I placed an order online at Esterval's exactly 28 days ago. Naturally I've been following the progress of the package with the tracking number. The only update I got was that it appeared at the Frankfurt Airport, 10 days after being sent out. Then suddenly yesterday (May 25th) it appears at the USPS metropolitan sorting and distribution center. I use a web content alarm to keep me apprised of tracking number updates. When items arrive at the distribution hub they usually show up here the next day, so I kept an eye out.
At 4:30pm I get a web alert ping, and an updated tracking number notification: "Return to Sender .... could not be delivered as addressed" with a time stamp 10:30am. I threw on my shoes and ran the 5 blocks to the neighborhood post office, on the off chance that the package hadn't departed on its way back to Germany (back to Germany... after almost a month of travel just to get here).
Well as luck would have it the outgoing mail hadn't left yet. The box was indeed on its way back to Germany--had I noticed 15 minutes later it almost certainly would have departed. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the address, and no conceivable reason why it was labeled "undeliverable."
At 4:30pm I get a web alert ping, and an updated tracking number notification: "Return to Sender .... could not be delivered as addressed" with a time stamp 10:30am. I threw on my shoes and ran the 5 blocks to the neighborhood post office, on the off chance that the package hadn't departed on its way back to Germany (back to Germany... after almost a month of travel just to get here).
Well as luck would have it the outgoing mail hadn't left yet. The box was indeed on its way back to Germany--had I noticed 15 minutes later it almost certainly would have departed. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the address, and no conceivable reason why it was labeled "undeliverable."