Pitney Bowes letter tracking broken again - stuck in pre-transit

[BisonNumismatics]

Since at least March 12, half of my orders using the USPS letter shipment method are stuck in pre-transit. For some time this was somewhat reliable. Last year in February 2023 it was also broken and I responded in this thread:

https://community.etsy.com/t5/All-About-Shipping/Pitney-Bowes-tracking-for-letters-and-flats-totally...

This is a big problem because at least previously, the the letter would get scanned. It gave some confidence to the customer that the letter was moving. Letter mail can be very slow right now, upwards of 2 weeks and that's the threshold at which I'm currently considering mail to be lost. It's ambiguous to me if Purchase Protection covers this because without any scan, Etsy cannot tell if this was actually placed into the mail stream.

Feels like any one using letter options just ought to put a sign up on their shop: "Order this and there's a 50% chance you get it for free!"

[PiecesOfMePaperCraft]

I ship flats all the time and I've never known USPS to scan them. I've posted in my announcement and all my listings that my flats don't include a valid USPS tracking number. A local postal supervisor told me that letters and flats do not get scanned by the P.O. I think Etsy is doing a disservice by making sellers and buyers believe that those Pitney Bowes tracking numbers actually work. 

[BisonNumismatics]

Update: One order was covered by purchase protection even though it never had any scan. It still bothers me, as while it's not money out of my pocket, their loss is going to get socialized across all sellers.

[ButteredToastPrintCo]

USPS are a nightmare, I've had loads of orders go missing even when tracked and signed

[NanaLetha]

@ButteredToastPrintCo  How can they be missing if they are signed for?

[ButteredToastPrintCo]

They are sent signed for

[PersonalizedHardware]

I am having this issue as well with Flats. It is 50/50 whether these get scanned. I have also had them take a VERY long time (2-3 weeks) for delivery, and a few being lost. Very frustrating.

[hopeandjoystudios]

At your price point I would not bother with flats. Some of your items seem like they would not qualify anyways as flats need to be machinable.  I'd just make it rigid  and ship it as a package with actual usps tracking and lose the issues.