Media mail

[dannyhawkins]

What, if anything, can be done about a seller who ships merchandise (video game consoles) via media mail?

[nobody*s_perfect · Accepted solution]

Your best chance of getting somebody at USPS interested in this abuse is to call up his local Post Office for the ZIP Code that he ships from.

[simba6]

You mean like torture them with rice worms?   The UP postal service inspects most media mail packages for not allowed items. When they are discovered, the sender is back billed for the extra postage.

[nobody*s_perfect]

How is the sender "back billed"?  The manual detection of Media Mail abuse is not part of the APV system.

[readabouthorses]

They are not back billed. The package is sometimes returned to the sender but most of the time when I see this happen it gets sent on to the buyer with Postage Due, which doesn't make the buyer very happy.

Media Mail misuse makes me very angry.

[kensgiftshop]

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@dannyhawkins wrote:

What, if anything, can be done about a seller who ships merchandise (video game consoles) via media mail?

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You can file a mail fraud claim with USPS.

[1tuna]

you can message the seller and tell them they are on your radar......warn them to shape up and any more infractions will not go unnoticed.

ebay is not really going to do anything...its certainly not a lisiting violation.......merely a shipping glitch

[readabouthorses]

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@1tuna wrote:

you can message the seller and tell them they are on your radar......warn them to shape up and any more infractions will not go unnoticed.

ebay is not really going to do anything...its certainly not a lisiting violation.......merely a shipping glitch

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Maybe can consider it a listing violation because it is search manipulation. Seller is knowingly choosing an illegal shipping method to game the search by having a lower shipping cost than their competitors ... search manipulation.

[simba6]

This is on the US postal site

"Upon such inspection, matter not eligible for the Media Mail rate may be assessed at the proper price and sent to the recipient postage due, or the sender may be contacted for additional postage"

[pooh333piglet]

USPS wants you to think they inspect media. It's not that often. 

[tdrake]

You need to inform the seller that you are keeping an eye on him/her and that you are going to report them to the postal authorities  the next time you detect them doing it.  Don't let them get away with it.

[dbfolks166mt]

     Actually during normal operating times, which these are not, USPS opens and inspects very few pieces of media mail to look for violations. Given the current situation with USPS I doubt they are opening anything at the present time. 

[dannyhawkins]

Thanks for all the replies. As you may have guessed, I am one of the "victims". Ordered the item on the 30th of Nov., it sat for 27 days "acceptance pending". I am careful to order from the nearest to me seller as possible with good feedback, but that failed me this time. He now has several negative's so hopefully he has leaned his lesson.  And thankfully it now appears I will receive the item on Saturday!

[promptoredux]

Why does eBay allow anything posted in a video game category to offer Media Mail if it is not legal? It seems like eBay has a responsibility here too.

[asterix811]

I'm having the same issue with magazines. I have magazines to sell and they're not eligible for media mail rates, but everyone else indicates in their listings that they're using media mail. I just sent an email to ebay asking why they allow sellers to print media mail labels for anything in the magazines section.