What Recourse is Available if the Post Office Keeps Losing your Mail? (Santa Clarita: condo, credit)

[ragnarkar]

I've lost important items in the mail on countless occasions since moving to my current address (in Pasadena.) A few times, I ordered things online and contacted the seller after not receiving the item within a reasonable frame of time; the sellers have explicitly pointed out, in their tracking information, USPS losing the item. I've also received dated mail several months late.

I feel if I file a complaint with USPS, it'll just end up in its black hole of doom. What more effective methods of recourse is available? I'm not satisfied if I only received 90% of the mail sent to me.. I want 100% (or say 99.99% of it like most people do.)

[cb73]

Get one of those MailBoxEtc. type of mail boxes. They seem to do better with those. When I lived in LA it turned out my mail got stolen a lot--sometimes right out of the mailman's little truck.

[Mashi]

Or get a P.O. box.

[ragnarkar]

PO box might be ideal if the mail is lost from the mailman.. but what if it's being lost at the regional distribution center (@ Santa Clarita, CA according to USPS tracking records)?

[crescent22]

Odds are you have a disgruntled mailman doing your route.

[ccm123]

Have you actually filed a complaint? When I lived in SoCal, I did file a complaint with the USPS over mail problems and the branch manager did call and there was some improvement. Believe it or not, I was skeptical at first, but filed and was surprised that they will try and actually help.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by crescent22

Odds are you have a disgruntled mailman doing your route.

Either that or the address is inherently confusing which would make it more likely result in misdelivery. The original poster should verify his address, city, zip code are solid and unambiguous.

[JohnG72]

You should definitely file a claim each time. It's not a "black hole". There's a number and info on usps.com

You also might want to insure items also.

If its happening as often as you say, I agree that the problem is your postal carrier.

[jm1982]

Sounds like a real pain. A lady I work with says she has a big problem with her mailman. He sends stuff to the wrong has and refuses to deliver certain packages. She said shes actually been in the post office when her neighbors are complaining about the guy...but it sounds like nothing has been done. Kind of weird.

FOr all the complaints about the post office and the idea that private companies could do the same job . I really disagree with that. Try sending a postcard for example or a simple letter through UPS or FEDEX...how much would that cost?..

Also such a huge infrastructure I don't imagine a private company being able to match it.

There are some things the gov't does right and the I think USPS is one of them.

Hope your issues are resolved soon.

[Heidi60]

Originally Posted by ccm123

Have you actually filed a complaint? When I lived in SoCal, I did file a complaint with the USPS over mail problems and the branch manager did call and there was some improvement. Believe it or not, I was skeptical at first, but filed and was surprised that they will try and actually help.

In the South Bay our carrier takes a break after filling each bank of mailboxes in our condo. Since USPS pays huge amounts of overtime, we don't even see our mail until sometimes as late as 6:00PM and those guys are all union so there is nothing you can do.

When I had P.O. Box in Sunnyvale, my mail was not put in my box for several weeks, or at other times, it was another person's mail. One day I decided to write on each envelope that was delivered to the wrong box: Postmaster, please teach your clerks to match the box numbers on the envelope to the actual box number. After several handfuls delivered to the Postmaster, the problem finally resolved. The consequence for me and others was how to explain to our creditors that we really were not receiving our mail!