Can the United States post office open your mail?

DOES UNITED STATES POST OFFICE SERVICE PICKUP OUTGOING MAIL?

• called my post master and I was told that if their is no delivery to your address they will not come to your mail box to pickup out going mail. How true is this and why do we have to buy postal stamps, are they being outsource or what. My outgoing mail from yesterday was still in my mail box adding more today and their are all important mail, all mail envelops sticking out of the mail box to show that their is a pickup mail. TBD

• Answer:

  That is true, and has always been true. But if you called the post master, and that is what you were told, why would you think that person was lying? If there is no delivery to your house, they to not stop just to see if you have mail to go out. In some residential areas, like where I am, the postal delivery person walks from yard to yard, so is close to the house and would see mail that is going out, but that is not always the case, and it is not required. I prefer, if I'm not going to be home, to either bring my mail to work to mail it from there (I put a stamp on it), or put it in a mail box. The post office is not being outsourced. LOL If they are important... take them and mail them. How difficult is that? So the question about stamps is something totally separate? Or are you saying that since the mailman (or woman) didn't pick up your mail, you don't need stamps? That's rather ridiculous, considering you are probably quite capable of putting it in a postal mailbox, where you would still need a stamp.