Filing a TRACE with USPS on a delayed or Missing Package!

[mam98031]

For the last couple of months or more I have not been able to file a Trace on a package with USPS.  Every time I try it will tell me I can't open one until after XX date.  Usually just a few days away.  So then I will try again, the day after what they give me and I still can't file the Trace.  So I wait a couple more days and still it won't let me open a Trace.

I finally broke down and called USPS.  Some 45 minutes later I get to talk with someone.  They were very nice and they helped me to file a Trace on the current INR I have.  Then I shared I have been unable to open a Trace for a couple months or more.

She informed me that I'm not the only one.  She gets calls all the time about this problem.  Whatever change they made to the site a few months ago backfired big time.

So she told me to file a report for Missing Mail.  I hope this helps some other sellers too.

Missing Mail

[allen1853]

Thanks. I have pretty much given up on trying to track down lost tracked packages with USPS. Tracking often stops at a particular location. The only answers are outright theft or damage they cover up by throwing the item away. There is also the posibility aliens are beaming the item up. In the olden days they would take an item damaged in machinery, or delivery truck accident or facility flood or fire and get it delivered in a plastic bag with auxiliary markings. There was a sense of pride in the slogan "Through snow and sleet etc....." Not anymore. If you succeed in completing a trace form, it does nothing. If you fail to insure your package against outright theft, malicious damage or gross negligence, by USPS employees, you are SOL. 

[mam98031]

I respectfully disagree.  I have had very good luck filing a Trace and getting the package moving again.  

Theft or damage is not the only reasons for this happening.  In fact in all the years I've been an internet seller, I have not had this delay happen due to damage.  Now theft can be different.  While I personally haven't experienced it, it really is going to depend on the products being shipped.

I would never assume, no matter what I was selling, that just because the tracking stopped at some point that the package was stollen or damaged.  I have had far to many examples of when filing a Trace on the package, it starts moving again and my customer gets their order in good condition.

I don't use insurance very often either.  Depends on what I'm shipping.  But  usually shipping it via PM and the $100 automatic insurance covers what I sell.

[yuzuha]

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@mam98031 wrote:

Theft or damage is not the only reasons for this happening.  In fact in all the years I've been an internet seller, I have not had this delay happen due to damage.  Now theft can be different.  While I personally haven't experienced it, it really is going to depend on the products being shipped.

I would never assume, no matter what I was selling, that just because the tracking stopped at some point that the package was stollen or damaged.  I have had far to many examples of when filing a Trace on the package, it starts moving again and my customer gets their order in good condition.

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My father actually just had this happen with something he had ordered online-- it was a small electronic part that was shipped in a Tyvek envelope that couldn't have been more than about 5"x4". It went into a distribution center right before it got to our city and vanished for a week before finally reappearing, and we figure it most likely just got stuck in a bin somewhere because it was so small/flat.