Your Friendly Neighborhood Mailman
What does the status “USPS Delivered to agent” mean, what does this mean for the state and location of your package?
When you see the status update, ‘USPS delivered to agent’, this means that the package has been given to one of the family members who were present at the given address. There can be several occasions when you aren’t available at home or at the delivery address at the time of the delivery of the package. In that case, the USPS delivery representative hands it over to one of your family members, relative, or a representative who is present in the house. An ‘agent’ refers to the person who accepts the parcel on your behalf who will later hand it over to you. This is when the status changes to ‘USPS delivered to agent’ once the final delivery is done.
In case the destination address is not your home and is of a hostel or any other hospitality establishments where the delivery representative is not allowed to enter inside the premises, or you do not have someone else to collect the parcel on your behalf, then the delivery person can leave it to the local staff or the postal services. You should receive the package from them shortly, so you do not have to worry about it.
Check out ups mail innovations from here.
What are the steps you can take if the status “Delivered to agent” has been displayed for a long time and your package still hasn’t arrived?
Although ‘USPS delivered to agents’ is a common thing, there are a few disadvantages to it. There can be situations where the person who received your package forgot to hand it over to you, or someone outside your home received the package claiming that he or she is your family member, friend, or neighbor. Sometimes even children take the parcel and forget to give you. If you are waiting for a long time and the status still shows ‘USPS delivered to agent’ but no package, there are few things that you can do:
- Check with your neighbors if they have received your parcel.
- Inquire with your friends if they took the delivery in case they were present at your home during the expected delivery date.
- Check with the children if any.
- If you are living in a rented apartment, check with the landlord, or if you have tenants in your house ask them if they have your package.
- If you are in a hospitality establishment or living in a University hostel, check with the staff or the local postal services.
- In case none from the above list has your package, and you couldn’t track where it is, then you have to contact the USPS authorities.
Now, the chances of losing a package after the status ‘USPS delivered to agent’ are very less because most of the time the delivery representatives hand it over to the right person. The USPS representatives are trained professionals and responsible individuals who transport thousands of packages in numerous locations and are intelligent enough to understand whether they are handing it over to the right person or not. Therefore, there can be very rare chances that the package can go into the wrong hands and is lost.
How late does USPS deliver? Check it out from here.
What does the USPS status “tendered to return agent” mean? What does this mean for the status of your package?
If you come across the USPS tracking status “tendered to return agent”, this means that the customer or the recipient has refused to take the delivery of the package and has handed over the package back to the delivery personnel. This may also mean that the customer has raised a request for the return of the product that has been delivered to him or her and when the ‘return delivery agent’ came to pick up the product, the recipient has handed over the product to them.
This can happen in several instances like a wrong product has been delivered, the package and the item inside it might be damaged or the customer realized that it was not the right product he or she wanted, hence, refused accepting it. It can also happen if the delivery person delivered it to the wrong address or rather the address mentioned on the parcel was incorrect.
Who is this status for?
This status is for the sender or the shipper of the parcel or the product. So if you have sent the item to your customer and see the status “tendered to return agent”, make sure to check if everything inside the parcel is intact and the same as before when you receive the package back. Double-check the address of the customer to see if there was any missing element or misinterpretation of the address on the shipping label which may have led to delivery in the wrong address. Once you have checked the product you can then cancel the order and initiate the refund process. Remember you need to refund the money to your customer excluding the shipping price that you paid for the parcel.
In some cases, the post office may scan the item or the packages wrong because of which it may show a wrong status. However, this is not a very common practice so the chances of this being a factor for the above status is less.
How much time does it take to return a package back to the sender?
The total time taken to return a parcel or the item back to the shipper completely depends on the USPS return service you are opting for or the type of the package or volume of packages to be returned. It may take anything between 1 and 9 days depending on the fact that if it’s a ‘priority mail return service or a ground parcel or bulk parcel return service. You can read more details about how to manage customer returns on the USPS official website.
Does the USPS provide any further updates with regard to your package when you receive this status?
Now, this can be a tricky one because if the US Postal services hands over the package to any of the private carriers like UPS, FedEx, or any other delivery service when returning the package you may see an update on the USPS status saying “The Postal Service no longer has the item and no further tracking updates are expected”.
