USPS Change of Address and the same last name

Before I moved to San Carlos, I submitted a Change of Address with the USPS. At the time, I picked the “Family” COA to ensure that the maximum amount of mail would be forwarded to me. After all, sometimes I would get typo’ed mail like “Denny Cheung”.

You can imagine how surprised I was when I started getting forwarded mail from Comcast, AT&T, State Farm, etc for other Cheungs at my new address: Peggy, Margaret, Tony.

It turns out that the people who moved into my old apartment are also named Cheung. Fortunately, I was able to contact these Cheungs from the phone number that was listed in the AT&T bill - after all, I couldn’t exactly send a letter to these Cheungs.

I called the USPS and asked them to change my COA back to “Individual” and just my name. We’ll see how well this works in amount a week.

A scenario like this is improbable, but clearly not impossible. I wonder what it’s like in a place where having the same last name is more common.