Thread: Lost Razor Disappointment

From a security point of view apart from anything else I can understand requiring a tracking number. If they (as i think most postal services do) require a tracking number to track packages, their system probably doesn't allow for other ways to find packages, and besides with the sheer volume of packages moved it would be a task and a half to find it.

USPS? Insure anything you ever want to see again and scan- or take a photo of the insurance receipt with a smartphone. One failed delivery in 50 years I can think of - it was insured and the claim was paid without a hassle. Late deliveries? Sure. I got some mail (in Germany/APO) once that was almost two months old. It was badly charred, hand-tagged and poly bagged as a result of a plane crash at Rhein-Main airport.

USPS tracking isn't worth a crap. Use the USPS insurance; it's more better if you have to prove something.

USPS tracking has never been their strong point but it has improved markedly over the last couple of years. It is nowhere near what UPS and Fedex have but the Postal Service doesn't get to pick and choose what mail they handle or lavish funds the way private carriers do.

I've never had a lost package from USPS in all the years I've been around. There have been delays yes but in the end it always gets there and in fact if you send priority mail it's faster than UPS or Fedex. I've lost plenty from UPS and now Fedex with their policy of not even knocking on the door, just leaving a package and running off.

A reply to the guys that lost and had to deal with postal workers and P.O. managers:
They, by law, must hire certain amount of poorly educated and less fortunate persons to do the job. So it, in many ways, is a Macjob with higher pay. And due to legal biases they do sometimes get some really bad folks.

But, I don't see any viral vids of the delivery folk tossing things over fences and throwing them at a house. May happen, but the PO has a very large amount of inspectors that keep the bad actors down. Were it not for the necessary inspectors and the passed on cost the rates would be a lot lower. Think cops on the beats to achieve safe mail delivery.
If you ever worked in a large P.O. you would understand the no-door, half wall restroom commodes and peep holes above every work station and the newer hidden cameras that have somewhat replaced them.

~Richard

Without being familiar with the inner workings of the postal system it's impossible to know how much that postal worker can do without a tracking number.
Yes, we know that all mail is photographed and there is security footage but I doubt that every post office worker gets access to those - it's most likely restricted to the internal supervision and by court approval.

Most likely they also have a digitized data of all mail originating from this zip code destined to that zip code which to narrow down the packages on specific day, but it still doesn't seem something that the front desk clerk should have access to.

The tracking number system seems like a reasonable way to ensure modest level of privacy.

Since you don't have that anymore it seems the best chance is to find somebody higher up in the system who may have the ability to look that up and ask them to help you. It's not easy, but I don't know what else you can do.


I've had one insured package lost few years back and got paid without problem - had to fill a form and justify the value I was claiming (I had the sales receipt) and few weeks later got a check.
Another lost package was a gift card I sent by mail (that recipient appreciates such things and finds e-cards impersonal) - turned out that USPS has an insurance limit of $15 on gift cards and won't pay anything more. Luckily, the store was able to access the gift card through the transaction number on my receipt, voided and issued a new one for the same value. So I recovered that loss differently; I didn't bother getting the postage refunded by USPS - the $5 or so was not worth my time filing a claim, but I don't have a reason to think they wouldn't have paid it.

I don't know how it is in the US, but here I fill in a paper, and they put a sticker with the tracking number on that slip, and the barcode on the package.
The address does not get entered into the system until it reaches the first sorting facility.
Without your tracking number, they know squat and they cannot search for other fields I think.

Gugi's country seems to have the same system we do for tracking a package.

A thought, if you do use UPS and FedEx, be sure that you do not have a blanket "leave at door if not at home" filled in on your address. It is a sneak type thing that they do to assure they can drop it off without your permission. I live in the countryside about 30 miles from a hold for pick up location of either of them.
~Richard

Richard I live in the USA

In US is similar - there are self-adhesive stickers with barcodes and tracking numbers sitting around the post office for various services - if you want your package tracked you put one of them for the service you want and the clerk scans it so the system records that they've got a package with that tracking number and gives you a receipt. It's possible it also records the destination zip code at that point, or may be each subsequent scan along the way adds the current zip code until it reaches the destination.

But, I don't think they have digitized addressee and recipient fields for every package.

One time several years ago I sold something on ebay and the guy decided to cheat. He filed an item not received claim with paypal at the last day of their claim filing window and they took the money back from me.
They wanted me to provide the proof of the signature confirmation. I went to the post office and they didn't have the record because it was already archived but put in a request to be retrieved and told me to go back in 3 days. When I went back they printed out for me the tracking status with image of the guy's signature. I faxed it to paypal and they returned me the money.
But that whole tracking was done through the tracking number not my or his address.

The tracking # is now mandatory on priority mail. They raised the price months ago ........ year or more ....... and began including it, along with $50.00 insurance. There is no other way for them to follow the progress of a package. Alternatively, if it is a very valuable parcel, registered mail is a more expensive, albeit slower option. The parcel must be signed for, and placed under lock and key, at every stage of its progress. The clerk at the USPS counter has no way within the system to find a parcel without that number.

Yep, the tracking number is everything. Without that you have nothing. Registered Mail is a special case. You can't track it until it arrives at the destination and it's the most reliable means other than courier service. It can be slow though. I recently sent a watch from N.M to San Francisco and it took over two weeks to arrive.