Online sellers may have heard that the postal carriers are not getting signatures from customers when delivering packages that require them due to social distancing practices put in place in response to the pandemic. The US Postal Service published a reminder to employees that helps explain the process to those who may be paying the USPS extra for signature confirmation and wondering how it works.
Essentially, the carrier must speak to a resident and ask for their name. They then scan the package as delivered and record the customer’s first initial and last name, and then enter their own initials and route number.
The Postal Service is also discouraging carriers from ringing doorbells, advising them instead to knock on the door, “avoiding areas that may be frequently touched.”
Unfortunately, that means some customers may not hear the carrier, and if no one answers the door, carriers follow the normal notice-left process.
Some marketplaces require sellers to send certain items with signature required, such as eBay. It created a page to advise users of changes that the USPS and other carriers have made due to the pandemic.
eBay also recently changed its rules around Signature Confirmation requirements, effective October 19th – see this September EcommerceBytes Blog post.
Ding dong! Hello? Sounds like the USPS is staffed by ding dongs.
W H A T ? ? ? ?
LOL
It is too bad USPS carriers do NOT follow this method, but just instead scribble nonsense on the entry or enter nothing at all. We had more than 2 dozen claims for non compliance in this area that we filed before we started using another carrier for items requiring conf and USPS just laughed. There is NO accountability within USPS! And frankly, the failure to knowingly provide a service paid for is no better than a fraudster or shoplifter. To quote one USPS employee “We are a service, we do not have to provide anything because we are a service.” HUH? If we ran our business like this one USPS employee suggests, we would not have a business. But then the USPS does not run like a business and that is at least part of their problem.