Strange mail issue

Write a letter to, Patrick R. Donahoe, Postmaster General, Washington DC 20001. Explain politely your problem as you have in this posting. Request his help with this problem. Send it by registered mail and pay for a return receipt. Mail it at the window of the uncooperative post office. This may get results.

Hmmm,
Sounds like the previous owner may have had his mail forwarded & they are getting yours mixed up with his? Is your address well marked on your building?
Have you asked your mail carrier? Sometimes they can help.
MikeB

Is this consistently occurring, or a one off thing? Any commonality in the origin of the mail, i.e. from the northeast where it may have been delayed by Sandy? The unable to forward labels would seem to indicate that there could be a forwarding order somewhere that's messed up and causing the delay.

...
I'd guess as another that it somehow has to do w/ a previous occupant having a forwarding order in for the address. If they did and didn't cancel it, I don't know how one goes about doing that if one can't get the preceding person to do so...but surely there is a way.
I'd probably start first by seeing if the local PM (and, in my experience, them not being very impressive is kinda' the norm any more--used to be they seemed to be much more competent kinds of folks than what is around any more--can't imagine why :) ) can determine the answer to that specific question rather than just a general "what gives?" one. And, of course, follow it up w/ how to negate that given that there isn't a valid reason for it any longer since you're the current occupant/owner.
I presume this is a branch office in the Chi-town area; I'd look up the main post office and call the Postmaster there and see if can get any satisfaction if the above brings no joy.
I did do a quick search on the USPS site as well as a general GS to see if could find a specific failure/procedure that would generate the above sticker but didn't find anything particularly useful--a lot of complaints from individuals but nothing concrete on process, unfortunately.
Has this phenomenon changed in frequency or has it been extant from the time you occupied this location? Can you find any commonality amongst the material that seems to cause the problem--handwritten addressses, no zips, no return addy's, not US origin, etc., etc., etc., ...??? Anything that might trigger non-auto sorting/handling, maybe.

They see that Russian name and they have to send it to the CIA first to make sure there's no "commie plot" underway ?????

I thought about something like this. I guess everything is possible, but I would think that they could find some more subtle way of doing that.
i

Call Putin, he can sort out anything!

I hate to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but maybe your status as an "outsider" is causing your mail to be examined by a national security agency. Can you find evidence the mail has also been tampered with? You could maybe delve into some tradecraft yourself, like make up letters with telltale things like hairs across the sealed flaps and mail them to yourself when you are traveling to pick up some equipment. If you can determine these have been tampered with, that might help figure out what is going on. Of course, it could be your local mailman is a lazy meth addict bum or is in the employ of one of your competitors to mess up your business.
Jon

Yes, if there was a forwarding order for the last business, and it wasn't very specific to a business name, and some of your buyers send mail to you (Igor) instead of the business name that you have registered at that address, it could sure cause a delay as the mail is diverted to the old people's new address, then they send it back saying it is not for them. Forwarding orders should be on record at the local post office, and if they won't show it to you, they should certainly be able to tell you what forwarding orders are on file for YOUR address. If they have such an order on file, it should be cancelled after one year, but you might be able to get them to refine the criteria for what is forwarded. They don't want to be handling mail 4 or 5 times due to incorrect forwarding orders.
Can you see a pattern between what is delayed and how it is addressed?
Also note that for mail security, any mail with no return address (and probably other criteria, too) is sent for xray inspection, gamma ray sterilization and other processes, and that does add about 2 weeks.
Jon

Oh, YEAH, I'll bet just about any Soviet emigre would put up with trial by fire before referring any problem back to the KGB!
Jon

Hey, you reelected Him and He came from there. YOU deal with it. :)
Better yet, call him and ask.

If it's this one, it may have been exactly the right one to contact. There is an entire investigative arm of the postal service. You don't want his higher-ups - you want the people who will make them jump.
Our Hotline phone calls are answered M-F 11:00am - 3:00pm EST 1-888-USPS-OIG (1-888-877-7644)
Contact the USPS inspector general's office.

The first item on their list is:
What the USPS OIG Hotline can assist you with
Theft, delay, or destruction of mail by employees and contractors

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That's certainly an overstatement of criteria--I send 1st class mail routinely w/o return addresses and never seen such a delay. (Pay many local bills and while I know I should be sure just in case I'm lazy and rarely if ever bother w/ return addresses.)
If Iggie's mail were being forwarded to somewhere and returned, it almost invariably would show another postmark, 'refused' or 'not proper addressee' or other effect of that. We get all mail at PO and it seems they manage to put the papers and some periodicals into a delivery for another location fairly regularly--they're always marked w/ the processing/postmarks, etc., etc., ... If stuff is mis-boxed (which happens occasionally getting a nearby or random box's stuff or an object of ours gets somewhere else first it invariably will have some way the recipient noted it wasn't for their box just as I mark it as "not box xxx" before either giving it back to them at the desk if open and not too busy or putting it back in the local delivery slot.
This sounds more like it's going into an internal spin/hold cycle for some reason...

With the number of Russians now in the US, if the FBI or whoever were doing any such thing, they would be overwhelmed. Nor would they be this obvious, as it would warn the presumed quarry, defeating the purpose.
Calling the Postal Investigative Service seems like the most effective option.
Joe Gwinn

You mean I can get stuff gamma sterilized for just the cost of postage to mail it to myself without a return address? :)

lazy postal workers.
lazy postal workers.
that's the serious answer to any problem with the post office. AT least your stuff is being delivered at some point, and not ending up in some attic.

Yeah, but it may take several mailings to get caught in the system. Probably putting "warning: Anthrax enclosed" will get it special attention. But, that will get YOU special attention, too.
Jon

PIS? Really?

Do you get mail delivered to your door? Is there a box on the building where the mail is placed? Or do you have to go to a central location with many business boxes?
The reason I ask is my company mail is delivered to a pedestal with perhaps a dozen boxes in it. One for each suite in the building. Sometimes when there is a new delivery person(contract mail delivery), and mail gets to the wrong box. Many suites are vacant, so we never know where an expected letter may be resting. Same for other active suites, some of their mail is on our box.
We finally caught a delivery person and had them check all the boxes. He is the son of a former employee! found a 6 month old letter in the bottom of the pedestal.
So, I am wondering if some of your mail is getting misplaced to an unused location and the PO doesn't want to acknowledge the problem.
Do you know for certain a postal employee delivers the mail? Or is it c contracting person or company?
Paul