Did USPS really lose my package or was it delivered and stolen?

[Mathnomalous]

I recently bought a book from a 3rd-party seller through Amazon.com. Book made it all the way to my city but it seems it was promptly lost by USPS. The postman claims he physically handed the book to a specific family member residing in my household but no one at home physically received it. The postman's supervisor (and apparent friend), claims he "has worked with this guy for over 15 years and never f***ing lies", which apparently means I am lying.

According to another supervisor working at the same facility as the postman, the postman may have left the package on the sidewalk, next to our front door, out on the street......where anyone may have picked it up, thus defeating the purpose of having a package delivered...

Basically, USPS claims the package was delivered but no one at home ever received said package.

 

[Upisoft]

Here the receiver have to sing a document she received the package, so the postman will have evidence of delivery.
Doesn't that take place at your geographic coordinates?

 

[Topher925]

This has happened to be a couple times before. I once ordered a laptop for my dad and had it delivered to my address. The problem was that it didn't get delivered to me, it got delivered to a neighbor down the street instead. USPS gave me the same kind of crap that they gave you. If that neighbor didn't have the morality to let me know they received the package and give it to me I would have been out of a computer. Even if you insure the package, actually receiving that insured amount that you payed for usually never happens. Thats why for important and expensive things you should always use Fedex, as they are generally not operated by a bunch of ***-clowns.

 

[Mathnomalous]

I thought a signature was required to receive a USPS package but apparently it is not required. It seems the postman can throw the package anywhere, mark it as delivered, and claim the job was completed.

I should mention that I had 2 other books delivered to my address and these two books were both physically received by the same person (delivered by the same postman, even). I initially thought the guy might have been confused and the book is sitting on a truck or warehouse somewhere. But this postman is adamant about his claim he physically handed the book to the same person who received my other 2 books.

I have a feeling this guy left the book on the sidewalk and marked it as delivered but I have no proof of that.

 

[Upisoft]

I guess this means USPS -1 client (or more)

 

[Mathnomalous]

Yes.

I would still be a customer if these 2 individuals would have investigated the matter more thoroughly instead of claiming the book was delivered, and in the process, implicitly categorizing me as a liar.

Ironically, I switched from FedEx to USPS because the FedEx deliveryman who used to deliver to us is an imbecile who skipped our address and only got around to delivering our packages once we called FedEx directly. Down to UPS (and DHL?), I guess.

 

[BobG]

Here the receiver have to sing a document she received the package, so the postman will have evidence of delivery.
Doesn't that take place at your geographic coordinates?

Depends if the package was sent via certified mail or regular mail. USPS Certified mail has to be hand delivered and someone has to sign for it. USPS Regular mail gets put in the mailbox, if it will fit, or dropped off in some other fashion if it won't fit.

At my house, the postman usually puts it inside the screen door or leans it up against the door if it won't fit.

Fedex or other commercial delivery companies almost always hand deliver with a signature. Certified mail or commercial delivery usually costs more than regular delivery. Insurance on a package adds to the cost of sending a package, as well.

The odds of losing a package are low enough that regular mail is fine for books, CDs, DVDs, etc. I'd spend more ensuring delivery or insuring packages than I'd lose on the occasional non-delivery.

In fact, I don't think I've ever had a package that didn't get delivered. The closest was when I was stationed in Alaska when I was in the military. You couldn't rely on anything getting delivered in a timely manner. Everything always eventually got delivered, but never in any coherent manner. Magazine subscriptions were worthless. The news was always old by time I received it and the deliveries weren't even in order. One issue might be 2 weeks late while a different issue might be 6 weeks late. Package delivery might take 2 weeks or it might take 5 months. But everything I ordered, or was sent to me, or that I sent was always eventually delivered.

If the package is very important or very expensive, it is worth it to send it certified mail or through a commercial carrier. Otherwise, I'd bank on the odds that the object will probably be delivered and suck up the loss if I get unlucky and the package is lost.

 

[Upisoft]

Depends if the package was sent via certified mail or regular mail. USPS Certified mail has to be hand delivered and someone has to sign for it.

Yeah, I got it. USPS just have different rules than those in my country. Here this is valid for regular letters, but packages has to sent via certified mail only. I think there is a certain weight that defines "package".

 

[Barwick]

Could have been delivered to some dude standing in your yard or something

 

[leroyjenkens]

Your front door has a sidewalk running beside it? You must get a lot of knock and runs.

 

[Evo]

It's hard to trace packages sent via USPS (United States Postal Service).

