What action should i take, if any?

[inhawaii]

I bought and paid for this item on 4-16-19.

Estimated delivery between 4-24-19 and 4-29-19.

Today the tracking shows...

4-21-19: Tracking number provided.

4-25-19: USPS in possession of package.

4-25-19: Departed post office.

4-26-19: Arrived at distribution center.

4-29-19: In transit, arriving late. 

Most of the delay was the sellers.  It took 9 days to get the package to the USPS. 

The USPS has only had the package for 4 days.

I contacted the seller today and got a response that the package will be later due to the USPS.

Obviously the package will not show up on time. Is there anything i can do?  What would you do?

[castlemagicmemories]

Life is too short and your health and happiness too valuable to waste time making a fuss every single time you are slighted.  It's good for one's character to let some things slide.  Save your gripes for the big things that actually involve money.

I wouldn't give him negative feedback over it, either.  I think negative feedback should be for big, bad, dishonest things.  OK there is some slight dishonesty in this....but who knows what's going on in his life.  If your purchase turns out good, oh well.  Forgive.

Excellent, I couldn't agree more!

[castlemagicmemories]

Back in the day, there used to be a lot of Australian sellers on here.  You could buy from them and choose sea mail, which can literally take six months to be receive, but it was much cheaper than anything faster.  I never had a problem buying things that way.  Everything got here as described, these were new dolls, intact, no damage, no problems.  

[city*satins]

Best buyer I ever had ordered $600 in clothing from me.  She had already ordered about $8,000 from me over the previous year and a half.  So we had established a confident relationship as buyer and seller already.

Anyway - I was in Canada.  She was in New Mexico.  She asked me to expedite this particular order, as she was leaving the country in a month. There was plenty of time for it to arrive, and she had been reassured by her postmaster that if worse came to worst, and she'd left by the time the box arrived, it would be forwarded along with the rest of her mail to her new home in Greece.

Well, the package arrived, but late and instead of forwarding it to her, tracking showed it as stopped, then completely disappeared.  I had not only insured it but expedited it, so there was no reason for it to disappear and when I put in a claim to Canada Post, because of the high ticket price of the insurance they wanted scads of paperwork showing the value of the merchandise, etc etc and then launched an investigation that took them all the way to some warehouse in state adjacent to New Mexico where they 'hoped' the package had been sent as 'lost'.  Never found it.

Meanwhile, never having had a problem like this before, and not foreseeing one,  I had already spent the $600 on new stock and didn't have the $ to refund the buyer. I kept her current on what was happening, but after 3 weeks told her that Canada Post, notified me that they would not settle the insurance claim with me for 180 days.   I asked my buyer if she'd permit me to reimburse her in bi-weekly installments of $75 until the full $600 was refunded to her.  

Her response was Of course not!  Don't be silly! Take whatever time it requires to get the insurance claim paid out and if it takes 6 months, so be it!  

At the end of 6 months, Canada Post agreed to pay out my claim but for another 10 days we went back and forth while they tried to convince me to accept $600 in stamps!  LOL.  I tried to explain that stamps were no use to me as I couldn't use stamps and finally they relented and paid me the full $600 plus the original postage I'd paid (the class of service I'd selected had guaranteed delivery - so that was another $45)

Buyer got her refund including postage, of course, and continued to buy from me over the next 5 years, with us using DHL international courier service, which never fumbled a single order and never charged any kind of border broker type fee.

A great, great buyer who could have made my life a misery at the time but instead was kind and supportive and patient.

[castlemagicmemories]

For that amount, I am really glad your buyer was willing to wait and work with you. 

Not near as expensive or complicated as your experience but I had ordered a tea set from a seller here that unfortunately got here broken.  I took pictures and sent them to the seller and was careful to keep the box and packing.  Seller said she had to file a claim and asked me to wait.  I said ok.  After some time, I got back with her and she said she hadn't heard anything.    I did a little research and found they wanted pictures of the box and packing, which I sent to her and explained she needed that for the case.  After weeks had passed, once I sent that and she added it to the claim, the claim was accepted/processed and she could refund me.  Not blowing my own horn here, I was just glad that it was resolved.  

[coolections]

@femmefan1946 

So mail is not sent by rafts to Hawaii ? I can tell you there are several reasons for delivery to be slower to Hawaii than California but I will let you figure that one out.

[postingid2017]

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@nmemoryof wrote:

The seller was negligent to mail it 9 days after payment.  You have every right to complain about it.  However, it would be very noble of you to show the seller some grace as long as once you do get it, you are satisfied that the item is as described.  THEN, don't buy from that seller again. 

Life is too short and your health and happiness too valuable to waste time making a fuss every single time you are slighted.  It's good for one's character to let some things slide.  Save your gripes for the big things that actually involve money.

I wouldn't give him negative feedback over it, either.  I think negative feedback should be for big, bad, dishonest things.  OK there is some slight dishonesty in this....but who knows what's going on in his life.  If your purchase turns out good, oh well.  Forgive.

---

I learned that 10 years ago when my BF died.  I have always tried to "pick & choose" my battles, but I do it more so now then perhaps when I was younger.  I would never fault any seller for shipping times.  Some listing here does not display handling time.  I may have to wait, but would not even consider griping with a seller over delivery date(s).

[turquoisetulips]

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@tunicaslot wrote:

I agree but unless the seller had a 5 day handling time - the package was originally late because they didn't get it to the PO. This is why I like to see the handling time front and center. I know that the PO is iffy - I want to know my seller is reliable.

