USPS missed an estimated $22.6 million in underpaid postage and never flagged $6.1 million in overpayments from March through May, because a coding error left its Automated Package Verification system ignoring up to 50 million scans a week, per a USPS Inspector General alert. USPS had renamed its parcel sorting machines but never added the new name to APV’s trusted equipment list, and it did not fix the omission until June, three months after the OIG raised it. Sellers got hit both ways, because underpaid shipments escaped adjustment while those who overpaid never received automatic refunds.
