Give Feedback on USPS Scans and Postal Theft

You can leave feedback about USPS package scans and postal theft through the USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG), which is in the process of auditing those two areas of the US Postal Service.

Accurate package scanning is vital to maintaining trust between online sellers and buyers who keep a close eye on the progress of their deliveries. In fact, an eBay seller recently described how a scanning error last week at the Post Office impacted the trust between themself and their buyers (as we noted in another post). The seller said USPS mis-scanned all the orders they had shipped last Monday, but they hadn’t realized it until a buyer reached out asking why their package showed “Delivered” immediately.

The USPS OIG began an audit on April 2, 2024 on the new handheld scanners postal carriers are using. The Inspector General described the audit project (“Security and Efficiency of the New Carrier Scanners and Electronic Locks”), which it expects to release in September, as follows:

“Under its Delivering for America plan, the Postal Service committed to modernizing equipment to improve efficiency, increase mail security, and ensure carrier safety. The Mobile Delivery Device-Technology Refresh (MDD-TR) is a hand-held scanner used by carriers that went through modernization efforts – including the addition of an electronic lock function which requires dual authentication to access a mail receptacle – to achieve Postal Service’s above objectives. Our audit will assess the functional efficiency of the MDD-TR and the impact on physical security of collection boxes through electronic lock technology and public awareness efforts.”

The OIG is also conducting an audit to assess the USPS’s efforts to prevent and detect internal mail theft in mail processing facilities. That project – “Mitigating Internal Mail Theft” – kicked off on February 29th and is also expected to be released in September.

More information on the current audit projects and a link to leave feedback can be found on the USPS OIG website.

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.