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Kokua Line June Watanabe |
Registered mail is
only way to track parcelQuestion: On Dec. 16, I mailed three insured, priority mail packages to my son in Keauhou on the Big Island from Milford, N.Y. Two days later, he put in a change of address and moved to Hilo. He started receiving forwarded mail immediately but not the packages. I wrote to the Keauhou postmaster who assured me the packages had been forwarded. I have spoken to the post office in Hilo several times and written to them also. They say they never received the packages and blamed the post office in Honolulu, which I have also spoken and written to. The general attitude seems to be, just forget it and file a claim. This is unacceptable. I want a reasonable explanation as to how three insured, priority mail packages could be lost unless they were stolen.
Answer: Unfortunately, the lesson here may be that it behooves us all to find out what the different mail delivery options actually mean. That includes knowing what insuring mail does.
There is no way to track priority mail, said Lynne Moore, manager of customer service for the U.S. Postal Service in Hawaii. Second, insuring a letter or parcel does not provide any extra protection -- it merely provides a recourse for compensation.
"It's not that people are unwilling to help (you)," Moore said. "They just couldn't" beyond a certain point. While priority mail is forwardable, there is no way to track it, she said.
Meanwhile, the intent of insured mail is to provide the mailer an opportunity to file a claim for loss or damage once something is delivered. Between the time an insured parcel is sent and delivered, "there's no tracking," Moore said.
When the postal employees suggested you file a claim, they weren't dismissing you, but "just trying to advise (you) what to do because there would be no way ... to locate (the packages)," Moore said.
As extraordinary as it is to have three packages waylaid, "we cannot look for this parcel in terms of an actual search."
Asked what mailing option would provide tracking, Moore said the "safest" method is registered mail.
"At any given time, we can research registered mail," she said. "To some degree, express mail has tracking as we handle it." But once express mail is turned over to the airlines, "there's no interim tracking."
Asked about the possibility of theft, Moore said that whenever an item that's registered or insured -- or otherwise "accountable" -- doesn't reach a destination, the information is turned over the postal inspection service. There, inspectors would look to see if there are any patterns, such as if losses seem to be more prevalent in certain areas.
Verified theft from mailboxes should be reported to the U.S. Postal Service by calling 423-3790.
"We're really sorry that this has happened," Moore said. There's still a chance the packages will turn up and she suggested your son, being closer, keep in touch with the post office in Hilo.
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