Please help Item shipped to customer is late due to USPS, customer requested refund

[kingsriverboy]

Label created Sat. March 8. Receipt at drop off USPS Mon March 10. Customer has requested refund. They tracked with USPS and claim USPS said it was lost.

Note tracking was showing both progress and saying arriving late. Once customer inquired with USPS it now says: Thurs march 20 package research case closed.

Does that just mean the post office looked into it, or that they looked into it and declared the package lost?

What are my responsibilities? Has not even been thirty days. If I understand correctly no claim with USPS can be filed for lost package?  Nor can it be declared lost until at least 30 days? And if lost, who floats the time of filing and waiting, cost loss? LOL It's always the seller but I had to ask just for the disbelief anti dopamine.

Thanks

[12345jamesstamps]

Check the eBay Buyer ID in feedbacks...is the country USA or another country?

Missing 'delivered' scan usually means a refund...even though item is still out there saying...'arriving late'.

That 'arriving late' can continue on tracking for year(s).

'drop off'...need a scan by a person or the machine in the post office.

And it's possible buyer has it and knows they can get a refund because it states 'not delivered' yet.Opened still.

[kingsriverboy]

Thank you. At 15 days since dropping off at post office, just seemed unreasonable to be able to file a claim. I've had a few shipments (domestic) coming and going, go way, way off track lately and take 25 days but got there. This customer is in TN, neighboring my State AR. I contacted P.O., after that the tracking info changed. I could not get through to a post office human so filed claim online this evening anyway. I am still not sure about refunding so early? If I get confirmation from P.O. that the claim will not be rejected due to short time frame, guess I'll go through with it. I guess I'll tell the customer this as well and say if he wanted he could have spent many hours of one day with more to lose before it's done doing this claim himself.

[fbusoni]

@kingsriverboy 

YOU need to confirm that the package was lost.

You can go to your local post office and ask them to pull up the tracking information.

If USPS confirms to you that the package is lost, then you need to refund the buyer ASAP and file a claim with USPS.  

If the item was insured, you should get reimbursed up to $100 (or more if you added additional coverage).

[kalyoth]

It is horrible how USPS fails at the basic features of a functional parcel carrier. That being said, they also will not declare an item lost for months/years. You will have to refund the customer after a reasonable amount of time passes after the estimated arrival date. However, that process is defined by ebay as opening a claim for item not delivered by the buyer. As long as the item has data showing its in transit, the case should be continued for a bit to allow it to arrive. Let ebay define the refund period & when it occurs. In the mean while, open a case of your own with USPS to see if they can locate the item as well.

[kensgiftshop]

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@kingsriverboy wrote:

Thank you. At 15 days since dropping off at post office, just seemed unreasonable to be able to file a claim. I've had a few shipments (domestic) coming and going, go way, way off track lately and take 25 days but got there. This customer is in TN, neighboring my State AR. I contacted P.O., after that the tracking info changed. I could not get through to a post office human so filed claim online this evening anyway. I am still not sure about refunding so early? If I get confirmation from P.O. that the claim will not be rejected due to short time frame, guess I'll go through with it. I guess I'll tell the customer this as well and say if he wanted he could have spent many hours of one day with more to lose before it's done doing this claim himself.

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It's not the buyers job to file a claim with USPS, they are covered by Ebays MBG.

If the buyer has filed an INR, respond to the case and upload the tracking number.

If tracking shows recent movement, they might put the case on hold a few days.

If it doesn't, you have three days to refund the buyer before Ebay can step in.

[casprrr]

You can file a missing mail claim with USPS if a Priority Mail package hasn't been delivered within 7 days (I don't know what it is for Ground Advantage). I filed one of these last Friday after a package had no updates for over a week; five hours after reporting the missing mail the package received a new scan. It is still on its way to the buyer, who thankfully is very understanding and patient.

[thingspeoplelove]

As a rule of thumb, if there is no tracking update within 10 days of the last scanned update you can assume the package is lost. At that point you should open a lost package claim with the carrier. As for your buyer, if the package is not received by the estimated delivery date , the buyer one day later can open a item not received request. If within this time the tracking updates , ebay will put the buyer request on hold pending the item delivered.

[truckflow]

Partially untrue with the timeframe on the claim. Just had a buyer open an item not received claim the day after the item shipped. We have a 5 business days handling time due to our local post office and hub not scanning packages for a few days after pickup or no scan at all until delivery. The item was purchased on a Saturday and shipped on Monday,  technically shipped same business day. The following day, the buyer saw there was no initial scan so they opened an item not received claim. The claim was automatically closed when the order was delivered on the ship by date. Buyer appealled and opened a case in which they won and got a refund for whatever reason.  We were found not at fault but told to ship our orders quicker so not be in this situation again.  Also check the actual tracking through USPS. Ebay has a habit of not updating tracking on their end. Have had orders showing as delivered on the carriers website but not on ebays tracking within order details.