Mail sitting in Philadelphia P.O. - what the heck?

[SKL]

I sent a priority mail on 2/19 to a government location in Philadelphia.  It's been sitting at the post office there since February 23.  Is there anything I can / should do?  Anyone know when this is likely to get resolved?  The envelope contained something important that I can't replace.

[RootAnn]

I'd start with #2 on this USPS page but I haven't ever gotten a helpful response except with #3. Number 3's full blown process seems to get things done (even when that means I'm told they found an empty box & I'm sent the address label as a response -- it was more than calling, emailing, & filling out #2's link). I start with #2 anyway & when they reply with a form email that says to be patient, I go to #3 and fill it out very carefully.

Good luck. I hope there is just a temporary hold up & your package gets to its destination soon.

My DD has been waiting for a package from Europe since Thanksgiving.

Edited March 8, 2021 by RootAnn

[J-rap]

I assume you have the tracking number since you know where it is.  Can you stop by a local post office and explain it to them?  I've done that, and they were able to track it down and help me.

[lynn]

Same here.  We called the post office had to be on hold a while but we filed a complaint.  One was found the next day the otherr showed sitting in January 19 no movement at all. Tried to call PO again waited in hold over and hour.  2 weeks later checks cleared.   We were told by local post office they just go into a bin until the government office gets to them.    Good luck.

Edited March 9, 2021 by lynn

[katilac]

I've had the most luck with a Missing Mail search (even when the mail is not, in fact, actually missing). It can free the piece of mail from the dark corners of whatever post office it's hiding in. I no longer bother with the prior step (Help Request Form). I think the Missing Mail resolutions must be tracked in a way that the other requests are not, because I see a lot more hustle and response. 

[RootAnn]

46 minutes ago, katilac said:

I've had the most luck with a Missing Mail search (even when the mail is not, in fact, actually missing). It can free the piece of mail from the dark corners of whatever post office it's hiding in. I no longer bother with the prior step (Help Request Form). I think the Missing Mail resolutions must be tracked in a way that the other requests are not, because I see a lot more hustle and response. 

I agree with this. I think the Help requests (step #2 in my previous post) require an email response within a certain timeframe, but no more. I have gotten form letters or the equivalent. The responder doesn't seem to care if the email response matches the problem.

The Missing Mail form (step #3 in my previous post) is more detailed but must require someone to actually look into the problem.

FWIW, I have tried getting help via my local post office & calling the postal location where it items were last scanned. Neither has ever yielded me any verifiable action and though I am always promised a call back with info, it never comes.

[Amy in NH]

I had a similar problem with the Philly PO back in late-November, early-December.  They seem to sit on stuff a while...

[Lori D.]

DS#2 paid to send a certified mail to a business in a city that is a 2-hour drive from us. It took 3 WEEKS for it to arrive, as it bounced back and forth between that city and another city 1500 miles away TWICE, in spite of him calling multiple times during the process. The P.O. basically said that since it was guaranteed to arrive by that 5 week date, there was nothing they could do until it was after that date. The letter arrived at its destination ON the final day possible, 3 weeks after being sent...

Edited March 9, 2021 by Lori D.

[katilac]

23 minutes ago, Lori D. said:

DS#2 paid to send a certified mail to a business in a city that is a 2-hour drive from us. It took 3 WEEKS for it to arrive, as it bounced back and forth between that city and another city 1500 miles away TWICE, in spite of him calling multiple times during the process. The P.O. basically said that since it was guaranteed to arrive by that 5 week date, there was nothing they could do until it was after that date. The letter arrived at its destination ON the final day possible, 3 weeks after being sent...

Well now they're just messing with you 

[Lori D.]

18 minutes ago, katilac said:

Well now they're just messing with you 

That's what we decided, too! It was really annoying because it was payment for an expensive item that the business was holding for him, so it messed with that business, too. 🙄

[BakersDozen]

For the first time ever I didn't receive a purchase made on eBay. It's been delivered to a location in Philadelphia and apparently was delivered January 6th. I placed the order last week. Interesting to hear about the Philly, PA issues others have had/are having...

[MEmama]

I recently had a package arrive from the Midwest to a distribution center less than an hour away from me, only to be mysteriously transported across the country to Arizona, then Utah, then back to Arizona where it hung out for around a week before deciding to come back to New England. It was bizarre but really funny to track. 
 

I mean, we all know the damage the former administration inflicted on the postal service. There aren’t overnight fixes; we'll all just have to be patient. Maybe a private service like UPS is safer for important/time sensitive items until the disaster in the meantime. 

