I do not like EDDM. Never have. For one thing, it's a play on the old "spray & pray" method of direct mail advertising (as opposed to targeted direct mail). It's nothing new, it's been around for over 30 years, they just "re-branded" it. Back in the day, it was called "saturated Carrier Route Alternative Address - Postal Customer" mail. All you needed from the post office was a count of how many delivery addresses there are in each carrier route. Secondly, it's objective is to increase the use of postal service mail by local businesses. It was their intent that "Joe's Barber Shop" be able to do their own mailing by going online and selecting their geographic area and forms that need to be filled out to present to the post office, and, thus, bypassing the very businesses that have kept them fed all these years (list companies, and, mail shops).
Of course, their own delivery statistics show that it is a dismal failure. They underestimated the complexity of their own regulations with regard to mail piece design, DDU delivery, and an understanding of how to navigate the ins and outs of doing business with the USPS that actually prevents "Joe's Barber Shop" from being able to do it on their own.
Here's your problem: The very logistics behind an EDDM mailing prevents you from being able to tell whether it was delivered or not, and, when.
The theory is, "since the postal carrier is going to a particular address anyway (delivering other First Class Mail & addressed advertising mail), it would not be any extra effort for them to include a "Postal Customer", generic EDDM piece and include it as they put it in your mail box".
BUT.........what if there isn't any other mail going in to that receptacle for that day? They are not going to (not supposed to) make an extra stop at your mail box just to deliver the EDDM mail. That would negate the whole economics of being able to deliver EDDM mail so inexpensively. So, that mail will get held over for the following day, or, whenever there IS any other mail going in to that receptable.
Also, the carriers are instructed to continually include one of these EDDM pieces in each mail box on their route (that also has other mail) untill they run out of the EDDM pieces. So, if your carrier route has 432 locations, and, only 200 EDDM pieces, then 232 of the other locations in that carrier route will not get one (maybe one of those locations is where your customer lives who is telling you that the EDDM pieces are not being delivered).
Lastly, since an EDDM piece is not actually addressed to any specific person (they are addressed to "Postal Customer"), it would not be unusual for a recipient to tell you they never got one.
We steer clients away from using EDDM. If they insist on using the "spray & pray" method of direct mail, they'll get a much better response and tracking by using a Walk Sequence Saturated Carrier Route mailing that is only a couple of pennies more in postage (EDDM doesn't really save that much). If possible, as an advocate for our client's success, we try and delve in to exactly what they are trying to market, and, target the list accordingly, to get them a much higher response rate and return on investment ("Joe's Barber Shop" does not do hair stylings for women, so, you are wasting your money marketing to them, even though they might be right next door to your shop).
-MailGuru
