USPS Mail Forwarding Not Working? Here’s What To Do

The United States Postal Service has a tough job, and for the most part they do it very well. But you’re probably reading this because you tried to forward your mail and found that USPS mail forwarding was not working.

Everybody makes mistakes, right? The real problem with the post office is that when they make mistakes, they don’t have a good system for fixing them.

In my experience, when something does go wrong, especially if it’s their fault, many post offices will not do anything to help you solve it. They should have a clear system for getting help, but they don’t. They seem to assume they can’t make a mistakes.

This article covers some possible solutions. They range from continuing to make complaints until you get somewhere to giving up and switching to a virtual mail box service (we like Traveling Mailbox).

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Change of Address? What’s that?

It started a few years ago when I moved across town from one zip code to another. I filled out a change of address request form for my new mailing address.

This free service was supposed to ensure that any first class mail coming to me at the old address would be forwarded to the new address for 12 months.

Then I gave the mail forwarding request to the carrier in advance of the date I wanted them to start to forward mail, as I had been instructed to do. Immediately – before I had even moved – I stopped getting mail altogether.

It was all getting bounced back to senders – including important checks and bills. The carrier just shrugged when I brought it up and seemed uninterested in helping.

Who to Call?

Calling the 1-800 number was not helpful. They just said I had to call my local post office, and gave me the local number.

Calling the post office was also no help, because the supervisors were never available. I spent a lot of time driving to the post office and talking to a supervisor to get it straightened out.

But it was like the supervisor had never seen a forwarding order before. He explained what I had done “wrong” several times, only to realize I’d actually done everything right.

In the end, it seemed like the supervisor understood where to send my mail now. But I wasn’t convinced they’d fix the problem. And it was too late in the case of many of the important mail items I’d already lost.

So I spent a lot of time and energy calling everyone who regularly sent me bills or checks. I had to give them my new address and warn them to expect the returned mail. (And this is why I do everything online now.)

Fortunately, they all took good care of me, but it was still a month before I had all my late checks and bills at the new place, because it took so long for the mail to be returned to sender.

In the meantime, they bounced some mail back from my bank, causing the bank to close my ATM card for fear of fraud. That was yet another lengthy phone call and inconvenience for me to deal with.

Mail forwarding becomes mail reversal?

But that’s not the worst of it. And I wonder if that happened next was a sort of punishment because I had the nerve to contact my local post office.

I thought my mail forwarding issues were resolved until a few months later, when I bought something on Ebay.

I’d bought some vintage items that couldn’t be replaced. They never came.

After a few weeks, I emailed the sender and asked what address she’d sent them to. She wrote back with my new address and gave me a tracking number, too.

I checked the tracking number on the USPS website: it said my package had arrived on August 6th to my old address. Their own tracking proved they had delivered it to the wrong person.

Get it? My new post office, for lack of a better term, reverse-forwarded it back to my old one. You think mail will be forwarded to your new address, but instead, once the forwarding order expires, they start forwarding items addressed to your new address back to the old one.

The package mysteriously disappeared forever. They swore the carrier had delivered it, so they assumed the new tenants in my old apartment had opened the mail and kept it.

I asked the post office to investigate how they had managed to redirect my mail to the old address after all this time. They assured me I’d receive a call within two days.

But of course I didn’t. I never heard anything again, and never got so much as an apology.

Since then, I’ve talked to a number of people who had the reverse forwarding thing happen once their forwarding order expired. It seems like forwarding just isn’t a function USPS can handle anymore.

Vacation replacement? Never heard of it

I also experience an interesting situation every year around the winter holidays. My local postal carrier tends to take her vacation around that time, so guess who delivers parcels to my route?

No one. Yeah – seriously.

Parcels just mount up at the post office until somebody feels like delivering them – often, long after Christmas. I now ask people to ship things to me via Fedex or UPS whenever I have a choice. 

It’s not that they’re a whole lot more reliable (I’ve had many lousy experiences with UPS in particular). But at least they have tracking numbers and an actual delivery schedule.

Minor typo in address

Then there was the more recent incident where I sent someone a package via Priority Mail. It bounced back (forcing me to pay to ship it again) because, according to the USPS, the address wasn’t precisely right.

According to the addressee, it was correct. But okay, fine. The USPS often has a slightly different idea of how to phrase our addresses.

But this parcel was going to the only business in a particular building. How confusing could it really have been?

In returning the mail instead of delivering it to the obvious address, the mail carrier sent it back and created more work for him- or herself. I don’t know if that was the carrier’s choice or some strict policy from their local post office.

My solution: no more mail forwarding

The last several times I have moved, here’s what I did:

• I just didn’t even use mail forwarding. I notified everyone of my new address. And I made sure they understood I wouldn’t have forwarding, because that seems to lead to more lost mail. Result: no lost mail.
• I switched to paperless billing (and autopay) on every account I could. I’ve been using autopay and paperless billing for years now, and I consider them more reliable than mail delivery.

You may be thinking: what if you did all this, but also filled out a mail forwarding form, just to be safe? I recommend against this, for fear of the reverse-forwarding problem (mentioned above) happening again.

Mail Scanning Service

I’ve also been testing out mail scanning and forwarding as an option. These services will scan labels from mail and parcels you get and upload them.

You can then choose whether you want them to (a) just shred it, (b) open it and scan the contents of paper mail or (b) forward the mail/parcel to you, if they’re important documents.

This is especially good if you move or travel a lot and don’t ever want to have to update your address with anyone except your virtual mailbox service. They can even deposit checks for you, for an additional fee.

For outgoing mail…

For outgoing mail, I’ve found that another post office near me is far more reliable. The staff is also professional and courteous. By using them for deliveries, I’ve had no trouble shipping things.

But I’m stuck with the post office for my zip code when it comes to receiving mail or mail forwarding. And that post office is one of the least reliable I’ve ever dealt with.

So, again with the need for mail scanning and forwarding. If you’re stuck with a poorly run post office, it can be a life saver.

US Postal Inspector

When something goes wrong, you also have the option of starting an investigation. I did start an investigation when those Ebay items went missing.

They seemed interested at first, but then they didn’t call me back when they were supposed to. I also couldn’t confirm they’d called the post office when they said they would.

But if you want to try it, call 1-877-876-2455 and choose option 3 for mail theft. (Do not choose option 1 – they’ll tell you to call 1-800-ASK-USPS, which can’t start an investigation.)

What about a private mail box?

People have written to me asking if it helps to have a private mailbox – a UPS mailbox, or PO Box, or similar?

It could help if you move locally and don’t have to update the address at all. So this can work if you travel a lot and are concerned about the USPS getting confused with vacation mail stops or temporary change of address.

But it won’t help if you move long distance. You will still be changing your address, and it will still be up to the USPS to deliver your mail. They can get just as confused about a UPS address as a home address.

Final Notes

I recommend not using mail forwarding at all. I keep a careful list of everyone who sends me mail, and I notify them of my new address when I move.

Something else I’ve done is to get most people to stop sending me junk mail. Learn how to stop junk mail for yourself.

I’ve also shortened that list considerably over the years by going with autopay and paperless billing. Online is consistently more reliable than paper delivery, in my experience.