Non Delivery of goods

I purchased an item from a supplier in the US November 2015. The payment was made for the item and for the courier. USPS was the preferred courier company. A tracking was given (LJ***US). By February 2016 i had sill not received my item and contacted the company in the US, who stated that it was sent with the courier and should be in South Africa by now. I have tried contacting USPS here and no one knows about this item as according to them, it has not yet been scanned in. We are now in March and still nothing. I was told that i must check my local post office which i did and same story...no one knows anything about the item. Why would it be sent to the local post office when i paid for courier service directly to me. This is very sad as i am the one who now has to take the loss. <br> This should be a warning to people out there not to use USPS as no one takes responsibility for this.