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

[wastingtime101]

It looks like you changed your listings from $5 Media Mail to Free Priority Mail.

Why not use Ground Advantage?

[klhmdg]

All the items you have listed that I looked at are Free Priority Delivery.

You need to set up Free as Media Mail and have a separate Paid Priority Mail choice.

Not just in the listing.

[chevymontecarlo88]

Or just include (build in cost) the expedited shipping in your prices and offer FREE SHIPPING. 

This may be an issue for lower priced vinyl but should be easily padded (cost) in mid/high priced items. 

[dhbookds]

as said.........leave out media, add ground advantage...........

[kensgiftshop]

You do have some control over it.

You're the one that decides what shipping options you want to include in your listing.

At those prices and as slow as Media Mail is, I wouldn't even offer it.

[meme6253]

It's a rock & a hard place, You try and offer cheaper shipping to save customers money, But then you have to deal with the incompetence of the postal service & yeah we get the brunt of it, I have not had issues with media mail recently (fingers crossed)but i have in the past, I do agree that we should not be responsible for issues out of our control, but the powers that be think differently

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@klhmdg wrote:

All the items you have listed that I looked at are Free Priority Delivery.

...

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That's true for their current active listings, but recent Sold items show Media Mail shipping for $5. Text in the description offers Priority, but Priority wasn't offered as a second option in the shipping section of the listing.

The original poster is located in Hawaii.  IMHO Ground Advantage might also be unacceptably slow, so switching to free Priority was a good strategy.

[mothera]

Its not the future sales, I can change that. 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? It seems like buyers get all the advantages but sellers not so much. mothera

[slippinjimmy]

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@mothera wrote:

Its not the future sales, I can change that. 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? It seems like buyers get all the advantages but sellers not so much. mothera

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Your buyers can only chose the shipping methods you offer. Even if buyers see the note in the description about priority they can't actually select that option.

The problem is not an "advantage" for buyers, the problem is that your shipping options are not set up properly.

[inhawaii]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:The original poster is located in Hawaii.  IMHO Ground Advantage might also be unacceptably slow, so switching to free Priority was a good strategy.

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Most of  my GA stuff gets to the mainland US (even the East coast) in 4-5- days.

[evelyb30]

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@mothera wrote:

Its not the future sales, I can change that. 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? It seems like buyers get all the advantages but sellers not so much. mothera

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Precisely.  Welcome to eBay.  

[luckythewinner]

How can I be punished for something I have no control over?

You are responsible because you chose to offer Media Mail to your buyers. If you don't want complains about media mail, don't offer media mail. 

According to my Postmaster there is a "slow down" in the system, everything is taking longer.

I use both media mail and ground advantage, and have had no issues with either. Not saying there aren't issues, but they don't seem to be universal. 

My last 5 media mail packages: 

NH to CA - 7 days

NH to WA - 4 days

NH to AZ - 6 days

NH to SC - 7 days

NH to IL - 5 days

[slippinjimmy]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

According to my Postmaster there is a "slow down" in the system, everything is taking longer.

I use both media mail and ground advantage, and have had no issues with either. Not saying there aren't issues, but they don't seem to be universal. 

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I concur, many of my Media Mail shipments within the lower 48 are delivered in the exact same time frame as Ground Advantage. Some of them take 1 - 3 days longer than GA.

That said, if I was shipping from HI I would expect Media Mail to be MUCH slower, most GA from HI will get on a plane (at least for the HI to CA portion). Media Mail on the other probably goes by boat 90% of the time which will add a minimum of 7 - 10 days and possibly longer depending on what day of the week you ship.

[kensgiftshop]

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@mothera wrote:

Its not the future sales, I can change that. 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? It seems like buyers get all the advantages but sellers not so much. mothera

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Why, because it's the sellers job to get the item to the customer.

Even though you have nothing to with the delivery, you do choose which shipping options you want to include in your listings.

Is it fair we take the hit when USPS is late delivering, not really, but Ebay doesn't see it that way.