Can someone help me with a postal question/concern

vintagetoppsguy

I had an eBay buyer purchase a card from me on 1/2/2008 and he paid the same day. I sent the card the following day via first class mail with delivery confirmation. A couple of weeks later he buys another card from me. Same thing - he pays right away and I ship it right away. Within a few days he leaves me feedback on the second card, but not the first card. Earlier this week, he emails me and asks me if I have ever mailed the first card because he still has not received it. I explained to him that it was mailed the day after payment, but I would check into it.

I found the tracking number (4200 2903 9104 9424 3561 1014 1029 68) and it shows that the package was delivered on 1/5/2008 at 2:56pm. So I emailed him back and told him that I was showing it as being delivered and suggested the might want to double check because sometimes we all make a mistake and overlook a package or forget we actually received something. I also suggested that if that were not the case, then he might want to double check his post office.

Today I get the package back in the mail saying that it was being returned for "insufficient address." I verified his address and sure enough, I forgot to put the suite number. This blew my mind! How could it show as being delivered, when it was actually returned? I realize it is ultimately my fault by not filling out the address completely. However, I am pissed at the post office for the way they handled the situation. The package should never show as being delivered if it was not. Let's just say for a minute that I never received the package back and the buyer would have filed a PayPal complaint. Well there is nothng PayPal would have done for him since it shows as delivered.

Another thing is that they marked out part of his address and tried to mark out the delivery confirmation number, but it is still legible. And one last thing, it only took 3 days to make it from Houston to Providence, but took another 20 days to make it from Providnece back to Houston. What the hell is going on at the post office?

storm888

Sounds like his addy might be a commercial mail-receiving agency.
(Like Mail Boxes, Etc.)

A new or dumb employee might not be able to identify the box-holder
w/o a box number. Also, your buyer might have rented the box in a
different name than is on the package; this is common. Box holders
rely on the #, not the name; so do the CMRAs.

The long return could have been, in part, caused by a CMRA holding
the package for a while.

Of course, the addy could also be a large office bldg. The mail carrier
would have a hard time tracking a name he did not recognize from
the bldg directory.

At least the package is not a goner.

gotsparks09

I'm not an expert (don't you hate it when people say that?), but...

I'm pretty sure the way that Delivery Confirmation works is this:

The package is considered "delivered" when it reaches the final Post Office it needs to get to...NOT the actual house, apartment, business suite, etc. So in this case, once it reached the Providence, RI Post Office, it was deemed "delivered" in the system. So that would explain that.

As for scratching out the address, though, I'm not sure. Maybe they did that so you wouldn't just slap another stamp on it and send it back the same way? Who knows? Storm is right, though. At least you got it back.

clydecoolidge

You shouldn't post your address on a message board, someone could try to touch your package without your permission, lol, just kidding. yeah, I think delivery=scanned at receiving post office. Although that does seem kind of lame if that's how they do that. Did you call USPS customer service have them clarify when exactly a package is deemed "delivered?"

pomobileclk

Storm888 has the right answer.

50 Kennedy Plaza is a 20 story office building and since there was no suite number, the mail room may not have recognized the name.

As for the reason why it shows delivered, it may be because the company he works for is a "Caller", a company who pays to pick up its mail early from the Post Office. Any Delivery Confirmation would show delivered once the messenger comes to pick up the mail. Once the buildings' mail room doesn't recognize the name, it can sit for a while until they decide to take it back to the PO. It happens all the time in my station.

Alot of people like to have packages delivered to their job for their convenience, but remember to put your COMPANY NAME and ROOM, FLOOR or SUITE number to avoid hassles.

fur72

Agreed, as a former mailroom employee it could sit in that mail room for quite a long time as someone asks around about the name. Kind of strange they would not have a record of a tennant in the building though. Sorry to hear the story though, I get freaked out everytime I address something. Double tripple check the address.