How would you respond to a case not received?

[musicyouneed]

I had a case open today.  CD shipped March 23 from Vancouver BC to Delaware USA.  Ebay estimated delivery time March 30 to April 6.  Case opened today Apr 10.  Would you email the buyer to give it a few more days.  I have until the 16th to respond.  Or would you just refund today.  

Where does this lost mail go?

[reallynicestamps]

If the buyer contacts me I ask for a few more days, trying for 20 days from purchase, since that seems to be the real time for delivery.

If a case is open, I think I would just sob quietly to myself and refund promptly, asking the buyer to refund the refund by using Paypal's Send Money service, WHEN the item arrives.

Most people are honest. Especially if you tell them how to correct the refund.

The postal service is optimistic about delivery time, in my opinion. But it is better to take action yourself than to face the defects and violations if PP and eBay make the refund and come after you.

Where does lost mail go?

Some is just delayed.

Some is misaddressed and eventually will come back to you.

These are the most common scenarios.

Some is misdelivered and is either sitting at the neighbours' house for them to remember to hand it over, or being enjoyed by that neighbour as a freebie.

And sometimes the buyer is lying about the situation.

[recped]

I would absolutely ask for patience on the buyers end. Easter long weekend,  and the last bit of weather delays there have been in the NE US all possible causes for the delay plus of course it's cross-border.

I never refund immediately in this situation, at least 90% of these inquires end up with the packages arriving a few days later.

You don't want to appear as if you are stalling but you don't necessarily need to respond asap, best to do so in 24 - 36 hours.

I usually include in my reply a "drop dead" future date where I commit to refunding or replacing. with the times you've given I'd use the somewhat vague "end of next week". (I love to "commit" "vaguely" ).

It's at 17 days now, that's pretty slow but it's not entirely unusual.

Where does this lost mail go?

It's not "lost" it's missing, could be sitting in an "empty" shipping container (Google - Texas empty container usps missing mail - for a recent example). Could be getting scanned incorrectly and bouncing around from sort facility to sort facility, I had a package last week shipped through Rochester that was going to NYC, it got as close as New Jersey and then took a 4 day holiday in California before resuming the last 100km to Brooklyn.

The truly lost either get delivered to the wrong address and kept by the recipient or stolen from USPS to be found years later in a hoarder home. A few get burnt to a crisp in one of the USPS truck crashes, there are literally hundreds of crashes each year, mostly they can pick up the pieces and finish the delivery or inform the sender/recipient but sometimes there is no way to identify what was on that truck.

Parkway North reopens after mail truck fire

[recped]

The OP already has a defect no matter what the final resolution is. Refunding today will not in any way change that.

Yeah most people are "HONEST", yeah I know it happens that buyers will let you know and even offer to repay but seriously how frequently do you think that happens?

I'd say most people would feel bad (for a second), maybe think,  I really should let that nice ebay seller know and then poof that thought is gone.

[musicyouneed]

Thanks for your responses.  The buyer opened a case as he was just inquiring about the shipping status and stated he realized it was international and it would take longer.   I followed my gut on this one and just refunded him.  I did use the wording of ricarmic' sample email, in my email to him.

Recped - Your post is funny and so true:

"Yeah most people are "HONEST", yeah I know it happens that buyers will let you know and even offer to repay but seriously how frequently do you think that happens?

I'd say most people would feel bad (for a second), maybe think,  I really should let that nice ebay seller know and then poof that thought is gone."

[recped]

Post an update some time even if you never hear anything again.

[ricarmic]

Hi Music! I hope the buyer does repay you if it does eventually arrive!

I do think it helps that:

-we are clear that we are the one losing (I think some buyers think that the PO covers it anyway or that we are a large company and what's a few dollars loss to us)

-the refund is given quickly and without hassle which I also think also increases the chance that if the package does arrive that the person will feel more compelled to advise and repay. 

In my "insurance experience" for 2014 30% of my INRs did contact me and repay. However I am in the "stamp world", the buyer base for CDs might not be as prone to letting you know.

Also my 2015 experience so far is going to be worse, I have more losses and fewer repays, although the countries that the parcels were lost to this year are (in my opinion) much more likely to have never actually arrived. 

Like Rec says, let us know what happens!

[toff3]

Ric,

You seem to have suffered a significant number of INRs last year and predict even more this year. Further, you imply that some (most?) of these were outright losses (in the mail?). You speak of packages and parcels, even though you deal in stamps.

I know my selling volumes are way, way lower than yours but my INRs in the course of 15 years trading on eBay are negligible (can be counted on the fingers of one hand). Can you give us some statistics, please? Number of mail pieces sent, number actually lost (i.e. not returned), the destination countries involved, etc. I'm genuinely interested because your experiences are so radically different from mine (and you're not flogging iPhones).

Tom  

[ricarmic]

Hi Toff! Here are my 2014 results:

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/My-experience-including-2014-Self-insurance-cookie-jar/m-...

So far for 2015  7 losses, and zero repaid, although that can take a while for them to actually arrive etc.

Virtually all are to "dangerous" places like China, Belarus, Pakistan, French Polynesia(!!!), South Africa, Sri Lanka, Kuwait.

[ricarmic]

Oh I should have added that about 30% of sales are outside north america.

[38e_avenue]

My last week was a black one. 2 cases opened, closed with a full refund. 3 more customers asking where are their parcels. Must be a major disaster at Canada Post, a container in fire or something like that. All were sent the same day from Montreal on FRIDAY 13 - IMAGINE!!!!)

How did I handle the situation? I mainly APOLOGIZE, thanking for UNDERSTANDING, offer FULL REFUND, if the item is missing for more than a month. 2 customers accepted a similar replacement item. All were nice people, I got even a positive feedback after I sent a refund.

We should all understand, that such situation are AN INTEGRAL PART of our business. Sure, that was not pleasant to send money back, but we need all to learn how to handle such cases. Until you are not able to handle this, your are still NOT a professional seller (whatever it means )

[musicyouneed]

Just an update. I emailed the buyer last week and he told me that he had not received the CD. As I had reimbursed him April 10, and it is now April 25, I guess the CD is lost or he got it and is not letting me know. I had another enquiry about a CD sent March 31 to California that had not yet arrived, turns out it was delivered to the wrong address had to go back to the post office and delivered correctly yesterday (almost 1 month). So far in 2015, I have had 3 parcels go missing. In 2014, I didn't have any and in 2013 I had one.

[femmefan1946]

You speak of packages and parcels, even though you deal in stamps.

I don’t know why people think stamp dealers can ship in an envelope. Even overlooking multiple purchases from one customer, which doesn’t happen nearly often enough, stamp dealers often are selling albums, boxes (missionary mixes), packets, and entire collections.
Our public auction (next one is in June, catalogue should be online Real Soon Now) will have several single lots comprising four or more bankers boxes. And some of those are going to be mailed.
Kate the auction manager can now bench press a Volkswagen.

yeah I know it happens that buyers will let you know and even offer to repay but seriously how frequently do you think that happens?

That’s why it is useful to tell the customer how to refund the refund. It makes it just a little easier to actually do it.