Park Forest, IL-(ENEWSPF)- Following a report that a Park Forest Post Office employee has been placed on administrative leave pending a decision by the USPS management on his job status following a mail theft investigation, readers raised concerns about missing mail. Some commented on mail they sent that never arrived. Others lamented never receiving mail they knew had been sent. There is a way to know what mail you should see in your mail each day. The Post Office calls it Informed Delivery.
I enrolled in this free program in late May after publishing the original story about the investigation into alleged mail theft from the Park Forest. It took a few weeks until I was able to start checking mail online. It was several weeks after that when daily emails began. But it’s worth it.
The daily emails include a scan of every letter or advertisement I’m supposed to receive. Packages or larger items like grocery store flyers and such are not included in the daily scan.
It’s one way to know if there’s something important that’s supposed to be in your mailbox that day.
People may enroll in the Informed Delivery Service via the usps.com website:
Informed Delivery is a consumer-facing feature that gives eligible residential consumers the ability to see a daily digital preview of their household’s mail. While the Informed Delivery product is available for most addresses, it is not available for all. Eligibility for Informed Delivery is dependent on your current registered address and verifying your identity online.
Privacy Notice: Informed Delivery will enable you to receive digital images of the exterior of your letter mail each day via email or through your Informed Delivery dashboard. To provide you with these images, Informed Delivery will need to link your physical mailing address with your email address that you have submitted through your usps.com account.
To ensure that you will receive images of the exterior of your letter mail destined for your current mailing address, and that such messages are sent to the correct email address, we encourage you to confirm that the information in your usps.com account profile is accurate and up-to-date
An option for “Informed Delivery” is at the top of the usps.com website. Residents will have to verify their address after creating an account. If verification cannot be accomplished online, one will be asked to show up in person with a pre-printed barcode and a valid form of ID at a post office location.
The closest for Park Forest residents is the Matteson Post Office. That’s where I went when I enrolled.
Start the application process online.
To be certain one is up to date with the most recent mail sent, one should log in to the usps.com website every day. May seem like an added step, but the extra assurance of making certain all mail intended for delivery was actually delivered peace of mind.
There are some important disclaimers you should take into account, and thanks to a reader for pointing out the omission of one of these in an earlier version of this story.
The reader, Mr. Barry Baker, pointed out, “Sometimes your mail isn’t scanned. It’ll say sorry but we don’t have a scanned image of this mailpiece.”
You will see this at the bottom of every email, your Informed Delivery Daily Digest, “Mailpieces may arrive several days after you receive the notification. Please allow up to a week for delivery before reporting missing mail.” On your USPS Informed Delivery Dashboard, you will see images of mail you should expect to receive. Beneath each letter is a box you can check if you do not receive that piece of mail. Remember to wait a week to report missing mail, although, I can say, so far, every piece of mail in my Daily Digest has been delivered.
My mail carrier on Ash Street appears to be very competent, and a rather nice person.
With respect to packages you should expect to receive, while there will be no scan, you can see a description and tracking number of each package on your dashboard on the USPS website. The notification there will also include the time that package was delivered.
I want to add, at this point, there is no evidence of any further impropriety at the Park Forest Post Office. The person on administrative leave was “on loan” to Park Forest.
Rest assured, as eNews Park Forest learns anything new, the public will read it here first.
Related: Park Forest Post Office Employee Put on Administrative Leave in Mail Theft Investigation
