eBay

stoneledge · ‎09-17-2017

If USPS delivers an item but fails to scan the delivery, what happens?

If the last scan is "out for delivery" in the buyer's town, is it possible that USPS never completes the delivery scan even though it delivered the item?

Typos courtesy of Lithium.

tunicaslot · ‎09-18-2017

The point of mng's response is that a claim should not be filed unless the buyer contacts you that they haven't received the package. Others have given great advice on how to handle the situation to find if it was indeed delivered.

chipper01work · ‎09-18-2017

The point of my post is to point out that if the whereabouts of the package are not documented it is in fact lost and to file a claim based on that is absolutely NOT fraud.

retrose1 · ‎09-18-2017

OP, unless the buyer has filed a INR claim or asked where the item is, constantly checking up on everybodies tracking is a huge waste of your time.

If the buyer asks and the PO doesn't have a delivery scan, file a lost package report and see what happens. If the system does not update - had one that took two days to update, then file the insurance. Nothing gets a business to operate more efficiently than the loss of money due to employee carelessness.

If the buyer does not ask, then you can safely assume that they got the package and you are stressing over nothing.

(*Bleep*)

tunicaslot · ‎09-18-2017

@chipper01work wrote:
The point of my post is to point out that if the whereabouts of the package are not documented it is in fact lost and to file a claim based on that is absolutely NOT fraud.

That's true - but the buyer will contact you if they do not receive their package. There is no need to poke a sleeping bear and start a problem when there is not one at the moment. If the OP cares to investigate for her own peace of mind with the PO - then that's fine and if she then finds it is indeed lost - by all means file a claim - but the couple of responses indicating she should just go ahead and file a claim without knowing if the item was wrong.

a_c_green · ‎09-18-2017

@duchess-at-speakeasy wrote:
The system generally updates on its own but you can request tracking updates via the USPS T&C screen. Doing so generates an exception report that a real person has to resolve.

Um, what? Requesting updates is a routine feature of the tracking database; it doesn't generate an exception report.

What can generate an exception report (and I assume did, in this case) is the Out for Delivery entry (which is applied to all packages sorted to that carrier's route). Once that is applied to the package record, it must be replaced by one of several later scan types within 14 hours: a Delivered scan (usually) or Notice Left are the most common, but Receptacle Blocked or other similar resolution will work as well. If it is not updated, a Delivery Status Not Updated record is set, and that does trigger an alarm at the local PO.

Under normal circumstances, the carrier leaves the PO with "n" number of packages logged as having Out for Delivery status. As each one is scanned as Delivered, that number decrements, so normally the carrier will return to the PO with an Out for Delivery count of zero, and no packages remaining. If the number is greater than zero, the carrier will need to account for what happened to the outstanding package(s); e.g. Notice Left packages will be put on the shelf for later pickup. (This was related to me in gory detail by our local carrier a few weeks back during a conversation on this very topic.)

muttlymob · ‎09-18-2017

@chipper01work wrote:
The point of my post is to point out that if the whereabouts of the package are not documented it is in fact lost and to file a claim based on that is absolutely NOT fraud.

If by "not documented" you mean that there is no delivery scan, then by your reasoning a recipient could receive the package but the lack of delivery scan still "proves" that the package is in fact lost.

Lack of delivery scan is not the final proof of lost package. If you filed a claim for lost package with no input from the recipient, merely because there was no delivery scan, you might get a definitive answer on whether it is fraud or not.