At the end of February I sent 2 certified mail letter that I bought at one of those new automatic machines at a USPS office because the line was out the door. The letters where sent to 2 different locations but pertained to the same issue. This issue was a legal one and I had a deadline to file the letters. I sent the certified mail because I needed to prove postmark and that I actually sent it to them. I was surprised that the machine only asked me for a mailing zip code instead of the full address. But it did provide me with a printed receipt with the tracking number. After 2 weeks I received no word from the company I had mailed the letters. I then proceeded to extreme measures against the company for not responding to my letter. When I contacted the office they told me that they had not received any letter from me, much less a certified mail letter. I called the other office and they informed me that they in fact had received their certified mail letter but that I had failed to mail the second letter to the other office therefore I had no case against them because it was after the deadline I had.

I called USPS to confirm delivery of the letters, I only got for one, the other did not seem to be in their database. I tried their costumer service number and they told me that they would refund my $3.5 for my letter but that they could not do anything else. I told them that it was a legal issue and that I needed proof that I sent the letter and they told me to give the company the printed receipt from the machine. I did do that but the company told me that since the receipt only had the zip code of the mailing address I could have sent the letter to anybody else but them and used that receipt, but that that was not sufficient proof of me sending the letter to them. They reiterated that I had no longer a case with them.

USPS did nothing about this issue, If I had only purchased the mail via one of their clerks I would have had proof of the actual address I had sent the letters to and not only the zip code. USPS did not seem to care about that point and hung up on me a couple of times that I requested further actions.

I do not think they should have those machines, PEOPLE do not use the machines they will not warranty your certified mail, use the clerks instead. Make them change the system. Now that I have lost a sure to win case I will see what I can do to make USPS pay for that.