posted on August 31, 2000 08:19:36 PM
Thought maybe some of you could give me your opinion on what I should do.
I had an auction end on 5/24. I received payment via Billpoint the 25th and shipped the 26th with a delivery confirmation. All was well, or so I thought. On 7/13 (yes almost 2 months later) I receive an email from them wondering where their item is. I check the delivery confirmation number and it says it was delivered the 5/30. I email this info to her and ask her to verify the address I shipped to. I told her if it was correct she should check with her post office. She emailed me back that it was right and she would check with the post office and let me know what she finds out. Well...I never hear from her again...until today, saying that she never received her item and could I check into it.
What is the right thing for me to do? It has been 3 months, the delivery confirmation shows it was delivered. Is it her problem or do I give her the money back?
Melissa
posted on August 31, 2000 08:35:57 PM
You could ask the post office to search for it. If the item was not insured that's it. I defintely wouldn't refund. It's anyone's guess where it was delivered to.
posted on August 31, 2000 08:38:07 PM
Send her the delivery confirmation number and let HER look it up. At least she will be able to see for herself that it has been reported delivered by the PO. DC only shows it was left at a particular address. Does not have to be signed for so PO could just drop it on the porch. Happens to me all the time. You sent the package. It was delivered. She needs to take it up with her local PO since they are the ones who scanned it as delivered! Even if it was insured, they probably won't pay out on it since it is shown as delivered. Wouldn't hurt to ask though. You might want to ask what to do at your PO also. I would wait before offering a refund till after the buyer discussed it with her local PO. She may decide not to persue it sinced it really wasn't YOUR fault! Take it one step at a time.
[ edited by sulyn1950 on Aug 31, 2000 08:42 PM ]
posted on August 31, 2000 10:24:39 PM
Delivery confirmation does not require a signature, unless you buy the one that does. Priority mail does not need a signature but it can't be left if the person who it is addressed to isn't home. The postal worker is supposed to leave a notice and then if you don't pick it up they try and deliver it again. This happens three times and then returned to sender if never picked up. Find out if that buyer lives in an apartment building and if they do maybe the postal clerk just left it inside and someone took it. Many things can happen, but if the package is at the post office and hasn't been delivered in x amount of days it is returned to the sender. If it has been that long and not returned to you someone has that package and since the buyer has waited this long before writing I would wonder about it. Just my opinion
posted on August 31, 2000 10:45:32 PM
In the final, cold analysis, seller in this case has no evidence that the stuff was delivered.
That said, seller has plenty of "moral" evidence that the stuff was delivered, and plenty of reason to believe that buyer is mistaken. The goal is to allow buyer to come to this understanding on buyer's terms.
This can sometimes be achieved by inviting buyer into the "tracing" process. Provide buyer with the DC number. Ask buyer to ask buyer's local postoffice about the package, and how it might happen that the DC says "delivered" but buyer never saw the item.
Never, ever, suggest that buyer might be being deceptive. In nearly all cases, refrain from suggesting that buyer is even mistaken.
The other thing achieved by getting buyer to check the postoffice to plausibly put the ball back into buyer's court. If buyer has to put some energy into the matter, in the face of obvious evidence that the stuff was delivered, buyer might well lose steam...and look around his house a little better.
posted on August 31, 2000 11:07:14 PM
You know, this may be relevant:
I had a recent customer who won two auctions a week apart and sent two different money orders. I got the second one, but as the deadline passed for the first one, I enquired about it. I was told that payment had been sent and to wait longer (a month?). I requested that she put a stop-payment on the first money order and simply send me another one. I gave her seven more days to receive it.
Seven more days passed and no payment, so I filed for FVF and she got the notice to Pay Your Seller. That got a reaction and she sent another money order by Prioity Mail.
Now here's the interesting part: when I got the Prioirty Mail (they leave it in our lock box, no matter if we're home or not at the time), it was obviously tampered with! Where our 9-digit zip code had been penned into the address, someone had taken a wide, black marker pen and tried to blot it out. Fortunately, the ZIP was still readable from certain angles.
The point is, is that some thrid party was tampering with her outgoing mail! It can happen to anyone, maybe it was this customer of [b]melkday[/b's .
