New Zealand Post has paid out more than $2 million in compensation for missing mail in the past five years.
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The payouts stem from more than 200,000 letters and parcels that have been reported as missing.
Since 2012, the state-owned enterprise has received at least 42,000 reports of undelivered items annually.
New Zealand Post has paid out $367,500 to customers this year alone over missing mail.
A spokesperson said it was unusual for items to go missing, and in the end much of it was simply delayed - not lost.
Some of the most common reasons were wrong or ambiguous addressing, human error in processing or delivery, or the item being stolen after delivery, the spokesperson said.