posted on October 12, 2001 08:00:35 PM new
What would you do in this situation: I shipped a $50 item via USPS priority mail w/delivery confirmation, no insurance. The buyer emailed me to say he never received the package. I checked the delivery confirm number and it shows that it was delivered.
The buyer lives in a dorm and says his mail room has "no record of receiving the package" so he's not sure why the confirm shows it was delivered.
He seems honest, but I'm not sure I believe him and am not sure what to do. I'll file a report of Mail Loss with the PO, but in the mean time, I'm sure he'll ask for a refund. Any suggestions?
posted on October 12, 2001 08:13:10 PM new
You only have two Choices you could refund and save haveing to posibly haveing to deal with an agry buyer or tell them you have to wait the thirty days to start the trace.
posted on October 12, 2001 08:31:33 PM new
If the buyer opted not to take insurance and took delivery confirmation instead - you are not obligated to refund bid price. I always make it clear to my buyer that they take the risk when they don't insure.
posted on October 12, 2001 09:05:03 PM new
Hi.
I went to college 10 years ago. In the dorms all the package were delivered to the front desk, then the person working at the desk put a slip in your mailbox that said you had a package to pick up at the desk. Nowadays most front doors on dorms are locked even during the daytime even in small towns, it's not likely it just disapeared as security would be pretty high. I would say that it was delivered, tell the person the confirmation number and tell them to talk to their local Post Office. Or there is always a slim chance there was a theiving desk clerk or roomate, but you did your part and mailed the item, your DC proof would stand up to Billpoint or PayPal standard of proof. Have a nice weekend.
posted on October 13, 2001 12:14:23 AM new
You didn't say what this item was, but it seems very likely that a college student might try to scam you out of another one, for instance if the roommate liked it and wanted one of his own.
The DC is good enough proof of delivery for Paypal, so I'd say it's good enough for this bidder. Tell him that it was delivered and tell him the #, and it is his job to find where it was delivered to, if not the address on the package.
I have had numerous "lost" packages, and when I gave the DC# with status of delivered, they either mysteriously appeared or I never heard back from the person again.
posted on October 13, 2001 04:21:09 AM new
--wbbell
Would you mind sharing any particular anecdotes
in which a buyer said the item was lost and then the DC # solved the problem?
I'm just curious. Did most of your buyers who tried this just write "It's lost." or was it more than that? I guess I'd like to
perhaps get an idea of what to look for if someone was indeed trying to get a
duplicate of an item for free.
Lately, I've always included the DC # in my shipping confirmation e-mail so my buyers
have it and know I do too.
posted on October 13, 2001 05:47:02 AM new
I mailed a WWII item to a vet. After a couple of weeks I bugged him about arrival and he hadn't gotten it. I sent him a copy of the trace text from usps, and next day he said he did find it, but had bought several of these (flyer's maps) and thought mine had been the lost one. I believe him 100%, but without DC, at least one of us would have been very unhappy.
posted on October 13, 2001 06:09:43 AM new
Here is how I handle so-called missing package reports. The "missing" package always show up when I send this sort of response.
Dear buyer: I was most distressed to learn that the package I sent has not seemed to have arrived despite the fact that the Delivery Confirmation tracking I attached indicates it was delivered on 0/00 at 00:00 pm, from the Whereyoulive postoffice.
Here is what we should do. First, check your mailbox and immediate area again. Perhaps your mailbox does not meet postal regulations and the parcel was left nearby. Then check with the local post office, taking this email and tracking number with you. Ask them why it indicates delivery if you do not have it. It may be sitting on a shelf in the back room.
If neither produces the package, let me know and at the end of 30 days (postal regulations) I will begin a trace and investigation. You will be asked to swear on a postal form that you have not received the item, and I assume you are willing to cooperate with the authorities in discovering the source of the problem. If, at the conclusion of their investigation they agree that it was never delivered, I will send another item or a refund.
However, since there is proof that your item was both shipped and delivered, the issue is really between you and the post office. Perhaps you should talk to your local postmaster about packages that disappear.
Without fail, within 36 hours the package has shown up in each and every case. In the past year, that is about 8 customers.
If by chance the package didn't appear, I would file the papers, wait a while and then refund/reship. I would also leave feedback to the effect that the buyer was understanding about missing package to alert other sellers if this was a standard scam.
It is unfortunate that no-delivery is used so often to defraud sellers, and why I always use DC on every sale. I did have one authentic nondelivery problem, but the DC was not scanned so I knew it was for real.
posted on October 13, 2001 07:06:03 AM new
Well, they're not too drama filled, but ...
My background is that I have used priority mail hundreds of times and had maybe 1 or 2 legitimately lost. Also, I don't completely buy into the notion (frequently posted here) that DC only proves receipt at a particular post office or sort hub. If that were true, the DC service would be compeltely pointless!
You also have to go with your gut a lot, to decide whether the item was really lost or the person is just trying to get a freebee.
The one that particularly sticks in my mind was an item that went to a house in california, the check was not signed by the person it went to (frequently kids bid on my stuff and parents pay). Only about 3-4 days had passed and the person told me they hadn't received it. DC on usps.com showed the item delivered. I told them this, they said "well, no one in my house ever saw it". I asked them if perhaps someone had stolen it off of the doorstep, or to call 1-800-ASK-USPS and see if it was being held at the P.O. No more responses. I firmly believe that was a high school kid trying to scam another item for one of his buds.
litlux has a very good approach. Official sounding language and/or making them sign a USPS form, will often cause positions to be reversed and packages to reappear.
posted on October 13, 2001 08:28:28 AM new
I had a similar situation where the DC said it was delivered to the addressee and he said he didn't get it. I went to the post office with the DC receipt and they said there was nothing they could do as it shows it was delivered...At that very point I decided to never use DC again as it is virtually worthless!
posted on October 13, 2001 08:34:30 AM new
I actually did send an email very similar to the one litlux suggested. I thought that would be the end of it too, but he emailed back 3 days later that he had checked with his local post office and called the area's "regional manager" regarding the package and had no luck.
The thing that makes me somewhat suspicious about this is that he emailed me 2 days after the package was sent to say it was lost. I've found that most people not trying to scam you would wait 4 or 5 days or longer to see if the package shows up before claiming it is lost.
He paid via PayPal, so I think I would be covered in this situation, but I would hate to be dealing with an angry buyer and negative feedback, especially if he is being honest.
posted on October 13, 2001 09:11:41 AM newPerhaps your mailbox does not meet postal regulations
Very few buyers can read past this phrase without becoming your enemy. I can feel the anger myself. "Perhaps you didn't ship it and are trying to shut me up by making me feel it might be my fault".
In cases of lost packages, the number one thing you want is for buyer to feel friendly toward you, and confident that you sent the package. You want this because it gets buyer to look around to see if the package really has been delivered, but then misplaced. A buyer who is feeling convinced that seller is pulling a fast one isn't going to do as good a job in this regard.
The easiest way to end that opportunity forever is to blame buyer for not receiving the package (which buyer has never seen). Try to see it from buyer's perspective.
posted on October 13, 2001 11:53:34 AM new
One of my customers reported a lost package without mentioning that she'd put address forwarding on the delivery address! The delivery confirmation lookup reported the forwarding and, a week later, delivery to the new address. She still claimed it was lost. She also mentioned using her work address, so it looked to me like there were 3 possible addresses involved. I offered to reship if she would fax me a copy of her utility bill to confirm her address. The package miraculously "arrived." I still haven't figured out whether she's scatterbrained or scamming.
