Or, at a minimum totally mess up your life, or plot a conspiracy against you...

Scenario: Letter carrier puts your mail in the wrong box. Your neighbor (or perhaps person on the other street, based on where our boxes are) doesn't know who you are, and doesn't take the time to read the address. They mark the envelope as "Does not live here", and return to their mailbox. Letter carrier sees this marking, and decides to take it upon himself(herself) to fill out one of those cards saying that I'd moved, but no forwarding address is available.

Meanwhile, poor me stops getting mail, but, since I get a bank statement every month and thats about it, I don't so much miss it. However, I am still getting junk mail in my name. (I'm mildly pissed off that they will stop sending me real mail but continue sending junk mail). So, how would I know that I stopped receiving mail? By an e-mail from my pastor at church, asking why he got a letter returned to him, and verifying my address. This of course is a week before I'm set to leave for KS, and putting in extra hours at work to make up for the time off. Given my lack of time, I opt to visit the postal services website to see if they have any pertinent information. I find a fun web form which seems to apply to my situation, so I fill it out explaining that my mail was being RTSed incorrectly.

I go home, and have a merry Christmas, while still no mail is being delivered for me. Only now, the stakes are higher. My new health insurance card for 2004 was supposed to be sent, as well as other misc. things from work (I don't think any of those are very important).

Upon return to Phoenix, after a few days I decide its time to forget the whole e-mail system and call the post office. I find an 800 number on their website, and talk to a rep there explaining my lack of receiving any real mail. Expecting him to explain why I'm not getting any mail, I become somewhat confused when he asks, "Would you like to be called back about this issue?" I say "yes", and think, "don't you have a computer there that you could look things up on and see why my mail isn't being delivered?" Instead, I wait over 24 hours to get a call from the local post office. The nice fellow there tells me that my normal mail carrier called in sick, but he left a note for her explaining that I in fact had not moved. Again, the next day I get a call from the local office, and this is when I learn about the above scenario. He apologizes, and I accept it not fully understanding the pains this has caused.

I call my new health care company, and I think I have a new health card on the way, but I'm not too sure since I didn't talk to a human, just their automated system. We'll see what I end up with, in 7 to 10 days. My credit card stopped working. After the second attempt at using it, (I have had flukes, so I gave it 2 attempts at different places) I call them up and they explain that they don't have my current address. I explain to them that they do, and the situation. I am now waiting for the next thing to stop working, next company who is confused and most likely will stop trying to communicate with me, etc.

Luckily, I don't receive any bills, as those are all in Al's name, and his mail never stopped just mine. Otherwise imagine heat, electricity, and most importantly, internet access all going away because your letter carrier didn't check with you before stopping your mail.