Why the Post Office Can Refuse to Deliver Your Mail (and What to Do About It)

Though we’re living in the 21^st century and can send a message halfway around the world more or less instantaneously, we still rely on physical mail. While the volume of mail has been on a steady decline over the years, the post office still delivers over 116 billion pieces of mail annually, and still provides other crucial services (like delivering ballots during elections).

The familiar motto of the United States Post Office (USPS)—all that business about “neither snow nor rain” or “gloom of night” preventing delivery—might make it seem like you’re going to get your mail delivered no matter what, even during the apocalypse. But the fact is the USPS can, and does, suspend mail delivery for a lot of reasons. Sometimes it’s an entire region that loses service, but it can also affect just a single neighborhood—or even an individual.

Here are seven reasons the post office might decide to blacklist you or your block, and what you can do about it.

Reasons the USPS can stop delivering your mail

The Post Office isn’t cagey about this—it has an entire web page devoted to reasons why you’re no longer getting your mail. These include some obvious things:

• Mailbox blocked or no mailbox. If you haven’t gotten your mail recently, check to make sure mail carriers can actually access your mailbox. You should also ensure that your mailbox isn’t in disrepair to the point where it can’t be opened or presents a danger to the carrier. You’re also required to have a mailbox that meets the post office’s standards—mail carriers won’t just dump your mail onto the street.

• Full mailbox. If you’re in the habit of checking your mailbox infrequently and there’s too much mail already stuffed in there, the USPS might suspend your deliveries until you clear it out. The carrier should leave a form alerting you of the situation—but if you’re not collecting your mail anyway, you might not see it right away.

If your mailbox is accessible, in good working order, and you collect your mail regularly, there might be larger issues in the mix:

• Dogs. There were nearly 6,000 dog attacks on mail carriers in 2023, according to the post office. As this neighborhood in Oklahoma discovered, the post office will suspend mail service to an entire neighborhood if the mail carriers feel endangered by dogs.

• Dangerous conditions. Mail carriers aren’t required or expected to put their lives or health in danger to deliver the mail. When a polar vortex sept the Southern U.S. a few years ago, bringing dangerously low temperatures, the post office temporarily suspended service to 10 states. And in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene this year, it briefly suspended service due to the storm’s impact on roads and specific neighborhoods.

• Travel obstructions. If the roads serving your neighborhood are in poor shape and the post office vehicles can’t drive on them, or if they’re blocked in any other way, the carrier will skip your neighborhood until the problems are resolved.

• A generally dangerous neighborhood. Whether it’s a specific resident or a neighborhood considered to be generally dangerous, the post office will suspend your service if carriers don’t feel safe entering the area.

• Staff shortages. The Post Office has been struggling to fill positions for years now, and this can result in vacant routes that get assigned on a rotating basis and other temporary suspensions of service.

What to do if the USPS stops delivering your mail

If you realize you’re no longer getting your mail, what can you do? Start by gathering information: The USPS maintains a dashboard that allows you to check the overall performance in your area. This will give you an idea of whether you’re experiencing an isolated problem or if it’s more widespread than just you or your neighborhood. You can also check the USPS website for service disruptions to see if there’s a temporary reason for the suspension.

Your next step should be to check the list of potential reasons above and make sure you can’t solve your own mystery. Is your mailbox accessible? Overfull? Are roads blocked in your area? If you can’t see an obvious reason for the suspension, it’s time to contact USPS via email, phone (1-800-275-8777), or by going to your local post office location to talk to someone in person. You can also submit a Missing Mail Search search request.