Hey all,
So here’s the situation. I ordered a package from Amazon and never received it. My account says that it was delivered to the mailbox. I think I know exactly what happened (no way to be 100% sure, but you’ll see what I mean.) On the day that it was supposedly delivered, I received about 10 pieces of mail for a person at a completely different address 2 blocks from me. One was a small package from Amazon (!) This is NOT the first time the same thing has happened with mail, but never before with packages. I’ve received mail from people all up and down the block and all over the neighborhood before. I don’t know what the delivery person’s problem is, but there clearly is one.
I’m done with this stupidity and I’m getting a P.O. box. But for now, what’s the best way to handle what has happened? It definitely wasn’t my fault that I didn’t get the package, but it also wasn’t Amazon’s fault and it wasn’t the third party seller’s fault. It was the fault of the U.S. post office. Should I try to get a refund from Amazon or what? Should I put the other person’s mail and package back into a mailbox or take to the post office, or will that just mean that they have the same chance of never getting it? Thanks for all advice…
The most likely way of you getting either a refund or new item would be to contact Amazon and tell them it was not delivered/delivered to wrong address. They should just ship you another one.
I’ve contacted the post office in the past when an insured item went missing, and they were basically like “Our system says it was delivered, sucks for you.”
You ordered it from Amazon, not the Post Office. The PO is, for all effects and purposes, an Amazon subcontractor, which means that Amazon is liable for its actions.
Just tell them you didn’t receive it. Don’t volunteer any additional information. A resident in my building had a package stolen from our mailbox area.
I advised him to call Amazon. He told me that he had and they said they wouldn’t replace it without a police report. I told him it was kind of … naive… of him to tell the Amazon rep about our ongoing package theft problem.
Amazon will make it right. You should complain to your local postmaster about mis-delivery and missing delivery. Keep track of your complaint… it may take multiple complaints before any obvious action is taken. We had a period of about three years where once or twice a month we’d get other people’s mail, and we’re missing mail sent to us. Finally they changed carrier.
I’ve had the PO mark items as delivered several times. This typically happens at the end of the day when, I assume, they don’t want a missed delivery tagged. Sometimes the items shows up the following day, sometimes not. I’m pretty sure these were not stolen as someone has been home most times.
Amazon is used to this, they never questioned me when any of the services mark a missing item as delivered. This is a rare event for my household so I suspect I’m not on their shit list.
You might want to consider delivery to Amazon lockers if you have any nearby.
Agree with the others, just report it to Amazon as having never shown up. If this was Amazon proper, they’d ship a new one without a second thought. But since it’s a third party seller, it may be a bit more difficult. More like dealing with Ebay in that there’s no guarantee and they’ll likely ask you to wait a few more days.
As for getting a PO Box, that may help to make sure she gets her mail, but it’s not going to stop other mail from showing up at her address, unless it’s a sorting error and with nothing going to her house in the first place, incorrect mail won’t either.
I’d suggest calling the Post Master. They’ll take it more seriously than you’d expect. At my work we’ve been getting mail for another business for 30 years. A few years back, we got someone else’s mail (not the other business) and some type of divider card that’s clearly meant for sorting mail.
I called the PO, told them I got this divider card and asked what I should do with it. The Post Master showed up about 15 minutes later, apoligized a bunch of times and told me all these mix ups will stop. I think there’s been, maybe, one since then.
The residential route and the P.O. box are handled by different post offices in 2 different counties. Totally different people. I live one block past the “Portland” sign, so it’s technically Clackamas rather than Multnomah for regular delivery. (God only knows what’s going on with the Clackamas county employees. …)Anyway, yes, all of the advice sounds good. I’ll just report it as never received to Amazon. I’ve been buying things from them since 2001 and I’ve literally NEVER done that before. I really don’t like doing it now, but… that’s how it goes.
They do have a secret threshold (20% returns, IIRC) where they’ll toss you out, even if every issue was 100% provably legitimate. For your first return in 18 years…you’ll be fine.
I have some type of issue with them (wrong item/broken/didn’t show up/price wrong/something misleading etc) once a month or so and I’m sure they track it all, but they’ve never said anything.
The only two Amazon orders that I never got were from China. The first one I’m pretty sure was just a scammer, because the seller reviews showed that nobody ever got anything.
The second one was a whammy bar that was missing from a strat I bought from goodwill. When it never came the seller actually says, - well it was tracked as arriving in the U.S. I guess he thinks the U.S. is very small and that means I got it. Amazon gave me my money back.
When I was growing up, our mail carrier was notorious for bad delivery. People complained often that they weren’t getting mail. When USPS finally investigated, they found that whenever she could not complete her route, she just took the undelivered mail home and left it there.
As an adult, in one neighborhood we frequently got others’ mail, and they got ours. The only time a bad credit rating was good: someone else got enough info about is from misdelivered mail to apply for a loan, and we got the letter denying the request.
Other than calling Amazon for the specific missing package - you should also call the local PostOffice and speak to someone there and let them know your observations on the delivery for your route - they need to sort that out.
OK – all the stuff posted about Amazon I agree with and/or can confirm. But -------- I would take the neighbor’s mail down to the PO and ask to speak with the Postmaster for that station or the assistant on duty. At some point someone down there should know. For a while we had a series of terrible substitute carriers and got mail from the wrong street, mail from several wrong streets, and one fine day mail for most of our block and two others. :smack: Yeah, I could have handled it myself (except that last one) and no biggie in the general scheme of things; but how does a manager manage if no one clues him/her in? If you get more than a piece or two or if it goes on and becomes more regular, go the official route and let some official know.