What happens here is sometimes the sender sends the package through private third-party carriers like FedEx or USP, and they hand it over to the USPS for delivery to the destination address. Similarly, when returning a package, the recipient hands it over to the USPS delivery representative or the pickup agent, who then returns the package/mail to other delivery carriers for the final delivery to the sender.
How a recipient or a sender can track their package when it is being delivered by a third party?
As mentioned in the previous section of this article, USPS sometimes hands over the return parcel to the third-party carriers who are then responsible for delivering the parcel to the seller. Now when this happens, you will have two tracking numbers. One will be the USPS tracking number and the other will be the tracking number for the third-party carrier.
There are different ways that you can track your package under these circumstances:
- If you enter the USPS tracking number on the track a package section’ of its official website, you may get a status update “tendered to return agent” and the name of the shipping partner’ example FedEx or UPS mentioned next to it. When you add the USPS tracking number to the shipping partner’s tracking website you will get the delivery receipt with more details on it.
- Another way to track your third-party package is to go to the Pitney Bowes shipment tracking page and log in the tracking number in the input box under the title ‘looking for a package?’.
Now, that we are clear about what the status updates ‘delivered to agent’ and ‘tendered to return agent’ indicate, what you should do about it and how to track your delivery online, let’s get an overview of what USPS package consolidation is.
What are USPS shipping and return Consolidators?
Shipping consolidation is a useful tool in the supply chain and logistics. The process of ‘shipping consolidation’ involves consolidating all the small shipments or items into a single shipping container or a big box. This helps the shipper save cost by cutting down on paying for the extra space that will incur if packed on individual boxes, there will be fewer chances of damage to the products and faster delivery.
Your package will arrive later than expected. What does this mean?
USPS shipping and return consolidators:
USPS shipping and return consolidators offer efficient delivery services, a trustworthy and safe shipping experience, and discounted shipping rates. Some shipping and return consolidators wholeheartedly received by the United States Postal Services are :
- Pitney Bowes
- VIP parcel
- International Bridge
- OSM worldwide
- Kaleidoscope service
Most of the above consolidators offer services regional, national, inbound, and outbound delivery services except for Kaleidoscope service which assists in regional and outbound services to the USPS.
What are some other tracking statuses that involve an ‘Agent’?
Some of the tracking statuses that use the word ‘Agent’ which can be confusing sometimes are:
- Available for Agent Pick up this means that your parcel has reached your city or the zip code, and the agent of the delivery personnel can now delivered it at the destination address.
- Available for Returns Agent: this means that the item to be returned is ready to be picked up by the agent from the designated post office or package processing facility.
- Tendered to Military Agent: this simply means that the parcel has left the USPS facility and has been handed over to the military agent for delivery.
- USPS Delivered to Agent for Final Delivery: this indicates that the item has been delivered to the agent or the local representative at the final delivery destination and he or she will deliver it to the actual recipient.
- Picked Up and Processed by Agent: this update comes when the reverse logistics personnel has entered the details of the item in the USPS system before making the payment.
- Received by Agent: the USPS delivery person has delivered the item to the agent of the institution the recipient lives in.
- Recipient notified by Agent: the postal agent notified the recipient that the package is ready to be collected and the recipient can pick it up from the local post office.
- Undeliverable to the Recipient by the Agent: the delivery person could not deliver the parcel to the recipient due to some reasons like the address being incomplete etc.
Conclusion
You can be anxious when you are waiting for a parcel and see the USPS status “USPS Delivered to agent” but you have not actually received the parcel. The best option in this situation is to ask the family members or neighbors first before contacting the USPS. We hope to have solved some of the issues caused by the “USPS delivered to agent” Notification.
Frequently Asked Question (FAQs):
It may take about 2 to 7 days for the USPS to return the package to the sender depending on the volume and the nature of the package.
The agent here means the family member or any other representative of the actual recipient who is present at the destination address. The agent can also be someone who is assigned by the recipient to collect the package on his or her behalf.
The USPS delivery personnel are trained and smart people who will deliver it to the right agent or address. In the case of some special package delivery like bank documents, credit or debit cards, or similar items, they ask for ID proof of the recipient. There are very few chances that the package is delivered in the wrong hands and has gone missing.
