USPS marked delivered but never received, HELP! for vendors and customers!!!

[strcastle]

Help for customers and vendors!

Ever had a package marked as delivered by the USPS but you never received it? Here’s some help:

#1. Please wait a day or two! (well, at least one day) because the post office has deadlines and because of this, they will sometimes mark a package as delivered, and then deliver it the next day. They are NOT supposed to do this. But….well….haven’t you ever done things the lazy way? Me too! Let’s give them a break here, they are oftentimes overworked and are trying to just look for a few shortcuts.

Vendors: Oftentimes, we don’t look at whether a customer has actually received their package because, lets face it, how the heck are we going to look up each package everyday and still get all those packages out!?? No, we can’t do that, we must wait for a customer to inform us that they didn’t get it.

#2. Ok, so you’ve waited a day (or two) and still no package. Time to step in! The reason we need to step in here is that you have a limited amount of time to do anything about this. There are too many reasons for this, so I won’t go into them here. Just trust me, you don’t have weeks! I recommend you contact the post office at this point. There are many ways to contact them:

You can do any or all until you get answers:

1. THIS IS THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY for Customers (You can do this if your tracking was marked delivered or not): Go to your local post office with your TRACKING NUMBER! And inquire where your package is. Let them know that it was never delivered. They can look up the package and tell you if it was and where it was delivered. If the package was delivered to your house, they will tell you this. They can look up where the carrier was when the package was marked “Delivered” they can also ask the carrier where they put the package (exp: if your house is guarded by a fence and security, with dogs, they may leave it outside the gate, and can tell you exactly where they put it. ) Other times, they delivered it to the wrong house and if you haven’t let too much time go by, they can go and retrieve it for you and redeliver. (another reason to not wait so long!) NOT FOR SELLERS: obviously you can’t do this step, in most instances we don’t live near the customer, nor do we know exactly which PO delivers the mail to any given street.
2. The least effective way: You can try to call your PO, however, this used to be easy. But now, probably due to the tremendous amount of calls they get, they just don’t answer their phones. I don’t blame them….but….you can try to call and see if they do. (TIPS BEFORE YOU CALL: Be sure to have your tracking number handy. Also, if you call early, I mean really early while the carriers are still getting ready to leave the facility with the mail, the manager can ask them what they did with the package, otherwise you will probably have to wait until the next day to get a call back.) I have had success with this method, but not for some time now, so…. Good luck!

NOT FOR SELLERS: obviously you can’t do this step either, in most we don't know exactly which PO delivers the mail to any given street.

1. YES!!! FOR SELLERS: Use the USPS dot com website.

If you’re here reading this, I’m going to assume that you have already tracked your package and have gone through all the easy to find steps in an attempt to find out when your package will arrive and are here because your not getting any answers and are on the verge of assuming your package is just lost along with your money.

There is a very specific way to get answers and quite frankly unless you have a friend in the Post Office, or you ship thousands of packages per day, this is your last prayer for getting answers:

1. Go to the website and click the “HELP” button in the upper right corner.
2. Scroll down until you see “Contact US” and click the “Find Out How” button underneath.
3. Click on “Email Us”
4. Click on “Personel”  Here you will be prompted to go through a series of questions. There are six steps (easy to do, but pay special attention to the ISSUE part!):
   1. Personel - 
   2. Issue - This part is where your put ALL your information, email, contact info, TRACKING NUMBER!!! Assume this is the only thing the person who can help you will see!!!!! So you need to put all pertinent information about the issue in here. Your phone number AND email address!!!
   3. Time/Location - If the package was NOT marked as delivered just put "Post Office" instead of "Other location"
   4. Contact - the rest of these steps are easy, just follow the rest of the prompts!
   5. Review
   6. Confirmation

[kensgiftshop]

I think as a buyer, the quicker you contact the carrier the better.

If it was delivered to the wrong address, they would have a better chance of getting the package back the quicker you let them know.

Last time I had a missing package, I called within a few minutes of receiving the delivered message, they contacted the carrier and I had I my package about 15-20 minutes later.

If I had waited a couple days to call, probably would have never got the package.

[ebooksdiva]

@kensgiftshop 

Calling would work just dandy if the PO would answer their phone. They just let it ring and ring. When you call the 800 number you get sent around in circles with no option to speak to an agent.

I tried calling when I had a scheduled pickup of packages to be mailed. No one ever picked up the packages. They sent me an eMail of a successful pickup, but it never happened. So I called the next day..no one ever answered the phone. Frustrating when you don’t have transportation to go to the post office.

[kensgiftshop]

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@ebooksdiva wrote:

@kensgiftshop 

Calling would work just dandy if the PO would answer their phone. They just let it ring and ring. When you call the 800 number you get sent around in circles with no option to speak to an agent.

I tried calling when I had a scheduled pickup of packages to be mailed. No one ever picked up the packages. They sent me an eMail of a successful pickup, but it never happened. So I called the next day..no one ever answered the phone. Frustrating when you don’t have transportation to go to the post office.

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That can be a problem when they don't answer the phones.

I've never tried the 800 number.

If I do have any problems, I just go in and ask if my Sister is in, then they solve the problem pretty quick when they ask who she is.

[12345jamesstamps]

Usually everything gets delivered by USPS. I guess I have been lucky so far in the states.

Something "out for delivery"...may not make it out that day. Mail person might be too busy and wait the next day even though it saids delivered or out for delivery.

Your mailman who delivers 5 days a week is off one day a week or on vacation. Fill in might not mail everyone's stuff that day and its gets thrown on to the regular mail person.

And have to say during snow, rain storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, heat waves(where mail people have passed out from the heat), hail, etc....expect a delay.

We need to take in consideration what is happening as to where is your urgent package is...unless its for a heart transplant or something there's no need to panic.

[eastbend99]

I TOTALLY disagree with your statements here. The conscious decision to mark something as delivered when it has not been delivered amounts to fraud. Being busy or overworked is not an excuse for that. I've been overworked plenty in my work life, and not committed fraud. I'm not sure if that action is illegal, but if it is, it's also a federal offense. But according to you, we're supposed to just accept this as normal, and "give them a break?"

You are taking a very casual approach to this egregious action by a postal employee. If I owned a business and one of my employees did this, they'd be fired on the spot.

I just had this happen, and I am ready to file not just a complaint, but a report to the post office Inspector General. This is unacceptable. And it never will be acceptable, no matter how casually you view it.

Thank God for DOGE at least. That will probably be the best thing to ever happen for American consumers, and the worst thing to happen to lazy, fraudulent, government employees that have never been held accountable. And not a moment too soon...

[dogofwar777]

USPS is a horrible organization. I used to work for them and quit after a year. They don't care about you or your packages so it is a waste of time dealing with them. The ONLY packages I ever saw handled with care and routed decently were ones with a large amount of insurance on them because the USPS didn't want to pay out that amount for a lost of damaged item, but if it is something not insured they didn't care.

[strcastle]

I agree with you, but there is nothing we can do about it in general, I've tried....

[strcastle]

Yes, the problem is no one gets fired for this type of behavior. When they start firing people for lazy and bad attitude about the mail. They will fix this, but until then....we have to deal with it. I;ve inquired about this many times, with people who do care. But the answer is the same...they wont fire anyone.