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Agreed , I've quit dealing with sellers  who are chronically late shippers  in the past . There was one I remember   who wouldn't ship for days on end . Bear in mind she only sold tiny little floating charms that could easily and quickly be put into an envelope and mailed ,, no boxing , no taping,   just send off . I let it go the first few times  but then after the third time I put an INR . She blocked me for this ,, fine and dandy . I need sellers I can rely on . Her feedback was full of customer complaints about late shipping  so that should have been the FIRST place I looked . Tulips 

[nmemoryof]

You were very patient.  In my opinion, seller's should refund the buyer as soon as they get pictures of the damage.  There is no reason to make the buyer wait for a refund. 

[nmemoryof]

That's a wonderful story.  There are MANY great buyers and sellers on eBay. 

[castlemagicmemories]

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@nmemoryof wrote:

You were very patient.  In my opinion, seller's should refund the buyer as soon as they get pictures of the damage.  There is no reason to make the buyer wait for a refund. 

---

Thank you.  The whole situation dragged on for weeks and it was only through my assistance that it was ever settled.  That was frustrating; there was clearly no sense of urgency there.  Eventually I did explain to her that the case is between you and USPS.  The refund is between you and me and does not involve the buyer waiting, although I did wait, this is not usual.

I tend to cut others a lot of slack.  

[*madison]

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@coolections wrote:

You are in Hawaii. I would do nothing but be happy when the item arrives. Tracking is showing it is on the way.

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I'm in the UK, and when I purchased an item from the US it only took 6 days to be delivered to my home.

[*madison]

If my item arrives late and not as described, the seller is getting a neg, and a snad.

If my item arrives late and the item is as described, the seller won't be getting any feedback.

Those are my thoughts, and what I would do..

[equid0x]

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@inhawaii wrote:

I bought and paid for this item on 4-16-19.

Estimated delivery between 4-24-19 and 4-29-19.

Today the tracking shows...

4-21-19: Tracking number provided.

4-25-19: USPS in possession of package.

4-25-19: Departed post office.

4-26-19: Arrived at distribution center.

4-29-19: In transit, arriving late. 

Most of the delay was the sellers.  It took 9 days to get the package to the USPS. 

The USPS has only had the package for 4 days.

I contacted the seller today and got a response that the package will be later due to the USPS.

Obviously the package will not show up on time. Is there anything i can do?  What would you do?

---

8 day lead time on shipping? You bought from a drop shipper of some kind. If they had the item in stock no need to take 8 days getting it to the post office. 

I put 2 business days on my shipping but normally I ship the next day or even the same day if I haven't had the pickup yet. I only put 2 BD on there to cover my you know what. 

[equid0x]

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@lex-talon wrote:

Obviously the package will not show up on time. Is there anything i can do?  What would you do?

I've had a few packages arrive a day late, due to the USPS delays. Not a big deal to me and left the seller's positive feedback anyway. Both items were shipped same day and arrived in great condition. Why take it out on the seller?

Whatever you choose to do; know that it's not always the sellers fault.

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In this case... I think seller had plenty of time to ensure that the item was in shipment in time enough to get there by the end of the delivery window. Me? I might leave a neutral if it doesn't show up on time. I would wait to see what happens first though. 

[equid0x]

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@escuintla wrote:

I am sorry but I call it a **bleep**.

I've had cases where I left the packages at the post office and 3 days later it shows as "received" at the same location. That is in any day from Monday to Friday, without counting the weekends.

My latest case:  Saturday April 6. Package is left at the counter, I even joked with them clerks about a package via first class the Monday before not being scanned but after 27 hours after I left it in the same counter. That package should have been gone!

The package in question was a priority mail, 2 days delivery within California. 

Package arrives Tuesday in Los Angeles.  Out for delivery.

Wednesday? 

Thursday? 

Friday?

Saturday?

Sunday?

Monday?

Tuesday?

And so on!

Delivered when? April 17

A 2 day delivery is turned into 11.

My fault, right? 

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I've always been on the fence with stuff like this. The occasional delay is going to happen. If its a repeated problem with your carrier then maybe you should be selling your customers a delivery service that doesn't suffer from repeated problems. 

Personally, I haven't had many problems with USPS outbound shipping. However, I have had numerous problems with delivery in my city, which apparently the USPS contracts out to a 3rd party with no accountability. 

Having worked in corps for many years... I didn't work for any that used USPS for delivery of anything but first class letters. They typically contracted out to couriers like DHL because they needed the items delivered on the dates they said things were going to be delivered. 

USPS is rather notorious for flaky delivery dates. The cost is also typically the lowest. If this is a good trade off for your business then use them.

If you need reliable delivery I would probably go with FedEx or UPS. I know UPS has a bad rep but honestly, aside from damaging packages the items always arrived when scheduled. You can cover damages with insurance. Downside is problems getting delivery to residential addresses. FedEx has always been very reliable but there are a lot of surcharges for residential deliveries that may not be charged up front. 

DHL was always stone cold reliable. If there was ever a problem they basically dispatched a truck to deliver the item immediately even if it was the middle of the night. Then again, the cost is about twice other shippers. 

I use USPS for the wide coverage and low rates. I've had so few problems with my shipments that I continue to use them. If their service got substantially worse I would probably look next to FedEx.