Item failed to be delivered, is lost in system

[dakin8309]

Long story short, parcel came through a delivery service of poor repute in my area, I had no knock, no notice of any kind of a missed parcel, and missed the window to retrieve it from their center by mere hours before it was returned to sender. I contacted the seller, and they were supportive but hadn't dealt with a return-to-sender before. After a while, the item was received by the ERLANGER, KY shipping center, but the seller has not received the item in their mail.

It has been over a month and a half since the item went back to the shipping center. We have no idea what to do from here. How do we find where the item is and get it properly returned to either of us?

[femmefan1946]

no notice of any kind of a missed parcel, and missed the window to retrieve it from their center by mere hours before it was returned to sender.

When this happens the shipment is deemed Undeliverable.

Bad News.

Undeliverable shipments are no longer eligible for the Money Back Guarantee.

Your seller won't get it back.

Once the shipment reached the GSP in Erlanger KY, his responsibility for delivery ended. He was paid, and no longer owns the item. It "belongs" to the GSP.

When it gets back to Erlanger* these returns are usually either destroyed or sold off to liquidators.  The exact process is obscure.

Umm - was the " delivery service of poor repute in my area" by any chance Apple?

We've seen a bunch of complaints about them in the BC and Toronto areas. How did you learn where the shipment was before it was returned?

As things stand, because you did not contact the delivery company in time, you are deemed to have forfeited your rights for a refund.

You might try calling Customer Service, and explaining the problem. Do not be embarrassed to ask for a GSP specialist and to ask to be referred to a supervisor if the specialist is unable to help you.

*which may be months, since at the best of times, undeliverable mail is not a priority for the postal system.

[femmefan1946]

If there is no help from eBay's Customer Service, your next step is Paypal, which allows 180 days from Payment for Disputes.

But the 'undeliverable' might work against you there too.  Try them anyway, they can't say yes if you don't ask.

In the long run, your best bet is likely to be the credit card you back your PP account with.

But go to eBay first, then PP.  The chargeback to the credit card is the last appeal.

[marnotom!]

I’m wondering as well how and when the OP figured out what delivery service was used to get the item (almost) to their door.

[dakin8309]

A Purolator center that has numerous complaints of similar lack of contact and notice.

As for learning exactly where it was, I followed the tracking number I was given by ebay. It took a fair bit of sleuthing because the exact address wasn't obvious. Truthfully, had I been more vigilant in watching the various tracking services, I probably could have gotten there in the five days they held the item, but I had kind of zoned out during that period of time for a variety of reasons and when I finally was cognizant of its status, because of the below reasoning, I was unable to acquire it.

I had only figured it out the night prior, to its return, and I had tried to phone or use online contact measures to see if it was fine, but the office was closed and the website non-responsive, and they had shipped it away first thing the morning after despite calling and asking them to hold it somewhere for my acquisition within hours.

It was after that that I contacted the seller to work something out. I had read elsewhere that return-to-senders usually got back to the seller, and that from there it was up to us to work out how to get it back out again, but we've been watching and waiting and nothing has shown up for them.

[dakin8309]

I've been trying to go through the help/contact us stuff and I must be blind because I honestly can't find where in blazes I should click or call or write to contact ebay to fix this.

[dakin8309]

As mentioned in one of the above answers, tracking numbers. I should have been more vigilant in watching the tracking, but I saw that it had been sent to a shipping centre and should be arriving some day soon and I was content with that because I knew I'd be home and be able to hear a knock - a knock that never came, and despite checking for notices daily, never saw a failed delivery notice either. It was only after spending like an hour tracking down the exact service and plugging it into their website the very same morning it was returned to sender that I realized what had happened.

[pjcdn2005]

Items sent through the gsp will not ever be returned to the seller and as someone else mentioned, failed deliveries are generally considered the buyers fault as they gave the wrong address, didn't pick up the item etc.   But you could first try opening an item not received claim through ebay.  If tracking shows attempted delivery the case will likely be ruled against you however, you could then appeal or contact customer service through facebook messaging or through twitter.

https://facebook.com/ebay

https://twitter.com/askebay

If you used Paypal to pay and ebay doesn't work out, you can file a claim through them for item not received as they require an item to be actually delivered, not just attempted delivery.  Make sure that for both the ebay claim and PP claim, you specify that the item was sent through the gsp and specify what happened.   Once you open a PP claim, you can't open an ebay one so its best to open one on ebay first and see how that works out.

If you paid by credit card, another option is to file a claim through them.