Does Post Office Correct Wrong Deliveries?

[ClassicRockr]

Sorry about the length of this, but it's about two wrong deliveries.

About a month ago, the VA sent me a prescription that I had ordered. I order online and get "USPS Tracking" for this. All of my VA prescriptions, which is only a few, always get delivered to our locked mail box in the apartment complex mail area. The bottles come in a pure white bag. So, was checking the "tracking" on this prescription and it read "Delivered to front door or porch". Nobody had stopped (I was home) and no package there. From going to two Post Office's and checking with our regular mail man, found that a relief driver had delivered the package to another apartment in our complex. Our mail man tried knocking on their door, but no answer. I requested, and the VA sent, the prescription again, which I got in the mail box. Nothing was ever done to recover the "delivered wrong" med.

Late last month, I order a vitamin supplement from Walgreens to be delivered to our apartment mail box. On this past Monday, the 2nd, I checked my Walgreen's Account online, and the USPS Tracking number stated the item had been "Delivered to front door or porch" at 11:30AM. At that time, I was using our computer by the front door! Nobody came and no package was out there.
On Tuesday, printed out the "Tracking" info on both my Walgreens online Account and on the USPS site and took to the mail distribution center (where our mail comes from). The lady at the desk looked up the "Navigaion" of the package and found that it to was delivered to the wrong apartment. She wouldn't tell me who delivered it, just told me that she would talk to the person who done the "Delivered to........." statement. Gave her my phone number, but as of right now, have not heard a thing.
Called Walgreen's and they will do a "reshipment" of the item with no charge. This time I'm having the item go to the Walgreens store right down the street.

Ever had this kind of problem? How did you handle it?​

 

[Robusta]

Sorry about the length of this, but it's about two wrong deliveries.

About a month ago, the VA sent me a prescription that I had ordered. I order online and get "USPS Tracking" for this. All of my VA prescriptions, which is only a few, always get delivered to our locked mail box in the apartment complex mail area. The bottles come in a pure white bag. So, was checking the "tracking" on this prescription and it read "Delivered to front door or porch". Nobody had stopped (I was home) and no package there. From going to two Post Office's and checking with our regular mail man, found that a relief driver had delivered the package to another apartment in our complex. Our mail man tried knocking on their door, but no answer. I requested, and the VA sent, the prescription again, which I got in the mail box. Nothing was ever done to recover the "delivered wrong" med.

Late last month, I order a vitamin supplement from Walgreens to be delivered to our apartment mail box. On this past Monday, the 2nd, I checked my Walgreen's Account online, and the USPS Tracking number stated the item had been "Delivered to front door or porch" at 11:30AM. At that time, I was using our computer by the front door! Nobody came and no package was out there.
On Tuesday, printed out the "Tracking" info on both my Walgreens online Account and on the USPS site and took to the mail distribution center (where our mail comes from). The lady at the desk looked up the "Navigaion" of the package and found that it to was delivered to the wrong apartment. She wouldn't tell me who delivered it, just told me that she would talk to the person who done the "Delivered to........." statement. Gave her my phone number, but as of right now, have not heard a thing.
Called Walgreen's and they will do a "reshipment" of the item with no charge. This time I'm having the item go to the Walgreens store right down the street.

Ever had this kind of problem? How did you handle it?​

Were the packages addressed in the exact format as you get the rest of your mail? The post office has your address as Bldg.R Apt 3J. This is NOT the same as Apt.3J Bldg.R. Your regular carrier knows the sorting glitches on his route,and after fighting the coding unit to fix things has given up in frustration and makes manual corrections on the fly. His sub may or may not know the work around. This in no way excuses delivering to the wrong address,but may explain why it happened.

As a retired carrier I will tell you, build a relationship with your carrier! I don't mean stalk him, but see him say hi introduce yourself.In other words, become a person,not just a delivery point. It is only human nature to do just a bit better of a job to keep track of Rockers mail than Apt 3J's.

