Item Not Received

[schtupinator2011]

Hello everyone.  A buyer bought some cards from me on May 18 and I sent them out May 20. He started a case on June 7 that he didn't receive his items. This is the first time that this has happened for a domestic Canada Post transaction for me all these years.

One time it happened in a USPS, USA address to USA address transaction a few years ago. 

Anyways, it's not a lot of money $24, but they were cards that I had collected when I was a kid.

Since there was no tracking, I can't do much investigation. Now I don't trust selling to this address even though it was his second purchase. I think I'm going to block.

What do you people do when you get these cases are opened against you? 

Thanks. 

[reallynicestamps]

Refund--- and unless this is a repeat customer, Block.

He may be perfectly honest-- and deliveries are delayed all over-- but what I am seeing is a difficult ADDRESS.

Maybe he is in an area with porch pirates, maybe the carrier has had a breakdown and is hoarding mail, maybe it is sitting in his neighbour's house and the neighbour will give it to him at his leisure.

Whatever.

Mail has not been getting to him, so I can't trust that future mail will be delivered either.

[reallynicestamps]

but they were cards that I had collected when I was a kid.

Ugh.

But still, this is business not personal.

Hurts more than the money though.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

1 - Change your shipping service to "Economy Shipping". Consider changing your handling time to at least 3 days. This will give a more realistic time frame for a worst case scenario with Canada Post Letter Mail shipping. This will prevent cases being opened until about 30 days pass.

2 - Send a shipping confirmation message to buyers. You can write up a stock one. Let them know that you care about the transaction and will solve any issues if there are any, and also give them a disclaimer that with COVID-19 delays, items shipped economy might take up to 30 days, even within your province. I also usually take a photo of the package at the mail box, because I find that MOST buyers are reasonable, and this gives them an idea that I actually did ship their package. Which means only the most anxious buyers will contact me if their item doesn't arrive within 30 days, and most will understand the realities of our mail system in COVID-19 and wait. 

Lettermail is really inconsistent right now. The most likely thing that happened with your order is that it is going to take 30 or so days. The buyer doesn't understand this, so they've opened a case. Now you have to either resolve the case within 3 business days, or get a strike. 

Your best option is to tell the buyer that you will issue a refund before the deadline to resolve the case, but if the item arrives before then, ask them to let you know by closing the case. After that, you can message the buyer and politely ask them to either refuse the package when it arrives by not opening it and returning it to their post office, or if they want to keep the package, for them to message you and ask for a new invoice. You can then go into your Paypal account and send an invoice to the e-mail the paid with. Some buyers will be honest and do this, others will say, sweet, free cards. 

Some lettermail orders are taking a few days, some are taking 30+. I've had more issues with Small Packet Air to the US than with lettermail. I've surprisingly only had to refund a few lettermail orders over the last few months. Small Packet Air sent in May was a disaster, 30-40 days with more refunds from that period than I've given out in the entire last 12 months on eBay. 

[ricarmic]

Here are some of my form letters if they or any parts of them are of use:

When a case is opened:

Hi! I'm sorry to hear that the stamps have not yet arrived. Unfortunately COVID-19 related delays are affecting a lot of shipments. Some items move at normal speed or even more quickly, some like yours are slowed down significantly. A lot depends on which sorting centers are affected and for how long they are impacted. 99.5% of the time packages just take longer than they should to arrive, especially now.

Packages to Toronto, a 2 hour drive away take 5 weeks, a letter to UK takes 5 days: crazy delivery times!

Now that a case is open, the only option I have is to refund by June 24th. Please let me know if the stamps arrive before then. If not I will fully refund, out of my own funds. Assuming the parcel does arrive after that, let me know and I’ll send another invoice so you can pay again (this is my full time job, small parcels like this aren't insured so I am out 100% if they do not arrive). THX for your patience to date, hopefully they'll arrive before the 24th. Have a great weekend! Ron

When I get a regular email message before a case is opened:

Hi! THX For your note! Unfortunately COVID-19 related delays are affecting a lot of shipments. Some items move at normal speed or even more quickly, some like yours are slowed down significantly. A lot depends on which sorting centers are affected and for how long they are impacted. I am not sure how the postal distribution network is affected in your state/ local area (I am in Canada). 99.5% of the time parcels just take longer than they should to arrive, especially now.
I have packages going to a city within a 2 hour drive here in Canada taking 5 weeks to get there, the same package gets to Great Britain in 5 days so nothing makes sense timing wise anymore! It is becoming more common for shipments to the US to take 5 to 6 weeks or more to arrive, but again no rhyme nor reason as to which ones where! 
I would really appreciate it if you can wait another couple weeks or so before we decide the package is lost and I refund your money, but I will be ok whenever you decide. If it gets to the point that you think it has been long enough, please just open an item not received case and I will refund your money out of my own funds. Assuming the parcel does arrive after that, let me know and I’ll send another invoice so you can pay again (this is my full time job, small parcels like this are not insured so I am out 100% if they do not arrive).
Thank you in advance for your continued patience and have a great day! RICARMIC (Ron)

