US Post office reusing tracking numbers

[m.j.variety]

I have had a rash of tracking numbers this week that were previously used by the US Post office

When the customer tracks their package it is being shown as delivered two months ago to an erroneous  address.     Anyone else experiencing this problem?

[oldwestcoins]

Sounds very simple. Contact your local USPS for further information.

[lepke1979]

It's a known thing with all the carriers. Is usually a case of ignore the old scans.

Has it had a more recent scan since dropping it off?

[chapeau-noir]

The USPS on occasion reuses tracking numbers (well outside the 120 days they're live) - they have a 22-digit constraint on their numbering system of which the first 4 numbers generally denote shipping service, so they're stuck with 18 digits.  AFAIK, it's not very often, though, and the address is supposed to update. 

[duffy4444]

   Te same thing happened to me about 15 years ago. Created a lot of confusion with my buyers, but I was able to solve it for them after I discovered that someone at the USPS forgot to reset the numbers before allowing them to be used again.

Cheers, Duffy

[carvetti]

Happened to me just this past week on a different platform and resulted in a bad rating from the buyer.  Buyer still received the item, actually 3 days early, but they flipped out when the tracking showed delivered in a different state and left a review before the situation resolved itself.  Very frustrating and my first time having it happen in 20 years of selling online.

[rugerskick]

My guess is someone is reusing the box again and has not removed enough of the old label, and its getting picked up by their scanners as it travels through the sorting systems.  This willcause it to get rerouted to the wrong place.

[katzrul15]

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@m.j.variety wrote:

I have had a rash of tracking numbers this week that were previously used by the US Post office

When the customer tracks their package it is being shown as delivered two months ago to an erroneous  address.     Anyone else experiencing this problem?

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Had this happen once a few years back - the explanation from the PO was that in order to "re-use" a batch of numbers, the prior info was supposed to be old enough to be purged (i.e. more than whatever the recall timeline is for USPS to restore it....maybe it was 2 years, I forget).   Evidently someone did not do that (purge the prior data associated with the tracking).

My PO person was really kind and wrote a little note on their letterhead and I scanned that and sent it to all the affected Buyers.  

BTW - none of those parcels ever updated with new tracking data - they were all delivered, but all they ever showed was the old data.  

Had some use the wrong setting on a scanner once showing all parcels as delivered vs being scanned "in".  Those never updated either.  😞