06-22-2023 07:42 PM
It seems that USPS does not accept eBay managed payments as an online payment provider for purposes of providing proof of value in the case of a lost item claim. That means that any claim for a lost item that was purchased on eBay will likely be denied. Therefore purchasing USPS insurance when shipping items with USPS is completely pointless for items sold on eBay.
06-22-2023 07:45 PM
Not sure what you are stating; but items shipped USPS Priority are insured for $50 or $100 (TRS) and anything MORE than that, you have to purchase.
Note that they do NOT pay for 'damaged'; only items shown as 'not delivered' via tracking.
06-22-2023 07:52 PM
I sold a ring on eBay for over $600 and shipped it priority mail with $600 of added insurance. USPS lost the package enroute. The item was tracking and then disappeared and that was it. I filed a claim for the $600 of extra USPS insurance that I had purchased (the ring itself had sold on eBay for over $600). However, USPS does not accept the sale on eBay as proof of value and denies the claim stating that proof of value was not provided. I read on another post here that paypal was accepted in the past but eBay managed payments is not accepted. I can now confirm this based on this recent transaction. Since all sellers on eBay are required to use managed payments and USPS will not accept managed payment records or screenshots as "proof of value"...I think it is safe to say that any purchasing of extra insurance through USPS for items sold on eBay is a complete waste of money as USPS will invariably deny any claims.
06-22-2023 08:00 PM
yet another reason why you should never use the ebay labels
06-22-2023 08:02 PM
Just to be clear I was very thorough and provided 8 pages to USPS claims department to back up my claim:
Page 1: Email from eBay stating the item had been sold and to who and for how much.
Page 2: Screenshot from eBay complete order details showing payment for item and tracking number.
Page 3: Screenshot from eBay showing receipt for shipping label and tracking number
Page 4: Shipping label image.
Page 5: Receipt from post office for receipt of package
Page 6: Message from eBay stating buyer had not received item and had opened a not received case.
Page 7: Message from ebay stating that I had refunded the buyer for the lost item
Page 8: Order and payment details from eBay showing the funds deducted from my account after being refunded to buyer
Despite all this I simply got a denial of my claim saying proof of value had not been established. I appealed the claim resubmitting the same 8 pages and pointing out that page 2, and 8 showed the fund transactions in my eBay account clearly showing value. USPS denied my appeal with the same generic message saying proof of value had not been provided.
06-22-2023 08:50 PM
great
06-22-2023 09:23 PM
what did the tracking say?
06-22-2023 09:59 PM
USPS tracking showed the item get all the way to the buyers city and then never get delivered. I opened a request on the usps website to find the package. I was called shortly afterwards by an employee at the usps hub where the item was supposed to be delivered and he told me he'd look into it and get back to me. A few days later he called me again and said that he had been unable to locate the package. He said he saw that the package had been insured so he suggested I open a claim which I then did as described above.
Regardless my denial letter from USPS doesn't dispute that the item was lost...it simply says "insufficient evidence of value. Reference Domestic Mail Manual section 609.3.2".
After appealing the claim denial and pointing out that "evidence of value" was clearly shown in the eBay managed payment pages submitted, I received a second letter saying that "the postal service has not changed the original decision to deny your claim". Insufficient evidence of value was again the reason.
After browsing on this a little bit I saw another poster say that he had luck submitting claims using paypal as the payment system, but has been denied when using eBay managed payments. Based on this experience I've got to assume that he was correct and this is the issue. I can't imagine anything more that any eBay seller could provide to show "evidence of value" than what I provided from my account showing the sale and then the refund. Since we all use managed payments and they don't consider this info as evidence of value it stands to reason that extra USPS insurance is of zero value to any eBay seller.
I've sold thousands of items on eBay over the years and I've been buying USPS insurance for many of them. This is the first time I've ever filed an insurance claim and based on what I've found out it seems that thousands of eBay sellers are likely paying for insurance that will not cover them.
06-23-2023 04:06 AM
You are thorough, that's for sure. I would write to the USPS brass, the CEO and they must also have a complained dept. What you should also do is to send the copies to your congress people who deal with USPS regulation. On the letter to the USPS brass indicate and highlight that copies were sent to your reps in Congress, this will get their attention.
06-23-2023 04:11 AM
I would say that’s not true. I filed 2 claims in last month for damaged items and they approved both and sent check quicker than I expected.
06-23-2023 04:48 AM - edited 06-23-2023 04:50 AM
Managed Payments has been in use for 5 years, and all eBay transactions have gone through MP since 2021. Many other sellers have been able to receive USPS insurance reimbursement for transactions that were processed by MP during that time, so it is not true that USPS will not accept MP documentation for proof of value.
There must have been something else about your insurance claim that led to it being denied. You have used a posting ID so that we can't see the actual listing, and you have not shared the actual purchase price of the item in question. That makes it impossible to review the situation to give you detailed advice. Sharing the item number, or screenshots of the order details page, would be helpful.
When other sellers have had issues getting an insurance claim approved, it sometimes turns out to be because the seller tried to claim the wrong amount in the insurance. The value should be the actual price that the buyer paid for just the item in the claim, not including any costs for shipping, tax, fees, etc.. Other sellers have reported issues because they tried to claim the full amount of the buyer's payment as the value, or the purchase price plus shipping charge, or the amount they had to refund, and received the same response message as you got.
If the claim for a lost package is approved, the USPS reimburses the item's value plus the cost paid for shipping, per Domestic Mail Manual section 609.5.4, so the cost of shipping is not included in the claim for value.
06-23-2023 09:47 AM
@longtimejewelryseller wrote:It seems that USPS does not accept eBay managed payments as an online payment provider for purposes of providing proof of value in the case of a lost item claim.
I have had the opposite experience on multiple occasions.
06-23-2023 12:33 PM
Hmm...well my claim was for a lost item, not a damaged one. Although I don't see how that should make any difference for purposes of proving value...
06-23-2023 12:35 PM
Thanks for the insight. It seems doubtful to me that the denial is for some other obscure reason since both the initial denial letter as well as the denied appeal both clearly stated "insufficient evidence of value" despite my having included the managed payment transactions.
06-23-2023 12:39 PM
Thanks for letting me know. Can you tell me what exactly you included from eBay managed payments as your "proof of value"?? Did you simply include the screenshots of your ebay account showing the funds transactions in your account as well as messages from eBay stating the sale and and refunds? That's what I did. Perhaps there is something else you included? I'd appreciate any help as far as what specifically you used from your eBay account to "prove value" when filing your claim.