Lost/delayed items on the rise

[montrealmaps]

Has anyone else noticed the same..? My sales are down since January (about 50% - the worst 3 months since I sell on Ebay (2002). But the delayed/lost items are on the rise. 10 items were seriously delayed (1 month!), 3 were lost - so during 3 months I have lost more items than during last 5 years. I wonder what is the reason....? Maybe the winter problems in US?

I noticed also a serious change it the sales pattern. I am a little bit afraid....

[surplusdealdude]

I haven't seen any increase in lost or delayed items, but I'm shipping with USPS.

I have seen the customs people tightening up at the border and dipmicro remarked on that as well, I think - perhaps the stuff has been stuck in Customs?

[montrealmaps]

I forget to add, that only items shipped to US are lost - and that happened NEVER before. Romania, Italy, Belgium, Turkey, Indonesia, Poland - yes. But US..? And what is interesting, also letter post is lost recently, so US Customs is probably not involved there. Fortunately, only some cheap items were lost.

And now a joke: I listed a 6.500 USD book and was forced to put "4 USD" for the shipping as "maximum allowed in this category" 😉
Yeah .....surely I will ship it as a letterpost 😉

[surplusdealdude]

also letter post is lost recently, so US Customs is probably not involved there.

Homeland Security could be involved - scanning for anthrax letters.

I'm not kidding - they've really jacked up the security since Jan 1, 2010.

[montrealmaps]

My "letters" are very thick (2 cm), so they look suspicious 😉

[momoftwingles2]

I took time off from December 1st until the end of February. Upon reopening my store I had a big sale and sold 1319 items on eBay and many more off to more than 41 buyers. No lost packages and I hear from all of my buyers either through feedback or privately.

In fact, I've been selling on eBay since September of 2000 and have had only one delayed package that was sent to Australia! It was sent via AIR and was received by the buyer 6 months later! What a patient soul she was and still is! The package when it was finally received by her had stickers from all around the world on it!

Who knows where it went...but it arrived!

After the required wait time for Canada Post, I sent her the refund. She sent the money right back to me and ordered again! When the package was received by her, I did notify Canada Post and they said that no money was due back to them as the package took WAY TO LONG to get where it was going.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that perhaps I don't sell high risk items so I don't see the problems that many of you do. I would be fearful to keep selling and sending with the amount of lost packages that many sellers here talk about.

One delayed package in almost ten years I can live with.....but that's about it!

Perhaps labels are falling off? Or if sellers are hand writing addresses they are not clear and end up in a dead letter/package file because there is no return address on the package either? Perhaps there are theft problems with postal services around the world or with Customs? I'm not sure...but I would be concerned!

Here's to a perfect world where there would be no lost/delayed packages!

Have a good one,
Susan
momoftwingles2

[craftycatsattic]

I haven't noticed any delays but did for the first time experience a long delay for an item I sent to the UK. I mailed in on the 13th of January (airmail lettermail) and it arrived the first week of March. Usually it only takes a few days. Anyhow, the buyer sent the book back to me 2 weeks ago (as I had already replaced hers) and I am still waiting to receive it...guess it just wasn't meant to be.

As for US customs having nothing to do with letter-mail, I beg to differ. Letter-mail still has to clear through customs and still gets inspected, some of the time. That is why there can be such a difference in transit times for one envelope vs another, even if they were mailed on the same day and sent to the exact same location.

[imbuzzy]

I have had some poor experiences with letter mail to the United States since the beginning of February. I shipped a postcard to a customer in Maryland and it took 6 weeks to arrive!
It seems to be an east coast thing for me. I just got a "where's my postcard" message from a fellow in Massachusetts this morning. He's only been waiting 2 weeks...
I guess the only good the blue airmail stickers do is show diligence on my part and do nothing on the postal side.

Meanwhile, UK shipments are always within a week.

[recped]

Here are the last two service updates I've seen....

UNITED STATES
2 March - Further heavy snow and freezing temperatures affected mail services in the Northeast. The worst affected areas included Albany, the Greater Boston area, northern New England, Westchester, the eastern Appalachian area, central Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey.

UNITED STATES
22 February - Severe winter storms affected mail services in the Northeastern region. Areas also affected by winter storms include northern California, Missouri, the Central Plains states, the Dallas / Fort Worth area in Texas and parts of Iowa.

[godboma]

I am mostly using lettermail and Light Packet and I have not notice any changes in lost or late delivery. My last lost item was to China in February.

[montrealmaps]

My Lost letter mail showed up. Here what I got from the buyer: "howdy. the parcel showed up saturday. I think a neighbor had it.sorry for the scare.". a few months ago another wrote, that "his wife forgot to say him, that the package arrived 3 weeks ago" ....