When I refund:

Hi! I'm sorry to see that the stamps have not yet arrived. I've issued the full refund, please let me know if they do eventually show up so I can send an invoice so you can pay for them again (this is my full time job, small parcels like this are not insured so I am out 100% if they do not arrive). Thank you for your patience regarding this, I have had some items take longer than this to arrive, so there is still some hope!
Have a great day!

[reallynicestamps]

I've had more issues with Small Packet Air to the US than with lettermail.

There has been some discussion on the Seller Board that the USPS is often using the billing number on SPA-US packages as a tracking number.

It is not, but.

Worth noting that number when you ship as a tracking number  (which it isn't) and hoping that between USPS' misunderstanding and potentially dishonest customers thinking they can't cheat on this one, that there will be no Dispute to lose.

That being said the difference in cost may not make it worthwhile.

A 100gr letter costs $3.19.  Small Packet Air is $7.54 and Tracked is $14.42.

A 500 gr package is more reasonable with a letter at $11.14, Small Packet at $12.10.  (Tracked 500 gr is $20.10).

Every shipment is a choice.

[teenytrinkets]

I'm finding my lettermail to Ontario from BC is taking FOREVER these days! I'd bet it's still on its way!  Refunding with a note to say, "let me know if you eventually get it" is what I've done in the past. A repeat buyer is likely honest, and in most cases, would gladly pay you when it arrives. So I would NOT block.

Another thing I do when I ship is I include the ship date in my positive feedback.  I also get my counter postie to postpark stamp the letter and take a photo - that way, they can at least see that you're being honest if they inquire why their package is taking so long.

[ericsells75]

I'm pretty new to selling but it's fear of this happening that means I do not ship without tracking for anything. Can I ask why you aren't doing that? It's an honest noob question on my part.

is it just because shipping is cheaper via letterman? It always seems to me that tracking may cost more but avoids these situations, no? It may take a little longer to sell an item but I find eventually someone will want it and pay for tacking.

[reallynicestamps]

is it just because shipping is cheaper via letterman?

Mostly.

On a 200gr package 2cm thick Letter is$5.57 to the USA while Tracked Parcel USA is $14.42.

And most of the time, tracking was not necessary.

tracking may cost more but avoids these situations, no?

Yes, a tracked shipment that has not arrived will give the seller more time for the arrival in a Dispute.

But the important part is not proof of shipping, but Proof of Delivery. So if the product is late, the seller still loses.

It may take a little longer to sell an item

Yes.

And each seller has to decide if tracking with no refunds is a better deal for her than not tracking with one refund in 100 sales.

Or one refund in 20 sales-- which can happen in some categories (sportscards? designer sneakers? reborn babies?  high end purses?).

Most buyers are honest.

We can set up some parameters to protect ourselves beyond tracking.

And I guess I should mention Cookie Jar Insurance here.

Basically this means putting a few pennies from each sale into a virtual Cookie Jar as a self-insurance premium against Disputes.

Since most buyers are honest, and most Disputes are more differences of opinion than of fraud, Disputes are normally very rare.

Unfortunately, the sellers most likely to be scammed are newbies with very little in the Cookie Jar, while experienced sellers find the Cookie Jar to be a profit centre.

And that comes down to the usual story:

• Don't sell anything it would really hurt to lose.
• Use excellent pictures, titles, and descriptions, and make sure they match.
• Allow returns. Because No Returns does not mean No Refunds. 
• Demand returns before refunding even if your policy is No Returns.

Shipping is the hardest part of selling online. Not just on eBay, on every site.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

People ship without tracking because the tracked shipping in Canada is too expensive. It isn't viable to run a small business.

Lettermail/Small Packet Air USA was extremely reliable before COVID-19. The difference between lettermail and regular parcel is usually at least 10 dollars.

While certain items have more flexible price points, a buyer will generally only pay what an item is worth. So for an item worth 15 dollars, you can either charge 13 dollars Buy It Now + 2 dollars for Lettermail, or you can charge 3 dollars Buy It Now + 12 dollars for Regular Parcel. Anyone selling lower priced items like DVDs, CDs, sports cards, etc - would have no incentive to operate if they only shipped tracked with regular parcel. These numbers are not exact costs, but they are somewhat close. I'm just using round numbers to make the point simpler.

