USPS packages delivering to wrong address

[ferrymorse]

Last week we received complaints from four customers that their package tracking shows delivered but they were never received. When we looked at the tracking, it shows that they were indeed delivered, but to our (the sender's) city and state. There is no specific address showing on the tracking screen so we can't confirm exactly where, and we don't have the packages at our facility. When we pull up the labels, they appear correct, at least with the written address... but perhaps the bar code is screwed up and shopify is passing the shipped from info for the bar code instead of the deliver to? Or maybe it's happening on the USPS side? Has anyone else had this problem? We can't reach anyone at USPS today because of the holiday, and we have some p'd off customers to answer to. I don't want to resend if the same thing is going to happen all over again.

[ClearChoiceAqua]

I think it's on the USPS side.  I've had 3 packages this week that the post office delivered to the wrong address.  Luckily they showed up the following day at my customers address.  tell your customers you are looking into it and cannot contact USPS because they are closed today and you will get back to them tomorrow.  Chances are they will show up to the correct address without you actually having to call USPS but good luck with their automated system.  I do everything in my power not to have to call USPS, then again UPS and fedex suck to but at least if you just keep saying "agent" you get a person pretty quick

[Anindo]

In cases like these, the best option would be to use an app like the Multi Carrier Shipping label app that can show real time tracking and also show the address in which the delivery was made. This would give you an idea about where the shipment is at this moment. Apart from that, i would like to know how was this resolved.

[PluginHive]

Using a tracking app can solve such issues. An app like the Shipment Tracking & Notify would provide a real-time tracking status for all the orders and send tracking details to the customers as well. 

[Simon_Scott · Accepted solution]

The best thing in me experience is this.

1/ Show empathy to your customer.

2/ Ask them to contact their post office and ask for the postal supervisor.  Share the tracking info.

3/ Ask for the GPS coordinates from the hand scanner.. this was recorded at the time the carrier scanned the packaged and marked as delivered.

4/ This will show one of two things usually:  It was delivered correctly and perhaps stolen off the porch.  It was delivered to the wrong address, usually a neighbor. 

5/ ... 9/10 times this solves the issue.

[ferrymorse]

Thank you that was helpful, I didn't realize exact GPS location was recorded. As it turns out, in this case it was a USPS error. They had a new mail carrier working and his scanner was set to "delivered" when the packages were initially scanned at our facility. But there are many other instances where it will be handy to ask for the GPS location.