You may have a slug for a sub, he may just be so overworked that he just plain doesn't have time to give a crap. I know that sounds ridiculous, BUT, I retired early just because the demands of the job became intolerable. Rarely did a work day go by that most of us weren't forced to work overtime to make up a vacant route, often without warning. When you are behind the eight-ball and the boss is breathing down your neck, carelessness happens.

 

[ClassicRockr]

Were the packages addressed in the exact format as you get the rest of your mail? The post office has your address as Bldg.R Apt 3J. This is NOT the same as Apt.3J Bldg.R. Your regular carrier knows the sorting glitches on his route,and after fighting the coding unit to fix things has given up in frustration and makes manual corrections on the fly. His sub may or may not know the work around. This in no way excuses delivering to the wrong address,but may explain why it happened.

As a retired carrier I will tell you, build a relationship with your carrier! I don't mean stalk him, but see him say hi introduce yourself.In other words, become a person,not just a delivery point. It is only human nature to do just a bit better of a job to keep track of Rockers mail than Apt 3J's.

You may have a slug for a sub, he may just be so overworked that he just plain doesn't have time to give a crap. I know that sounds ridiculous, BUT, I retired early just because the demands of the job became intolerable. Rarely did a work day go by that most of us weren't forced to work overtime to make up a vacant route, often without warning. When you are behind the eight-ball and the boss is breathing down your neck, carelessness happens.

Both times it was a sub that supposedly made the delivery. The absolute correct address was on both. Nobody uses building numbers on their packages here and we've lived in this apartment since January 2009. Basically, All the mail we get has the word "Apt." on the package with our apartment number. Amazon is the only place that delivers packages to the door. If, by chance a Post Office package is delivered to the door, the mailman will knock on the door. If no answer, he will leave the package in front of the door.

Thing that gets me is that, when I checked out the two Post Offices, one of which is not a delivery one, only an intake one (where we take Christmas boxes to) and the other is not an intake one, only delivery one (that delivers our mail), about the VA medicine, they took my phone number, but never called me back concerning the incorrect delivered package. And, our regular mailman, after checking (knocking, but nobody answering) where the medicine was actually delivered, he didn't do anything else either. So, the VA just sent me another prescription, at no cost to me, and it was delivered to our mail box.

This last package, from Walgreens, I only checked the distribution center. The lady did find out where the package was delivered to and which sub delivered it, but, again, no call from them telling me anything. Our mailman told me he couldn't do anything about this incorrect delivery. Thank God Walgreen's is doing a "reshipment" of the item, but to a local Walgreen's store this time.

I just don't know what's going on. Two packages delivered to the wrong address and nothing done about it or to the sub that done it. All wife and I can think of........it must be great to work for the Post Office, make delivery mistakes and not be held accountable for it and not get the package to the right address.

People don't want excuses of being tired or anything, they just want their mail!

 

[JB in SC]

I know my carrier by first name and always brag on her to the Postmaster (I know her too), my dad was a rural carrier for 37 years so he drilled that into my head. If it's a critical package, signature confirmation will solve issues with delivery to the wrong address. It is somewhat inconvenient at times.

I would recommend is to use the USPS zip code look up to get your correctly formatted USPS address as it might be different than what you are using, and always use the full nine digits of the zip code. As Robusta posted that will solve a lot of issues. Those last four digits are important when a sub is filling in.

We had a heck of a time getting letters to a relative until I used the exact format (all caps usually), correct abbreviations, and full nine digit zip code.

I had even had my carrier call me to let me know she had a package for me coming via EMS (tracking data is usually delayed when a package leaves US customs).

Also, I signed up for USPS Informed Delivery when it became available for my area. It shows photos of mail coming to your address (not every piece but most) that day. if you have only junk mail that day you don't have to get in a hurry to check the box.

 

[Butterfly]

I don't know what the mailman can really do about the wrong delivery if the people won't answer the door -- he can't exactly kick the door in. I'm not being mean I just don't know what they can really do. Did you file a formal complaint with the post office? I would do that.

