The U.S. Postal Service offers many delivery styles; most of the time the package will be received by the customer or a relative, while the Postal Service itself handles some of the deliveries. Pickup or mandatory signature can be held at the office among the different delivery options. It is possible that, in the package tracking process, an alert appears saying, “Delivered to agent for final delivery” what does it mean to receive this warning in the tracking guide?
If this has happened to you and you don’t know what it means or how to act on it, we leave you with this article to guide you through the process.
What does “Delivered to agent for final delivery” mean?
The amount of packages sent daily by the U.S. Postal Service is immense; this is a company that is constantly on the move. Normally, package shipments are quick, and the recipient may not be present to receive them.
It is not an option to return the package to the post office and then go through the shipping process again, so the Postal Service has the right to deliver the package to an authorized agent. The term delivered to an agent for final delivery was created just for these cases.
When the “delivered to an agent for final delivery” message appears on the tracking guide, the USPS mail carrier delivered the package to someone other than the addressee. This could be a family member, another household resident, a neighbor, the doorkeeper, a lockbox mail service, or a companion.
In this way, the USPS completes the delivery process.
Who can be an authorized agent?
The USPS mail carrier must deliver the package to an authorized agent, but who can be an authorized agent? Any individual the USPS deems appropriate for receiving a package on your behalf. The USPS must authorize them, but there is no exact guideline.
Generally, authorized agents are people who live in your own home, or if you live in a building, the doorkeeper may be considered an authorized agent, or if there is no authorized agent in the home, the mail carrier may consider a coworker to receive the package.
In the event that none of these options are available, the mail carrier may consider a third-party company or shipping locker service as an authorized agent to receive the package on your behalf.
Can USPS carriers confirm the identities of the agents?
A frequently asked question is what the process is like for the mail carrier to confirm the identity of the recipient acting as an authorized agent. The issue with this delivery is that the USPS mail carrier does not have the resources to confirm the individual’s identity.
The mail carrier is not authorized to question the identity of the person accepting the package on your behalf, so it is most likely that an authorized agent is a person living in your home or a co-worker.
If you receive this message in your package tracking guide, we advise you to talk to a close relative first because they most likely have your package.
Will USPS update my tracking after ”delivered to agent for final delivery” appears?
If the message “Delivered to agent for final delivery” appears on your tracking waybill, USPS has completed the shipping and delivery process. This is because the package is in the hands of someone other than USPS.
This will be the final update to the USPS waybill since the USPS does not have the tools to know when and where the authorized agent will personally deliver the package to the official recipient.
However, the GPS location where the mail carrier delivered the package to the authorized agent will appear on the USPS website or app. The package may no longer be there because the agent has gone elsewhere, but it will give a clue as to who the authorized agent may be.
What would happen if my package went missing?
The updated USPS tracking guide does not specify the authorized agent, so you should ask the people closest to you if they have the package or if they know who may have it. It is always advised that the agent contacts the intended recipient upon receiving the package.
Most commonly, the package is delivered to a person who lives in the same house and is a spouse or family member of the recipient; if so, the package will already be in your home, and you will not have to do a great deal of searching.
However, the person who received the package may be pretending to be an authorized agent. Since the postal service mail carrier has no way to verify identity, they could deliver the package to an individual who is not who they claim to be.
If this is the case, you should contact the carrier that shipped your package and the company that shipped it to have them contact the mail carrier who delivered the package to the supposed agent.
To get in touch, you can call USPS customer service at 1.800.ASK. USPS or call your local post office. There you may state your case. Another option is to go directly to the postal agency to state your case at the post office.
It is also possible that the post office worker calls themself an authorized agent. In this case, the worker will return the package to the post office in response to a failed delivery. In this case, it will still appear in the tracking as “Delivered to agent for final delivery”.
Therefore, it is best to go directly to the post office if your package does not show up; because it is likely there as an authorized agent representative.
References
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“Delivered to Agent for Final Delivery.” US Global Mail, https://www.usglobalmail.com/delivered-to-agent-for-final-delivery/
For years I have studied American finance regulations. All the information in this blog is sourced from official or contrasted sources from reliable sites.
Salesforce Certified SALES & SERVICE Cloud Consultant in February 2020, Salesforce Certified Administrator (ADM-201), and Master degree in “Business Analytics & Big Data Strategy” with more than 13 years of experience in IT consulting.