USPS

[mothera]

What do I do? USPS Media Mail is cheap for a reason! Buyers ALWAYS choose Media Mail when buying records, then complain when it takes 3-4 weeks or more to arrive. I warn them in my listings and offer Priority at cost but no one listens! Now I find myself in a situation where ebay is holding my funds and threatening to refund the buyer. The tracking # was provided the day of purchase. According to my Postmaster there is a "slow down" in the system, everything is taking longer. How can I be punished for something I have no control over? Anyone else been through this?  mothera

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@mothera wrote: .... The question is, Why does the seller get screwed if the P.O. takes too long to deliver, when the buyer chose this shipping option? ...

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Because eBay displays unrealistic expected delivery dates, which sets up unrealistic buyer expectations, which in turn leads to premature, successful INR claims.

[m60driver]

I would never ship your higher priced LPs via media mail but by Ground Advantage.

[a_c_green]

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@mothera wrote:

What do I do? USPS Media Mail is cheap for a reason! Buyers ALWAYS choose Media Mail when buying records, then complain when it takes 3-4 weeks or more to arrive. I warn them in my listings and offer Priority at cost but no one listens! [...] Anyone else been through this?  mothera

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I don't sell Media Mail items myself, but I know another seller who does (vinyl LPs exclusively, in fact), and based on an actual walkthrough of his most recent 3 months of sales, none of his 100 or so record sales over that time period have taken more than 6-8 days to arrive (mailed from Chicago).

Can you take a look at the tracking of a few of your 3-4 week shipments and tell us where most of the time is taken up? Look for any single hop or two that takes more than a day or so, and see if that same slowdown  through the same facilities appears in more of your problem tracking histories.

I would expect the bottleneck to be somewhere close to you if you're getting that many, because I assume your packages are going to all parts of the country, so multiple packages showing that huge delay would have to be going through that same bad patch. Others who are shipping Media Mail are not seeing that many delays that bad. To be clear, the Media Mail seller I know had one package completely vanish en route last year; all the rest arrived without noticeable delay and no buyer complaints.

[mam98031]

@mothera 

I primarily use Media Mail and have for years.  I ship a lot of packages every week.  I don't just sell on Ebay.  Most are media mail and some are Ground Advantage.  While I do have some packages that get slowed down, most arrive within reason.

I however do not say Media Mail on my listings, I say Economy shipping.  Media Mail is 2-8 days and Economy is 1-10 days, so I gain a couple of days by using Economy.  You might try that and see if it helps you.

Why is Ebay holding funds on you?  How many INRs have you gotten recently?  or is there something else that has caused this?  The cause is extremely important to figuring out what you need to do climb out of the situation.

[mothera]

Thanks for all the replys. I should have mentioned I'm in Hawaii so Media Mail is extra slow from here, but that is only part of the problem. I offered only Priority, at cost,  several years ago but got complaints about the cost being too high so I switched to Media with a warning of a 3-4 week delivery or a Priority option that no one wanted. Sales took off and delivery usually took 3 weeks. Now its looking like 4 weeks + especially for the east coast. Ground advantage from HI. is not that much better, in my experience, but almost costs as much as Priority. I now offer free Priority and it can't be absorbed by raising the prices because records are very competetive to sell. Unfortunately I can't offer free Priority for lower priced records either, so I don't sell them.

 As for ebay putting a hold on my money, its because the buyer claims they didn't get it after 1 month and they want a refund. I povide the tracking # which only says its not been delivered  yet and its "running late" with no other info on where it is and when it will be there.  I asked ebay what if they get the refund and then the record gets delivered a week later, how do I get the money back? No clear answer. Its only going to get worse at USPS as today's headline says "10,000 USPS employee's to be cut".          mothera                                              

[mam98031]

It might help if you change your listings to Economy Mail, it does give you 2 or 3 more days for delivery before they are late.  That is a start.

As for your current INR.  Did you file a Trace?  If you haven't, you really need to do that.

