USPS Delivery Confirmation Says My Packages Were Delivered — They Weren't

An anonymous reader says anonymous’s mail isn’t getting to Anonymous. Even though USPS’s delivery confirmation service clearly says Anonymous received the package.

Anonymous sorts it out here:

I moved to my current address 2 and a half years ago, and my family’s been having troubles with USPS from the start, but things only got bad recently.
I live in a development of townhouses, and over the years we’ve had envelopes delivered to our address that were meant for other houses. Typically, these envelopes are meant for our neighbors, 19 and 21, and since we’re 23, we didn’t really mind walking over and delivering their mail. Everyone chalked it up to having three Asian families living in a row, and the person responsible for sorting occasionally getting confused. (We also live in a college town, read: Ivy League school gets a lot of mail, and subsequently puts a lot of pressure on the post office.) We even got a Christmas card meant for 33, and let it go.

Note that UPS and FedEx have never had problems delivering packages to us, and Christmas gifts from family throughout the country have gotten to us without a hitch.

However, recently, I’ve been doing more online transactions (read: Using my new found (I’m 17) financial independence, with my debit card, I’ve been purchasing things online.) and the packages have been getting lost. I’m not talking about one package getting delivered to the wrong house, I’m talking about three, in a row. All were clearly labeled with my name and address.

When my first package got lost, I called Delivery Confirmation customer service immediately, since the DC number said it had been delivered 5 hours before. The representative was friendly and helpful, gave me a confirmation number and said someone would call me 24 hours later. They didn’t, but my package was returned by a neighbor that day, so I let it go. After I called USPS CS, my entire family ragged on me for doing that, saying our mailman would just mess up more deliveries.

A week later, my second and third packages finally arrived. One of them, had been “delivered” according to Delivery Confirmation five days before, and the shipper was irritated that I had not confirmed this. The other didn’t have delivery confirmation, but the postmark was from three weeks before it got to my door. I looked it up, it should have taken a week, at most, for the package to get to me.

I’ve also been waiting on two international packages, one from Asia and one from South America, since November, the shippers, both friends of mine, have assured me that they’ve sent them out. One of them even resent hers! And still, nothing, even though they both sent via their respective international express services.

I’m hoping I don’t have to wait 7-8 months until I move out (to college!) to fix this problem.
So, Consumerist, how can I solve this problem and what do you think?

Has anyone out there dealt with serial mis-deliveries and managed to set the Postal Service straight?

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