New Zealand Post has paid out more than $2 million in compensation for missing mail in the past five years.
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.