Package never left post office. How bad would it be if buyer gives me negative feedback?

[rene.graff]

I am pretty new to selling on a regular basis.  I sold five items last week and took them all to the package drop at the post office on Wednesday.  I checked the tracking on them today and all but one were in transit or delivered.  One still just shows that I printed a label but was never scanned at the post office.  I sent a message to the buyer letting him know what happened and that I am going to the post office tomorrow to find out where it is.  He threatened to give negative if it is not sent out by tomorrow morning but if I get there and they can't find it there is not much I can do.  I offered and already sent a refund and told him that I am still going to try to get the package to him but his last message said he isn't interested in refunds, only getting the item that he ordered.  So if he gives me a negative how bad will that be since I am fairly new?

[simba6]

If that happens, you can try clicking the help and contact button on the bottom of the page. They might remove it as things are a mess with shippers right now.  It's only a chance however.  I would try more than one call as a different rep might help.

It's better to wait in line and get them scanned.

[rene.graff]

Yeah.  I think I learned a lesson with this one.  No more using the drop box. 

[lakefor94]

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@rene.graff wrote:

Yeah.  I think I learned a lesson with this one.  No more using the drop box. 

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And no poking the buyer. If the buyer wants to know where his package is, the buyer will contact you and you can respond to him at that time. 

Packages sometimes don't get acceptance scans and they get scanned for the 1st time somewhere along the way or when they actually get put on a delivery vehicle. 

If you ever get a negative feedback that eBay won't remove for you, make sure to respond to the negative in a highly professional manner without making excuses or shaming the buyer. 

[netwizz760]

It would be pretty bad if the buyer negs you, but some people are jerks.

Mathematically, you have 17 feedbacks for your lifetime/epoch.  This is also 2 feedbacks over the past 12 months with a formula positives/ (positives +  negatives).  This means 2/(2+0) = 100%

If this buyer leaves a negative, you will be 2/(2+1) or 66% (maybe eBay rounds to 67%).  Either way it will be abysmal, and you will be stuck with it for 12 months unless eBay removes it.

This person clearly threatened you, which I am pretty sure is against eBay's terms.  If the buyer is going to leave a negative, it is better the buyer not tip you off or threaten it - my opinion.

My strong recommendation on this one is to ban the buyer either way as to never deal with this person again.  It is not worth your time, stress, money, postage, and ratings to deal with unreasonable people.

I started to learn not to poke the buyer, too.   When there is a problem, Listen, Apologize, Satisfy, Thank usually work.  That said, it already sounds to me you heard the buyer's concerns and informed the buyer of the problem, apologized, and proactively already refunded, yet the buyer is still not satisfied.

At this point potentially the worse case scenario is the buyer leaves you a negative, then gets his or her item a few weeks later free of charge, and that is simply not fair, but it could happen.  In my experience, the post office loses just under 1% of the items I have shipped, but I am a very small seller too.  I strongly suspect your item will show up.  It would certainly be nice if USPS would scan items.

I know you are responsible to get a scan, but personally, I usually avoid getting a scan on inexpensive items.  Thankfully, all but once the item got scanned within 6 to 36 hours.  I do notice my driver seldom scans on pick-up and usually relies on the sorting facility to do the scan.  A month ago they were so backed up the sorting centers were not even scanning, and it was causing major problems.

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If you get a negative, and the buyer gets his or her item, you also have an opportunity to send a revised feedback request form to the buyer and hope he or she will revise it.  I do not know how you would feel this person out, but a good way is to look at the other feedback left for others.  If this person does not think you are a scammer and finds out he or she is wrong, maybe this person will fill out a revision should this jerk leave you a negative.

Good Luck

[rene.graff]

Thank you for all of the replies.  At this point he's basically threatened that if it doesn't show as shipped by tomorrow he will be "lowering my rating of purchase experience".  I plan on going to the post office to check with them to see if they can find it, but if they can't I have no way of fixing it. 

Two big lessons learned...no drop box and don't message them first before trying to locate the package.  I am just at the beginning of my sales and it's to help someone clean out a house so I'd feel bad if things don't sell because I started out with a blip.  None of my other recent sales have given me feedback yet, but all went well so I'm hoping they'll do it soon.

[netwizz760]

My opinion is that it is not worth it to risk getting COVID-19 to wait in a crowded line at the Post Office.

Right now, I do not have any highly valuable items i.e. $100+ listed because of this.  Insurance is useless if the item never gets a scan though.

Most of my listed items right now actually fit in my mailbox, so if someone buys something, I just put it in there with the flag up.  I would rather risk losing $14 on the 1% chance USPS loses it than take a 1% chance needlessly getting COVID-19.

One thing I do want to tell you is that eBay allows you only five (5) days to get a refund for an unused USPS label, so if you see no activity, put in that request before the deadline to void the label.  If USPS sees the label and scans it, your refund will simply be denied due to activity.  At least this way you get your postage returned if the buyer does not get the item. 

