While less and less of our crucial information comes by post now, that doesn’t mean that it’s okay if a few weeks’ worth of it just disappears into nowhere. Especially when you’re expecting presents in the mail. That’s what happened to Dave’s mail after he and his wife left town for their honeymoon. Expecting cards and gifts after the wedding, they requested a two-week hold on their mail. Evidently, the postal service held their mail, all right, but isn’t too keen to give it back.

A few days before leaving for our wedding, my (now) wife went on the USPS’s website and requested a two week hold for our mail. Our wedding was on a friday, and we were leaving monday for our honeymoon. The hold was intended to start the day we left and end the day before we returned, and she selected the option to pick up our mail at the post office, rather than have it delivered in bulk (we get a lot of mail normally, and figured that with the wedding we would be receiving a lot of gifts that shouldn’t be pouring out of our mailbox). We received confirmation.

When we got back, we went to the post office. They didn’t have our mail, or any record of our hold and suggested we come back the next day. We went back the same day, and the woman behind the counter searched the back again, and said that she still didn’t know where anything was and suggested we try back the next morning before 10am when the carriers would be available. We actually had our mail delivered that day, but it only contained a few pieces and they were all post-marked within the last couple days.

We went back a third time at 9:30am, and the same woman was there, and she sent us to speak with a supervisor. He told us he didn’t know anything about a hold, and said that they didn’t have anything in the back. We asked what we are supposed to do about our missing two weeks of mail that was sure to contain wedding gifts, and he shrugged and said not to worry, our mail wasn’t lost. He said that our usual mail carrier was off for a couple days and asked me to call Monday morning between 7:30 and 10am and ask to speak with the carrier for our route. He said that the carrier might just keep it somewhere and would drop it off Monday when he got back to work.

I called this morning, and the number turned out to be a fax line…

Our missing mail still hasn’t been delivered.

What can we do? Some man on line suggested we file a complaint with USPS…but that still doesn’t really solve anything and doesn’t get us our missing mail.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.