 

[lynn]

1 hour ago, MEmama said:

I recently had a package arrive from the Midwest to a distribution center less than an hour away from me, only to be mysteriously transported across the country to Arizona, then Utah, then back to Arizona where it hung out for around a week before deciding to come back to New England. It was bizarre but really funny to track. 
 

I mean, we all know the damage the former administration inflicted on the postal service. There aren’t overnight fixes; we'll all just have to be patient. Maybe a private service like UPS is safer for important/time sensitive items until the disaster in the meantime. 

 

can send ups to the passport office?

[SKL]

2 hours ago, lynn said:

can send ups to the passport office?

It's a P.O. address, so I assume not.

Looking at the recipient's website, I see it recommends sending via Priority Express.  I didn't send Express because it's not an emergency, but Priority was supposed to be delivered by February 23.

Now if it's sitting at the Philly post office since  February 23, does that mean it's sitting in the P.O. Box waiting to be picked up by the recipient, or sitting somewhere else in the post office waiting to be put in the P.O. Box?  I guess we can't know that.

I filed a service request.  We'll see how it goes.

[katilac]

1 hour ago, SKL said:

It's a P.O. address, so I assume not.

Looking at the recipient's website, I see it recommends sending via Priority Express.  I didn't send Express because it's not an emergency, but Priority was supposed to be delivered by February 23.

Now if it's sitting at the Philly post office since  February 23, does that mean it's sitting in the P.O. Box waiting to be picked up by the recipient, or sitting somewhere else in the post office waiting to be put in the P.O. Box?  I guess we can't know that.

I filed a service request.  We'll see how it goes.

If signature confirmation is required, it will not be put in the box. They should have gotten a note to ask for it in the box, but they can just go ahead and ask for it. Even a signature isn't required, if they have a PO Box there, there's no reason they can't go in and ask for it, saying it shows as being there. 

[Bootsie]

I just talked to someone who sent priority mail from Dallas to NYC on Feb 10--it arrived yesterday, March 8.  

We have had two tiems sent from Fort Worth to Dallas in priority-next day envelopes that took over a week to arrive at the destination (yes, next time we will hand deliver).  

We have had SO many problems like this recently we try to avoid the USPS if we can.  We had an envelope that had important documents for our daughter's residence permit take almost three months to get to Austria.  We had it carefully labelled Austria EUROPE (so that it did not go to Australia),  But after spending two weeks (we could track it) bouncing around Dallas, someone at the US Postal service put on the package Austria, United Kingdom and sent it to London!

[cintinative]

I sent two certified mail letters, return receipt requested, on the same day to Equifax and Experian (identity theft issue). I received the receipt back from Equifax.  The Experian receipt made it to the local city's distribution center on February 26th and no activity since then. I did hear back from both services, so I know that it got there, but I'm ticked because I paid for those return receipts as legal proof of submission.

[athena1277]

After all the mess getting packages on time at Christmas, I’m hesitant to send anything that doesn’t have lots of extra time to get to it’s destination.  Mailing scholarship info to the college my dd is going to next year was frustrating because even sending it with a signature confirmation, it still took over a week and we were getting lose to the deadline.  I have been ordering birthday gifts for my nieces and nephews from Amazon at least a week early in hopes that it gets there on time.  Even local mail is a problem here because all mail goes to a distribution center 2 hours away.  So if I mail a card to a neighbor down the street, it will take 3 days in normal times.

[lynn]

4 hours ago, SKL said:

It's a P.O. address, so I assume not.

Looking at the recipient's website, I see it recommends sending via Priority Express.  I didn't send Express because it's not an emergency, but Priority was supposed to be delivered by February 23.

Now if it's sitting at the Philly post office since  February 23, does that mean it's sitting in the P.O. Box waiting to be picked up by the recipient, or sitting somewhere else in the post office waiting to be put in the P.O. Box?  I guess we can't know that.

I filed a service request.  We'll see how it goes

We were told its in a bin at the post office but was never checked in after getting "delayed" notices for 2 weeks. Since the checks have gone through we assume the envelope arrived.

 

[SKL]

13 minutes ago, lynn said:

We were told its in a bin at the post office but was never checked in after getting "delayed" notices for 2 weeks. Since the checks have gone through we assume the envelope arrived.

 

It's annoying to have to check the bank every day - with all the security stuff etc.  😕

[Amy in NH]

We never had any of these problems with the post office before DeJoy was appointed.

[RootAnn]

22 hours ago, RootAnn said:

My DD has been waiting for a package from Europe since Thanksgiving

Quoted to say that the package that was mailed to my DD from Europe on Nov 22nd arrived today (3/9). She's super happy. [According to the shipper's tracking info, the package got to the US before Christmas. Most of the delay was here in the US.]