Mystery of the post office and my hard to find part

[mrtexas]

Another post office mystery.

A few weeks ago a well known Model A vendor shipped me a hard to find original Ford part. Also had a rather large refund check in it. Shipped it to my old address however. Oh well we all make mistakes sometimes. Been in the new house coming up on 2 years. After two weeks I emailed the vendor wondering where my part was. They replied it had been delivered to my old address 3 days after they shipped it on April 8 according to the package tracking number. Oh well ask the PO to find it which the shipper has to do I replied.

By some miracle I have the email address of the current resident of my old house. Seems they had asked the guy who bought the house from me for my email address so they could ask me about the fruit trees in the back yard. They are actually the second owners after I sold the house 2 years ago. Well I emailed them and they said they were out of town and hadn't got a package. This was mysterious since the package was small enough to fit in a package locker. Well today I get an email from them saying the package arrived today. Case of the missing part solved. Doesn't make sense to me but then again government agencies never make sense. Current resident will hold the package until I can come get it.

[Rex_A_Lott]

Count yourself lucky. There are many more good people in this world than bad , I think, but you always hear about the worst....the old news motto, " if it bleeds, it leads".
I like to hear of nice people , doing nice things.
Good Post!

[redmodelt]

With all the people that move in this day and age, I don't think the post office keep the change of address more then 6 months. It is great that you will be getting your item.

[Mike V. Florida]

You want my guesses? Well here they are anyway,

1) The mail carrier delivered the package to the address on the label. The next day the same carrier seeing that the package was not picked up nor was the mail picked up, placed a notice in the box and brought the mail back to the station as if the homeowner filled out a form telling USPS to hold the mail. Once the owners realized that there was mail at the station, it was re-delivered to them along with your package.

2) The homeowner placed a hold on the mail delivery due to vacation and once back they collected the mail. I believe the mail is considered delivered at the time the mail enters the hold box as the homeowner requested.

Glad you got it!!!

[mrtexas]

Originally Posted by Rex_A_Lott

Count yourself lucky. There are many more good people in this world than bad , I think, but you always hear about the worst....the old news motto, " if it bleeds, it leads".
I like to hear of nice people , doing nice things.
Good Post!

Lucky I am for sure. My old town was smallish, around 100,000 where everyone knows everyone else. I live in the big bad city now(exurb of Houston,TX)

[Quigley1930]

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[al's28/33]

Been in my current house 8 years, just last month I receive 6 large boxes addressed to previous owner!!!......all hot-rodder parts........I called and harassed the vendor to arrange to have them picked up and fix their own mistake. Took them two weeks to figure out what they did.....I'm not a UPS warehouse.

[Mike V. Florida]

Originally Posted by al's28/33

Been in my current house 8 years, just last month I receive 6 large boxes addressed to previous owner!!!......all hot-rodder parts........I called and harassed the vendor to arrange to have them picked up and fix their own mistake. Took them two weeks to figure out what they did.....I'm not a UPS warehouse.

I would have gone to the nearest UPS store and dropped them off with a note on it saying not at this address, and let them worry about it.

[Tom Wesenberg]

Originally Posted by Mike V. Florida

I would have gone to the nearest UPS store and dropped them off with a note on it saying not at this address, and let them worry about it.

That's what my neighbor did with USPS when they put my package in his mailbox. The post office kept it and sold it at their lost mail dept in Atlanta.

On a related note, yesterday I got my antique vacuum shipped by Fed Ex. It was mint when sent, but broken when I recieved it. I'm sure the broken part no longer exists.

[Ray64]

A while back my rebuilt wiper from a vendor ended up about a mile from me at someone else s home .They took the time to look me up in the phone book and tell me they had my package. Now is that being neighborly or what?

[Jim M]

I don't care what it costs - ship it ANYWAY but USPS! I bought something on Ebay and unfortunately it was shipped that way. When I received it it looked like it had been run over by a fork lift. Everything in the package was destroyed. Been waiting over a month to receive the insurance from PO (only covered $50 cause extra was not put on). My prediction is Post Office will be out of business and absorbed by one of the large carriers who a in almost every town every day anyway.

[vern hodgson]

I bought seat springs on e bay, was out of town, returned home weeks later to find box containing grapefruit,3 oranges,2 lemon,1. No name on pkg. sent seller a letter, where are my seat springs? Sent post card to fruit sender, "who ever you are, thanks for the fruit. Called seller, said pkg. was posted. Seller said, "just received a post card, some guy in Seattle with your same name has your springs" I said that's me, why send me fruit? Well, turns out he posted the springs, pkg. wrapping came off. So usps grabbed another un-labeled box about the same size as the label and affixed the package less label to it and sent it on. Result was I received a box of aging fruit and my springs, God only knows. Probably in Atlanta awaiting auction.

[mrtexas]

[ericr]

we had a donnybrook about this subject several months ago. Anyway, a friend of mine who works loading UPS planes at a regional airport claims that UPS does a lot of the city-to-city shipping for the Post Office....does anyone know if that is accurate?

[Fordors]

Originally Posted by ericr

we had a donnybrook about this subject several months ago. Anyway, a friend of mine who works loading UPS planes at a regional airport claims that UPS does a lot of the city-to-city shipping for the Post Office....does anyone know if that is accurate?

I can't speak to the accuracy of that, but the opposite of that is true. I have received packages sent UPS that were delivered by UPS to our local post office for ultimate delivery by the USPS. Why use a system like that? God only knows I guess, as we live in a community of 60,000 surrounded by probably another 100,000+ and see those brown trucks regularly.

[Mike V. Florida]

Originally Posted by Tom Wesenberg

That's what my neighbor did with USPS when they put my package in his mailbox. The post office kept it and sold it at their lost mail dept in Atlanta.

Here is what I see as a problem with what you neighbor did and this case. Your name and address was on the package. Unless he wrote on it "placed in wrong mailbox" USPS assumed when it was dropped off that there was no such person at that mail box so they did not know what to do with it. (are your neighbors so pissed off at you that they did not just drop it off at your place? )

On a related note, yesterday I got my antique vacuum shipped by Fed Ex. It was mint when sent, but broken when I recieved it. I'm sure the broken part no longer exists.

So USPS has a poor record with you as does FedEx, your choices are dwindling.

[Mike V. Florida]

Originally Posted by ericr

we had a donnybrook about this subject several months ago. Anyway, a friend of mine who works loading UPS planes at a regional airport claims that UPS does a lot of the city-to-city shipping for the Post Office....does anyone know if that is accurate?

Originally Posted by Fordors

I can't speak to the accuracy of that, but the opposite of that is true. I have received packages sent UPS that were delivered by UPS to our local post office for ultimate delivery by the USPS. Why use a system like that? God only knows I guess, as we live in a community of 60,000 surrounded by probably another 100,000+ and see those brown trucks regularly.

Yes it is 100 percent true. And in return the USPS also delivers packages for the major carriers the last mile. This service is the most profitable part of the carriers service as they do not have to dispatch a truck to one rural home and then back.