I am a small-time seller. Thank God this is not my primary source of income. In past years it was easier to sell in that you could send anything reasonably to auction and let the buyers figure out what it is worth.
Regardless, I have sent over 130ish items total which makes me a small-fry; I know.
That said recently, it has been very tough to deal with shipping. Yesterday, I dealt with a buyer the second time for a Priority-Mail item I sent out on the 4th. It got hung up for 7 or 8 days in Columbia, South Carolina then it got stuck for four (4) days in Cleveland, Ohio, where it still sits. This is for a 2-Day label! Anyway, I told the buyer about the delays a second time and explained how it got hung up for a week at its first sort facility and has been hung up for half a week at the second... that I suspect within half a week it will wiggle loose and then your local Post Office deliver it within a day or two...
I am losing hope.
Today, I issued my first ever INR on another order I sent First-Class no insurance. It sold for $21 (/w free-shipping) that cost me $5+, so the loss was about $27. Now I am self-insuring and have been for years on everything that goes First-Class mail. If I had bought insurance for all these years even at $2 per item, I would have had $120+ into insurance, so I am ahead. Ultimately, I paid USPS to loose an item!
That said, I am very concerned about my Priority-Mail item at $119 /w $100 insurance because any day now, I expect an INR. Then I fully expect Package Intercept to fail. Either way the best case scenario would be they either deliver it immediately or never deliver it and pay the insurance claim @ $100. Otherwise, most likely the buyer will get it for free eventually. Should package Intercept work, I will be stuck selling the same item again only I would be about $22 behind paying the USPS to return an item.
I rally think if USPS does not deliver an item within 15 days, it should be free to intercept and return the item. Package Intercept should be a guaranteed service where if they fail to intercept it they charge you anyway, BUT you become eligible for an insurance claim. I guarantee you with FedEx or UPS if I did an intercept, 5 minutes before delivery, they would intercept the item and return it to me. USPS needs to start scanning items at the time of pick-up and the time of delivery!
