USPS strikes again!

I ordered some coins from a country in central Asia. Registered mail with insurance was $80, and it had a tracking number. Discovered later, the address label was complete except my street number was left off. I live on a numbered road with the format of yyyyy Road xx. The xx was left off the address label; otherwise it was complete. My phone number was on the shipping label too.

As soon as it arrived in the local PO, they immediately sent it back because of an incomplete address. My town isn’t huge and my name isn’t common, if they had googled what was on the address label, my complete address would have popped-up immediately. If they had called the phone number, I could have given them the complete address or told them to hold it for me. If they had held it even 24 hours, I could have picked it up. I followed the tracking and was there when they opened the next morning after I saw online that it had arrived. Too late; they had already sent it back. It would be too much effort to do more than stamp “return to sender” and chuck in the returns bin.

Small wonder private parcel companies are doing so well!

Cal

 

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In this case I can sympathize with USPS. It's probably standard policy to remove any chance of people claiming mis-delivery or insurance payouts ect if the address isn't a real one. Even if you went to pick it up your address on the ID would not have matched what was on the package.

 

Not sure if it is USPS's fault in your case. But, I really am starting to get worried by the postal service. I keep on having bad experiences with them.

In the past month my local post office keeps dropping off my stuff at all the neighbors's houses, and their stuff at mine. I went put my neighbor's mail in their mailbox, but realized that it was completely full with mail from at least two or three other different houses. A few days ago a big package was dropped off at my steps, I looked at the address label and it was the right number, but wrong street. Now I either have to catch to mailman and give it to him to send to the right street, or drive 10 minutes to deliver it myself. I recently ordered 10 things from eBay, and two out of the ten items were lost for over two weeks without tracking information. All 10 items arrived at least two days after USPS's estimated delivery date.

 

There's no way this falls on USPS.
The shipper is 100% at fault.

 

Agreed.

 

At the opposite extreme, I have had mail delivered which had nothing but my last name and the zip code on it. Addressed simply to:

Smith, 12345

Not my real name and zip, obviously. My last name is unique within the zip code. It was something I mailed to myself as an experiment to see if it would work. Now that I know it does I just put that on my envelope as my return address when I don't want my full address revealed.

 

It is not the job of the carrier to track down the owner of every package. I myself am guilty of a incomplete address (I always thought that a fast more intelligent computer system could mind my business for me)

 

Like any other service related industry the post office does it's best to drive out the veterns and hire new cheaper workers.
I work in the food industry ....if you are upset because you have issues with your mail.....don't even think about who's handeling your food!
I had an issue this passed week with getting a coin delivered.....as expected it wasn't my regular carrier but a substtute. And of course it was the veteran who ended up bring the package to me,and apologizing to boot.
Next visit to the food market pay close attention especially on perishable food items!

 

The shipper did this not the USPS.

 

Multiple times there have been problems with addresses on incoming parcels via FedEx and UPS. They always called me via the number on the label and arranged delivery to the proper address. Once or twice I picked it up at their warehouse. In addition, after a move, I have picked up packages at the post office with an address on my driver’s license that didn’t match that on the package. No problem. I had the tracking number and the right name, so I got the package. When I was at the post office this time, they searched for the package and were going to give it to me if they found it. So the incomplete address was no barrier to me getting the package; the fact that they returned it right away was.

Yes, the primary fault is the shipper’s, but the local post office could have easily corrected the problem but didn’t. It will be $130 for the round trip back to the dealer and back to me. The dealer is already making noises that I should pay.

Cal

 

100% the shippers fault. However, with a small town and an unusual name your local office should have made more of an attempt to locate you. It's now all the difficult. One look at the label and a quick call would have been sufficient to get this to you. Less costly to the USPS too. Customer service is a lost art.

 

How did you pay? Can you get your money back? That's assuming you even want to. $80 shipping means it was quite a significant purchase that probably was not easily available elsewhere.

 

Just get a full refund if that's how he wants to handle it. Unless you gave him the wrong address that is his fault not yours

 

I paid with PayPal backed with credit card. So if it comes to opening a case there, I'll probably win eventually.

Cal

 

Yea you’ll win that especially since he didn’t ship to the address on your PayPal file

 

I don't think it's an employee problem as much as it's probably a directive problem. Any excuse to double the revenue from a single package, especially an expensive one, is seized upon.

 

If I were the buyer, the dealer could make noise until I went deaf, he's still responsible. Send it back to me, with the correct address, or send me a refund.

 

One other thought occurred to me overnight. That being, I've seen many a parcel from a foreign country. About half of them have the name followed by the street but the numbers of the street are either behind the street name or on the next line all by themselves. Then city and state with the zip. Most foreign address are different from US and Canada. It is very possible the shipper used all of the correct information. Being a small town as the OP stated the local PO could have read the address incorrectly and created the problem. I'm not defending USPS, just offering another possibility as to why it was returned. Small towns do not see a lot of international addresses.

 

I too am getting worried about the USPS. Twice in the last six months in my business we have called past due customers and found our checks were mailed. Come to find out the checks were left in the mailbox of a closed business across the street. I now go check that mailbox several times a week...... Had a guitar part shipped from overseas last year that still shows in transit. Fortunately that was an inexpensive part, but that isn’t the point. It’s time for USPS to tighten their ship.

 

I had the dealer email a scan of the shipping label, which was handwritten, and the address was definitely incomplete. Can't fault the PO for not reading the label.
Cal