Ebay Package Problem

[ajh88]

Anyone who is following my saga,

The claim with the post office says approved. I will keep an eye on time limits, and if I haven't been reimbursed near the end of the window, I will put a claim through Paypal.

Glad to hear that you are (hopefully) getting your money back from the insurance! Of course, that doesn't help that you don't have the item you purchased.

And for the record, I insure any package I ship that is over $50 in value on my dime (per ebay's policies, with which I'm quite familiar) - but I stand by my assertion that I personally have no control over whether or not a buyer receives an item after I have shipped it. And as I stated in my previous post, this situation is exactly why insurance should be purchased (by the seller as required).

 

[MissouriPrincess]

I received the check from the postal service! I can't believe that it actually arrived already. I guess I can stop wondering.

 

[VandVsmom]

Glad to hear it! We ordered something from Amazon that was shipped USPS and never arrived. I don't know if the mailman delivered it to the wrong house or what. The day it was said to be delivered was one of the days we were outside when the mail arrived (often when we walk home from school). Amazon refunded the price, but I do wonder what the postal service did to our mermaid.

 

[CarolynK]

This thread is a bit old, but I have a question for you guys...I have started selling a few things on ebay as well as amazon (like old video games, kids' textbooks, etc.) and we're new at this! We sold 2 identical math textbooks to someone who works at a prep school in MA. Each book sold for $14, we sent them both in the same box. The buyer emailed us today to claim that the box arrived ripped open, without textbooks, though the packing material as well as the invoice were still inside the package. She was very accusatory about this. I understand she is upset that this happened, but she is claiming that there was no tape used, and the shipping label was falling off because "no packaging tape had been used." What she's saying is absolutely untrue, and she even said it appeared we had done this on purpose! Again, I sympathize but to accuse us is unfair.
Anyway, what would you guys do in this situation? Like I said, I'm totally new to selling. Just having this kind of thing happen once, I'm reconsidering selling anything else!

 

[ellone]

Ask for a picture of the box. If that did happen the receiving post office would've stamped as 'arrived damaged at zip code' or 'arrived empty at zip code.' No stamp means the buyer is lying.

If there is a stamp the buyer will need to file a mail tampering report with the post office.

Now you will still have to refund them they can file a claim since they didn't get the item.

 

[CarolynK]

Ask for a picture of the box. If that did happen the receiving post office would've stamped as 'arrived damaged at zip code' or 'arrived empty at zip code.' No stamp means the buyer is lying.

If there is a stamp the buyer will need to file a mail tampering report with the post office.

Now you will still have to refund them they can file a claim since they didn't get the item.

She did include a picture of the box...and you can clearly see the tape on both long ends is intact, but it appears that the whole end on one side has been "ripped" off - you can see the ripped cardboard! I can not see if there is a stamp from USPS, though, and in fact she said when her postal carrier delivered the box he instructed her to contact the seller about its condition....My DH wants to ask her to mail the empty box back to us. He also plans to fill out a USPS Form 1000, which is a claim for domestic loss.

 

[ellone]

She did include a picture of the box...and you can clearly see the tape on both long ends is intact, but it appears that the whole end on one side has been "ripped" off - you can see the ripped cardboard! I can not see if there is a stamp from USPS, though, and in fact she said when her postal carrier delivered the box he instructed her to contact the seller about its condition....My DH wants to ask her to mail the empty box back to us. He also plans to fill out a USPS Form 1000, which is a claim for domestic loss.

If you didn't buy insurance on the package, don't bother with a form 1000-that is only for people that insured their package.

I really wouldn't bother asking her to ship an empty box back to you. It's not going to get you anything from the USPS.

All you can file is this:
https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/forms/mlntrcvd.aspx
You fill it out and select Mail Received Without Contents.

But don't expect to get anything from the USPS. Articles that fall out of packages end up in their mail recovery center in Atlanta and I've never had them find a lost item for me.

Ripped cardboard probably means the package was 'eaten' by the machines in their sorting centers. It does happen.

 

[CarolynK]

If you didn't buy insurance on the package, don't bother with a form 1000-that is only for people that insured their package.

I really wouldn't bother asking her to ship an empty box back to you. It's not going to get you anything from the USPS.

All you can file is this:
https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/forms/mlntrcvd.aspx
You fill it out and select Mail Received Without Contents.

But don't expect to get anything from the USPS. Articles that fall out of packages end up in their mail recovery center in Atlanta and I've never had them find a lost item for me.

Ripped cardboard probably means the package was 'eaten' by the machines in their sorting centers. It does happen.

Thanks very much for the link, and the advice. When I called our local post office, the guy did mention about the "lost and found" in Atlanta. So, you have tried to get lost items back?? I wonder what they do with whatever ends up in Atlanta - hold a garage sale??

