I accidentally mailed something today with no return address and no stamp. What will happen to it? I do plan to call the post office first thing Wednesday morning to see if it got held or not picked up by the big mail truck yet. But if it did - what'll happen do you know? I found varying answers online. Has this happened to you - what was the outcome? How long did it take to resolve? (This important letter needs to be delivered before the end of the year! I know, I screwed up majorly!)
I mailed it in a tiny little one-man run post office near my home. The post office is probably the size of a walk-in closet. When I go in to having something weighed for postage, the man uses a balance beam type of scale - not even a digital one! So, that's why I considered calling him Wednesday. Out here in the country, mail pickup is once a day, so I am hoping that the box of mail dropped of Monday is still sitting there awaiting pickup Wednesday morning. Since we are a small community, perhaps Walter, the postman there will allow me to take my letter or add a stamp if indeed it's there. Not a TON of mail goes thru there in one day. Contained in the envelope is a check, but not for a monthly bill (where I could just pre-pay with the second check). The check will have my address on it, but I don't know if Walter will open a letter. I am not sure if he is allowed to do that, even if he is the postmaster. I was supposed to hand-deliver the check Wednesday, but screwed up, saw the enelope with address, and mailed it. (Husband shouldn't have put the address on there! Shoulda just written the name of the business!) So if we can't recover the envelope Wednesday morning, I guess we will cancel the check #1, reissue a check #2, and hand-deliver check #2. Our concern is that this business will get check #1 a month or so down the road and try to cash that one as well, which won't cash of course if we call the bank and cancel it, but we don't want the business saying we wrote them a bad check. Grr. I am so mad at myself for doing this. Thanks everyone. Thanks Everley for your USPS expertise. Ina - I will likely do what you suggested, except hand-deliver instead of FedEx.
------------------------ UPDATE -------------------- I called the postman. I guess mail got picked up already that day. He looked in his pile of letters he kept for some reason (noticed they were missing something). Mine isn't in that stack. Postman said they will try to deliver with postage due, but may take a couple extra days because they go to a different facility. I will have to do as planned and cancel the first check. Thanks for all y'alls predictions!
Sometimes they'll hold it at the recipients local post office and contact them to come pick it up. The recipient is then responsible to pay for the postage.
Ok - I used to work at USPS, so I can tell you how things really work. (hate to say it - but there are a lot of guesses below that are incorrect). First of all, it's no use calling your local Post Office. They don't hold mail there, and they don't have the manpower to go searching through the thousands of letters mailed for one that's missing a stamp.
Either way, the lack of manpower might work in your favor. There isn't a person who checks every letter for a stamp. There are machines that do that, but they're not perfect, so it's possible that your letter will make it through your post office, to the sorting facility, and to the destination with no problems. That's the best case scenario.
The second best is that it will be sent to the recipient and marked as "postage due". The recipient will have to go pick the letter up at their Post Office and pay the cost of the stamp. This doesn't happen all that often, but it's possible.
The most likely scenario is that your letter will be sent to the mail recovery center in Atlanta. It will be scanned to see if it contains anything valuable - credit card, check, etc. If yes, they will probably send it on to the recipient with postage due. If it doesn't, it would be shredded.
If I were you - I'd resend the letter if possible (this time with a stamp). Good luck!
Hubby once mailed some things with no stamp. Some went out and arrived to their destinations (presumably the receiver had to pay the postage) while a few came back to us marked "postage due". With no return address, most likely, they would attempt to deliver and collect postage from the receiver but the receiver could reject it. In that case, I don't know what would happen.
Wow, if it was important why didn't you have something traceable to you? I understand mess ups... They happen to the best of us.
The only thing I know us to go to the facility where you mailed it which would be the origination and where it would most likely be returned.
Then, you have to prove your ID, etc to get it back to you somehow..
Best of luck to you... Talk to the postmaster ( not counter clerks, etc) at the location where you put it in the mailbox. Best wishes
It will be delivered to the recipient marked "postage due" - they will cough up the 45 cents. The post office has no option. Meantime, if it were a personal letter, you could drop them another note and say you're sorry, you were in a tizzy. SInce it's a business (and you were paying a bill), then the company will chalk it up to the cost of doing business and not worry about it. However, you can call them and make sure it was received and ask if you should send a 2nd check. They won't be able to cash 2 checks, so just double check with them. I imagine they will be understanding.
I did the same thing and it was delivered. Of course in my panic because it was a few bills I paid them thinking it was not delivered. So now I am caught up till mid January!
Did you mail it from your home mailbox, or from a public mailbox?
Once, when I forgot a stamp, my mail carrier left it in my mailbox with a "postage due" message stamped on it.
But if you put it in a public mailbox, with no return address, I'm not sure what will happen.
For sure VISIT (do not call) your local post office on Wednesday, they may have your letter in a lost and found type pile.
Good luck & Merry Christmas!!!
This has happened to me and the post office has delivered it along with a postage due notice. I had to pick the letter up at the post office.
My ex is retired from the post office. He worked a machine that sorted the mail in a central office. Your local post office does not sort the mail and would have no way of knowing that your letter was missing postage. At the local post office the letters are all just dumped together into bins.
Everley has the straight scoop.
If you are going to hand deliver the check, the business is local. Simply explain to them when you drop of the check what has happened. Even if they get the check a month down the road and try to cash it and it's bad, who cares they already got their money from you with the check you hand deliver.
I don't think that you can rely on it getting wherever it needs to go by the 31st. It may get there - it may never arrive.
If at all possible I would resend the letter overnight via FedEx on Wednesday - you will get a receipt and know that it was delivered. You can add a note that instructs the recipient to ignore the first letter and if it contains a check just cancel that check with your bank.
Good luck.
There is a very slight chance it will still be delivered with a "postage-due" stamp on it.
Was it mailed from home? Visit your local post office and explain the situation! As long as you have the address it was going to so you can identify the item, they'll probably be able to find it and then allow you to put postage on it instead of it just staying in the "dead letter" file.
If it was mailed from a public mailbox then you need to visit the post office that handles that particular mailbox - the zip code is usually written on the mailbox so you'll be able to get to the correct post office.
Good luck!!!
They will charge postage at the other end.
I live in a tiny town too. Chances are it went out and is gone.
Depends...if it is something like a credit card bill - the postmaster general MAY open the envelope to see where it goes.
Overall? It goes into a "lost" basket with all of the the "unforwardable" "addressee unknown - no return address" pile...there's a LOT of them!!!
If this was something important - go to your post office on Wednesday morning and ask where they take letters like this - we have a "general sort facility" across the street from our main post office and that's where stuff like that would be for us...
If you can't find it? Re-do it and mail it out "right"!! :)
However...when something is important - I ALWAYS send it return receipt...that way YOU KNOW it got there!!
GOOD LUCK!!!
MORE INFORMATION PLEASE
Who were you sending this letter to? Was there money involved? Can you contact or resend via FEDEX?
