I've found that its tracking system is somewhat less useful and somewhat less frequently updated that what I've come to expect from others. Amazon shipping, UPS/FedEx, and the like seem more up-to-date. But, I've never found it to be inaccurate. Sometimes, just late, as if the status were only updated overnight for items in transit.

Your problem is more an issue with USPS handling. My USPS experience is that it has different levels of service/handling and sometimes a modest cost upgrade for a higher level of service can be worthwhile.

I paid USPS for two-day delivery of important paperwork to a location two hours from me. It ping ponged between two major cities, for a period of 10 days before being delivered. No reason, no excuse, just "sometimes that's how long it takes." I was so angry, next time I have important paperwork I'll bite the bullet and pay the Overnight fees.

The theory is that this is to convince you the postal service is hopeless and needs to be torn apart into it various bits and parted out to for profit entities who are going to do so much better. It has been in the works for years. Maybe this is true and maybe not but it certainly has been an area of discussion by the powers that be. Back in the day they werent expected to make money, just be a reliable way to move information and packages around. A postal service is in the constitution but I suppose that wont mean much. But people are bound to move to other companies for package delivery and you are one step closer to other companies having the holy grail of the right to put things in America's mail boxes.That is not legal right now. It will be interesting since companies like Amazon and UPS etc will use the postal service to deliver to those far flung places that cost more for delivery. Forget getting packages in those areas.

pqtriciae

"That's pretty farfetched."

It is not. It's a known fact that the powers-that-be pulled the sorting equipment out of a primary Houston-area facility, only to find that the new equipment wouldn't fit into the building ... so they had to offload sorting to a smaller facility that couldn't handle the load. I had an incoming package get stuck there for more than 30 days ... among many other such reported incidents.

Doesn't matter if that was an "innocent mistake" ... it still was idiotic, incompetent, and destructive to the service.

The postal service is collapsing. Many of my magazines are weeks late, mail delivery is so bad that utilities never received my checks and I was forced to begin autopay which makes my checkbook a mess. I also cannot trust my meds to arrive on time by mail so I purchase from local pharmacy which costs more--and the one med I take isn't cheap.

Just one example: a check I sent to the water company, some 20 miles away, failed to arrive, they called to say they were cutting off my water the following day, I paid over the phone...and they check arrived 3 weeks later having traveled all over the state and one stamp stating address unknown.

Here in rural WV everyone has problems with the mail ranging from annoying to appalling. Just the other day, I got a phone call about an important letter. They wanted to know it my address had changed because the letter was returned as undeliverable. (At least it was returned.) But no, I hadn't changed my address and the address they were using was correct. I asked at my small post office, but it never got as far as there. She would have remembered returning a letter. Someone, some machine, somewhere just returned it. And costs keep rising.

I could go on and on.

IDK if tracking is accurate but I know mail traveling is accurate. If I mail say a formal wedding invitation to my neighbors it will go into Mpls and come out again before they get it. Our town is in the middle of MN. I assume all mail mailed in MN and probably ND given how long letters take between here and Fargo, has to go through Mpls before it is directed to it's destination. Their system seems incredibly inefficient from the outside anyway.

My understanding that the local PO here is no longer allowed to directly sort local mail into PO boxes and delivery routes. It must go to the Houston sorting facility and back.

My neighbor mailed an item to a classmate after a recent class reunion, to a PO Box. Tracking tagged it as invalid address. It bounced between a couple facilities, then didn't move for several days. The addressee went to her PO to fetch it.

Update in orginal post.

First the facts, packages (or letters) are not sorted by humans in transit but are scanned by optical readers for addresses on the conveyor and directed to the correct outgoing truck.

The scanners pick up the mailing address and return address and selects the one with the biggest font in the correct location Packages are labeled just as letters are required to be labeled.

Did you by chance make the return address really big and not in the correct area of the package? This error may be on you. The only time the address is read by a human is when it gets to the local sub station from the main station.

Well, at least your package wasn't stolen. It is known that Baltimore, Northern Virginia and North Carolina have gangs within the postal service that steal checks and giftcards and credit cards out of the mail that people send or receive. Many people have been told if you have to send a check to send it Fedex - never mail it!

Kevin9408, thanks for that information.

We just put a small sticker return address label in the upper left corner and I wrote out the grandson’s name in larger font with a black marker, very legible & clear tape over it.

This morning the pkg is back in Columbus, OH. Hopefully on its way to W Lafaette.

I ordered a baby gift a couple of years ago from an etsy seller in NYC, to be sent to a city between Toronto and Kingston. Should be easy-peasy even with cross-border.

Using the USPS tracker, I saw it ship, first to the central PO, then Buffalo (as expected), then Jacksonville Florida! What? It bopped around Florida, including a few Jacksonville facilities like the central sorting unit, distrubution centers, and then post offices, and Miami, and Virginia, then back to Florida. It was wild. FINALLY the package arrived in Peterborough. Thank goodness I ordered up a size, so it still fit by the time it arrived.

Watching the package’s travels was certainly entertaining.