what happens to lost mail??

i mailed something last month and called to see if the person received it and they didn't!
i have my return address on it---why hasn't it come back to me? where could have it went? does anyone know if there is a place for 'undeliverable' mail or something like that? sorry if this is a stupid question!!

Re: what happens to lost mail??

normally undeliverable mail is returned... however there is always a chance that it has simply fallen off a processing machine and literally got lost...

Story - Letter delivered years late held lost words of a lost loved one

Message edited 1/21/2011 1:38:46 PM.

Re: what happens to lost mail??

Things just get lost sometimes. It's happened to me a few times. It could have been delivered to the wrong address and not returned to the postal carrier/post office. If a number was transposed, it could take a while to be returned to sender. It may turn up one day. My uncle said he receive an invitation I sent him 2 years after I sent it.

Re: what happens to lost mail??

Or it ended up in the neighbors mail and they tossed it instead of returning it to the post office. Or someone stole it. This happened to me twice.

Re: what happens to lost mail??

We had a guest get the invitation to our wedding a week after the wedding, and we had sent them out three months before!

Re: what happens to lost mail??

I know when I was working at the post office in Kennedy airport they had a team of people that would try and deliver it to the appropriate people or they would send it back.

My guess would be either delivered to the wrong address and tossed or it was stolen.

Re: what happens to lost mail??

good question .. because I had 2 pieces of mail sent on different days never show up to the same office. I'm startingto think that there was an issue with the mailbox they were dropped in.

Re: what happens to lost mail??

We received one of our wedding invitations back in the mail over a year after our wedding. You can bet it had our return address on it, too. I have no idea where it was for 13 months, but it never made it to the recipient.

In case you are wondering, the address was 100% correct, too.

Re: what happens to lost mail??

Sometimes, it gets thrown out by the person who accidentally gets it...
Our house is located on a street with a popular name (ie Smith Street, Smith Place, Smith Terrace). We get other peoples misdirected mail often...- usually its junk mail. Like Macy's catalogs with our address but someone else's name...

DH saw one piece of mail and remarked "holy cow, its addressed to Pam Jones - that woman lived in this house 10 yrs ago!"..

Re: what happens to lost mail??

Yeah, I always wonder about this. I sent my friend a birthday card 6 months ago and he never got it. I def put a return address on it.

Re: what happens to lost mail??

Posted by BatGirl9910

Sometimes, it gets thrown out by the person who accidentally gets it...
Our house is located on a street with a popular name (ie Smith Street, Smith Place, Smith Terrace). We get other peoples misdirected mail often...- usually its junk mail. Like Macy's catalogs with our address but someone else's name...

DH saw one piece of mail and remarked "holy cow, its addressed to Pam Jones - that woman lived in this house 10 yrs ago!"..

Re: what happens to lost mail??

Good question!

I sent AJ's newborn photos and 1st Easter photos to my aunt. Later I moved to TX to find out she never received them. EVER!

Re: what happens to lost mail??

I've had this happen where I have sent things and it comes back like 3 months later

Re: what happens to lost mail??

i just saw on the news the other nt. that a postcard was received 52 years after it was sent!! it was from a husband to his wife!! so i guess there is hope that my mail will get to where it was supposed to go!!LOL!