USPS Tracking Goes Haywire

I got a text saying USPS was trying to deliver a package. The text had this weird contact name that didn’t even mention the USPS. I got suspicious. Then I realized USPS doesn’t have my cell phone number so how could they send me a text?

Delete!

USPS may not have my cell phone number, but they do know where I live.

At least I thought they did.

A few weeks after the bogus text, USPS preceded to tell Amazon they tried to deliver a package to my house and failed. There were three people and two dogs at home during the purported delivery time. One of the dogs spends her day gazing out the front window and barking at every passerby. She goes from low to high alert if said passerby walks up to the front porch.

The problem with claiming you tried to deliver a tracked package is the fact that it’s being tracked. Sort of.

According to USPS’s own tracking information, this package went on a three-day journey, including the supposed delivery attempt.

Let’s get real, if you’re going to screw up deliveries, why put scannable labels on a package, send it to the wrong place, and then claim you can’t deliver it? The message implies the mail carrier knocked on my door and no one was home. 

What really happened?

Instead of arriving at the main post office, the package went to a small branch that has no residential delivery service. Basically, the mail vehicles that serve my area do not spend the night at this small office. They are routed out of the larger main post office.

Following USPS’ own tracking record, here’s where the package went.

Sunday April 16, 2023 around 6:3o p.m. the Amazon order left Nashville, TN, 90 miles north of me. Six hours later it left Nashville again. At 2:03 a.m. the tracking label claimed the package was transferred to another carrier for delivery. It arrived at the Madison Post Office at 4:25 p.m. and then went to the small branch post office at 12:11 p.m. To further confuse the issue, all this “tooing” and “froing” supposedly happened on the same day.

Since the branch post office doesn’t make deliveries, the package was sent back to the main post office an hour and a half later.

Then began its Grand Tour as the package was sent on an 8 hour trip to Birmingham, AL. (90 miles south of my house, 180 miles of travel) where it was processed and left there at either 11:23 p.m. April 17, or 2:19 a.m. or 2:21 a.m. on April 18th. Not even an hour later it miraculously arrived in Huntsville, AL. 90 miles north of Birmingham.

It was with great joy I finally found the package stuffed into the mailbox, no attempt to deliver it to my door. Just stuffed in the mailbox. Not that the package fit, but I’ll going to save overstuffing of mailboxes for another day!