After executing a very short form at your local post
office explaining exactly what took place, they will
forward your complaint on to the United States
Postal Inspection Service (not a part of te USPS,
believe-it-or-not).

I'll explain below why for even a $12 claim this
should be done.

The United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS)
will in turn send you a letter regarding your recent
communication to take part in their mail fraud
program. The information you provided them will be
reviewed (it has to, because it received a control
number the moment they received it) to determine if
the matter constitutes any violation of "Mail Fraud"
or "False Representation Status" within the
jurisdiction of the USPIS. They will include a
C/IS9008 Control Number.

Now, what the USPIS does is to forward your file to
a local office of the USPIS where the vendor
operates.

Now for the reason why you should file claim:

When information is received from any USPS customer
concerning a possible mail fraud "scheme," it's
reviewed to determine if a possible violation has
indeed occured. What the USPIS is looking for at
this time is evidence on a number of factors of
which the most important is a "scheme" and the
"number of complaints" following a "pattern" they
have received concerning a particular vendor.

Then, once this information is gathered, it's sent
to the United States Attorney for prosecutorial
consideration or forwarded to the Postal Service
Generals Counsel's office for consideration of
administrative action to deprive the violator of the
receipt of mail.

So, Doug, if you don't file, the USPIS will have
nothing to look at should someone else file a
complaint against the same person, as all complaints
are filed in the Fraud Complaint System's office
which enables them to "monitor" persons that
generate consumer complaints.

As you can tell, Doug, I've been through it. The
system takes time, but it's well worth the effort if
we can help others.

JB