Here is what I normally explain to sellers that are having a delivery issue / items running late.

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If a buyer contacts you with a delivery issue or if the buyer opens an INR, IMHO these are the steps to take.

If an INR was opened, make sure you upload the tracking number to the INR right away.

Go to USPS website and review the detail tracking info.

On this tracking screen there is a place to file for email updates as there is movement on the tracking. Sign up for that so you get informed right away when something gets entered to the tracking.

Go and file for a TRACE, I don't recommend filing for Missing Mail just yet. The two are completely different actions. The Trace usually gets the job done quicker.
https://usps.my.site.com/emailus/s/package-inquiry

Contact your buyer. Keep all contact inside the INR filed so everything is recorded on the claim. Let your buyer know you are working with USPS to get their package delivered. Apologize for the delay. And let them know you filed a trace which takes between 48-72 hours for USPS to respond. As you get any information you will update the buyer right away. Assure your buyer that you are working this problem and will continue to do so until a proper resolution.

If there is movement on the tracking within the last 7 days, Ebay will keep the INR open. Do not voluntarily issue the refund yet. It is highly likely the package is going to get delivered, it is just late. Annoying for the buyer for sure. Just stay in touch with them and assure them you are working on a resolution.

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As to what happens if AFTER you refund and then the buyer gets the item, which is highly likely.  One has to hope they have an honest buyer.  You would send the buyer a message letting them know you are aware that the item has arrived.  Ebay has also been informed.  Then as if they want to keep the item and pay you or send it back.

If they want to keep the item, then get their email address.  Let them know you are going to send them an invoice through PayPal.  Please pay that invoice.  

Ebay knows we need to do this as Ebay does not offer a way for us to get the money from the buyer.

The USPS delays isn't due solely to lack of staffing.  Some sorting hubs are more challenged than others.  Whether that is because of all these weather events we have had back to back to back in 2025, or the reduction in Equipment used for sorting and processing or lack of staff and/or likely a mixture of all of that and likely something else.

[sfau]

I have not found it to take 3-4 weeks for media mail, unless it is going to Hawaii or the Virgin Islands.....

[inhawaii]

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@mothera wrote:

What do I do?

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Don't offer Media Mail as a shipping option.

[mam98031]

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@inhawaii wrote:

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@mothera wrote:

What do I do?

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Don't offer Media Mail as a shipping option.

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That often just isn't a good financial move.  It can be a big difference if costs on many times.  But if you use Economy Shipping as your setting, you can still ship via Media Mail but the setting gains you 2-3 days on the estimated delivery.

[mothera]

Thanks for your detailed advise.  USPS.com says Trace is not available after 14 days, so I am trying to get a Missing Mail opened. You won't believe this but USPS.com won't let me connect to do it, after sign in, all I get is "this site can't be reached" or "we are unable to process your request". I've tried 10 times today and I will continue trying. Its nothing on my end. Its them! Meanwhile the buyer is demanding a full refund if he does not get it in one week! I have no idea what ebay is going to do. Thanks again,  mothera.

[mam98031]

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@mothera wrote:

Thanks for your detailed advise.  USPS.com says Trace is not available after 14 days, so I am trying to get a Missing Mail opened. You won't believe this but USPS.com won't let me connect to do it, after sign in, all I get is "this site can't be reached" or "we are unable to process your request". I've tried 10 times today and I will continue trying. Its nothing on my end. Its them! Meanwhile the buyer is demanding a full refund if he does not get it in one week! I have no idea what ebay is going to do. Thanks again,  mothera.

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Websites can be flaky at times.  They aren't doing it on purpose to annoy you or me.  I was able to file a trace this morning, but I can't seem to sign up to get tracking updates.  It is very likely a temporary problem.

I have never had much good luck with the Missing Mail report.  One out of the many I've filed actually got USPS responding to me.  The Missing Mail report is suppose to be of high priority, but I've found over time that I get quicker action with filing a Trace.