This is part of why I don't get rx drugs in the mail -- I've had trouble with people taking stuff out of my mailbox. In my case it was a credit card, which was then used by the thieves. Fortunately, my credit card company absorbed the loss and I wasn't out any money.

 

[Robusta]

I just don't know what's going on. Two packages delivered to the wrong address and nothing done about it or to the sub that done it. All wife and I can think of........it must be great to work for the Post Office, make delivery mistakes and not be held accountable for it and not get the package to the right address.

People don't want excuses of being tired or anything, they just want their mail!

I know you don't want excuses. How do you know that "nothing" was done? I am sure the sub was called to the desk,may have even been the subject of a "Standup talk". Your'e just pissed because they didn't hang his buzzard picked corpse on the PO flag pole.
Yep Post Office was a great job. I threw mail where ever, I was lazy, I was overpaid, a monkey on a bicycle could do my job, I couldn't read,etc,etc!

Most jobs are amazing simple, when you are outside looking in!!!!!!

 

[ClassicRockr]

I know you don't want excuses. How do you know that "nothing" was done? I am sure the sub was called to the desk,may have even been the subject of a "Standup talk". Your'e just pissed because they didn't hang his buzzard picked corpse on the PO flag pole.
Yep Post Office was a great job. I threw mail where ever, I was lazy, I was overpaid, a monkey on a bicycle could do my job, I couldn't read,etc,etc!

Most jobs are amazing simple, when you are outside looking in!!!!!!

Well, didn't mean it THAT way! But, we did except to hear something from the Post Office where the sub works. Heck, I didn't even get an "I'm sorry" from the lady that looked up the tracking number on her computer. She simply told me the package was delivered to the wrong address and that the sub would be informed of that. Our mailman found out the apartment that the sub delivered the VA med to, but nobody was home and he wasn't going to continue to pursue the situation. I was just glad the VA sent me a replacement for the wrong delivered one.

When I told our regular mailman what happened with the Walgreen's package, and showed him the paperwork I had printed out, he really didn't want anything to do with finding out who got the package. All he said was, "since it was a sub, you'll have to take this up with the Post Office it was delivered from." He helped me with the "wrong delivered" VA med, but couldn't retrieve it for me. He didn't want to help again. Thank God that Walgreen's is doing a reshipment of the item for free/no charge.

All folks want is their mail to come to them. If the correct name, address w/apartment number, city, state and zip code is on the item or letter, people would think that their mail would be delivered correctly to them.........not to someone else. Right?

Wife and I do hope this doesn't happen again. It can definitely get frustrating when looking at the tracking of a package and it reads "Delivered to door or porch" at a certain time...........and it wasn't. It was delivered to someone else's door instead. More frustration happens when whom ever got the package doesn't give it to the correct person or to an office or even given back to the mailman.

 

[HipGnosis]

I've gotten things in my mailbox multiple times that did not have my name or address on them.
If it's for my next-door neighbors, I walk it over to them.
If it's not, I write "Mis-Delivered" on it with a marker, put it back in my mailbox and put the flag up. The mailman has always taken them and I deduce that they are delivered to the correct address.

 

[SeaBreeze]

It's been years since I've had the same mailman on a regular basis enough to be friendly with. These days there's always a new face delivering the mail to my mailbox in front of my house. There are a lot of mistakes, but luckily I've always received packages I was expecting and important mail. But, I do have to hand deliver the neighbor's mail sometimes because it ended up in my box, and they do the same for me at times.....but if it ends up outside of my immediate area, it may just wind up in someone's trash, who knows.

Sometimes if I go out of town for a couple of week, I'll put my mail on Hold. More than once when I've picked up my bundle of mail on my return, there has been envelopes for other people there. I always take them back into the PO and make sure they know what happened. I think they just put them back in the mail bin, so that person may get the mail, only several weeks late.

I blame the post office more than the individual worker, they seem to juggle workers around so much, their routes never become familiar, always foreign to them, and that doesn't help. I don't know why they can't employ enough people to cover all the bases in an organized manner like they did for years, mistakes used to be very rare.