the street.

    I’m done with my opinions.

    Hope everyone involved in this address change has a smooth transition.

    Mack

  2. M in Bratt on April 8th, 2019 3:05 pm

    There is an old adage; “if you give bureaucrats the authority to make rules, they are certain to make some”. This rule only serves to cost the box holders money to get new stationary printed. EREC is doing the community a great service by providing this service, and the box holders are saving the post office money by them being able to deliver many addresses in one stop. But, you don’t have to look very hard to find many stupid and costly things the USPS does.

  3. Oversight on April 8th, 2019 5:48 am

    Unfortunately, it’s government regulation that has been winked at and not enforced for many years. And it now has become a knee jerk reaction. If postal customers of the EREC operated facility don’t want to do the paperwork to make the required change, they can always put up a street box and force the postal service to deliver it to their street address.

  4. Richie on April 8th, 2019 4:18 am

    Thank you EREC for keeping up with these P.O Boxes for all these years, it is appreciated. As for the USPS you could keep these addresses the same, but choose to be the same as the politicians in office, all about themselves and not the good of the people.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News