Package theft

[pskoni]

I have been plagued by lost  or stolen packages shipping to California  and wondering if sales can be restricted to a state since they don't even prosecute mail theft anymore.If not I will just refund money and give "product no longer available" as reason.Santa Monica,Ca. has suspended service there because mail carriers are being attacked.

[soh.maryl]

Couldn't determine from your message whether packages are being stolen by USPS employees, or you are dealing with porch pirates.

And surely you can't think porch pirates are limited to one state.  

Santa Monica has suspended service? Do you mean the USPS has stopped delivering packages?

More questions than answers here, I am afraid.  

[1tuna]

California is a great place to ship to

Santa Monica has a problem with 1 block with repeated problems and has suspended mail service to that block only

I am unsure what a plague of lost packages woud be like

do they have real package tracking or the esus envelope thing

many sellers have stated problems wit the $20 envelope mailer for cards @ 57 cents or so

my tracking is so good I stopped looking at it

ebay shipping to California is reliable for me

hope things get better for you

[simba6]

NO !   Do not refuse to ship after a buyer has paid.   eBay takes that as the most serious rule you can break and it carries a severe punishment.   Life time ban on selling.   Insure your packages.  Packages that go missing after being scanned delivered are NOT your problem by the way.

[a_c_green]

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@pskoni wrote:

I have been plagued by lost  or stolen packages shipping to California  and wondering if sales can be restricted to a state since they don't even prosecute mail theft anymore.

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No. 

Define "plagued" in this context: what does the latest tracking of your problem packages say?

[714ricki]

Are your items being scanned as delivered to the buyers addresses in California? If it's a porch pirate scenario, then that is happening across the country. 

Hang in there! Shipping to California is perfectly fine. You may have just had some bad luck recently. 

[redmodelt]

Buyers are responsible for having a safe secure place for package delivery, not the seller. 

[wastingtime101]

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@pskoni wrote:

wondering if sales can be restricted to a state since they don't even prosecute mail theft anymore.If not I will just refund money and give "product no longer available" as reason.

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Out of stock cancellations is a good way to get yourself permanently suspended from eBay @pskoni. Are these thefts occurring before or after USPS delivers?

[fm2000]

I sympathize, I just had a package stolen from someone's porch in Burbank. You can't exclude California as a ship-to state unfortunately.

If you feel an item is sufficiently valuable (everyone's financial risk tolerance varies), put signature confirmation on the package so it has to be delivered to the recipient and won't be left in a mailbox or on someone's porch. It is possible a buyer might complain about having to sign for it, and the cost of signature confirmation adds up, but given the out of control crime in parts of California it might be something you have to do.

[soh.maryl]

OK, about signature confirmation, did you know that, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, mail carriers were allowed to actually sign for packages themselves? 

[fm2000]

The carriers were allowed to sign the packages themselves, and that did cause serious problems. But, they were required to at least make contact with someone at the address if the package had signature confirmation, which at least could help prevent porch piracy. They were not supposed to just leave the package at the mailbox or porch and just sign it anyway without making contact.

Whether all carriers actually followed this policy, unfortunately, is another matter.

[soh.maryl]

Your plan of just refunding and using "product no longer available" as the reason is going to backfire.

That's about the same as a seller claiming an item is "out of stock" and you can earn a defect for that.

[a_c_green]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@pskoni wrote:

I have been plagued by lost  or stolen packages shipping to California  and wondering if sales can be restricted to a state since they don't even prosecute mail theft anymore.

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No. 

Define "plagued" in this context: what does the latest tracking of your problem packages say?

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@pskoni : Again, what does the latest tracking of your problem packages say? Are they disappearing en route, or after delivery?

[lesegouts]

Don't do that. You'll get dinged for it.

[simba6]

They don't like to punish people in that state but rather blame others.