[programmertote]

I had the same experience (especially in populous metro areas like NY). It's not just with USPS, but also with FedEx.

I called FedEx support and they explained me why this happens. Turns out, people who deliver packages/mail have strict deadline to deliver their packages and on days when there are just too many for them to finish delivering everything, they mark it as delivered and actually deliver the package on the day after.

[sjs382]

Wait, you're telling me that FedEx support explained that their drivers are defrauding their customers?

[selectodude]

FedEx contracts out a lot of last mile delivery for non-guaranteed packages to USPS. It's possible the rep was referring to that on the phone. I too have noticed USPS delivery notifications to be completely worthless for the same reasons.

[latchkey]

If I send something via DHL to my data center, I have to add the data centers PO Box to the delivery address because DHL hands it off to USPS. USPS won't deliver it to the address for who knows what reason. Someone at the data center has to drive into town and pick it up at the PO Box.

Sorting this out the first time was me spending hours on the phone calling between DHL and USPS to find out where the package was and what was happening.

Even more inane is that USPS uses a ~20 digit number for tracking packages. Imagine reading that on the phone to a customer support person. I can't believe nobody thought to use base-32 encoding [0].

[0] https://github.com/stickfigure/unsuck/blob/b4dff541d756303ca...

[apacheCamel]

Same thing happened to me. It was a pretty expensive laptop too. Went from a day we were set to be home, to the next day when nobody was home but we couldn't change how it was being delivered because "it was already delivered" despite it not showing up and them admitting the same thing as above.