Item I shipped to Customer Says "Out For Delivery" Five Days Ago

[mcta-tayl]

I shipped the item to the auction winner the day after they paid. I was following tracking and it was all looking good until the estimated arrival day (Aug 9th). On Aug 9th it arrived at the buyer's local post office and said "OUT FOR DELIVERY" that morning. It's now the 14th and there have been no updates since. I contacted the buyer and they said they still haven't received the package. Has this every happened to someone before? Am I getting scammed so they get my stuff for free? What should I do? 

[wastingtime101]

File an inquiry with USPS and if the package ends up being lost in the end then file an insurance claim. Most services (Ground Advantage, Priority Mail) have up to $100 of included USPS insurance.

You can also call the buyer's local PO and ask them to check with the carrier. Provide a physical description of the package. Carrier might remember it.

[dirk12955]

No,  No,  No,   NO!

Why did you poke the bear and put into your buyers head that he can claim non-delivery?

Maybe he's 100% honest and then again,  maybe he's thinking "Oh boy,  Free item and money back too"

Not scanned does not equal not delivered.   

[toomuchstuffagain35]

Exactly.

I have a request open for one that's been out for delivery since Aug 1st.

Apparently the buyer only just realised it hadn't been 'delivered'.

I put in a missing mail request to USPS, we'll see what happens.

[spark-chaser1]

I'm a buyer and am dealing with this a LOT lately. On the day item is supposed to arrive, official tracking shows item arriving at my local PO, and then , " out for delivery"... Day comes and goes, nothing arrived, tracking changes to " expected delivery tomorrow"... Lather , rinse, repeat. 

I suspect that there is a shortage of carriers and they are staggering routes to keep up... I go days without mail and then my box is chock-a-block full.

Items eventually show up, but it does get tiresome, especially if there is a lot invested. Your buyer is most likely dealing with this too. 

[toomuchstuffagain35]

I figure mine could be two ways.

Either it was delivered but not scanned delivered and the buyer thinks they're good to get a freebie OR

it's still sitting in the truck or in a bin/bag somewhere between the PO and the buyer's mailbox.

It was a folded over padded mailer so the 2nd IS a possibility.

[spark-chaser1]

My PO has been known to halt mail deliveries to areas with road construction underway, or if access is otherwise restricted by heavy traffic, and have also mistakenly several times held my mail under the auspices of " requested delivery hold" and act surprised when I come in after not receiving mail for a week and inform them that I had Not requested such...

All in all I'm happy and impressed with the job the PS does, it has a gargantuan task and manages to get it done. It does - however - seem lately that Murphy's law is affecting tracking and delivery to my area for the last few weeks to the point I'm taking a breather to let things catch up before I start losing more money/ time while playing Sherlock Holmes with the PO.

[spark-chaser1]

To add to my rant ( in case it helps others in the same situation)... In the last month or so, almost every one of my items has arrived a few days after the EDD. And of those, half have experienced the multiple " out for delivery today" ( the 14th... )... which changes to... "Delivery exception, awaiting scan"(the 15th...) " Delivery exception, your item has not received a delivery scan as of (date, usually the original EDD) on the 16th...

 There is a good chance the buyer in this case is experiencing this situation. Either transportation or personnel shortages are hitting the PS hard.  I always give the seller the benefit of the doubt... As I have 30 days to see what happens. But I will usually open a research case after a week of watching an " out for delivery" shipment go day to day without an update or delivery scan, and if that doesn't yield results, the MBG nuclear option becomes last resort.

[toomuchstuffagain35]

Mine got delivered this morning according to the tracking...after I just refunded the buyer last night (of course) as he messaged and wanted the refund so he could buy another as it looked like the PO lost it.

So now I can't file a lost mail claim, ebay will do nothing as I 'refunded voluntarily', so unless the buyer is honest and does the right thing I'm SOL.

Next time I'll wait until ebay forces the refund so I can at least appeal it.

eta: Oh, and when I called his local PO about it a couple of days ago I was told "now that first class parcel is shipped by ground it can take up to 3 weeks to arrive", which I was a little taken aback by even though I told him as it was marked our for delivery I didn't think it would take 3 weeks to get from his PO to the buyer's mailbox LOL

[spark-chaser1]

Sorry that happened to you. I  also hope that your buyer is honest... I know I wouldn't feel right as a buyer receiving a refund AND keeping the item.

As far as wacky shipping, I made a  trip yesterday  to my local PO and the clerk disclosed that they are so short staffed that they are sub- contracting carriers from towns as far as 2 hours away to deliver local mail in staggered routes. Meaning,until further notice it may be possible to  not receive my  mail for several days. 

So for the foreseeable future, I can look forward to finding that an already late / slow- moving package may be sitting in the local PO for several more days beyond with tracking stalled at " alert- delivery exception, awaiting delivery scan". It isn't often I can go in person to collect mail, so there it is, LOL.

Anyway, I have always been  willing to ride the 30 day window to avoid a seller having to  refund for a late package , only to then have to go through the hassle of re-paying.

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

I NEVER reach out to a buyer if their item has some weird tracking stuff going on, especially if it stays on "Out For Delivery" or something else. I keep track of all items and monitor for "Delivered" status and keep an eye so I have an idea what's going on and am never caught off guard by a buyer reaching out if there is an issue. I want to know ahead of time and anticipate the issue and their contact. If something appears stuck in a loop (circling at a certain distro center) I'll file a USPS missing mail search to bump it along.

Why I NEVER reach out is because I don't know if the item was already delivered, so I don't want to alert the buyer the item doesn't show delivered and give them a chance to be dishonest. Also, if a buyer is blissfully ignorant, or is not concerned yet about a delayed item, I don't want them to have reason to become concerned by me messaging them and possibly alerting them to something they were blissfully unaware of.

The item will get to them when it gets to them. I can't change USPS. I ship as quickly as I can, usually next day, sometimes 2nd day, (I have 3-day handling), I always get an acceptance scan, there is only so much I can do. I don't need to open a door for a buyer, or open their eyes, to an "issue" if it wasn't already an issue for them.

[jamesnalesnik]

Unfortunately this happens about 3% to 7% of the time.

[simba6]

Call the 800 number on the USPS web site.  They can pull up a lot more info than what is on line. I have had a few packages found that way.

Some however are never to be seen again.

[kh-stanley1]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.