Lost Package Issue

[sharpbeak]

At the end of August. I sold a textbook. It was picked up the next afternood by USPS and had the expected delivery date of September tth. However, that day came and went and the tracking never showed it was delviered. The last day any updates were made were on the 5th and there's been nothing since then. I contacted USPS and after a few days they responded that a shipping label from my package was found somewhere in their system (they actually mailed the label back to me) but weren't clear on whether it was just the label or the whole shipping envelope with no item.

Reason stands that my customer probably didnt recieve their item, but I've contacted them three times over the course of almost two weeks asking whether or not they got what they paid for and I've not heard anything at all. (They also have no seller or buyer history at all on ebay and their last name is the same as their street name, which I found to be very strange and slightly sketchy.) If they didnt get it, one would assume they would respond? But I'd also expect an answer if they did too, so I really don't know what to think. It's been over three weeks since the package went out and considering it was a textbook boguht at the beginning of a school semester, they would have been very upset if they never got it and be contacting me.

I don't know what to do here. If they respnded, I would take them at their word that they never got it, refund them and just take the hit of the lost item, but with ZERO communication from them in the last couple weeks since it became clear there was an issue, I don't want to refund them when there is a chance they did recieve it after all and they arent even asking for a refund yet. I know ebay's buy protection is only for 30 days but paypal could come after me for the money for up to six months and I really dont want that over my head for the next 5.5 months when I've made reasonable efforts to get in touch with the buyer about the issue already.

Any advice on how I should proceed?

[sam9876]

Don't do anything.

[couldabeenworse]

Any advice on how I should proceed?

How much moolah are we talking about here?  And I'm assuming it wasn't sent priority or otherwise insured?

I suppose I'd wait to hear something from the buyer, but I can't in my wildest dreams imagine how a buyer could have received the package when tracking deadends AND USPS has the label.

[sharpbeak]

it's not a LOT of money, but enough that I don't wanna risk spending it and then getting it unexpectedly refunded a few months down the line. As for how they could have gotten it without the label, the post office will sometimes write a shorthand for the delivery address on the package in my experience and the label was mailed back from the distribution center nearest the delivery address, so it definitely ended up in the general area, possibly after it was otherwise labelled. Not saying this is especially likely, but it is possible.

[sam9876]

Don't poke a sleeping bear.

[missjen831]

The buyer can come at you 5.5 months later regardless. whether they communicate or not. whether the tracking shows delivery or not.  you'd still lose a INR. so stop poking the bear.

[myboardid]

I agree with the above posters, let it alone.  It is the buyer's responsibility to take steps if they wish to resolve the situation.  If it makes you that uncomfortable, leave the money in your Paypal account for 6 months or until the buyer makes a move. 

[jennifermoza]

As others noted, do nothing else at this point. You've tried to reach out and for whatever reason the buyer isn't responding. And as someone else noted, leave some money in your PayPal. I always keep a cushion of a few hundred in PayPal regardless, just in case a PayPal dispute is filed and my funds get held until it's resolved.

[thor]

I've been on eBay for over 21 years. Prior to eBay I did the weekend Toy Show circuit and ran phone auctions using Toy Shop magazine for about 15 years. The past ten years my selling slowed down to a crawl while climbing the corporate ladder in my real job. I retired a year ago and after wandering around my house for six months getting used to retirement I started selling on eBay again. OH MY GOODNESS!!! I felt like a newbie. All these rules. Customers expecting Free Shipping. eBay demanding I ship within two days and their estimated date of arrival. I could go on and on. Prior to my return six months ago I had over 5,000 transactions across three user names. My primary for selling my stuff, one for when I was an eBay Powerseller and sold for other people and a third for buying anonymously. Back then, when eBay was called Auctionweb things were so much simpler. There was no electronic payment system like Paypal. We received checks and money orders. Probably more than 1,000 and not one check bounced, no money orders were fake. I'd go to the 24 hour Post Office at Detroit Metro Airport at 4 in the morning with 2 garbage bags full of packages and they'd do most of the work. In all that time and all those packages shipped the Post Office only lost one and two were damaged beyond repair. The very first time I used FedEx they lost my package for 6 weeks, but that's another story. Since I started selling again six months ago, I've sold less than 100 items. All but four were shipped USPS Priority Mail. One is currently lost, today is the 32nd day. One went to Florida by way of Texas, Utah, Oregon and Ohio before arriving in Florida 16 days after it was picked up. Two others did a similar cross country voyage before arriving 12 and 14 days after I dropped them off at the Post Office. All of these now count against me as "Late Shipping" or whatever they call it. I sold a single collectible stamp and mailed it in an envelope with a single first class stamp on it. Since that didn't have tracking, that somehow cutted against me. Also, I've had three people ask for refunds on new old stock electronics we bought at a closed school district auction. All were tested before I shipped. All were brand new but about nine years old. One said it didn't work. It did. Another said it didn't match her teaching style but checked the box for "Not as desribed" (or something similar) and the third just opened a case tonight for "Not as described" claiming it wasn't new but in her letter I can tell she didn't set it up properly. I wrote her back explaining what she needed to do, even though the brand new instructions are sealed in plastic in the case with the item.  I don't know what to do. Once I give something to the Post Office, all my control is lost yet I get the blame. I test everything before I post it, yet even if the buyer gets remorse or it just doesn't fit their style, they call it "Not as described" and my mailman told me he has to go back to the Post Office two and even three times a day because all the packages he delivers don't fit in his little truck. This is just a mess. Thanks for letting me vent.