Location: California
Our dog recently passed and we had her cremated; her urn was to be delivered via USPS Priority Mail Express with signature required.
The tracking says that it was delivered earlier today and signed by someone with a name I’ve never heard of (neither have my neighbors). No package is outside and I’ve been here all day, and nobody has come to drop it off either. Can’t contact customer service or the local branch on the weekend.
As you can imagine, we are not only heartbroken but absolutely infuriated. How do you manage to deliver a package to the wrong address when a signature is required?
Do we have any recourse against USPS for this?
Comments
NAL for legal advice, but this exact thing recently happened to me (Los Angeles). The USPS did quite a lot to get my package back and managed to do it. They figured out where it was delivered and went to the address multiple times (would call me afterward to say they were unable to reach them). It took about 3-4 days and they managed to catch the person at home & got the package back & brought it over to me at like 10pm. Luckily they never opened it and were holding onto it to return to the postperson. I was legit impressed with how serious the post office took it.
I know this is doesn’t help with how you’re feeling right now about your pet’s remains being incorrectly delivered but fingers crossed on Monday they’ll get right back to you & retrieve it.
Make sure you send in a lost mail report immediately too, not just calling them! https://www.usps.com/help/missing-mail.htm
Try posting in all your local FB groups; join any you can find and post looking for that person/explain that somebody signed for remains and you are anxious to have them back. You could also see if the folks in the usps subreddit have any ideas.
Not sure if it’s the same where you are, but I recently had a package marked as delivered hours before it actually arrived- our usual rural carrier said they’ve been required to sign packages as delivered before X time, whether or not they’ve finished their route.