I’ve had three phone calls this month from companies letting me know my mail was returned to them as Undeliverable Mail. One was Consumer Reports magazine and two were important bills that are now late because of this screw up.
I’ve also got two Ebay packages this month lost.
I made a trip down to my local Post Office and talked to the manager. She said she’d talk to the carrier. No inquires about their machines screwing up or anything else. I’m not real confident the problem will be fixed. She didn’t even offer any help on the two lost Ebay packages. She told me to go online and file a claim. Obviously the missing packages are linked to the Undeliverable Mail. I don’t think they were stolen. I got a sick feeling they were delivered to the wrong address and now I’m out all that money.
If I get another phone call about Undeliverable Mail. Who’s the next person up the chain that I can complain too? This has to stop. I can’t have important bills being sent back as Undeliverable Mail.
I’ve lived at the same address since 1989. This is a first for me.
As a frequent Priority Mail shipper, I occasionally run into addresses that the USPS software rejects but the recipients exasperatedly say is fine for hand-addressed mail. Most have an alternate address or form of address to give me.
Is yours a “regular” address - 1234 Some St, Town, State, Zip? Or oddly constructed or on a variably-named street?
You are certainly not out money on the missing packages. The seller has to be able to provide delivery confirmation–otherwise he has to refund (and if he won’t do this voluntarily eBay/Paypal/your credit card company will force the situation).
Did you show the postmaster the address and did he verify it was correct?
As to your bills you might look into switching to autopay or online payment.
It’s a standard street address in a subdivison. I even include the full 9 digit zip. Maybe it is just a lazy ass carrier. I’m hoping the Manager’s talk with the person will help. I’ll know soon enough.
I’m filing a claim online right now at the Post office on my lost Ebay packages. I’ve already filed a Ebay claim a few days ago. The seller wanted me to try tracking the packages from my end. So, I’m trying that before requesting a refund.
I’ve not had a need to recently but a few years ago I was quite successful describing the problem in a letter and sending it to my Senator with a cover letter, one sentence, asking the Senator to forward the attached to the proper authorities.
Once with a very similar problem USPS even sent a investigator to ask me in person if the problem had been resolved.
You said that the missing mail included two bills and a magazine. In that case, it’s not even necessary for you to include the nine-digit ZIP code. In my experience, mass mailers such as them will add the nine-digit ZIP code themselves, and will standardize the address (Road to Rd, etc). Most likely the envelopes were accidentally delivered to a neighbor’s house. (I’m in an apartment building and I get misdirected mail, I just stuff it in their mailbox or under their door.)
And I agree with the suggestion to receive the bills electronically. Most big companies will let you go to their websites and download a PDF copy of the bill and then pay it online, if you choose.
Maybe you could ask your neighbors if they’ve had mail go missing. If so, have they contacted the post office about it? If the carrier is the problem, it’s probably not just you.
Why don’t you try mailing a letter to yourself from a drop box to see if it arrives at your house. Or have a person who lives elsewhere mail you a letter. That might tell you whether it’s an issue with the carrier or with the distribution center
Also, are the houses on your street numbered in a logical order (eg. no skipped numbers, evens and odds on opposite side, etc.)
I got in dutch with Netflix one time after some Random Bastard stole four DVDs out of the mailbox right after I delivered them. But they had no major problem after I explained the situation to them.
I’ve had this problem before. I didn’t get a check from work that had been mailed to me. The envelope was stamped “No such address exists”, or somesuch. This happened twice within a 3 month period. The funny thing is, somebody had to stamp them with that label, and the PO seemed utterly clueless as to the big mystery. I spoke to the manager, and he said “Would you like somebody to contact you about it?” I said “Sure”. Next thing you know, the mailman was knocking on my door! He was adamant that he hadn’t screwed anything up, and was all defensive, etc… I said that I was totally sure that he was out of the loop, since the stamp indicated that he wasn’t the one doing it. Big mistake! He got even more defensive, not even hearing that I was on his side, and started to demand to see the envelope. Of course, I had thrown it away, since I had picked up my check at work, and went out and cashed it.
So, bottom line, get a visual copy of the “Undeliverable” package, if you can’t get the original.
Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time.
The PO is more than a bureaucracy-it is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.
Oh, one thing that I deduced later:I had pre-printed the envelopes on my own computer, and used Arial, or Arial Black, or some Arial font, and I’m curious if that had had an effect, the readers at the post office may have kicked them out. The ones that made it through the vortex were addressed w/TNR font.
File a complaint with the US Postal Inspection Service. You failed to receive mail that you should have. If it’s a lazy mail carrier just not delivering it, they would want to know.