I always email a digital picture of the delivery confirmation slip, if a package is overdue. That way the person has no doubt that it was mailed. If the package was insured, file a claim with the PO. If the package was not insured (I assume you make this optional), it is the buyers choice and no money should be refunded.
[ edited by feistyone on Sep 1, 2000 12:27 AM ]
posted on September 1, 2000 01:06:41 AM
Libra - I didn't know that priority mail coulnd't be left if the person to whom they are addressed isn't home. We have them left in our mail box at least once or twice every other week.
posted on September 1, 2000 05:21:32 AM
I dont understand how you could bid on something, pay with Billpoint then wonder why, after TWO months the item hasn't arrived. And to wait that long to ask the seller about it???
Sorry if I sound cynical and perhaps blaming the customer is a mistake but two months? Maybe they just forgot they got the item if its been that long.
I have used delivery confirmation a few times but I dont care for it for the simple reason that they just scan the code and leave the box there at your door for anyone to take if they so desire. If the item is over a certain amount, it is best to insure to be safe.
posted on September 1, 2000 05:47:57 AM
Hi all,
thanks for all the comments so far. To expound on the story a little more...
I had emailed her the DC number with the link so she could look it up. I also had told her she needed to check with her post office and she said she would and let me know what they say, but in her next email a month later she didn't say anything about it. Her address is a mailbox (not a po box) and she says that it is a locked mailbox so no one could have taken it after it was delivered.
I don't believe she is trying to deceive me. Either she is mistaken or she didn't receive it at all. That's why this is bugging me so much. I started using DC's to avoid these situations, but...
I think I will reply to her and ask her if she had checked with her post office since they had scanned it as delivered and let me know what they had said. We're only talking about a $25 item so if it comes down to giving her money back it won't be too bad.
Melissa
posted on September 1, 2000 06:53:15 AM
The information posted on the Postal Service's web site regarding delivery confirmation is sometimes WRONG!
For instance, early this year I won an auction on eBay and sent a money order to
the seller in Pittsburgh by Priority Mail,
using delivery confirmation. After 3 days,
I checked the USPS web site, typed in the
delivery confirmation number, and it said,
"receipent refused to accept, sent back to
sender," or something similar. I was ticked
off, and sent the seller an e-mail wanting to know why she had rejected my payment.
She e-mailed me back and said, "Calm down!
Everything is fine. Your payment arrived;
I didn't reject your Priority envelope."
So the info posted on the USPS's web site
was flat out wrong.
Also, last Christmas, I sent a Priority
package to my uncle on Long Island, also
using delivery confirmation. On the USPS's
web site, there was no record of the package
having been delivered. "I thought, oh great,
they lost it." But when I spoke to my uncle
on the phone, he said that he had received it. Maybe some forgot to scan the item....who knows.
My point is, just because you see it on
the Postal Service's web site, it doesn't
mean its necessarily true (or accurate).
posted on September 1, 2000 07:45:38 AM
I agree with toolhound that Delivery Confirmation is worthless! I have been through a similar situation, the item was insured, and the Post Office does not want to pay the insurance claim because they say it was delivered . . . .
If I had not purchased the Delivery Confirmation, the claim would have been paid without a hitch.
For a problem like the one under discussion, sg52 gives excellent advice; handled that way, if the buyer is a reasonable person she will come to realize that the seller did her job and is not at fault here.
I'd also like to add that my carrier leaves Priority Mail in my mailbox (not a locked box) or at my back door all the time whether I'm here or not.
posted on September 1, 2000 08:29:35 AM
Hello,
I would check her past won auctions and see if she had purchased another similar item and confused the 2,(I personally did this so I know it can happen). Because it was so long ago you may not be able to pull up her history. ~Patricia~
posted on September 1, 2000 09:06:38 AM
Jada - If your mailbox is locked they can leave it, if not they are supposed to leave a notice slip and return item to the postoffice and if you don't pick it up they will try and deliver it again. They will try and deliver it for 3 times over 15 days and then if still not delivered it is returned to sender. That is why you have to wait 30 days before any insurance claim can be filed. This is what the postal clerk told me. If it is just lying outside of your home anyone can pick it up. It is very tempting. I had a priority box that was insured that even had a tracer number on it, not the delivery confirmation one but the one that is on the insurance claim over $51.00 but they never found it. The ironic thing about that is the person lived closer than 60 miles to me and I could have delivered it and knew that it had gotten there. If ebay goes to their mail service will anyone use it? Do you think it will help in delivering the package? I personally don't, but the items I sell are not breakable so I pack them myself. Rather my husband does.
