Head Of Local Post Office Shows Up At Guy’s Door To Personally Apologize For USPS Package Tracking Mix-Up

Remember Tony? He’s the guy who was waiting around for a package to be delivered by the U.S. Postal Service, only to find that the online tracking said a carrier had attempted to deliver it while he was out briefly — an event that video from his home security system proved never happened. While it’s still unclear what exactly led to the contradicting tracking info — something many, many of our readers have said they’ve experienced — there’s a happy ending in this case at least: Tony says the new postmaster in charge of his local office showed up on Wednesday to personally apologize to him for the mix-up.

Tony has been keeping in touch with us since Consumerist posted his story on Tuesday, writing that yesterday, the new postmaster on the job at his local USPS branch — who had been on the job all of three weeks before this incident landed in her lap — had dropped by to talk to him about his experience, and collect more information about his delivery timeline (USPS reps had asked Consumerist to connect them with Tony, but his tracking info was also included in the credits of his video, so his guess is that’s what led to her visit).

She also wanted to know more about Tony’s previous attempts to address his problems through “official” channels — filing a complaint online as well as calling USPS, to no avail — “so she can take appropriate action up and down the chain,” Tony says.

As it turns out, both the “no secure location” and “delivered: front porch notifications” were actual scans, and not automated systems updating the info at predetermined times, Tony adds, which was one possible explanation a former USPS worker had offered Consumerist.

Tony says he also wants to give a shoutout to his usual mail carrier, “a great guy,” who happened to be on vacation when the mix-up with substitute mail carriers occurred.

“He knocked REALLY loud today when he delivered my package,” Tony wrote, noting that he feels bad if the video got him into any trouble. He says he made it clear during the postmaster’s visit that his carrier is a good guy.

“I’m sure she has a lot on her plate with her new job,” Tony says of the new postmaster, “but I’m confident that she’ll be able to get out ahead of it. I really doubt I’ll have any issues in the foreseeable future.”

If only it didn’t take widely-publicized videos and Internet shaming to make USPS take notice, perhaps invisible mail carriers leaving invisible packages would become a less frequent occurrence.

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