How To Track Down Missing Deliveries
Whether your missing deliveries were supposed to arrive via USPS, FedEx, UPS or Amazon Prime, it can be a major frustration, especially if you have a deadline for when you need to receive your order.
Recently, I ordered medical supplies for delivery through Amazon Prime. I specifically chose these items based on ratings, price and delivery date. I ordered on a Friday morning with expected delivery on Sunday.
On Saturday, I was pleasantly surprised that I received notice of pending deliveries that day. Yippee! The supplies would be here early! At noon, I received notice of the delivery, complete with a photo of three packages. I walked out to our “package spot” and immediately became perplexed. There were no packages there. I walked around everywhere, searching through plants and landscape to see if they’d mysteriously and inexplicably been relocated by mother nature or animals. No sign of the packages. I came back in and took a closer look at the delivery photo. That photo was not taken at our property.
I immediately searched for a way to contact Amazon. This is not an easy accomplishment. I finally figured out how to do so, and this is when my frustration increased. There was no way to contact a human. I had the choice of a chat bot or phone bot. Neither helped. Neither would listen to the situation. All they reported was that my items were delivered, and I should wait 48 hours for the packages to somehow show up on my doorstep.
Between those fruitless chats with Amazon and neighbors reporting that they didn’t find packages on their properties, I decided to re-order the one item we absolutely needed and deal with returns and refunds later.
In the process of searching for missing packages, answers and any magical ways to deal with Amazon, I found information that might save you time in the future. Here’s a round up of tips for tracking down missing deliveries:
How to contact Amazon
This is the customer service page for contacting Amazon. You have the choice of chatting with a bot or having a bot from Amazon call you. They’ll do nothing within the first 48 hours of your issue, but I think it’s helpful to have on record that you reported an issue right away. After 48 hours, come back to this same page to file your claim. The bot cuts you off immediately after they think the conversation is finished, so if you’re the type of person who likes to have visual proof of your communications, have your screenshot software ready to capture your conversation.
The above link will be the most helpful to you, but if you want additional details and information, keep on reading.
Help related to Amazon deliveries
This page on Amazon’s website gives an overview of different types of help related to Amazon deliveries.
Where’s My Stuff?
Yes, Amazon has a page entitled Where’s My Stuff? If your package doesn’t arrive when it’s supposed to, your curiosity may or may not be satisfied here.
What if your package shows as delivered?
On Amazon’s Find a Missing Package That Shows As Delivered page, there are steps listed that you can follow. I’d already done all of these, which is why I searched for the contact page I listed above.
Step-By-Step Instructions
I came across this article with detailed instructions about how to deal with Amazon when you’re attempting to trace a missing package.
What if the missing package isn’t from Amazon?
During my initial search of how to deal with and contact Amazon, I came across this article about how to get help based on the carrier. So if you didn’t order through Amazon Prime and instead expected delivery via UPS, FedEx, USPS or DHL, you can get tips here.
Prevention
Order early. Whenever possible, allow at least a 48-hour window for errors and incorrect deliveries. During the holiday season – and especially with the increase in online orders due to COVID-19 – allow 7 to 10 business days extra on top of the estimated shipping time. There are backlogs of many items due to labor and supply shortages. More packages are arriving via couriers instead of hand-delivery, so that increases the probability of shipping issues. Plus, seasonal workers are utilized at this already-busy time of year, and they are not as well-trained and experienced as the full-time delivery folks, which also adds to the probability of mistakes.
USPS delivery timelines
If you plan to use the United States Postal Service for delivering your holiday cards and packages, you might be interested in their delivery timelines. Remember to add extra days to allow for shipping issues!
We received my re-order of our most important item on Monday evening. It was a day late, but at least we had it. On Tuesday, I went back to the Amazon contact page and communicated with the bot. I was able to report all three items were never delivered. I was given the choice of an Amazon credit or a refund back to my original payment method. I’ll be checking my payment methods in 3 to 5 business days to make sure those refunds appear.
Good luck with your deliveries – and finding them!
