I think I see how this will end, question is only ... when.

[chariot_badges]

A VERY high percentage of the stuff I mail (USPS) doesn't make it.

This last batch of 14 I sent I got two claims of "not delivered."

One of them WAS delivered, the other one the buyer gave me his old address (he admitted this in a message.)

I am currently at a Transaction Defect Rate of 1.08%, so I am already paying an 8 percent fine for my laziness and bad customer service.

Adding these two in on that will bring my TDR to about 1.2% -- at 2% I'm fired.

This trend is not good:

The post office isn't going to improve.  In fact I think it will get worse.

You guys will be glad to see some competition going away.

Ebay isn't going to cut a small seller a break. (they don't want small sellers here and are doing all they can to eliminate as many as possible).

And, no matter how hard I work to please the buyer, 

it is not possible 100% of the time.  Ebay knows this and is using that

as a tactic to eliminate as many small sellers as they can, and convince us that

it's our fault for being 'bad'. 

I've asked for advice here before and it really appears that there isn't any.

The only thing I will say is the "just do a better job" advice ... isn't really advice. 

[pikabo-icu]

Wow I'm really sorry to read that.

I've read many of your posts here on the boards and I believe you try to be a good seller. 

The failure of USPS is working against you for sure.

Do you make sure to get scans when you drop packages at the PO?

And I imagine you always respond and try to "fix" things when a buyer has a not received claim, yes?

I was under the impression as long as you handle it yourself, it shouldn't hurt your account but perhaps I'm wrong about that..

I hope you get some good advice here.. 

Good Luck.. 

[tobaccocardyahoo]

I use USPS and rarely have an item which has a not delivery claim.

Is there an improvement in how you package your orders which might reduce your non-delivery rate?

One of the reasons that shipments do not arrive is that they are destroyed in transit.

[inhawaii]

---

---

 A VERY high percentage of the stuff I mail (USPS) doesn't make it.

What would you consider a "high percentage"? 

I can ship out 1,000+ packages and not have one get lost.

[jonathanbrightlight]

We use USPS exclusively, and usually the cheaper Media Mail service, and we don't see anywhere near that rate of transaction defects.

For the current period, our INR rate is 0.05% (1 / 2,115), and even though the last period had a higher rate, it was still only 0.14% (3 / 2,191).  

I suspect there's something else factoring into your troubles, but I don't have anywhere near enough information to guess what it is.

[bonjourami]

Looks like most of your complaints are for item not as described, and transaction cancellations, thats the kiss of death for any seller.

[sin-n-dex]

---

@pikabo-icu wrote:

Wow I'm really sorry to read that.

I've read many of your posts here on the boards and I believe you try to be a good seller. 

The failure of USPS is working against you for sure.

Do you make sure to get scans when you drop packages at the PO?

And I imagine you always respond and try to "fix" things when a buyer has a not received claim, yes?

I was under the impression as long as you handle it yourself, it shouldn't hurt your account but perhaps I'm wrong about that..

I hope you get some good advice here.. 

Good Luck.. 

---

The one thing I learnt with INRs, is it counts against you whether it was delivered, later resolved, the buyer was wrong, the item is really lost, doesn't actually matter. half my INRs are on things that were already delivered or later got delivered. if it's already delivered, the INR doesn't go away, it stays on my list of defects (or should I say service metrics? I'm still a bit confused about how these stats work, so please forgive me if I minced words).

So that being said, if buyers are making impatient or false INR claims, it's going to hurt the seller, especially if there's a batch of bad customers that aren't being patient for their items (or are patient but not patient enough because USPS is slow). Having an acceptance scan is good to prove it was mailed on time, but I don't find the acceptance scan to be any help in the event of an INR if they buyer reads "I should have my item by..." and it's one day later and they don't have their item (or in some of my cases they do have their item and file an INR and whine on an expensive thing to get a refund... I use USPS to investigate those and it has so far turned out they were all properly delivered to the correct address).

So basically the metric isn't fair. If the item is delivered, the INR should go away. It's not Item Not Received if it was already delivered or gets delivered later, then it's Item already received, or Item received late, not INR.

C.

[tarotfindsandmore]

Advice:

• Include tracking, and use large clear, thermal-printed labels
• Use some of that shipping profit to buy boxes that stand out like the ones below
• Restrain yourself in your communications, and answer messages promptly
• Stop leaving nasty, disrespectful replies in your feedback, other buyers see it 
• Pay attention to the condition of the items you're selling and describe them accurately
• When you screw up and fail to do the above, own it, apologize, and offer compensation

Now, will you take the advice? I'm guessing not, but there it is if you want to continue selling...

[sin-n-dex]

---

@jonathanbrightlight wrote:

We use USPS exclusively, and usually the cheaper Media Mail service, and we don't see anywhere near that rate of transaction defects.

For the current period, our INR rate is 0.05% (1 / 2,115), and even though the last period had a higher rate, it was still only 0.14% (3 / 2,191).  