 

[ellone]

Thanks very much for the link, and the advice. When I called our local post office, the guy did mention about the "lost and found" in Atlanta. So, you have tried to get lost items back?? I wonder what they do with whatever ends up in Atlanta - hold a garage sale??

I've filled out the find items form twice and neither time did I get my items back. These were books and I gave the ISBN numbers and titles so if they had any sort of organization they should have been able to find them.

The post office holds an auction either once or twice a year to sell the items that end up there.

 

[squirrel]

I don't get why she didn't notice that they weren't inside when she had the box in her hands.

Now if one was inside and the other wasn't you might not notice the weight difference. But an empty box is an empty box and if it's suppose to contain textbooks then why didn't she say something to USPS when it was delivered?

Don't the shipping labels have the weight on them?


I know when I won a contest for a bunch of small appliances I was missing two items. At first I wasn't too worried since the others came in two boxes and I figured the other two were coming in another box. Then I looked at the packing slip and saw that one of the items was actually listed as being in one of the two boxes that I received. Neither box looked like they had been tampered with and I called the company up that I won them from to let them know that two items were not in the shipment, but that one was listed as being shipped. I wracked my brain trying to figure out a way to prove that I never received the one item that was listed on the packing slip. Then I remembered the weight and it had all the items on the packing list with their weight. When I added them up in the boxes they came in, I was short the amount that the missing items weighed.

 

[wdwmom0f3]

I don't get why she didn't notice that they weren't inside when she had the box in her hands.

Now if one was inside and the other wasn't you might not notice the weight difference. But an empty box is an empty box and if it's suppose to contain textbooks then why didn't she say something to USPS when it was delivered?

Don't the shipping labels have the weight on them?


I know when I won a contest for a bunch of small appliances I was missing two items. At first I wasn't too worried since the others came in two boxes and I figured the other two were coming in another box. Then I looked at the packing slip and saw that one of the items was actually listed as being in one of the two boxes that I received. Neither box looked like they had been tampered with and I called the company up that I won them from to let them know that two items were not in the shipment, but that one was listed as being shipped. I wracked my brain trying to figure out a way to prove that I never received the one item that was listed on the packing slip. Then I remembered the weight and it had all the items on the packing list with their weight. When I added them up in the boxes they came in, I was short the amount that the missing items weighed.

I'm new to eBay myself so thank you for that information.

 

[CarolynK]

I don't get why she didn't notice that they weren't inside when she had the box in her hands.

Now if one was inside and the other wasn't you might not notice the weight difference. But an empty box is an empty box and if it's suppose to contain textbooks then why didn't she say something to USPS when it was delivered?

She was handed the damaged box BY her OWN postal carrier - and he told her to contact the person who sent it to her!! As if the USPS has NO fault in this matter??
Chalking this up to a learning experience! From now on I'm heavily taping everything, as well as taking a picture of the package before I mail it (actually did this yesterday, since we just sold something else). Not that doing this will necessarily help an issue like this in the future, but for my own peace of mind, I will be able to honestly say (and have visual proof) that I mailed a securely taped package!!

 

[BCmomma]

The OP wasn't handed her package by the postal worker, it was left on her doorstep like that.

 

[CarolynK]

The OP wasn't handed her package by the postal worker, it was left on her doorstep like that.

I was speaking of my own issue, which is what I thought squirrel was referring to. Maybe I should have started my own thread, but I actually wanted advice from the people who had originally responded to this thread when it was started.

 

[secretpantssam]

Ask for a picture of the box. If that did happen the receiving post office would've stamped as 'arrived damaged at zip code' or 'arrived empty at zip code.' No stamp means the buyer is lying.

I'm just going to say that I've recently purchased a few things from Etsy that USPS clearly damaged in transit and they did not put a stamp on it. One was a pair of pants in a flat rate envelope that was eaten by a machine somewhere along the way and you could see the material hanging out. The other was a box that the seller had just wrapped in packing paper and it was completely ripped up. Both were very obviously damaged with no stamp, so it doesn't necessarily mean the buyer in lying.

My one post office guy by my work said if that if you get a package that is damaged in transit that you should go to the local post office with it and have them file a damage claim. That way you have official paperwork for the insurance claim on your end as the seller. So maybe recommend that the buyer do that.

I have been selling and buying stuff on etsy for quite a while now, but I have recently noticed a rise in problems with USPS and damaged packages (just as a buyer, mainly). My advise would be, going forward, always get insurance if you don't feel comfortable refunding the purchase price and always pack your stuff with extra care and include the receipt in case the shipping label falls off.

 

[Lewisc]

My advise would be, going forward, always get insurance if you don't feel comfortable refunding the purchase price and always pack your stuff with extra care and include the receipt in case the shipping label falls off.

+1 Insurance protects the seller they buyer is protected by paypal/ebay.