why isn't the USPS held responsible?

[evry1nositswindy]

As an eBay seller, I am held responsible for my account.  If I don't ship on time, there is a consequence.  If I have too many returns, there is a consequence.  I could get suspended for listing the wrong thing.  There really is no room for mistakes.   I ship in 1 day, as promised,  most times I ship same day.     I can do everything right and yet have problems because of the actions of the USPS.   

On February 13, I sold a book.  It was free shipping (media mail).  I saw that the buyer was in Hawaii.  I did this one other time and the book came back to me, so I upgraded to priority, paying for the difference myself.  This in turn caused me to make very little on the book, but it was worth it to me to be sure it traveled from Ohio to Hawaii safely and quickly.   The estimated delivery date was February 16.  Ambitious with a holiday, but that is what the receipt said and that is what was shown to my buyer.

The tracking showed processed through Cincinnati on February 14 and then nothing...for a full week.  I kept in contact with the buyer, who was extremely nice and understanding.  I opened an inquiry with the USPS on February 21.  It was closed by Honolulu on February 22.  NOTHING was done!  I received a feedback survey and you can believe I let them have it!

On February 23, it showed that it was in Dallas and then nothing for 6 more days!  On February 28 it bounced around to a couple of zip codes in Honolulu.  Today, March 1, it is out for delivery but not delivered yet.   

February 13-March 1 PRIORITY.  What a waste of money!  I am not going to get my money back from the USPS for poor service, but if my buyer would have been ruthless, I would have had to refund.  I am held responsible, but they are not.  Yes, a rant, but still a valid question.  Why is the USPS not held responsible for their service or lack thereof?    Why isn't eBay held responsible for estimated dates that are just ridiculous?  They are setting us up to fail.

Thoughts?

[vintagecraze50]

I often tell sellers on here that if you are going to pay the increased rates for Priority Mail with slow service you ought to see if you can use a different shipping service and maybe pay a littler extra to give good customer service. We ship Fed EX Express 2 Day but we ship small items and get a fantastic discount on the shipping from buying them through eBAY. FED EX Express has been outstanding with only one problem with the snow that hit Memphis last week.

[titipeo]

The postal service has received its share of criticism in the media regarding their "lack" of service. Unfortunately, we can not do anything, but what hurts more is that eBay does not protect us or give us some extra time, a break. 

Some buyers are taking advantage of the situation by filing INR and getting refunds, and the product as well once it delivers. We are caught between the rock and the sword, using other alternatives, UPS, FedEx might work, but still, sometimes they tend to be expensive. 

I always try my best to monitor deliveries and pro-actively start parcel traces with the USPS when I see no movement for some time, but this takes time, and I'm not a "volume" seller. I can only imagine how it is for others. Good luck. 

[evry1nositswindy]

@titipeo  I too am proactive.  I include a message when I print the label that the USPS is running 7+ days slower than the estimated date.  I also watch tracking and message buyers.  Most are appreciative but some were rude over the holidays.  I had a print-out of all my outstanding packages, tracking notes, cases opened, emails from the USPS, etc before Christmas because it was so much to handle.  Then I shut down my account until everything was delivered because of the stress and nasty comments from buyers.  We are 3 months past that, but the issue is still there.  

[spreadlovelikefire]

I'm one of those higher volume sellers where it is next to impossible to be proactive in opening research cases until it's to late.  Over this past weekend I had 5 item not received cases open within 24 hours.  I think I may have an ulcer now from it.  I'm in St. Louis and we were hit with that storm.  All the packages showing late were shipped out on Feb. 19th.  I'm not sure what happened that day but they apparently took my packages and stuck them on a truck to go sit somewhere.  So far none are moving since the 25th.  I've called eBay about 20 times as I'm on edge about this.  Over Christmas it was insane what happened, I thought for sure eBay would have put something in place to help us but they haven't.  They are still allowing buyers to open them 1 day after the estimated delivery date.  They put out messages about how they are protecting sellers but I haven't experienced any protection at all.  All of my item not received defects on my metrics from December/January are still on there, none have been removed.  I am now in the high category, after this weekend I'm pretty sure I will be moved to very high.  Every single one of my item not received cases have been eventually closed out with delivery of the items but eBay still punishes sellers for doing absolutely nothing wrong.   USPS needs to be completely overhauled.   So does eBay for that matter.  I think it is sad that eBay creates such an atmosphere for it's sellers that entails lots and lots of therapy to make it through a day.  

[evry1nositswindy]

I feel you @spreadlovelikefire .  I was so stressed and got a sick feeling in my stomach every time I got a message notification.  I had to stop for awhile.  That was stressful too because hubby had lost his job due to covid.  I had to reopen to have money coming in, but had to refund several buyers, only to see my items delivered days later.  No protection.

This buyer messaged me tonight that this book was delivered and arrived in great shape.  February 13 to March 1 priority shipping.  Doesn't seem like it was a priority to the USPS.

[yunger3816]

I don't think ebay should be allowing buyers to open cases when there is tracking showing movement, we are not in charge of usps (or other shipper) problems. This is a terribly unfair practice ebay. I just got dinged for a package that has tracking showing it was shipped and made it to the next depot. My post master explained why things sit without further tracking, and it's nothing to do with us, all about their system. Priority and express actually use Fed Ex planes, so when those were grounded the packages sit. Last week she told me in one Tennessee depot alone 75,000 pounds of packages were just sitting. When the packages finally move into trucks they still don't get scanned until USPS actually touches them.  (Yes a "lost package" inquiry was initiated.)