USPS is one the largest postal services It is a self-governing agency that is unambiguously authorized by the United States Constitution.
USPS provides reliable and suitable mail facilities to its clients all over the United States. Millions of Americans see United States parcel service as one of the best. The company boasts 32000 retail offices all over the state. The annual revenue of USPS is around $66 billion and it caters to 40 percent of the mail share sent across the globe.
USPS Return to Sender
USPS’s staff works tirelessly round the clock and 365 days a year. Prices of different services vary depending on what the customer is looking for but in general, the prices are economical and affordable for almost all the domestic services. Both domestic and international package service is facilitated for the customer within the country and outside the country.
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Return to Sender – Send back the wrong package easily
From all the packages shipped off, sometimes a receiver wants to return the package back to the sender due to various reasons. Cases like not satisfied with the product or have received the wrong package or you have the package which does not even belong to you.
For any of the above-mentioned reasons, the receiver usually wants to send the package back to them. Most of the receiver wants to reverse the procedure so that the right owner can get the package meant for him or her.
Most of the time customer does not know how to deal with such situation and they get confused and end up taking the wrong step or probably just leave the problem unsolved.
If you have ever faced such a situation or want to avoid this situation in the future, you are in right place. In this post, we will talk about how you can return the package back to the sender. First, you have to be surer that the package received is not meant for you or anybody else in your home or office.
When you know that the package delivered is wrong then read the below article to find out how you can return the wrong package.
You will learn about the procedure of returning the package, how USPS will help you in the process, what will cost you to do so, and how you can report such change the address to USPS. So let us start exploring.
How Can I Return The Package To Sender?
There are many reasons for you to send back the package received from USPS. USPS package delivery service facilitates its customer to raise a complaint on receiving the wrong package. Doing so helps the concerned authority to rectify their mistake and help the receiver to send the package back to the sender.
So let us see what is the process to return the wrong delivery item?. Reading below you will answer all of your questions regarding the same issue.
USPS Return to Sender Service
USPS facilitates the return to sender service to all its customer in case they receive a wrong package. Sometimes the delivery staff mixes up the address and end up delivering the wrong package or sometimes you want to return the package because of other reasons like the person does not live at the given address or sometimes the mail that you have got is unwanted.
All you have to do is follow the below-given steps to get the procedure right:
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Step 1 – Gather all the mail items
All the mail items that you want to return back must be gathered collectively. It could be just a single product or it can be the number of the item that you want to send back. Keep everything in one place.
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Step 2 – don’t tamper or open the packing/envelop
If you have noticed that the address is not yours and the mail item does not belong to you. Do not open or tamper with the packing. Doing so will only increase your work and will make returning the package a more complicated job.
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Step 3- Write on the package- ‘Return to Sender
It is a very important step. Writing in the big bold letter – USPS RETURN TO SENDER helps the concerned authority to understand that the given package needs to return to the sender itself.
If you have unwanted mail the write same on the mail item without canceling the original address or making any other changes in the address.
In case it’s addressed to someone who does not live at that same address anymore, you need to write No Longer at this Address, Return to Sender in clear bold letters. Writing this message will help the authority to even update the address of the same person for future delivery of mail items.
One important thing here to remember is that you need to follow the procedure as soon as you get the wrong package or unwanted mail. Because after a specific period of time you will be charged for following the procedure of sending back the mail to the sender.
While receiving the package USPS always gets the sign of the receiver and if you do not perform the action within the time limit the USPS service will charge you the additional cost for returning the package.
Additional cost includes- the cost of the new envelope and the postage service. It is almost like sending the news package in a shipment through USPS.
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Step 4- In case the person has moved or changed the address
When you know that the address is wrong or the person has moved somewhere else you should notify the authority. Now if you want to avoid such a scenario in the future you can notes or keywords to make sure that it is returned to the sender.
