What Do I Do - Lost Shipment

[finells]

Helo Fellow PS,

I recently sent a package to a customer in Germany she then told me that she has not received the package. I did some digging and found that she had recently moved and without telling me and thusly the package has been sent to the wrong address. I told her this and she demanded a new package be sent to her free of charge. I declined this because it was her fault for not notifying me of the address change. She has since filed a fraud alert against me.

Should I fight this?

[shoplineca]

Of course you should.

I would suggest checking her eBay information and if you find that she hstill has her old address on file with her old phone number, report her to eBay for having invalid contact information.

Also check out her PayPal shipping information and do the same there.

Do people think we are mond readers and know where and when they move?

Also, was the package insured? If so file an insurance claim.

Malcolm

[niko*_*]

What do you mean by fraud alert?

[niko*_*]

How can he file an insurance claim when the wrong address was on the package?

I definitely don't read monds! (Sorry Malcolm, couldnt resist)

Janet

[shoplineca]

Janet
(a) if the package is undeliverable because the person to whom it was addressed is not living there, the package will be returned to sender or forwarded to the person's new address as directed by them thru a change of address.
(b)if the package is NOT forwarded to the new address and given to the new resident because the Post Office failed erred, the Post Office owes the sender.
(c) Similarly, if the Post Office fails to return the package to the sender because they delivered it to someone it was not addressed to, they owe the sender.

This is why the US and Canada are now implementing higher measures to ensure proper delivery of all items and requiring that the FULL NAME of the person to whom the package is intended for is on the shipping label and not just "Gramma" or "Uncle Louie" for all parcels and all first class mail. Included in these changes is also a request for phone numbers which has been addressed on another thread.

Sending first class mail is not simply directing it 'To Whom It May Concern' at an address. It requires the proper name of the person residing there or the item is to be returned to the sender (if no change of address has been given the Post Office).

If the Post Office fails to forward it to the person intended or return it to the sender, you may file an insurance claim to recover your loss (providing you purchased insurance that is).

My son curses my keyboard as much as I do. It is a wireless one on the cheap end of the spectrum and has a bad habit of using the letter next to the one I actually hit or not inputting the letter I hit at all.

Time for a change I guess. Of course you knew all that because you read my mond.

Malcolm

[rd1000]

I received my only negative for the same reason. Customer sends me payment and I ship the product. A couple weeks later she is wondering where it is. When it became obvious it had been lost, I asked her if I had the correct address. She wrote back and said that was her old address. She asked me how I could possibly have got that, and demanded to know when I would be shipping her product. lol

I pointed out that it is quite a coincidence that the wrong address happened to be her old one and I obviously got it from her. I offered her the products at half price, to try and resolve the issue, but she promptly left 9 negative feedbacks.

Oh well, that is ebay. I would not reship the items. Keep the e-mails that she admitted it was her old address.

Rob

[shoplineca]

Rob
There is an excellent chance that she got all the original products as they were likely forwarded by the Post Office to her new address.

Some people are real scam artists.

Malcolm

[rd1000]

You are probably right. It was only a few doors down the street. Usually I take the loss on problems in the name of customer service, but in this case I held my ground. I think OP should too. I think it is the buyers responsibility to make sure we have the correct shipping address and there is no chance of mistake.

[llee2]

Malcolm,

Just to play devil's advocate here...

Say if someone moves and you ship an item to their old address. They don't have a forwarding address, so the new resident at the old address receives the parcel and decides to keep it (assuming that this is a non-registered parcel). Are you saying the Post Office is responsible for this parcel?

Lincoln

[shoplineca]

Lincoln
It is a criminal offense for the person residing at the new address to take, open and keep the item addressed to the former tenant/home owner.

In the US and other countries, it is a more serious crime than in Canada and when reported to the Postmaster General, criminal charges could be laid by the Post Office against the person who recevievd, opened and kept the mail/parcels of the previous resident.

Whether the item was addressed incorrectly or simply delivered incorrectly is of little consequence, so long as the person who opens the parcel isnt named on the label, he/she has no right to keep the item.

So, indirectly, the answer is YES.

Malcolm

[shoplineca]

Canada Post HIDES their statistics on this and has a wishy washy site that does not directly deal with the subject. In Canada, mail theft is handled by the RCMP.

IN 2002 USPS charged 5,858 people with mail theft for various methods of misuse however the basic philosophy in the US is that they (USPS) will go after you for illegally having possession of items delivered through their system.

