# USPS Missing mail **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 29, 2020, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-missing-mail/924220 "2020-10-29T16:27:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-missing-mail/924220/1 "2020-10-29T16:27:03Z")
I moved and as part of changing my address the USPS emails me images of mail I am going to get each day, except packages. Today 5 letters in the email did not show up at my house. I can see maybe missing one but 5? I assume they come tomorrow . Anyone else have this issue? ---
**Author:** ![TheCuse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thecuse/32/2854_2.png) [@TheCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheCuse)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-missing-mail/924220/2 "2020-10-29T16:32:00Z")
I’ve had that happen before. In fact, last week I had three letters that were supposed to arrive, but they arrived the following day. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-missing-mail/924220/3 "2020-10-29T16:50:43Z")
If you sign up for “Informed Delivery” you can login to the USPS site and see a scan of your envelopes every day! Seems like a frivolous service on the surface, but it’s a useful tool if your postal service service isn’t good, like mine has been at this house. Somehow they consistently deliver mail to the wrong house, one house over. It’s been a daily ritual to walk over to the neighbor’s house every evening and exchange mail. When I get home I compare what I have against what it shows I should have received on the USPS website. If I don’t receive something that was scanned, I can just click on a “I didn’t receive this” checkbox. Honestly I don’t really know what happens after that, but at some point in the future I will either receive the missing item, or I will receive a letter from the USPS explaining they lost it, and an explanation that essentially amounts to “our bad.” There’s _never_ any actual recourse, but at least you have an acknowledgement that they fucked up. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-missing-mail/924220/4 "2020-10-29T17:44:09Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > . Today 5 letters in the email did not show up at my house. I can see maybe missing one but 5? I assume they come tomorrow . The Informed Delivery email I get from the USPS does not say that the scanned items are arriving that day. Just that they will arrive soon. They generally come in the next few days. I think you’re just assuming a level of precision that doesn’t exist. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-missing-mail/924220/5 "2020-10-29T17:57:54Z")
I just looked and every item listed did not arrive today but I got other mail. Is the scan done locally? Maybe it’s done at a regional place. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-missing-mail/924220/6 "2020-10-29T19:05:06Z")
Since the OP is asking for personal experiences, let’s move this to IMHO. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-missing-mail/924220/7 "2020-10-29T19:15:20Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > The Informed Delivery email I get from the USPS does not say that the scanned items are arriving that day. Just that they will arrive soon. I wonder if that’s a quirk of how your route is handled? Are you out in the sticks? My Informed Delivery page very clearly says “arriving today”. One oddity I started noticing a year or two ago is that some mass market ads (for example, today it’s from Bed Bath and Beyond) aren’t a scanned image, it’s an actual image. It almost looks like an inline ad. My only guess is that maybe they get a tiny discount for providing the post office with a scanned image so they don’t have to scan 10’s or 100’s of thousands of, more or less, identical postcards. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-missing-mail/924220/8 "2020-10-29T19:42:34Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I wonder if that’s a quirk of how your route is handled? Are you out in the sticks? Could be. I’m in a mid-sized city, although in a relatively low-population part of the state. The emails definitely all say “arriving at your mailbox soon”, not “today”. ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-missing-mail/924220/9 "2020-10-29T20:47:35Z")
I love that informed delivery service. We have a PO Box so we have to know whether to go or not. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-missing-mail/924220/10 "2020-10-29T21:36:08Z")
I occasionally receive mail a day later than Informed Delivery indicates. Not a big deal. It even says > “Mail may arrive several days after you receive this notification. Please allow up to a week for delivery before reporting missing mail.” in the email. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-missing-mail/924220/11 "2020-10-29T22:39:07Z")
> [@eenerms](#): > > I love that informed delivery service. We have a PO Box so we have to know whether to go or not. I like knowing that it’s just junk mail and I don’t even have to walk to the end of the driveway. It can pile up until there’s real mail. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-missing-mail/924220/12 "2020-10-29T23:20:26Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Somehow they consistently deliver mail to the wrong house, one house over. It’s been a daily ritual to walk over to the neighbor’s house every evening and exchange mail. It seems like for me, this happens on days when I didn’t actually get any mail. It’s like my mail carrier sorts the mail by address and puts them in order, and then just walks down the street\* putting the mail in boxes without paying attention to the address. So if I didn’t get anything, then my nextdoor neighbor’s mail ends up in my box, and presumably my neighbor gets nothing since they’re the last house on the street. \*Yes, I’m on an actual walking route. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2020, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-missing-mail/924220/13 "2020-10-30T04:37:04Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > My only guess is that maybe they get a tiny discount for providing the post office with a scanned image so they don’t have to scan 10’s or 100’s of thousands of, more or less, identical postcards. It’s an ad they pay extra for. There’s usually also a link to click. ---
**Author:** ![JaneDoe42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janedoe42/32/14104_2.png) [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2020, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-missing-mail/924220/14 "2020-10-30T05:14:54Z")
I worked for the Census for 3 months and they mailed out the pay stubs. I am missing one from August and one from September. Two out of twelve isn’t so bad, I got the other 10. I get random mail on a regular basis as well. Some of it belongs to folks in my neighborhood, other stuff is from across town or even different towns. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2020, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-missing-mail/924220/15 "2020-10-30T15:20:24Z")
For us, the USPS has generally been fucked up and unreliable since about this time last year. Mail shows up late, doesn’t show up at all, etc… Even parcels don’t work right- I ordered some Halloween costume stuff for one of my kids and the vendor shipped USPS on a Tuesday, with the expected delivery date about 4 days later on a Saturday. The package tracking sat there as un-shipped until Saturday, when the package showed up on our door. Then when I looked at the package tracking, it showed up as “undelivered” or something equally weird. Most of the time, they just don’t even bother with the tracking at all- I get a notification that it’s ready to ship, and then a notification that it’s delivered like a day after I already have it. Letters are an equal crap shoot- they may take 5 days to go across town, or from Austin to Dallas, or they might do it next-day. There’s no consistency anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2020, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-missing-mail/924220/16 "2020-10-30T21:46:20Z")
the mail showed up today. Pretty sure for the past 2 months it was almost always here same day the email arrived