Lost mail?

[winancy]

Has anyone else noticed an increase in the amount of lost mail in the past month or two? I've been using eBay for twenty years and have never had anything go missing until recently. Two packages are stuck at meal hubs within miles of the Final Destination. They are both Media Mail Packages but in large, heavy duty cardboard mailers. I have opened up lost mail claims on both of them with the USPS and have heard nothing. I have notified both buyers, one has not responded at all to multiple emails and the other one is very understanding. But at what point do I refund my buyers?

[1tuna]

I had a few packages go missing back in November

as far as when to refund them I let them know they can get a refund now or file a lost package later and get the same refund

[katzrul15]

You do not mention how many days the Buyers have been waiting?  How much are the orders?

What city stuck in?  Memphis is still an abyss, MD, Houston.....sometimes PA.  USPS is still struggling at several hubs, it just never improved from the holiday debacle and subsequent storms.

How far past the shipping delivery window are you?  That piece of info would largely drive any advice I could share.

[Anonymous]

Delayed, yes, but nothing actually lost, never to be seen again.

[winancy]

One package is stuck in Warrendale, PA for 29 days and the other in Jersey City, NJ for 22 days. Nothing high priced. About $6, so it wouldn't break me if I would refund. I would just like to hear something from USPS before I do that.

I think I'll message the buyers again and tell them they can request a refund any time they are ready and I will keep them updated if I hear anything from the USPS. 

[postingid7659]

Refund only when they complain. 

Warrendale is the bulk mail sorting center for most of the northeast, if you send it Media or 4th class it goes there.  

Generally reporting as lost gets someone to go look for it and it starts moving again.  

[duffy4444]

   This last Christmas was a disaster for on-time USPS deliveries, and it has since slightly improved.

   Over the Christmas shopping season I had a lot of sales, but about 15 were badly delayed and stuck in a hub somewhere. When the buyers emailed and expressed a concern over the delays, I responded to them and asked for patience because of the pandemic and the USPS running around in circles like headless chickens and stumbling over their responsibility to deliver in a timely manner.

   ALL of the items were eventually delivered, but some wanted their items as gifts before Christmas and requested a refund or opened an INR case. I immediately refunded them, and sent them a courteous response thru Ebay requesting that they either return the item when it was delivered if they no longer wanted it, or contact me for paying again for it. All but three customers did either return the item (two customers) or pay for the item again. The three who ignored me and kept the item and their refund as punishment for the delay, which was the fault of the USPS and not mine, went onto my Blocked Bidder List.

   An unfortunate cost of doing business online, but the majority of delays were solved with a good outcome.

Cheers, Duffy 

[winancy]

Oddly enough, I had nothing go missing during the pandemic in 2020 through eBay. But I did have a package go missing that was an order for Christmas, sent via FedEx. FedEx is an absolute disaster...I cringe every time I order something that is supposed to be sent via FedEx.

[bbravo65]

...same here...I had have a very bad experience with FedEx and I vow to not buying from anyone whom ships through them...

[tagmac22]

I'm relatively new to selling, and sold a bunch of items in the last month. Had one item in a small bubble envelope go missing. Nearly two weeks after sending it, there was no update, until a few days ago it showed up as "Visibly Damaged" and at the Jersey City facility. Today I opened up a case, and informed my customer of the problem. The PO at the buyer's city says they're looking into it. However, I just received an envelope in the mail from the Jersey City facility. What was in it - the shipping label, clearly cut off the package!! Anyone ever have THIS happen?

I'm assuming theft now, and will definitely file a claim for the value of the item if need be (thankfully it was less than $30), but first I'll have to wait to see what the PO says. Calling clearly gets you nowhere - the main number had me on hold forever, and when I tried calling the Jersey City location, I got a million menu options, followed by a "the person's voicemail is full" message. For my customer's sake, I hope somehow the item turns up, but after seeing on here that many others have had issues with this particular facility, I needed to speak up.

[johnwhiplash]

I've had two lost packages within the last month. One was over $100 worth of items shipped priority.  USPS is no help.  I filed a package research case and a missing mail  case. They said they don't know what happened to it and  the case has been resolved. I'll possibly get $100 back in insurance hopefully.

[a_c_green]

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@johnwhiplash wrote:

I've had two lost packages within the last month. One was over $100 worth of items shipped priority.  USPS is no help.  I filed a package research case and a missing mail  case. They said they don't know what happened to it and  the case has been resolved. I'll possibly get $100 back in insurance hopefully.

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Give them a little more time, assuming that your buyer isn't freaking out already. If the packages were shipped "within the last month," they're not spectacularly late (by current standards, unfortunately).

They're probably sitting in a trailer waiting to be taken in at the sort facility, and my experience in following a lot of these tracking issues is that the facilities are not very good at First-In-First-Out processing, so I'll see delayed packages mailed on Day 1 still sitting around while packages from Day 3 go through, then packages from Day 2, etc. (Media Mail is even worse, though: that travels on a space-available basis with no promised delivery date, and should be avoided at all costs unless the buyer genuinely doesn't care when the package will show up.)

The missing mail reports can be helpful in getting attention when multiple reports from the same area are received, but mainly it's a case of asking complaining buyers to be patient, because the packages are not lost, just backed up.