PhilinYuma
Well-known member
Recently, I've been involved with a number of confusions about USPS Priority Mail. This should clear them up.
1) If you receive a Priority parcel from someone like Hibiscusmile at MantisPlace, who makes her own computer generated Priority labels, you will get a tracking number when you get the mailing notification by Email. Copy and paste the number in www.usps.com (top right window).
2)This will not automatically happen, though, if you send or receive a Priority parcel from the Post Office, and if you ask for a "tracking number" it is easy to get led into discussions of "signature required" and "signature confirmation". What you want is "signature confirmation", and you can find the rather attractive red stamped form for that (Form 153) at the PO. It will cost about 67c extra and you will retain a copy with the tracking number printed on it, which you can then post on the USPS tracking window, just as you would an Express number. In this case, though, you will need to notify the recipient of the number yourself, by Email. Using this form also ensures that a Priority parcel will not be left on a freezing or baking doorstep if the recipient is not at home.
I won't go into tracking numbers from foreign postal systems (partly because I don't know enough about them) but it is worth knowing that if you put a foreign tracking number into the USPS tracking window, you will get a hit as soon as it enters the US and goes into Customs. If you don't get a hit, then it didn't "get stopped by customs", a favorite excuse of some unscrupulous foreign dealers who issue fake tracking numbers.
I hope that this is useful.
1) If you receive a Priority parcel from someone like Hibiscusmile at MantisPlace, who makes her own computer generated Priority labels, you will get a tracking number when you get the mailing notification by Email. Copy and paste the number in www.usps.com (top right window).
2)This will not automatically happen, though, if you send or receive a Priority parcel from the Post Office, and if you ask for a "tracking number" it is easy to get led into discussions of "signature required" and "signature confirmation". What you want is "signature confirmation", and you can find the rather attractive red stamped form for that (Form 153) at the PO. It will cost about 67c extra and you will retain a copy with the tracking number printed on it, which you can then post on the USPS tracking window, just as you would an Express number. In this case, though, you will need to notify the recipient of the number yourself, by Email. Using this form also ensures that a Priority parcel will not be left on a freezing or baking doorstep if the recipient is not at home.
I won't go into tracking numbers from foreign postal systems (partly because I don't know enough about them) but it is worth knowing that if you put a foreign tracking number into the USPS tracking window, you will get a hit as soon as it enters the US and goes into Customs. If you don't get a hit, then it didn't "get stopped by customs", a favorite excuse of some unscrupulous foreign dealers who issue fake tracking numbers.
I hope that this is useful.
