The secretive facility where USPS sends and sells your lost mail for profit

Lost mail?

“The best case scenario is that it’s on its way to a secretive facility known as the Mail Recovery Center (MRC). Think of the MRC as the lost and found of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).

It has a staff whose job it is to open packages and try to track down the owners. Anytime they don’t find the rightful owner, within a few months, the USPS gets to auction it off and pocket the profits.

Pressing the USPS for specifics on how much they auction and profit from the auctions, KUTV reporter Matt Gephardt was stonewalled.

The USPS works with a private company called GovDeals to manage the auctions, which are conducted online. Online photos show large boxes stuffed with just about everything you can imagine.

The photos allow bidders to see what is on the surface of the boxes but not what is beneath.

GovDeals declined to answer questions about the auctions, referring Gephardt to USPS for comment.

In a scathing 2015 report, the MRC, “did not effectively handle customer inquiries or manage undeliverable items it received,” the inspector general states.

In fiscal year 2014, of the “88 million items” that came through the door, a mere “2.5 million” made it home. That’s less than 3%.

The postal service profited $11 million from what was sold off that year.

The report also said the postal service does a lousy job helping customers who have lost their stuff. People like Erickson, who says she is holding out hope that her quilts show up at the facility and she’s among the lucky few whose lost items make it home.”

Read more HERE.