How to Request a USPS Refund for Undelivered Mail Using WALZ “Refund-Eligible” Reports
With our recent improvements to the WALZ Last Status (WLS) reporting, we are able to provide efficient reporting to help facilitate a faster and easier refund process when mailings are Lost or Undelivered—or when a service you paid for is not fulfilled. The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) requires refund requests submitted online to be in a specific format, and WALZ now provides the documentation you need to request refunds from USPS.com, when necessary.
In this article, you will learn about how WLS works to provide meaningful tracking information, and how you can use it to generate “Refund-Eligible” reports to upload directly to the USPS.
Walz Last Status: Reports When You Want, with the Information You Need
Included at no extra charge with your WALZ service, WLS is an automated reporting service that generates customized reports to inform you about the status of your mailings.
As we receive tracking information from the Postal Service, we interpret and translate each event into a meaningful mailing status, and you can configure your reports to include batches of mail at various stages of the process. (See the full list of WLS status options and definitions at end of this article.)
With our latest update, we added a new report, distinct from our typically detailed WLS reports. This “Refund-Eligible” report identifies mailings with a WLS status of Undelivered or Lost, and is provided in the format required by the USPS in order to request a refund. The refund-eligible report can be directly uploaded to USPS.
These changes greatly simplify the process of:
- Identifying mailings that are or may be eligible for USPS refunds, and
- Requesting refunds in the prescribed format to avoid unnecessary delays.
Ultimately, we want to help make sure the Postal Service is providing the full services that you are paying for.
What Makes a Mailing Refund-Eligible?
Under USPS terms and conditions, a refund is due when services paid for are not rendered between 30 and 60 days from the date of mailing. For example:
- A mailing is not delivered to its destination after 30 days from the date of mailing, with no indication that a delivery attempt was made or that mailing is being returned to sender.
- A piece of Certified Mail is confirmed as Delivered, but the sender doesn’t receive the signed Return Receipt, known as a “Green Card.”
- The customer paid for Return Receipt or Return Receipt Electronic (RRE) service, but the USPS fails to collect a signature upon delivery of Certified Mail.
In each of these cases, a refund may be due because the customer paid for a particular service, and it was not provided by the USPS.
How to Request Your Refund
When using CertifiedPro.net to create and manage your Priority and Certified Mail letters, all tracking information from USPS is stored in your account. Our Walz Last Status reporting helps you to quickly identify mailings that are eligible for refund requests. In just a few clicks from the Mail Center page in your CertifiedPro.net account, you can quickly generate a refund-eligible report containing all mailings that meet the refund criteria and pre-formatted per USPS requirements.
To request a refund, customers may log into their USPS.com account and navigate to the Bulk Service Refunds page where you can submit the Refund-Eligible report provided by WALZ.
How to Request WALZ Last Status reports
WALZ Last Status reports contain detailed information about the status of your mailings and can be generated on demand from your CertifiedPro.net account. From the Tracking page, you can customize a WLS report to contain detailed tracking and delivery information for any of your mailings. Simply choose the appropriate filter criteria to receive detailed tracking information with options to export report details or download proof of mailing and delivery documents – all within a few seconds!
If you have not experienced the better, faster and easier way for managing your Priority and Certified Mail with CertifiedPro.net and would like to get started with a free 14-day trial, or if you have any questions about your WLS reporting options, please call or email our Customer Support team at 800-882-3811, option 3 or support@walzpostal.com.
| WALZ Last Status | WALZ Last Status Description |
|---|---|
| Created | The article number has been generated, but the item has not yet been received/scanned at a USPS facility |
| Mailed | The item has been accepted by USPS and is en route to its destination |
| To Be Mailed | The item belongs to a Firm Mailing Book but has not been accepted by USPS |
| Forwarded | The intended recipient has moved and the item is being forwarded to the new address |
| To Be Returned | The item has been deemed undeliverable and will be returned to the original sender |
| Returned to Sender | The item is being returned to sender for any number of reasons (refused, undeliverable as addressed, etc.) |
| Lost | The item was not delivered after 30 days from date of mailing and appears to have been lost in transit |
| Undelivered | The item was not delivered after 14 days from date of mailing |
| Undelivered – Forwarded | The item was not delivered after 10 days from mail forwarding date |
| Undelivered – To Be Returned | The item was not delivered after 10 days from return event mailing date |
| Delivered | The item has been delivered and signed for by someone at the recipient address |
*The process for requesting refunds is established and managed by the USPS. For more information about refund requests, please refer to the USPS DMM sections 9.2.3 – Full Refund and 9.2.4 – Postage and Fee Refunds Not Available (https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/604.htm#ep1080980)
