local post office... HUH?

[PepperElf]

Mom recently ordered an item from ebay - an adorable penguin hat that Claire's botique use to make. The seller was in England.

She gave the package plenty of time to reach her (at least a month I think) and finally contacted the seller asking where it was.

Seller: Here's the shipping code, but it's out of my hands cos it's in the USPS now.

I was ready to launch a firemission on him in case he was scamming, getting ready to walk mom through feedback. And I suggested she only used ebay to communicate with him.

Mom decided to check the post office first, and brought a copy of the UK shipping code.

USPS: hmmm wait a minute... *goes to vault and comes back* Here it is!


Either they never gave mom the slip to sign to pick it up, or never picked up her signed slip and just tossed the package in the vault. So it'd been sitting there for at least a week.


And yes, mom was kind enough to let the seller know that the package was in and thanked him for it.

[Andara Bledin]

My local USPS is the region's Omega office.

They regularly lie about not having received their truck, yet, because they haven't bothered to sort anything. They regularly fail to actually deliver mail they've received and regularly deliver packages quite late. Especially those that didn't originate with the USPS.

I had one item shipped via DHL that was tendered to the post office, and after two weeks of asking where the hell it was, with the printout showing that they'd received it, they finally "found" it and delivered it to us.

^-.-^

[PepperElf]

i think this is the same USPS mom had trouble with prior.

now granted i'm ADD and tend to lose things but i think they lost some of the mail she sent me. they then sent me a certified note just to "prove" it got to me. but the way they handed it seemed snotty.

thankfully she hasn't had much trouble with them until now, afaik.

although iirc when she sends mail out, ie packages, she drives to a different branch.

[Beki710]

This is something I always end up worrying about. I sell my crafts online and I'm UK based. I've sold in the past through Ebay and my own website and now I use Etsy as my base. Especially with Ebay and Etsy where you have feedback I worry about mine being affected because of packages lost through no fault of my own. Although I don't rely on the money I get for my income, it's a nice way to be able to treat myself once in a while. I recently had a package that took 6 weeks to appear from the UK to America to the point where I was actually recrafting the item to send out there. I try to cover myself best as possible with proofs of postage etc but seeing posts like this doesn't give me much hope in the postal system (don't even get me started on Royal Mail!)

[Andara Bledin]

Always use a trackable method and require that all items be insured (unless it's less expensive/trouble to just replace the item out of pocket). Approximately 2% of all buyers will be unavoidably sucky. Having spent hours trolling through eBay Feedback profiles, that seems to hold true in most cases (consumer electronics is it's own beast, with about a 5% suck ratio).

Be secure in the knowledge that swift communication and full disclosure will usually be enough to stave off all but the worst idiots. And providing tracking information at the time of shipment is an excellent pro-active maneuver.

^-.-^

[Seshat]

Seconding Andara here.

A seller who emails with 'and here's the tracking number, and the track-your-parcel webpage for my shipper' is always going to have me as a happier client than one who doesn't.

[Andara Bledin]

A seller who emails with 'and here's the tracking number, and the track-your-parcel webpage for my shipper' is always going to have me as a happier client than one who doesn't.

Not only that, but when dealing with PayPal, putting that information into their system will send out the email for you, and will be a strong argument in your favor against claims of non-delivery.

^-.-^

[Polenicus]

I don't trust UPS, simply because they've proven to me they CAN'T be trusted.

I've had a number of packages come to me via UPS, and not a single one has been anythin but a major headache. From half a shipment getting lost, to my address (In the middle of the city) getting flagged as 'out of area' repeatedly by a driver too lazy to actually make the delivery, to being charged a brokerage fee, then charged it again on pickup, then getting INVOICED a month later for the SAME BROKERAGE FEE.

Honestly, I really don't understand why people use them over ordinary post. In my experience, the post has always been cheaper, faster and more reliable.

[Andara Bledin]

Honestly, I really don't understand why people use them over ordinary post. In my experience, the post has always been cheaper, faster and more reliable.

It's all about the local hub.

Your hub, quite frankly, sounds like is sucks ass. My UPS hub, on the other hand, is pure awesome, as is our regular driver.

Also, if you need actual tracking every step of the way, the USPS doesn't do that. They don't even track actual delivery unless you get a signature. All they do is tell you when it arrived at the local PO that would drop the package off. Considering how often my local PO has held a package in the back because they were too lazy/stupid/crotchety to put the out for actual delivery, I feel pretty safe in stating that a large percentage of delivery confirmation dates outright lie.

Also, as you're dealing with international shipments, while you may trust your own PO, do you think it's safe to trust every other country's?

^-.-^

[Cai1987]

This is something I always end up worrying about. I sell my crafts online and I'm UK based. I've sold in the past through Ebay and my own website and now I use Etsy as my base. Especially with Ebay and Etsy where you have feedback I worry about mine being affected because of packages lost through no fault of my own.

Definitely send it with a trackable method, such as signature confirmation. And also check payments immediately before leaving for the post office. My wife was selling a $500 bracelet on Ebay. The winning bidder paid and not 48 hours later reversed the payment through a PayPal dispute because they didn't receive it. I'm pretty sure they were hoping we'd shipped it already.

When my wife emailed them asking WTF was up, they promised to pay when they received the bracelet.

We sold to the second-place bidder, who was very nice and paid up immediately.