Buyer received different item than I sent

[blizzard2]

Sent buyer a book via Media Mail. Buyer emails a few days later (faster than Media Mail should have arrived) saying they got our package but it contained a Christmas Lego set. Pictures showed our mailing label stuck on packaging we definitely didn't send the book in. And we had no such Lego set sitting around to mistakenly send out! It looks like our label either fell off (which is odd as that has never happened in all our years of selling) and somehow got on the Lego package, or reprinted by USPS for a re-package and stuck on the wrong package

USPS is no help sorting this out, they just keep saying it shows the package was delivered, ignoring the explanation that yes it was delivered, but the contents weren't right. No insurance and Media Mail means no way to file a claim as far as I can see.

We refunded the buyer and are ready to just cut our losses. But I figured I'd post here in case there's something I'm not thinking of that we can do to either find the book or get paid back.

[nobody*s_perfect]

Hmm, I would have looked up the value of the Lego set and perhaps offered to pay for return shipping, before issuing the refund. Then you could re-sell the Lego set to recoup part of your money, if the set was worth more than the cost of the return shipping and selling fees. 

After reading so many posts about scammers, I can't help wondering whether your buyer removed your shipping label and conjured up this Lego package, hoping you'd react just as you did, so they get the book for free.  Offering to pay for return shipping before refunding would have called their bluff.

[ms.rodriguez*]

  Very odd for a label to attach itself securely over another box and cover up whatever label it originally had. Or did 2 labels come off and a postal employee attach the wrong label to the wrong box. I wonder if the owner of the Label set got the book. Or , could the buyer be a scammer and just made up any label and attached it to a box just to get a refund?  Hmmm..    Definitely refund and definitely block that buyer just in case.

[the_fancy_fox]

I received the package like that once. I had ordered the sheet set and received a tiny little black cocktail dress.

sometimes the packages go through the conveyors labels get ripped off. There’s a whole department that takes all these packages and attempts to figure out where they’re supposed to go. Sometimes people get lazy and just slap labels on whatever box they can to get the backlog out of their area.

this is why I invested in a roll of plastic bags, they look like produce bags but they come in different sizes, and the item and the packing slip goes in that bag which gets sealed shut.  This way if one of my labels ever gets taken off they can figure out where it’s supposed to go.