In transit arrive late

[lyixian-0]

Hi, I ship two USPS priority mail to Puerto Rico a week ago and they are all stuck in Queens NY distribution center and shows “In transit arrive late” For more than 4 days, which is exceeded the latest estimates delivery date.

So now I am so afraid that the buyer will initiate the item never received request and get a refund, then their package got delivery.......So I lost money and items at the same time due to the delay of USPS. Which is out of my control since it’s an unexpected issue that might happened to anyone who ship mail through USPS at this time.

Does any one can tell me what should I do to protect myself from this sad situation? I’d be appreciate for any comments and advices!

[donsdetour]

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@lyixian-0 wrote:

Hi, I ship two USPS priority mail to Puerto Rico a week ago and they are all stuck in Queens NY distribution center and shows “In transit arrive late” For more than 4 days, which is exceeded the latest estimates delivery date.

So now I am so afraid that the buyer will initiate the item never received request and get a refund, then their package got delivery.......So I lost money and items at the same time due to the delay of USPS. Which is out of my control since it’s an unexpected issue that might happened to anyone who ship mail through USPS at this time.

Does any one can tell me what should I do to protect myself from this sad situation? I’d be appreciate for any comments and advices!

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You can not protect your self from this. The USPS is a mess.  The USPS does not guarantee delivery times on most viable methods of shipping; only provides estimations, yet eBay foolishly does, so there you go.

 So who's fault is such loss in these cases??  Not the PO;

its eBay fault for such loss to the seller. This is plain and simple.

Now if you were to ship priority mail express it seem this would go through, but what purchaser would pay the expense??

[matneum_15]

Technically, eBay is supposed to be providing protection for sellers in regards to USPS late transit due to the pandemic: https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/How-we-re-responding-to-USPS-delays/ba-p/31134359

However, don't count on it. Ebay seems to be happy to let buyers leave bad feedback when the item hasn't arrived yet, even with tracking showing that it is completely USPS' fault for late delivery (in transit, arriving late).

[fashunu4eeuh]

Hi, I know this is worrisome, but the buyer has not filed a not received case yet. For the time being, no need to borrow more worry. Go to USPS and sign up for transit notices via text or email on these packages. Then you will receive updates on their movement. Let the buyer know you are on top of it, watching the packages' progress. If a INR case does get opened, ask eBay for an extension. For domestic packages (which is what yours are, not international), if the tracking shows there has been movement within the last 7 days, eBay will grant an extension to give more time for a delayed item to arrive. This may help ease some of the pressure.

[postingid7659]

"In transit arriving late" is an auto-update to the tracking which really means nothing.  They could be sitting somewhere not moving, and they could be moving along and just not being scanned.  

You can go to the USPS website and open a trace on the packages, that usually seems to get them moving, although the way things are now even that's not a guarantee.    I would give it a week or so of no updates before I opened it; the last one I opened showed up the very next day.   

If you're worried about your buyers you can advise them by email the postal service is running slow and you will run a trace on them and keep them updated what you find out.   Thank them for their patience.