In normal times, Lettermail and Regular Parcel take roughly the same amount of time, the only difference is that Regular Parcel has tracking. So the only added value with Regular Parcel is to the seller not the buyer. With tracking, the seller gets some insurance against a false item not received claim. Most eBay sellers have different levels of risk tolerance, but if you sell 100 items a month, and the difference between tracked/untracked shipping is 10 dollars, for tracked shipping to make sense you need to be losing more than 1000 dollars a month to item not received claims. Because as stated before, regardless of how you format your auctions, you theoretically cannot sell an item for more than it is worth, so that extra 10 dollars a pop comes directly out of a seller's margins.

Prior to COVID-19, I had maybe 1 in 100 items claimed as not received. So you can see how it would in no way make sense for me to spend what amounts to an extra 10+ dollars on each transaction as what is basically insurance against INR cases.

[roadie16]

I am not a seller, I am a buyer and have been for a number years. Being a buyer we are anxious to receive our purchase and like most people want it as quickly as possible. However, some buyers expectations are unreasonable. I buy mostly from the UK where an item usually takes 2 - 3 weeks to arrive. But, with the Covid issues right now items have taken from 6 - 8 weeks to arrive. Not the fault of the seller. Paypal has a six month period within which you can dispute your case. That is ample time for an item to arrive. Most purchases, if not 99% of purchases are not a life or death purchase, so relax it will show up. If you received a refund, buyers please be honest and pay up.  I would advise not blocking this buyer if there is no trend seen.

[reallynicestamps]

Yes and even with the new Managed Payments that sellers are being pushed into, buyers will still be able to route payments through Paypal and their credit cards.

Buyers will also be able to use ApplePay and GooglePay I understand as well as paying directly with their credit cards.

I don't know what Buyer Protections exist for those systems.

[zee-chan]

Cost. For smaller and inexpensive items, using a trackable method adds at least $10+ to the shipping cost. I have probably sold about 300 packages over the years using not-trackable methods, and I have less than 8 sales that were lost. That's $3000 I saved with using a not-trackable method (refunds for these lost sales are less than $200). They never paid me back, so they were probably truly lost? Or if these people were dishonest then I'm sure karma will get to them.

Also note that, let's say I put that $10 tracking cost towards the sale price, then I might not even get a sale at all as I won't be competitive against other sellers. Or it could become outside the buyer's budget.

Knock on wood that so far I haven't had any INRs the past two years. I only sold about 10 non-tracked packages during the pandemic so far, and a few of these buyers left me positive feedback indicating they received their purchase, usually in about 2-3 weeks.

[needsmorerobots]

Unless the buyer has a number of negatives that indicates a pattern of behavior I would give a 2 strike rule. The item not delivered could be true. Since this person bought before, you may be blocking a future repeating customer. Customers who receive good service will tell people about you, but angry customers will tell even more. 

I would refund the money. Ask the customer to let you know as soon as the item arrives and leave it at that. When the item shows and the customer lets you know, you can then ask for that money to paid back to you. 

@ilikehockeyjerseys pointed out a good way to potentially avoid cases, and that is to adjust your shipping time to 3 business days. I do this myself. My target is 3 days because I can't consistently get something shipped next day due to my full time job, but man there are times I can ship out same day. It certainly benefits me.

It's up to you if in future you decide to have tracked shipping. I try to avoid this option unless the item I'm sending is rare or expensive. I find there are a lot of people who don't have much money. They're more inclined to buy from me than other sellers because I don't have higher shipping fees. Something to keep in mind. 

And in the meantime, plan for loss in the form of cookie jar insurance. Build it into your pricing if you don't already do so. Here's a link to explain it:

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Articles/Cookie-Jar-Insurance-with-Ricarmic/ba-p/418819

[schtupinator2011]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I didn't like the way the buyer commented in his messages to me about not receiving these items. Seemed like an accusing tone.  Maybe it sounded that way because he was writing in his second language from Quebec. He sent the message with the french page.

I was asking his to be a little more patient, I even used the translator to post both in french and english.  Anyways I explained to him that I had to cancel his bids on new items a few days ago.  I just didn't feel comfortable with new bids on items with INRs open.

So today I get a message from the buyer.... "I did not received my order....you are not honnest....Ebay gonna take care of you...."

I was always professional up to this point, but my answer probably wasn't! I didn't use profanity though.

Cheers!

[retroman_studios]

His true colors are showing. Refund, block and ignore.