I suspect there's something else factoring into your troubles, but I don't have anywhere near enough information to guess what it is.

---

I had a bad run over a few months with a lot of buyers filing them and got 1.5% INR rate, but since I sell volume, that reset after a few months and then I was fine for a while. I try not to accrue them by appeasing anyone who complains by message to try to deter them from filing an INR (and assure them I will refund if it doesn't arrive). Unfortunately that doesn't always work, and I find inexperienced shoppers to be guilty a lot at filing INRs on items and not letting enough time pass to really be sure it isn't arriving.

At the moment, I have one package that hasn't tracked since May 9 (it might have been delivered without a scan, perhaps the barcode is damaged. If the buyer doesn't say, I don't ask). But I think I'm good for not too many INRs right now. Last summer was brutal... With 1.5%, I had 9. I think when you get 10 from all different buyers the defect percentage kicks in.

C.

[fbusoni]

Wow, never seen a post quite like this.

Oscars in multiple categories. 

No one is out to get you.  

The only INR I’ve ever had was in 2005, if I recall correctly.

[slippinjimmy]

---

@chariot_badges wrote:

A VERY high percentage of the stuff I mail (USPS) doesn't make it.

This last batch of 14 I sent I got two claims of "not delivered."

One of them WAS delivered, the other one the buyer gave me his old address (he admitted this in a message.)

I am currently at a Transaction Defect Rate of 1.08%, so I am already paying an 8 percent fine for my laziness and bad customer service.

Adding these two in on that will bring my TDR to about 1.2% -- at 2% I'm fired.

This trend is not good:

The post office isn't going to improve.  In fact I think it will get worse.

You guys will be glad to see some competition going away.

Ebay isn't going to cut a small seller a break. (they don't want small sellers here and are doing all they can to eliminate as many as possible).

And, no matter how hard I work to please the buyer, 

it is not possible 100% of the time.  Ebay knows this and is using that

as a tactic to eliminate as many small sellers as they can, and convince us that

it's our fault for being 'bad'. 

I've asked for advice here before and it really appears that there isn't any.

The only thing I will say is the "just do a better job" advice ... isn't really advice. 

---

There must be more going on, I have been doing mail order for 48 years, USPS has lost exactly one package and even for that one it is questionable as to where the loss actually happened (most likely at the point I handed it over, given it never received a single scan).

Your claim that eBay is trying to get rid of small sellers is simply ridiculous, millions of low volume sellers manage to have their packages sent through USPS delivered at rates exceeding 99% and for most it's 100%.

[soh.maryl]

You state that a "very high percentage" of your shipments don't make it with USPS.

That's scary.  What's a very high percentage? And you're saying that there is no tracking showing delivery?  

[tinsoldierunderground]

I'm not wanting to poke the bear here... but the responses you've left on the neutral and negative FBs you've received are not helping your cause.  Reading through that would give me pause as a buyer, I try to avoid angry sellers.

I've read many of your posts on these boards, and I don't recall them being confrontational or caustic.  

I get the frustration of trying to do well on this site, I just think a more filtered response in those situations would serve you better when it comes to a potential buyer making a choice to buy from you.

[fbusoni]

@sin-n-dex 

Are you referring to difficulties with the Canadian postal system, or with that of the US?

I'm in the DC metro area and have not had an INR in many, many years.  

I have had a few delayed arrivals in the last 12 months, but I check tracking about 48 hours after shipping and if I see there is a delay, I will let the buyer know.   

I do agree with you about the INR's being expunged from the record after the item is in fact delivered.   eBay is electronically integrated with USPS so it should not be rocket science to figure out how to validate delivery and then strike the INR from a seller's record.

[sin-n-dex]

---

@fbusoni wrote:

@sin-n-dex 

Are you referring to difficulties with the Canadian postal system, or with that of the US?

I'm in the DC metro area and have not had an INR in many, many years.  

I have had a few delayed arrivals in the last 12 months, but I check tracking about 48 hours after shipping and if I see there is a delay, I will let the buyer know.   

I do agree with you about the INR's being expunged from the record after the item is in fact delivered.   eBay is electronically integrated with USPS so it should not be rocket science to figure out how to validate delivery and then strike the INR from a seller's record.

---

The current missing parcel went "US Economy" with Stallion Express and has been handled by a smaller courier and not yet handed off to USPS (so either USPS got it and no further scans, or it didn't get handed off and it's stuck, if it's lost, it probably isn't USPS fault).

My complaints about many INRs seem to be for various postal services... Royal Mail, Australia's mail service, Canada Post, USPS, Stallion's US Economy service... seems to be all over the map, a couple for each one. Not enough of a trend to deter me from using any of these services.

I can also sometimes tell if a customer is going to be a problem when they buy, but there's not much I can do if they have paid, and sometimes I'm wrong... thinking someone's a scammer when they're not is not a good thing, so I ship if it's paid and not worry about problem buyers until they cause problems.

C.