The above figures do not include using the mail service to send illegal items, simply mail theft. In total, about 12,000 people per year are arrested for various mail charges in the US.

The arm of the USPS that handles this is known as the United States Postal Inspection Service. They are Federal Law Enforcement Agents and they carry firearms, make arrests and execute Federal Search Warrants.

The USPS makes no difference between going after someone who stole a Birthday card over someone who stole an antique worth $200,000, they consider theft is theft and will proceed after the guilty individual.

Malcolm

[niko*_*]

Thanks for the clarification Malcolm, very interesting. Had a couple of these lately. They both happened to be in my area so I told them I would be driving over to their old addresses to ask the new homeowners for their tapes. Suddenly the tapes appeared!! and I didnt have to drive there even...

[finells]

HEllo Malcolm,

Is there a form I fill out for reporting incorrect address information?

[shoplineca]

finells
With who? eBay, PayPal, Canada Post, USPS?

I wouldnt bother filling out incorrect address info for the post office. I would simply report that the item was not delivered to the person intended and use their email as proof that they did not get it and ask for insurance proceeds for your loss.

Let them discover the theft and proceed.

I am sure someone more knowledgeable on the eBay link for reporting incorrect address info will provide you with ths link to report the person to eBay. I am really bad with finding the correct eBay links for anything.

Malcolm

[niko*_*]

http://cgi3.ebay.ca/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll

[llee2]

Malcolm,

I realize that the person keeping/opening the parcel is guilty of a criminal offence. But do you really think in this situation that CP would take responsibility for the parcel with respect to the sender. Keep in mind that we are talking about a parcel that "finnels" sent to Germany (I'm assuming by a non-trackable method) that was delivered to the stated address. Assuming that "finnels" doesn't file an insurance claim for loss (which I think you should do by the way "finnels"), how would CP be responsible? They delivered the parcel to the correct address. If the new resident claims they never received it then file a claim, but what if the new resident living there claims they RTS'd it, then what? Is Canada Post's still responsible to the original sender? Sure they can go after the new resident if they think the parcel was kept. But in the end, if the they cannot prove the new resident kept the parcel, I just find it hard to believe that CP would take responsibility for the loss (especially considering the hoops you have to jump through for more straightforward loss claims).

Lincoln

[llee2]

Sorry "finells" about misspeling your handle above...

[smsmarketing]

SPEAKING OF ON LINE FRAUD , Let me give you a bit of some scary information with respect to PAYPAL and a personal experience that I had with them for an on line purchase. I purchased an item worth approx $2000.00 on line through EBAY and paid with paypal. The item was shipped , insured with tracking. The parcel arrived, I also paid $400 duty for it before I even opened it, (and as I had found out later), the owner never shipped the original item ,but rather a bunch of metal junk within the box and made it look as if someone had taken the item in transit and substituted the junk for the item. (he put a different tape on the bottom and tried to make it look as if someone took it, and re-taped the box) Filed a claim with PAYPAL and even wrote the CEO of EBAY over this - and PAYPAL denied the claim as I has "signed" for the package when it was delivered.The CEO of EBay never responded to my registered letter to her either regarding the incident. To make a long story short, 3 - 5 months of an ensuing investigation by me turned out that the guy had been pulling the scam in and outside of EBay for years and had been getting away with it until he did it with me.(several transactions were done outside of EBay, some inside) The last that I spoke with the police agency in Europe, he had a file that was nearly a foot thick! Now before you go and ask about his feedback, it was perfect as he had this covered as well. He would delay each time with the buyer and the postal claim process, or ask the buyer to give a positive feedback if he would forward some money in good faith before the claim paid out which takes months when you are dealing internationally, so he even managed to scam 100% feedback over time. (he no longer has 100% feedback as I figured out the scam before the 90 day feedback period)He spread his claims out over the postal system, UPS, Fedex etc, so that no one ever caught up with him!! Pretty scary when you think about it, but a word to the wise for on line purchases when they think that positive feedback and Paypal will protect their purchase.

[auctiondropnship]

I have the same thing

I had a customer come in drop of some boots. They sold for $200 American . We cut a check to the owner minus our %

3 weeks later he filed a claim with paypal . We gave hime the confirmed adress we shipped too . He commented that within the payment he had asked for it too be shipped to a different address . His NEW address , we explained that we only ship too the address on file with paypal and Ebay . He commented that he did not live there any more ..

He filed with paypal to get the money back ...from what we are looking at he will get the money back
Todd

[auctiondropnship]

He refers too the bidder