USPS Tracking Question

ajw

An eBay seller sent me a US Postal Service tracking number. When I plug it into www.usps.com, I get this message:

-----------------
Label/Receipt Number: 9101 7850 9140 1103 1027 04
Status: Electronic Shipping Info Received

The U.S. Postal Service was electronically notified by the shipper on March 31, 2007 to expect your package for mailing. This does not indicate receipt by the USPS or the actual mailing date. Delivery status information will be provided if / when available. Information, if available, is updated every evening. Please check again later.
----------------

Now, that seems to indicate the package was not actually shipped. Is that true? I paid for this auction on March 26 and this is the first contact I've had from the seller. Am I missing something here?

muchuckwagon

Paypal and other third-party shipping services generate this message when a shipping label with delivery confirmation is created. The PO will tell you, this is delivery, not shipment, confirmation....it is possible to generate the delivery confirmation number and never ship the package.

This is also a problem with the self service centers in the PO....the delivery confirmation is not validated until the package is scanned at the final destination.

You, as the buyer, are still covered by Paypal because the delivery confirmation does not indicate the package was delivered and you will win a claim 99.999999% of the time.

In cases like this, I let the sellers feedback determine my course of action.

Jdurg

Never, ever, EVER trust the USPS tracking statements. They are full of crap and mean nothing. As soon as a shipping label is printed, you will receive the tracking number. The thing is, when the tracking status is updated it is usually quite a few days behind. On numerous occassions I have tracked a package through the USPS website and after I already got the package, opened it up and placed the contents in my collection, the tracking number still said "Electronic Shipping Info Received". Please check again later.

I don't even know why they have the tracking system as it never gets used and is always so far out of date that you could return the package to the sender before it even recognizes that it was sent to you. Fed-Ex and UPS tracking systems typically work quite well, but USPS tracking is an absolute joke.

colebear

<< <i>An eBay seller sent me a US Postal Service tracking number. When I plug it into www.usps.com, I get this message:

-----------------
Label/Receipt Number: 9101 7850 9140 1103 1027 04
Status: Electronic Shipping Info Received

The U.S. Postal Service was electronically notified by the shipper on March 31, 2007 to expect your package for mailing. This does not indicate receipt by the USPS or the actual mailing date. Delivery status information will be provided if / when available. Information, if available, is updated every evening. Please check again later.
----------------

Now, that seems to indicate the package was not actually shipped. Is that true? I paid for this auction on March 26 and this is the first contact I've had from the seller. Am I missing something here? >>



It is a delivery confiramtion number to confirm delivery, not a tracking number. The PO scans the label when purchased and when delivered only, it does not get scanned at every stop. For tracking info you need to purchase registered mail, the same that PSA uses when delivering graded cards back to you.

storm888

The PayPal DC is typically not scanned at the PO.
It only costs 14-cents and the counter-help does
not like to scan it on acceptance.

If you pay for the 60-cent version of DC at the PO,
it will be scanned upon acceptance at the counter.

The website message will then read:

"Item accepted at (PO location) on (Date and Time)."

Both the 60-cent version and the 14-cent version are
supposed to be scanned upon delivery.

If the website does not show delivery by the time a
PayPal claim/dispute is filed, the buyer will be refunded.

ajw

Thanks for the responses, guys. This is quite helpful.

To recap, we know these things:

(i) I won the auction on March 25
(ii) I paid via PayPal on March 26
(iii) Seller printed a mailing label on March 31
(iv) I have not received the package
(v) It is now April 9

The seller's reply to my email was very short and not particularly inspiring: "US Postal Service First Class Mail Tracking # 9101785091401103102704 Shipping label printed Mar-31-07"

I don't really think anything fishy is going on here, I just wish I'd get a little better communication. At least it's not a large dollar item, so the worst case isn't all that bad.

Grrrrrr...