It can take months or years of investigation to bring a criminal matter to trial, and complicated insurance matters can often drag on for extended periods of time without resolution. But does the U.S. Postal Service really need more than a year to pay a $30 insurance claim?

That’s the question being asked by a California eBay seller, who shipped a package to a buyer in Italy in Dec. 2011. The package was last tracked by the USPS in New York City, but has long since vanished off the radar. Thankfully, the seller paid for insurance… right?

After all, USPS even told the man that the postal service in Italy had no record of the package being delivered, and the buyer received a refund on his purchase because he says it never arrived.

And yet, in spite of all evidence, USPS rejected his claim, insisting that the package was “delivered as addressed.”

He tells CBS Sacramento’s Kurtis Ming that he appealed the ruling last year but has heard nothing back from USPS in the eight months since.

“I’m more angry at the system than I am at my money,” the man tells Ming.

In terms of an explanation for the delay, a USPS rep could only say, “Investigations can take some time… If it didn’t get delivered, and we can prove that it wasn’t delivered, we will honor the claim.”

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