Sample mailing record
What you get back after the letter is mailed
Every mailing through Piloxa ends in one record: the approved letter, the addresses, the service, the authorization and payment, and every event USPS and the print provider reported — each with its source. This page shows a made-up example so you can see what is in it and, just as important, what may be missing.
Everything on this page is fictional. The people, the company, the addresses, the tracking number and the dates are invented for illustration. No such letter was mailed.
The record at a glance
| Document | Demand-for-refund.pdf · 2 pages · SHA-256 4c1e9b…a7f2The exact file that was approved and handed to the printer. Kept byte for byte. |
|---|---|
| To | Northwind Appliance Repair, Attn: Billing 4821 Example Avenue, Suite 210 Springfield, IL 62704 Checked against USPS records before payment; the suite number was supplied by the sender, not added by Piloxa. |
| From | Jordan Example 17 Sample Court Springfield, IL 62701 |
| Service | USPS Certified Mail with electronic return receipt |
| Total paid | $11.29 — $9.29 postage, certified fees and printing + $2.00 service fee. Nothing was added afterwards. |
| Authorized | March 3, 2027, 9:12 am Pacific — the sender confirmed the document, the address, the service and the total shown, then paid. |
| Kept until | March 3, 2028 — twelve months of included retention, export allowed at any time without renewal. |
What happened, stage by stage
Each stage is either recorded — with its source and time — or explicitly not known. Piloxa never fills a gap by assuming the next step happened.
| Payment | Recorded Card charged $11.29 on March 3, 2027 after the provider accepted the letter. Source: Piloxa (Stripe record). Before that moment the card was only held. Had the provider refused the letter, the hold gets released and nothing is charged. |
|---|---|
| Handed to the print and mail provider | Recorded Provider accepted job 8841-2207 on March 3, 2027. Source: the print provider's own response, kept verbatim in the export. This is not USPS acceptance. The provider prints the letter and hands it to USPS, usually the next business day. |
| USPS acceptance | Recorded USPS accepted the envelope on March 4, 2027 in Springfield, IL. Tracking 9407 1000 0000 0000 0000 00 (fictional). Source: USPS scan, reported through the print provider. |
| Delivery | Recorded USPS reports delivered March 7, 2027, 11:41 am, Springfield, IL. Source: USPS scan, reported through the print provider. |
| Electronic return receipt | Recorded Signature record received March 9, 2027, signed "B. Ortiz" (fictional). Source: USPS, via the print provider. The receipt shows who signed for the envelope. It does not show that the named person read the letter. |
What the same record looks like when something is missing
The honest version of a record is often the incomplete one. These are the states you will actually see, and what each one means.
| USPS acceptance | No record yet The provider accepted the job, but no USPS acceptance scan has been reported. Usual cause: the letter has not reached the post office yet, or the acceptance scan was skipped. A missing scan is not proof that the letter was not mailed — and provider acceptance is not proof that it was. |
|---|---|
| Delivery | No record yet Accepted by USPS, no delivery scan. USPS sometimes records delivery late, or not at all. The record says so instead of guessing. |
| Delivery | Returned USPS reports the letter returned to sender: refused, unclaimed after the notice period, or undeliverable as addressed. Often useful evidence in its own right — it shows the attempt, the address used and the date. |
| Electronic return receipt | Pending Delivered, receipt not yet available. USPS releases the electronic return receipt only after the signature record is processed — usually within a few days of delivery, not at the moment of the delivery scan. |
| Electronic return receipt | Not purchased The letter went as plain Certified Mail. Acceptance and delivery are recorded; no signature record is collected. |
Download mailing records
One button on the record produces one ZIP file containing:
- mailing-record.txt — the plain-language summary above, generated by Piloxa and labeled as such.
- mailing-record.json — the same record, machine-readable, with the source of every item.
- document/ — the approved letter, byte for byte, with its SHA-256 fingerprint.
- provider/ — the print provider's own response, verbatim.
Each export is numbered and kept. When more tracking arrives and you export again, you get export #2 — and export #1 stays exactly as it was the day you handed it to someone.
What this record is not
It is not a document issued by the United States Postal Service; the USPS scans in it were reported to Piloxa by the print provider, and their source is stated on each line. The document fingerprint identifies the file that was approved and printed; it does not establish what USPS physically inspected inside the envelope. And Piloxa does not produce a court-specific proof of service: whether a mailing satisfies a legal requirement depends on the rule that applies to you, and on facts a record cannot know.
Prepare my letter What Certified Mail proves, and what it does not
Sending from an assistant instead? How to connect your assistant — it prepares the letter; you review, pay and authorize here.