In the future, you might look at other USPS shipping services.  Personally, I use Pirate Ship because it is free, integrates well with eBay, and provides more shipping options.  It with Priority-Mail also gives up-to $100 insurance automatically instead of $50.  Obviously, if you become Top-Rated there are some discounts you can only get via eBay, and I think you get $100 insurrance, too.  That said, when I price things like Priority-Mail there are often four (4) rates.  Weighted Priority, Cubic Priority, Regional Priority, and Flat-Rate priority.  I have had all four options be the best based upon how big, how heavy, and how far an item ships.  If it is light (i.e. 1 lb) it is probably cheapest to use weighted priority.  If it somewhat heavy 2 lbs + but less than 15 or 20 lbs it is often cheapest to ship it in a smaller box and go cubic or Regional.  Sometimes Region A boxes (15 lbs limit) slightly beat Cubic, but sometimes Cubic slightly beats Region A for price.  Region Rate A boxes are great for sending heavier than 1 lb items (15 lbs max) to buyers that live close to you.   The 1096L Priority-Mail box is a bit bigger than the Small Flat-Rate box, yet the 1096L can be sent for 0.1 Cubic, which is often somewhat cheaper than the small, flat-rate box while holding more volume and still allowing up to 20 lbs!  That said the small-flat rate is the same price to your neighbor across the street or to Alaska or Hawaii.  It particularly benefits in allowing up to 70 lbs in Flat-Rate boxes.

I should add that Pirate Ship gives you I think 30 days to request a refund, and I am fairly certain if you do not request it and do not use a label, they put in the request for you in 30 days automatically if you forget!

The other thing I can tell you is buyers cannot rate you on your shipping charges if you offer free-shipping.  It is my opinion instead of charging 99 cents then $10 shipping, I like to just charge $10.99 with free-shipping.  It works out exactly the same, but buyer's are used to that other site that offers them free 2-day shipping on everything.  They forget they paid over $100 per year or a monthly fee to get this service, yet they expect free-shipping here, too and for orders to come at the same speed.

I hope that helps.

[tdrake]

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@rene.graff wrote:

   I plan on going to the post office to check with them to see if they can find it, but if they can't I have no way of fixing it. 

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They don't have it at your post office, and since there's no scans (yet) they can't tell you where it is.

I've had packages coming and going with no scans a number of times since Thanksgiving.  Had a package coming to me from a seller in Fla that only showed "label created" from Dec 26 until mid-January when it was scanned in Springfield MA. And no more scans until a week later when it was scanned in my state, was finally delivered Feb 1.

All that just to say just because no scans no need to get excited and "poke the bear" prematurely, as others have said.   My seller got lucky that I'm a seller and was dealing with the same things and didn't get any trouble from me. In fact after 3 weeks I messaged her and let her know everything was cool I was waiting it out, wish a few of my buyers had done the same 🙂

[tdrake]

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@netwizz760 wrote:

Most of my listed items right now actually fit in my mailbox, so if someone buys something, I just put it in there with the flag up.  I would rather risk losing $14 on the 1% chance USPS loses it than take a 1% chance needlessly getting COVID-19.

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90% of my items go out this way.  I have the biggest mail box you can buy, and I have a hook on the post to hang an Ikea or shopping bag if it doesn't fit or too many and it's a nice day. 

[1tuna]

drop and go is my MO...........it works all the time as long as you do not check tracking

the other advice is what you have already figured out.you gave a reason for the buyer to be upset

you poked a bear and now he`s wavin his arms around not knowing what to do.

the idea was put into the buyers head by you

contact after shipping is not something I recomend

some say thats lousy customer service

keep on ebayin

[netwizz760]

I checked today, and thus far you do not have a negative at the moment.  Good on you for surviving the day.

Did the package show up or your buyer find something better to do than taunt you with feedback at least for today?

[rene.graff]

I went to the post office and they said the drop box has been completely emptied multiple times since I sent the packages and there was no way for them to look for it.  They did say that packages often go out without scans because they're too busy to do them all so I'm hoping it just magically shows up one day.   Funny thing happened while I was waiting....a guy was there telling them about an issue he had had with the post office and the lady helping him just said "I know, we suck.  The post office is a mess"

Not a peep from the buyer and I'm afraid to even send an update.  Not more poking!  Just keeping my fingers crossed that the refund kept him from giving me a negative.  

[johnrj1226]

Getting a negative feedback is not the end of the world - some sellers seem to think it is.  I just think it is a matter of an bruised ego.  For certain never received all 100% on quizzes, test, exams etc thru high school, 4.5 years in college & 1.5 yrs of graduate school.

eBay does not measure sellers any more on their feedback ratings - several years ago they did.  A negative FB will disappear after 1 rolling year time period..

A neg FB is there for eBay shoppers to view.  If you have more than a couple, some shoppers may stop and read  them and pass you by - but you will not know who or how many.

As a suggestion, stop dropping your packages off at the PO without them being scanned in to the USPS system.  Yes you will have to stand in line to get it done (go early in the AM when lines are typically short - it is always better to be safe than sorry.  Your other options are to arrange pick-up by your local  PO or do as I do get to know your local carrier on friendly terms and they may pick up your packages and scan them in without scheduling a pick up.

[rene.graff]

So the tracking went from 'USPS awaits item' on Sunday to 'delivered' yesterday.  Not a peep from the buyer.  But at least I didn't take a feedback hit.  Everyone who responded here has been super helpful.  It's all a learning process I guess.

[city*satins]

Also, in future, despite it seeming like good customer service, never refund a customer proactively.  The customer is rarely grateful, eBay sees the refund as a performance failure on the seller's part, and you end up still paying the fees for the sale and the buyer ends up with both a refund and the item and you have no recourse to recover the money.   You don't even get good will out of it.

If this happens again, refrain from notifying the buyer - wait until the buyer notifies you and opens an eBay request for refund.