General
Keep in mind that some vendors mark your order shipped before they actually ship it (for security reasons and/or because they are lazy). So do not expect that they actually shipped your order out when it got marked shipped.
There can also be a lot of other reasons why your package is late (e.g. weather, postal strike, . . .), so please be patient.
Testing if your mail gets intercepted
To test if your mail gets intercepted you can mail yourself something (preferably from a post office as far away from you as possible).
Package it carefully yourself. Remember exactly how you placed things. Take pics if it’ll help. Get creative. Use colorful tape, and make shapes over the openings of the package with it. Use a specific number of packaging peanuts that you counted out. Wrap the object you mail in some thin holiday wrapping paper. Tape that too. Go crazy! It doesn’t matter if it looks sketchy, shucks, might be better for it. Hell, maybe even handwrite the info on the pack. The item you send doesn’t matter so long as it’s legal (I’d send one of those motion sensor cameras that hunters use to capture nighttime wildlife). Remember, we’re trying to find out if our emails are being tampered with. Conduct this experiment as many times as necessary.
Got “Undeliverable as Addressed”?
This means that the receiver address on the package doesn’t “exist”, or couldn’t be read by the postman/woman. This could be for a number of reasons, the most common being, you forgot to include the apartment/unit number that you live in. Other possible reasons: you spelled something wrong, or you gave a fake name (don’t do this). Even more possible causes: the mailman/woman is dumb/blind and can’t interpret your address, the shipping address got smeared/smudged along the way, or the vendor you purchased your lab supplies from forgot to include your apartment number although you sent it to the vendor.
Scenario:
You’re patiently waiting for your order to come. You think it’s supposed to be here today so you check the tracking number to see its status which says “Undeliverable as Addressed – package will be shipped back to sender if the sender address is valid”. You panic for a bit and then come to your senses, but you still don’t exactly know what to do. But lucky for you, you have this guide and you keep on reading ahead.
What to do if it’s been LESS than a day since you’re package was marked “Undeliverable as Addressed” (i.e. it’s 12pm and the tracking number indicates your package was marked “Undeliverable” at 7:30 am):
Call the post office that your tracking information says it’s sitting at. If they answer (unlikely), politely explain your situation and give them your name and the correct shipping address. They may ask you to just come in and pick it up though, don’t be scared cause you didn’t do anything wrong. In my experience, local post office phone numbers lead to nowhere, or the workers just don’t pick up the phone, but maybe it’ll work for you.
If calling your post office doesn’t work, then go to the post office that your tracking information says it’s sitting at. Make sure you have your ID (or proof of residency at the package’s shipping address), having the package’s tracking number is not necessary but it will help a lot, so bring it. Politely (use sir/ma’am & please/thank-you) tell them that you’re experiencing issues with getting a package delivered, and were told to come down to this post office to pick it up because it’s sitting at this post office. If they ask what the issue is, say it was supposedly marked “Undeliverable”. They’ll ask for your ID, give it to them, and also give them the tracking number.
They should be able to find it if it’s there. If they don’t find it, or if the cranky USPS worker essentially tells you to fuck off, then don’t panic. Call the toll-free 800 USPS customer service phone number, and be prepared to stay on hold for 30 to 90 minutes, but stay on, because it’ll be worth it. Once the hold music stops and you’re able to talk to a customer service agent tell them the scenario and give them your name and full/correct address.
They’ll say something like “ok we should hopefully be able to get this sent to you”. Be prepared to wait for another 5 to 10 days before you receive it though (that’s if they were able to get the package and update the label, sometimes they aren’t able to update the label if it’s been too long – keep reading if you find that happens to you).
What to do if it’s been OVER a day since you’re package was marked “Undeliverable as Addressed” (i.e. it’s Jan 15th and the tracking number indicates your package was marked “Undeliverable” on Jan 13th ):
Call the toll-free 800 USPS customer service phone number, be prepared to stay on hold for 30 to 90 minutes, but stay on because it’ll be worth it. Once the hold music stops and you’re able to talk to a customer service agent tell them the scenario, and give them your name and full/correct address.
They’ll say something like “ok we should hopefully be able to get this sent to you”. Be prepared to wait for another 5 to 10 days before you receive it though (that’s if they were able to get the package and update the label, sometimes they aren’t able to do that). So you watched the tracking number for a week, saw it come to your city, it looks like it’s gonna get delivered, then all of a sudden you see the dreaded “Undeliverable as Addressed” error.
This is because you initially tried to fix the “Undeliverable” package issue a little too late and they were unable to update the shipping address fully and could only try and send it back to your city. This is not a problem, hopefully, you caught it soon enough this time, all you need to do are the steps above with the title “What to do if it’s been LESS than a day since you’re package was marked “Undeliverable as Addressed”. Then bam! You should have your package and be happy!