This is only true if the item in question required a signature. If if didn't the post office can just leave the package. The DC is not proof that the buyer actually received the item. Only a signature can go that.
Sg52 is correct, and in my opinion has the best suggestion. The seller is still legally responsible for the item being delivered.
posted on September 1, 2000 09:37:49 AM
I had a buyer once tell me he couldn't have possibly received the order because he was away from home during the time DC stated it was delivered, and he couldn't have possibly had signed for the order.
I kindly informed him that DC didn't require a signature, and that if he was away from home he should probably check with either his post office, his neighbor or whoever was house-sitting for him.
He finally contacted me apologizing stating that his brother had supposedly had his order this whole time.
Stay firm on the proof of delivery by DC. It very well could be an error on your buyer's end.
<<Priority mail does not need a signature but it can't be left if the person who it is addressed to isn't home>>
Interesting, I get about 10 Priority packages a week, all left in the rural mailbox that is so far away from the house the mail carrier has no idea if I am here or not.
Since you are the only person so far that has said this, and it is from your mail clerk, can you ask them what postal regulation they are referring to?
I made a quick call to my PO right now, and they never heard of it.
posted on September 1, 2000 01:37:31 PM
I constantly receive packages, even Priority Mail packages, left on my front porch, AND NOBODY IS HOME.
I live 2 blocks from the local High School and any kid walking by could easily take one.
I am a seller and wanted to start using the Delivery Confirmation. Do you guys think it really isn't worth it?
What's a girl to do.............??????????
P.S. I sometimes think the Priority Mail packages really don't get to their destination any quicker than First Class Ones. They just look prettier!!!!!!
[ edited by creativethings on Sep 1, 2000 01:38 PM ]
posted on September 1, 2000 02:54:07 PM
I guess it's time for the cynical seller to step up to the plate. I use DC and will continue to do so. I think sg52 had an excellent suggestion, given that the PO shows delivery and the buyer disputes it. Get the buyer involved in tracing the "missing" package.
If a buyer is willing to pay for mail service requiring a signature, I'll be more than happy to send it that way, but I get the feeling that now we sellers are supposed to foot the cost of signature delivery to cover our behinds. (I see my TOS getting longer and longer and longer.....) At some point, it becomes unprofitable to sell on Ebay because you either have a high "upfront" bid or reserve to cover all these added costs, or you have such outrageous shipping costs from all the "required" insurance, etc., that no one will buy stuff. For those of us with merchandise in the $5-10 range, that's not workable. I know that some will think doesn't seem like a lot of money to refund, when a buyer claims non-receipt, but to some of us it is. Personally, I think we're probably about due to see the scammers looking for ways around the DC "delivery" status, and the claim that "maybe they left it here, but I never got it" so long after the fact would be one way of doing so.
I notify my buyers when I ship, and if I don't hear from them within 2 weeks of the date the PO shows delivery, I contact them again. I think that if one of them contacted me a month or two after shipment, saying they never received the item, I'd be extremely skeptical, given that they'd had plenty of notice to be expecting the item and had been asked afterward if they received it.
posted on September 1, 2000 03:12:39 PM
This won't apply to all sellers, since we all sell different price-range merchandise: but for anything considered "pricey", the best thing is to ship with Return Receipt...It costs 1.25, but I have found it is worth it's weight in gold! I use itfor all my shipping; only once did customer not want to pay for it: so I did. I Email a scanned copy of shipping receipt for proof. As mentioned, this does NOT necessarily apply to all sellers.
Good luck; I hope your buyer suddenly realizes she wrote to the wrong seller...
Edited to add: Return Receipt = customer HAS to sign for receiving, or is left a notice to pick up at Post Office.