 

[Office_Shredder]

If you have a tracking number:
http://www.usps.com/shipping/trackandconfirm.htm

 

[Evo]

If you have a tracking number:
http://www.usps.com/shipping/trackandconfirm.htm

I've had tracking numbers but they could not say exactly when, where, or to whom they delivered.

 

[Office_Shredder]

That's pretty lame

 

[turbo]

I've had tracking numbers but they could not say exactly when, where, or to whom they delivered.

USPS does not adhere to the strict guidelines of some private carriers. I have had to arrange the transfers of large valuable collections, and either had to arrange an internal pick-up or a well-documented and insured private transfer. (FedEx, generally).

 

[turbo]

BTW, my rural mail delivery-person is my niece. It is highly unlikely that anything sent via USPS could ever miss my mailbox. Borek sent me a card with my name and "East of the Kennebec River" as part of the address. Of course it got here.

 

[Mathnomalous]

Your front door has a sidewalk running beside it? You must get a lot of knock and runs.

I reside on the 2nd floor of a 2-story building. Access to the building from the sidewalk/street may be gained through a gray metal door (aka my front door). The 1st floor is occupied by a church that generally provides services between 7pm - 9pm and is rarely open prior to 12pm. I have access to this church and the common basement.

The gray metal door has a 2.5cm x 9.0cm slot where most regular mail is dropped off. The book I ordered has slightly over 1000 pages and would not fit through. Anyone who wishes to visit has to press the doorbell button placed at the eye level of an average height person.

So, leaving the package next to the front door is the same as leaving the package on the sidewalk. What frustrates me is that this particular USPS deliveryman is the same person who delivered my other two books and he is familiar with the area. I don't think he's dumb enough to leave a package on the sidewalk. And, according to USPS, a package may be tagged as "delivered" once it reaches the final sorting facility and not necessarily when it reaches the final address. So it is probable my package was tagged as "delivered" but is sitting on a warehouse floor or back of a truck at the moment.

 

[Mathnomalous]

USPS contacted me this morning. According to the USPS representative I spoke with, USPS does not have the address where the package was delivered (they do not know where it was delivered) but they do know it was delivered to my address this past Monday.

In other words, USPS claims the sender did not provide my address but the package was delivered to my location nonetheless.

I am not intelligent enough to comprehend that.

 

[Evo]

USPS contacted me this morning. According to the USPS representative I spoke with, USPS does not have the address where the package was delivered (they do not know where it was delivered) but they do know it was delivered to my address this past Monday.

In other words, USPS claims the sender did not provide my address but the package was delivered to my location nonetheless.

I am not intelligent enough to comprehend that.

The mail delivery here is horrible, I get maybe half of my mail, the other half is anyone on my block.

When I moved, I put in a change of address on the USPS webpage and to insure authenticity, they charged my debit card $1. When no mail was forwarded I called the local office that handles my mail and they said there was no record in their system! When I asked them to gather my mail at the old address (no one was living there), they told me that they knew I had moved, so they were returning all of my mail to the sender with an "address unknown" stamp.

 

[jtbell]

Thats why for important and expensive things you should always use Fedex, as they are generally not operated by a bunch of ***-clowns.

Last week I ordered some memory upgrade modules for my computer, which were shipped by FedEx. I received a tracking number, and this past Tuesday, while I was still at work, the FedEx website reported that my package had been delivered to my house at about 2:00 PM, and "left at side door." This made me wonder a bit, because I don't have a side door, just a front and a back door, but I chalked it up to imprecise terminology.

When I got home, the package was nowhere to be seen, either at the front door or at the back door, or in the carport. I checked with my neighbors, who hadn't gotten anything for me. The following evening we got a phone call from the people who actually received the package, at a completely different street address about a mile away. The next morning I stopped there on my way to work to pick it up.

 

[Evo]

Nice to see that there are still honest people. Sad to see that these delivery people that have starting salaries of ~$70,000 annually can't read.

Do you have a permanent authorization on file with Fed Ex that authorizes them to leave a package without a signature? Here they will not leave any package without a written release on file in lieu of a signature at the time of delivery, it makes me crazy. But at least it prevents what just happened to you.

 

[turbo]

My RFD driver is my niece, and her replacement is another young woman that I have gotten on good terms with. The regular UPS driver and FedEx driver know me well enough to leave packages in my garage when nobody is home. The one fly in the ointment is when I order something and the seller ships it FedEx Ground. Ground does not cover this area, so they farm the deliveries out to a contractor about 80 miles away, and they only come out this way about once a week at best. Pay extra for FedEx delivery and wait about a week longer than USPS or UPS would have taken. Argh!