Dead Letter Office (DLO)

We had ordered something online and had it shipped to our address in Southern California. The package was not insured but was tracked. And lucky for us it was, because it never got to us. After the expected period of delivery was over, our package was shown as being in Santa Clara, CA. A few weeks later, USPS website showed it to be in Saint Paul, Minnesota enduring the bitter cold.

Dead Letter Office (DLO)
On a whim, I mentioned this to a nice lady at the local post office. She informed us that Saint Paul is where the Dead Letter Office is. That's where the undeliverable packages go and wait for recovery. She directed me to another friendly staffer who took care of the matter by sending a fax to the DLO in Saint Paul with mailing addresses of sender and addressee, along with the tracking number and phone number of sender or addressee should any questions arise. Three weeks afterwards, the tracking number fetched thin air at the USPS website. At this point, we gave up hope again, such is the belief inspired by government agencies. We were wrong. The package was delivered within a week.

Kudos to USPS
Ol' Ben Franklin's system is working quite well. I know that the postage has been rising consistently since 1999, but know ye readers that the cost of sending a package or letter via USPS is far lower than that in other state-run post services in prosperous European countries. And that's in spite of the fact that dwellers in 48 contiguous states subsidize the postage to and from Alaska and Hawaii.