USPS Terrible This Time of Year, Lesson in shipping 1st class without tracking

[mountainmommie]

Some of us paid and are just watching packages go in and out of distribution centers totally unrelated to destination.  I don't know which is worse -- the never knowing or the realizing we paid for something we aren't getting. 😉

[rlmmsw-2]

I should have known better. First off I have been a seller for about two years (100 percent feedback). I made the big mistake of thinking I could ship about 16 baseball cards to 16 different buyers via a 71 cent stamp. I shipped all of these items at the post office on 12/10/18 (took photos, have a receipt of the 16 stamps I purchased). Ultimately I elected to go this route to save myself and buyers money. Then I got about 4 buyers requesting refunds because they haven't recieved their item. Ebay automatically refunded one person's purchased (bypassed the whole 3 day response time). I'm contacting buyers to ask them to resend me back the card once they get it and I will refund their postage. Remember to never ship baseball cards with just a stamp, around the Holidays.

[fab_finds4u]

I wouldn't ship a cat hair without tracking.  

[buyselljack2016]

25% of buyers seeing no tracking and claiming they did not get their item seems about right.

[green-night]

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@fab_finds4u wrote:

I wouldn't ship a cat hair without tracking.  

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I would.  It could go letter mail. 

[ed8108]

Buyers should be especially tolerant of delivery delays, within the holiday season.

Tracking does not speed delivery, only cuts down the number of INR cases & refunds.

[rsachek6d6i]

Sorry that you had to learn this way, but you are making yourself a target for fraud by sending anything without tracking. Dishonest buyers can claim not received, whether they actually received it or not, and you have zero defense whatsoever. First class package/large envelope only costs in the low-$2 range for a couple ounces and has tracking. So you "saved" maybe $1.50 per item and risked everything?

[berserkerplanet]

>>Ebay automatically refunded one person's purchased (bypassed the whole 3 day response time).

Starting 9/10/18 (per the Fall 2018 Seller Update) tracking has to be uploaded before the estimated delivery date or there is no appeal for an INR - shipping with no tracking means no tracking uploaded, which means no outcome other than the buyer is refunded. eBay may be short cutting the process - no 3 day response period - since it is pointless if there is no tracking.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Sellers-must-upload-tracking-BEFORE-Estimated-Delivery-Date-to...

[johnrj1226]

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@rlmmsw-2 wrote:
I should have known better. First off I have been a seller for about two years (100 percent feedback). I made the big mistake of thinking I could ship about 16 baseball cards to 16 different buyers via a 71 cent stamp. I shipped all of these items at the post office on 12/10/18 (took photos, have a receipt of the 16 stamps I purchased). Ultimately I elected to go this route to save myself and buyers money. Then I got about 4 buyers requesting refunds because they haven't recieved their item. Ebay automatically refunded one person's purchased (bypassed the whole 3 day response time). I'm contacting buyers to ask them to resend me back the card once they get it and I will refund their postage. Remember to never ship baseball cards with just a stamp, around the Holidays.

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How  did you handle this with your buyer(s)?  See red font above. I'm assuming your listings were already paid for including the shipping charge stated in the  listing or free shipping  before you  shipped anything.  Shipping via a cheaper  method might  only help you

[juststuffisell]

Ha! Tolerant buyers? What site are you selling on? 😉

[johnrj1226]

I recently  had a  Priority Mail shipment that  took 5 days (business) to be delivered - from GA to  Denver.  It was "hung up" for 3 days after it left Atl. Distribution Center - I suspect it went into an temp over load wharehouse 

I as  the seller sent the buyer a  short message about the  delay and  said I would check into it on Monday the 17th.  It was delivered on Mon Dec. 17 - nothing I did.

But  being pro active with a buyer is really a good thing - even if the news ain't so good they still appreciate it.  Buyers  don't like to read about after it happens.  Sodl for 41 years as a commission sales person - taught me that real fast.

[itsjustasprain]

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@rlmmsw-2 wrote:
I shipped all of these items at the post office on 12/10/18 (took photos, have a receipt of the 16 stamps I purchased). Ultimately I elected to go this route to save myself and buyers money. Then I got about 4 buyers requesting refunds because they haven't recieved their item.

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Well you definitely saved THOSE buyers their money.  Sorry that you had to discover the value of tracking this way. You cant even tell if the buyer is ripping you off this way because no one knows where the envelope is. It might be an honest buyer whose just impatient because the holiday traffic has everything slowed down.

[dimbulb00]

Tracking makes no difference if the USPS loses or steals your package.  You'll be forced to refund the buyer, and you won't be able to file a claim against USPS unless you received a receipt from the counter.  After all, just because you printed a label doesn't prove you dropped it off.