I’m needing advice please

[01duchess0]

I sold an item to a lady in Georgia on 7-19-2019 and shipped it the morning of 8-1-19.  I receive a message on Saturday (9-7-19) stating that she didn’t receive it.  It ran through my head why was she waiting a month and a week to get ahold of me.  However I dropped what I was doing last Saturday morning to answer her question.  I mailed the package with the clerk at the window at my post office and paid to have it sent.  Therefore I have a receipt from the post office showing time, date, location it was going, tracking number and how much my bill was.  I looked it up on USPS tracking and the package has been sitting at the post office for a month and it has a warning note that says if the buyer doesn’t pick up the package soon, it was being shipped back to me. The tracking shows it was delivered at the post office but never put on a truck to be delivered.  I don’t know if she lives in such a small community that mail isn’t delivered there or not.  Since I gathered all of that information. I took pictures of the sales receipt and of the entire tracking log with the warning on it and sent to her 30 minutes after  receiving her message.  She has already left me negative feedback.  I don’t understand what I’ve done wrong to deserve it.  I’m not one to brag, but in 14 years I’ve never received a single negative feedback.  This hurts me because it’s right before Christmas and I don’t understand why I got it. Within 30 min.  of her message Saturday morning I answered her and gave her the tracking information again.  I told her there was nothing I could do on this end since it was at her post office.  She said she would go to the post office first thing Monday morning with the tracking number to see what they say.  I’m writing this at 5:12 am Central time on Monday morning, so she hasn’t even had time to go check at the post office yet to see if it’s there.  It’s not a cheap item.  It was $240.00.  I just don’t understand why it’s my fault that her post office doesn’t deliver mail to her and why she waited 5 weeks to notify me.  (Oh, in her send message to me saying she could go the post office and check, she put her full signature line in the closing and she’s a medical doctor.  I would think she would know how important reviews are.) Please help me understand how that is my fault and what I can do to do better next time. Thank you for your time. 

[no_zero369]

So my bad!  The post (#6) that corrected the date was not clear as to which date it was referring to and thus left to interpretation.   So it appears my interpretation was wrong.

Not to excuse that misinterpretation on my part, but in the future being more clear and getting your facts correct the first time sure would help other help you.  We are all about the facts and can be most helpful when the facts are presented up front, in totality and accurately.  I'm sure you can appreciate that.

Second, I suggest one read the Community policy as it relates to showing your buyer's Name/ID in a post.  

https://community.ebay.com/t5/About-the-Community/Rules-of-Engagement/m-p/26164369?nobounce=

There are plenty of sellers that do not have time to run their business the way a business should be run or to provide the kind of "customer experience" that eBay wishes to have associated with its platform.  Just because "everybody is doing it" doesn't necessarily make it right.   Personally I strive to go above and beyond - but hey that is just me!

[pburn]

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@01duchess0 wrote:

Please tell me what I’m lying to you on?

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Just ignore it.

[bonjourami]

Yes.

[lja440]

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@vanman1029 wrote:

You should be able to call c/s and have that negative removed since you have written proof the item was shipped by you.

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Proof of shipping means nothing. You need proof of delivery. It is unlikely that eBay would remove the neg without delivery scan. So a calm professional reply is the best course of action.

[lja440]

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@01duchess0 wrote:

The lady was saying she didn’t receive it.  It never showed the package went on a truck for delivery.  It shows it sat in the post office the whole month of August.  I’m not sure if  they tried to contact her by putting a notice in her mailbox or not.  She is going to be very upset though because eBay customer service said it was past their 30 day window for opening a case. Therefore, if the post office lost it, I’m not obligated to refund her money. 

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I'm a mail carrier. There could be several reasons that the package was held at the PO and not delivered. It could be a unsafe area for packages to be left. It could just be her mailbox. (I have one guy, his mailbox has gotten hit with a ball bat or pipe over 2 years ago. I can get the few letters that he gets in it and I could squeeze his meds in but the flap does not close or even come close to closing. I leave him a notice).

You I think said this is a watch. I am not a fan of leaving small packages anywhere other than in the mailbox. My garage looks like a episode of Hoarders right now I have so many refinishing projects in the works or waiting to be worked on.  Anything smaller than a vacuum cleaner is libel to get lost in the mess.

[johnrj1226]

@01duchess0 

For future reference any time I see an item we shipped is delivered to a PO box or being held at the PO for customer pic-up etc.  I simply send the buyer a nice  heads up message via eBay message.   Some even reply with  nice "Thanks a lot".  People do  get busy and forget - I do get forgetful on occasions too & appreciate a reminder.

Hope this all turns out well for you.