When you know that the receiver has moved somewhere else write- addressee moved
When you are not sure about the receivers address simply write – wrong address
Writing the above keywords is simply optional. You can just return the sender without adding any note. But writing will surely help you to avoid the same situation next time.
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Step 5- Cancel out your given address
If the address on the mail item is written but the receiver does not live there anymore or has moved to some other location you simply need to cross out the address. Crossing out the address indicates that the mail does not belong to you and the office needs to send it back to the sender.
Crossing out addresses will enable the USPS office to avoid the wrong delivery next time they receive the wrong package for your address.
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Step 6- Putting the package back in the mailbox
After following all of the required above steps you don’t have to go anywhere, you need to call anybody, you just need to place it back in the mailbox outside your home. The concerned staff will take it back to the office and will start the process of returning the mail back to the sender.
In case even if after 2-3 days the carrier does not bother to pick up the mail item from your mailbox, then you will have to drop it the USPS. If you can’t go to the nearest USPS office, you can call the customer care office to notify them about the unreturned package. The customer care executive will help you through the process.
Now that you know how you can follow the steps to return the wrong mail item, another question that bothers the customer is about the charges of returning the package. In the below section we have tackled the same question so read on to get the answer to your query.
Does USPS Charges Return The Package To The Sender?
USPS service does not charge anything to carry on the procedure of returning the package. But no cost takes place when you simply write on the package ‘Return to Sender’.
If you have signed the delivery receipt while receiving the package or if you have open or tampered with the seal of the mail item or package, then you will have to buy new packing or envelop and will have to pay for postage.
Receivers bear the cost of returning the package to the sender in the above case, it is almost like sending the new mail item through USPS as the cost is no less.
How can I report the change of address for someone else?
In a case like where you have recently shifted and the previous homeowner has not changed the address for official work. You keep receiving lots of mail from the previous house owner.in order to avoid such a situation, you need to notify the problem to the nearest USPS post office or to the person who delivers the mails.
Even if after informing the post office your problem is not solved then you can simply write in big clear letter ‘Leave Mail Only for (your name). On your mailbox outside your home.
You can also contact the previous owner to tell them about changing their address. If you are getting wrong emails too frequently you can fill in the form for changing the address of the previous owner. For filling the form you should be aware of the address of the previous owner.
The address change can also be done online if you are aware of the new address of the old owner of your house.
They are rarely any cases when USPS is not able to resolve the issue and keeps sending the package to the wrong address. In such case either call the customer care or write an urgent note to the post office asking them to stop delivering all wrong emails to your address.
What happens When USPS can’t locate the sender or receiver address?
When USPS is unable to get the right address of the receiver and even returning the package does not help in such case USPS have a different policy.
All packages with no address to send back the received package are kept in the USPS office for a maximum of 15 days. After this period if nobody claims the package then it is either destroyed by the office or its item are sold in the public auction.
The above option is the last resort for USPS to tackle the problem of USPS Return to Sender, they don’t collect any mail item in the junk for more than 15 days.
If you don’t want any of your packages or important to be destroyed or sold in the auction make sure you know who is receiving it and if it received by the right person.
What not do to While Returning the Package to USPS
Avoid certain things while you send the package back to the USPS office.
- You can stop getting the wrong problem by just letting USPS know what the problem.
- Always write clearly on the package, if possible write with bold red or black marker so that it can be noticed easily.
- Do not write over the address or sender’s address or
- Hiding the name or address or sender will only increase USPS work and you will keep getting the wrong mail item.
- Don’t tamper with the seal or packaging.
- Do not open it and do not sign the receiving if you recognize that the package is wrong.
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Final Verdict
Now that you have read the above article you know how to tackle the problem of getting the frequent wrong package. Following the above steps, you can return junk and wrong mail to the USPS office.
Read more about the policy of returning the package on the official website of USPS. Make sure that you should not be held responsible for the problem caused by USPS staff or the previous owner who didn’t change the address yet. If you still face any problem then, write to us and we will find all the right answered for you.