What does the mailman do with a letter if there wasn't a mailbox in an apartment with the reciever's last name

Question

My friend from Canada sent a letter to me in the US about a week ago.

Thing is I live in an apartment with different mailboxes, and the mailbox for my floor only says Garcia, my mother's last name. And I have a different last name from her.

So if the mailman didn't have a mailbox that said my last name..what would he do with it?

I now put my last name on the mailbox. It never occurred to me because I'm young and don't get much mail.

Still I really hope that letter isn't lost forever, cause she was sending me keychains and stuff. :[

Answer 1

The postman would either leave it in the mailbox, return it to the sender, or leave it at the post office. If I were you, I would go to the post office and see if anything has been delivered for you. Generally they leave the letters there for a while. I don't really think that it matters about the name on the envelope. If the letter had the address and the apartment number on it, you should be fine. Don't worry, its probably just taking a while to get here.