General Forum

First off, it's important to say that I have a lot of admiration and respect for postal workers. The folks at my local post office are really good, and I almost always receive my packages on time and in good condition. My local mail carrier and I chat about hockey whenever we bump into each other. He's a big Flyers fan.

That being said, I have to share this tracking history for a bubble mailer of trading cards that I'm still waiting on. Over the past seven days, this poor bubble mailer has gone between the same two New York postal locations a total of EIGHT times now. (And that's not including going back and forth between two New Jersey locations a few times before that.)

Part of me wants to contact the post office to see if they can help me receive my cards, but another part of me wants to wait and see how many more times the two post offices send the bubble mailer to each other.

Scroll down and start from the bottom for the complete play-by-play.

September 20, 2019, 7:02 am
Arrived at Post Office
HASTINGS ON HUDSON, NY 10706 
Your item arrived at the Post Office at 7:02 am on September 20, 2019 in HASTINGS ON HUDSON, NY 10706.

September 19, 2019, 9:22 am
Departed USPS Regional Destination Facility
WHITE PLAINS NY DISTRIBUTION CENTER 

September 18, 2019, 8:36 pm
Arrived at USPS Regional Destination Facility
WHITE PLAINS NY DISTRIBUTION CENTER 

September 18, 2019, 9:16 am
Departed USPS Facility
HASTINGS ON HUDSON, NY 10706 

September 18, 2019, 7:10 am
Arrived at USPS Facility
HASTINGS ON HUDSON, NY 10706 

September 18, 2019, 6:33 am
Departed USPS Regional Facility
WHITE PLAINS NY DISTRIBUTION CENTER 

September 17, 2019, 9:09 pm
Arrived at USPS Regional Destination Facility
WHITE PLAINS NY DISTRIBUTION CENTER 

September 17, 2019, 3:07 pm
Departed USPS Facility
HASTINGS ON HUDSON, NY 10706 

September 17, 2019, 7:30 am
Arrived at USPS Facility
HASTINGS ON HUDSON, NY 10706 

September 17, 2019, 6:32 am
Departed USPS Regional Facility
WHITE PLAINS NY DISTRIBUTION CENTER 

September 16, 2019, 7:19 pm
Arrived at USPS Regional Destination Facility
WHITE PLAINS NY DISTRIBUTION CENTER 

September 16, 2019, 11:41 am
Arrived at USPS Facility
HASTINGS ON HUDSON, NY 10706 

September 16, 2019, 9:36 am
Out for Delivery
HASTINGS ON HUDSON, NY 10706 

September 15, 2019
In Transit to Next Facility

September 14, 2019, 6:18 am
Departed USPS Regional Destination Facility
WHITE PLAINS NY DISTRIBUTION CENTER 

September 13, 2019, 7:28 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
WHITE PLAINS NY DISTRIBUTION CENTER 

September 13, 2019, 6:16 am
Departed USPS Regional Facility
TETERBORO NJ DISTRIBUTION CENTER 

September 12, 2019, 6:06 pm
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
TETERBORO NJ DISTRIBUTION CENTER 

September 12, 2019, 3:04 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
NEWARK NJ DISTRIBUTION CENTER 

September 12, 2019, 1:45 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
TETERBORO NJ DISTRIBUTION CENTER 

September 11, 2019, 5:36 pm
Departed USPS Regional Destination Facility
NEWARK NJ DISTRIBUTION CENTER 

September 11, 2019, 7:46 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
NEWARK NJ DISTRIBUTION CENTER 

September 11, 2019, 6:38 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
TETERBORO NJ DISTRIBUTION CENTER 

September 10, 2019, 8:43 am
Departed USPS Regional Facility
SAINT LOUIS MO DISTRIBUTION CENTER 

September 10, 2019, 2:11 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Origin Facility
SAINT LOUIS MO DISTRIBUTION CENTER 

I posted on my blog something similar to this about a week ago.   Crazy stuff....

I had one do something strange a couple of weeks ago. Normally it's quick and efficient and goes straight to the location, this time however the package went from me in Texas and went through Puerto Rico for processing then to New York

Not so funny when it involves medications.  My local postal clerk calls it "looping".  We can blame automation.

Last year while at our home in NY my wife ordered medication.  The package got caught in a "loop" between Albany and Cobleskill and never made it to our local post office.  Our postal clerk had to intervene to get the package identified and stop the "looping". 

Been there. I especially love when it "loops" back and forth between towns that you live in between. I've had packages literally go past my house 3 or 4 times before ending at my post office to be delivered. 

Shipped a package to the UK. Somehow it got lost in Poland for a month. If you're current on your geography, you'd know Poland is no where near the UK.

I bought a card on Ebay back on Aug. 28th.  It arrived at the USPS Regional Facility South Jersey NJ distribution Center on Aug. 31st at 07:38.  It has been In Transit to Next Facility for 17 days and 16 hours.  

I find it fascinating that it showed it out for delivery from Hasting on Hudson after leaving White Plains and in transit to next facility then arrives again at Hastings on Hudson to continue in the loop.

Well, here is a response from a USPS employee (me).  It.s called a "looper" and it can be terribly frustrating.   So many reasons from a one digit zio code error to a human error regarding sorting and delivery.  Reading the tracking history suggests some type of human intervention is necessary.  Typically the machines print a bar code on every piece of mail but a bad barcode sends the mail to looping hell...(I have to work with these bar codes 6 days a week)

We laugh at Loopers because the things you want get caught in a loop but the bills arrive on time...

Wow, 10 days. Sound like the barcode has something wrong with it. being an automated system, no human hands will touch it and no one will know. I would file a lost letter report. That way when it hit the next barcode reader it will be gated to hand sorting and the problem will be fixed. You can wait to see if it breaks the world record for late mail. But it will have to break 89 years.  

I hope you keep us posted on what happens.