Nothing but trouble for sellers

psychump

Watch out for the USPS in the future, mail has slowed to a crawl for me. To and Fro. Nothing but trouble for sellers. 80 miles from door step and the package goes to Alaska!! Not to mention reduced hours and raised rates. To eBay buyers it is our fault!

First-Class Mail®
Processed through USPS Sort Facility
January 12, 2012, 4:38 pm
ANCHORAGE, AK 99530
Expected Delivery By:
January 6, 2012
Delivery Confirmation™
Processed through USPS Sort Facility
January 09, 2012, 6:40 pm
DETROIT, MI 48233
Processed through USPS Sort Facility
January 07, 2012, 1:18 am
PONTIAC, MI 48340
Depart USPS Sort Facility
January 04, 2012
PETALUMA, CA 94999
Processed at USPS Origin Sort Facility
January 03, 2012, 10:46 pm
PETALUMA, CA 94999
Acceptance
January 03, 2012, 2:19 pm
SANTA ROSA, CA 95401

JohnnyD

The last 2 packages I sent with delivery confirmation....1 was misrouted and the other sat in a sorting facility for 4 days....

pclpads

<< <i>The last 2 packages I sent with delivery confirmation....1 was misrouted and the other sat in a sorting facility for 4 days.... >>



Bothersome to be sure, but at least you were able to track it. No .80 for DC and you wouldn't have known where the hell the pkgs were.

Downtown1974

<< <i>Watch out for the USPS in the future, mail has slowed to a crawl for me. To and Fro. Nothing but trouble for sellers. 80 miles from door step and the package goes to Alaska!! Not to mention reduced hours and raised rates. To eBay buyers it is our fault! >>



Its only going to get worse. Threats of cutting sorting centers in my neck of the woods. Talks about cutting out Saturday delivery all together too.

doog71

I recently sent a package with delivery confirmation that ended up halfway there, then "disappeared". Didn't matter who I talked to, the Post Office did NOTHING to try to track it down. Probably stolen halfway there...

soundgard

Pretty pathetic when you fork out the extra money for confirmation, and your package still gets lost and you get screwed. Hello, isnt that the whole point in paying for confirmation, to tell where that package is??

70ToppsFanatic

Except for very cheap items, I have always used insurance in favor of DC. The way I figure it, if the seller claims either damage or non-arrival
I am covered. Additionally, for any scamming buyers that are foolish enough to say that the items never arrived if the PO has record of delivery
they have a potential federal case on their hands.

grote15

DC is free with priority mail. Insurance is always good for items worth more than $50 but if it's not insured over $200, the PO doesn't require a signature, so if you don't have DC, Paypal will side with the buyer if he claims non-receipt. OTOH, if a package is scanned as "delivered" and it's not or was delivered to the wrong address and the insured value is less than $200, the buyer is out of luck. In either case, PO cutbacks and slowdowns are going to be an issue for both parties involved.

cpamike

This is why I only buy stuff. Much easier, except the whole paying part.

70ToppsFanatic

<< <i>DC is free with priority mail. Insurance is always good for items worth more than $50 but if it's not insured over $200, the PO doesn't require a signature, so if you don't have DC, Paypal will side with the buyer if he claims non-receipt. OTOH, if a package is scanned as "delivered" and it's not or was delivered to the wrong address and the insured value is less than $200, the buyer is out of luck. In either case, PO cutbacks and slowdowns are going to be an issue for both parties involved. >>



Tim has it right as far as he goes, but it is incomplete. If an item is insured and under $200 and the buyer claims non-receiipt then while PayPal will side with the buyer the
USPS will pay the sender the insured value. While most sellers would prefer what they send makes it to the buyer without incident, by using insurance if it doesn't and PayPal
sides with the buyer then the seller will get reimbursed by USPS. If the package gets scanned as delivered and the buyer claims non-receipt PayPal sides with the seller, then
with insurance it may still be possible for the seller to file a claim for theft.

If the seller charges the cost of the insurance to the buyer (obviously must be done up front in the listing) then technically the buyer was the one who purchased the insurance and I believe the buyer could then ask the seller for the insurance # and file the claim themselves.

Anyone see any holes in these statements?

grote15

I can't see any circumstance where a buyer would file an insurance claim for the seller. It's the seller's responsibility to do that as the party who purchased insurance when shipping the item and the buyer is going to simply file a claim with paypal to get his money back.

