eBay

bigdeals.etc · ‎02-03-2020

Can anyone make sense of this tracking? https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction?qtc_tLabels1=9400116901449700402245

Buyer bought this end of Jan. ETA showed 1/25. This package is supposed to go to Aventura, FL. Buyer says it's a forwarding company. It's been bouncing between Opa Locka and Miami about 15 times so far back and forth for the past 10 days.

800 USPS was no help. They claimed I sent the package with the wrong street number and wrong zip code. I can 100% guarantee that the address is correct (buyer communication confirmed) and valid. If it was a wrong street number it would've gotten delivered to that address and if it was invalid it would've returned back to me.

dhbookds · ‎02-03-2020

Ugh.......

but did you notice this:

Premium Tracking

Your item is eligible for Premium Tracking: Extended History. Purchase the extended tracking history for your item to be sent via email upon request. Choose the length of time you would like to extend access to this tracking history and select for purchase. You can only purchase extended history once so your order will be final. Based on your tracking number, your regular tracking history is available only until May 21, 2020 without this purchase. You may purchase Premium Tracking for only one tracking number at a time.

6 Months

$2.10

1 Year

$2.59

3 Years

$3.59

5 Years

$4.59

7 Years

$5.59

10 Years

$9.99

SOOOOOO............there is now a way to prove delivery over a longer period of time to combat scams............AT A PRICE

mcdougle4248 · ‎02-03-2020

@bigdeals.etc

I have had similar occurrences in the past. I don't know why, but I sign up for text and email updates and all of a sudden that seems to do the trick to get the package delivered. Have you signed up for text and email updates? If not, maybe give it a try.

lex-talon · ‎02-03-2020

I've had a similar situation happen not too long ago. Signing up for text & email updates will usually get the package back on course. Heard the 800 USPS no. not too reliable.

a_c_green · ‎02-03-2020

@bigdeals.etc wrote:
Buyer bought this end of Jan. ETA showed 1/25. This package is supposed to go to Aventura, FL. Buyer says it's a forwarding company. It's been bouncing between Opa Locka and Miami about 15 times so far back and forth for the past 10 days.

Um, yeah... I would say this is almost certainly a case of failing to scan the package at its destination sort facility. When a package is scanned as going into a transport container from one facility to the next, tracking updates will follow the container from that point on, until the package itself is eventually scanned when it emerges someplace else. That did not happen (yet) in this case, so you are currently seeing the continued travel of the container, not the package.

If the buyer is complaining, ask him to be a little more patient and the situation should resolve itself soon enough. If he's not complaining (anymore), don't contact him, because there is some small chance that he's already received it.

a_c_green · ‎02-03-2020

@mcdougle4248 wrote:
@bigdeals.etc
I have had similar occurrences in the past. I don't know why, but I sign up for text and email updates and all of a sudden that seems to do the trick to get the package delivered.

It's a perceptual thing. All you're really doing is speeding up your notification of an event that was going to happen anyway. It has no effect on the package itself; for example, it does not get it "un-stuck" in any way.

Tracking follows the package, it does not guide it, but you can use text or email updates to get near-instant notification the next time the package is scanned somewhere along its travels. Your update request sets a flag in the package record in the USPS database. Whenever that tracking record gets an update from a new package scan, the flag directs the system to send you a note about it. It doesn't get your package special preference in any way, but it does give you a good update of when and where it was last seen.

bigdeals.etc · ‎02-03-2020

@lex-talon wrote:
I've had a similar situation happen not too long ago. Signing up for text & email updates will usually get the package back on course. Heard the 800 USPS no. not too reliable.

@mcdougle4248 Yea I did that back when the buyer messaged me about this on 1/24. This was just before the package started bouncing. Sadly, no dice.

@dhbookds Wow I didn't notice that til you mentioned it. Talk about double dipping.

bigdeals.etc · ‎02-03-2020

@a_c_green wrote:
Um, yeah... I would say this is almost certainly a case of failing to scan the package at its destination sort facility. When a package is scanned as going into a transport container from one facility to the next, tracking updates will follow the container from that point on, until the package itself is eventually scanned when it emerges someplace else. That did not happen (yet) in this case, so you are currently seeing the continued travel of the container, not the package.

If the buyer is complaining, ask him to be a little more patient and the situation should resolve itself soon enough. If he's not complaining (anymore), don't contact him, because there is some small chance that he's already received it.

He's been complaining every day since 1/24. It was because he needed the forwarding company to receive the item by the exact ETA date 1/25 in order to have minimum amount of time for the company to send the item and have the recipient receive the item "on time" because it was time sensitive for them. He complained so much and often that I agreed to just refund him.

So I'm wondering now if this guy successful just scammed me. This is probably the first issue I've ever gotten from selling to a buyer using a forwarding company.

threshold.sales.group · ‎02-03-2020

The bar code on the label is giving the automatic sort system bad information. The only "fix" is for someone at the destination (incorrect) USPS location to disable the bar code by crossing it out and then that forces a manual sort of the package at the distribution center. Otherwise the package will stay in limbo until it gets destroyed.

a_c_green · ‎02-03-2020

@bigdeals.etc wrote:
So I'm wondering now if this guy successful just scammed me.

Not if he really didn't get the package, and the tracking seems to back him up on that.

Given that you've refunded him already, try to get the package intercepted and returned to you. Basic details are here: https://retail-pi.usps.com/retailpi/actions/index.action

Your tracking number is eligible for Package Intercept; I already checked it. Cost for the process is only charged to you if they successfully find your package and return it. Charges are $12.65 plus the cost of Priority Mail to ship it back. Good luck!

femmefan1946 · ‎02-03-2020

You've googled the "forwarding company" and it really does exist? You've seen their plant on Google Maps and there is an attached picture and perhaps a website?

I agree that forwarding companies are among the safest ways to ship overseas. As customs brokers they collect and pay the buyer's customs and sales taxes before they turn the package over to him for example.

bigdeals.etc · ‎02-14-2020

Yes I did.

So here's an update. The package still bounced around a few more times. I already refunded the buyer over a week ago. He just messaged me saying that the forwarding company got the package and was unable to "refuse" it to go back to me... so they just sent it ahead to him in Bermuda. He is asking me to charge him for the item again since it's not worth it for him to send it back to me. I appreciate great buyers like this... there are tons of them in ebay (international ones too).

Anyway, any tips on how to go about doing that? I can't have him buy another item from me again because ebay metrics will require I provide a tracking and send the item out otherwise I get penalized. Will invoicing on Paypal trigger any accusations of me circumventing fees? I don't want to just let this be and have total money and item loss because it isn't a cheap item.