Have you tried tracking them? Foreign registered mail no longer receives special security service from USPS (most other countries do the same). It is handled as Certified mail (recorded delivery) which is simply ordinary mail that is signed for. However many of the holiday staff now are only temporary and poorly trained and do not bother to segregate them as they are supposed to or do not know they have to. Sadly I have seen this happen a lot in my years at USPS. They just deliver as ordinary mail without bothering with getting the signature. And it only gets worse as experienced postmen retire or quit (crazy working conditions). Donât believe what the new Postmaster General says about improving anything.
I suggest you file a loss claim with China Post ( I assume you are in China) and DEMAND indemnity as is your right under the UPU rules. It is only a small amount but it will definitely get USPS to take notice ( I hope). They need to know there is a problem ( and there certainly is). However no indemnity can be claimed if you declared no value or China Post rules prohibit it. But do file a loss claim anyway and follow up on it.
Loss claims will be paid from USPS ( via your post) if the letter was lost in our custody and you qualify for compensation.
I do tried tracking at USPS, however they just simply shows as Moving through the network, and remains in this status with no further time update. I have already submitted the International mail research form and I am currently waiting for the result.
Also, there have been many parcels and items sent from my post office to US have lost too. According to what the post office clerk said, USPSrefuses to provide refund since they are no longer a member of UPU andChina Post have to pay for refund even though it was not their fault.
USPS is still a UPU member. Trump threatened to pull out. It never happened. Sounds like China Post is like USPS in one wayââjust blame it on the other country.
I hope I didnât come across as rude. What I meant is that USPS clerks make up stories too when a foreign complaint comes in. Then they find out I am one of them makes me embarrassed to be a postal worker sometimes.
@GonePostal1840 Last week I came into my local post office with two postcards I wanted hand cancelled, and the lady told me USPS charges $1.60 per stamp to hand cancel. Tell me thatâs not a bold-faced lie. I went down the road to a different post office and the lady did it for free. Everything I can find says that theyâll just lie to you because they donât feel like doing it.
I was told the same thing except it was $1.75 for a certificate of mailing. If you bring three or more cards then itâs 50 cents each if you use the form for multiples. I canât find any official rule on this so I donât know how this came to be. If you care for philatelic curiosities you can pay for the certificate by placing stamps on the form, which is then hand cancelled and returned to you. I just donât even bother asking for hand cancels anymore. I have heard so many lies both as a customer and from coworkers to customers it truly horrifies me. And it seems like postcrossers in other countries have come across this sort of thing. Maybe the UPU has some secret requirement ?
Do you have any problem with postcards received from Germany? I have received six official postcards in mid-October from Germany and since then not a single official german postcard reached me. That is strange.
At my local post office, they will hand cancel one item for you, but if you want to do a bunch they make you step aside and give you the stamper to do it yourself. I often see people do this with invitations.
My local post office refuses to hand cancel anything. I had a package being sent to a friend who collects stamps, so I put some special ones on it for her. I asked the âcustomer service agentâ at the counter to hand cancel them. He told me âWe donât do thatâ. When the package arrived, the cancellations were a black magic marker scribbled across everything. I send packages with FedEx now, as I get a nice discount from my job. USPS is its own worst enemy.
Out of my last five postcards sent from the UK, three to Russia have expired; one to the USA has been travelling for 40 days; one to Finland has been travelling for over 30 days.
I love Postcrossing but Iâm starting to think Iâm wasting ÂŁ1.85 in stamps on every card.
Mail to the USA used to take at the most 5 working days for as long as I can remember.
Hopefully my cards are sitting in mail bags somewhere waiting to be put on a plane.
In the UK I believe its done at the central post office. Letters I send say Southampton even though thatâs not my nearest city. So for us not the post office we take them to
makes me embarrassed to be a postal worker sometimes. 
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