In short, insurance is always going to be for the protection of the seller, not the buyer.

70ToppsFanatic

<< <i>I can't see any circumstance where a buyer would file an insurance claim for the seller. It's the seller's responsibility to do that as the party who purchased insurance when shipping the item and the buyer is going to simply file a claim with paypal to get his money back.

In short, insurance is always going to be for the protection of the seller, not the buyer. >>



So if a seller sends a buyer an item via USPS with insurance, and it gets scanned as delivered and the buyer claims it didn't arrive then it is the buyer who is out of luck?

If the seller purchased the insurance separate from the sale transaction, then surely the seller could file a claim for theft and refund the buyers money once the claim is investigated and paid. On the other hand, if the seller SOLD the cost of insurance to the buyer as part of the transaction, then technically the owner of the insurance is the buyer and the buyer (with the slip number) would be the correct party to file the claim, no?

grote15

So if a seller sends a buyer an item via USPS with insurance, and it gets scanned as delivered and the buyer claims it didn't arrive then it is the buyer who is out of luck?

Unfortunately, yes. There's a board member here who actually had this same situation happen to him. The package was shown as delivered but because it wasn't over $250 which would have required signature confirmation per paypal regulations, the buyer was out of luck because the DC showed the package as delivered. I suppose the seller, had he purchased insurance, could file an insurance claim with the USPS even in that case, but there's no incentive for him to do so for the buyer's benefit, at least, since paypal will have already sided with the seller in that specific case.

grote15

If the seller purchased the insurance separate from the sale transaction, then surely the seller could file a claim for theft and refund the buyers money once the claim is investigated and paid. On the other hand, if the seller SOLD the cost of insurance to the buyer as part of the transaction, then technically the owner of the insurance is the buyer and the buyer (with the slip number) would be the correct party to file the claim, no?

Dave, as you know from your own thread when the seller asdked you to add insurance to your purchase price, it's against ebay regulations to sell insurance separately from the shipping price. Even if it weren't, though, the shipper should be the one responsible for filing the claim with the USPS, not the buyer, imo.

70ToppsFanatic

<< <i>If the seller purchased the insurance separate from the sale transaction, then surely the seller could file a claim for theft and refund the buyers money once the claim is investigated and paid. On the other hand, if the seller SOLD the cost of insurance to the buyer as part of the transaction, then technically the owner of the insurance is the buyer and the buyer (with the slip number) would be the correct party to file the claim, no?

Dave, as you know from your own thread when the seller asdked you to add insurance to your purchase price, it's against ebay regulations to sell insurance separately from the shipping price. Even if it weren't, though, the shipper should be the one responsible for filing the claim with the USPS, not the buyer, imo. >>



Tim, you are correct. However, Ebay does allow us to include insurance up front as part of a fixed S&H charge (which is what a lot of the bigger consignment sellers seem to be doing). My thread was about receiving a request from the seller to include an upcharge for insurance AFTER the auction ended with no mention of such charges in the listing.

As I stated, I always use insurance except for very low value items. I believe that using insurance makes using DC redundant (and therefore unnecessary). I usually build the expected cost of that insurance into the fixed S&H charge shown in the listing and state that the S&H charge includes insurance for the full value of the item. If the insurance cost ends up being higher than what I built into the S&H cost, then it means the item sold above what I expected (so while I sepnt more for insurance, I also generated a greater revenue for the item).

The other nice thing about insurance is that many people seem to have a bit more respect when it comes to trying to de-fraud the US Government. Since I've been on Ebay (1997) I may have submitted two or three claims to the PO for "lost" items with values ranging from $50-$300. I don't recall any time where there was any sort of real investigation by the PO before paying the claims. My guess is that the PO is so big and bureaucratic that they would only invest time on an investigation if a really large amount were involved. I think many people assume that the PO might actually investigate a reported lost, insured item and they fear getting caught in a lie and being charged with mail fraud.

The bottom line for me is that while I agree that insurance does primarily benefit the seller, the scenario we are discussing where an item shows as delivered according to USPS but the buyer claims that it was not received is a case where the insurance actually protects the buyer too.

grote15

For the last part of your post, that is true as long as the seller is willing to file a claim for the item that shows as dlvd. In the case of the board member here, the seller did not because paypal had already sided with him. Paypal unfortunately does not recognize insurance per se but DC for items under $250 and signature confirmation for items exceeding that amount.