How to pick up a package at the post office (USPS)?

From our customers' emails, I can see a lot of people are preoccupied with this question for a long time. Most of them from tracking tool found their packages had got stuck in a same place near their house for 2-3 days or longer and did not get any sign when will they get their parcels, so they tend to drive over and receive items themselves. Some of them was very eager to get their parcels, e.g. a wedding dress, a birthday gift or things like that, so they might like to get them before the delivery time. Some of them was because they had just moved to another place and were afraid of missing their items. A few of them had just changed their mind, and did not want to send a parcel or did not want to receive a parcel anymore.

For those people, if there is someone who could tell them ways to pick up items in advance, that would be really appreciated and helpful. Since I am a person working in the logistics industry as a customer service provider for several years, I think I have the duty and I am willing to tell them the possible ways. That's the reason this article should be created.

Now let us get back to the question. Before you pick up a package at the post office, the first thing you should do is to enter USPS tracking a tracking tool to track your package.

If the tracking information shows "Not Found", then it is very likely your item hasn't been delivered or released for delivery. In that case, i suggest you log onto USPS website to contact the customer service. Because the USPS has a Package Intercept "program" which allows you to redirect a package for a fee. see USPS Package Intercept.

If the tracking information shows a specific place, like KY, United States, and it happens to near your home, then you can request it be held at the receiving post office for pickup and go to the office and show ID to get it. There are three things to keep in mind, first is that you need to make this request before the package arrives and is sorted to your carrier, so do it the night before the package is expected to arrive at the latest. Second is to know which post office location will be holding the package, often there are multiple offices in an area but only a few actually receive inbound packages. Thirdly is that make sure your post office have accept your request because not every post would like to do what you told. As far as i know, the larger the post office, the less likely that is to work for you. But it's quite common in smaller US Post Offices. Have frequently gone in and picked of a package that had not yet been sent out for delivery.