Does americans scam more than canadians?

[rocketscollectibles]

Received a INR case today for a letterpost shipment. Once again for me it's an american. Fun fact i never have INR cases on cheap orders, they are always the $30-60 range orders. It's obvious to me that it's false claims. This is funny how the $10 orders never gets lost. 

Just wonder your experience shipping lettermail and letterpost. Do you also have more claims from americans? I ship north america only, and i notice over time that 90% of my claims are shipments to US.

I'm slowly start thinking to add a shipping cost 'insurance fee' and tracking on lower orders to united states than canada because of it. 

Just wonder if you also see a tendency from americans with INR cases? 

[ricarmic]

I'm sure you'll recall seeing this, incase others haven't here's my "loss stats"

You'll see for me, generally the US and Canada are about even in terms of losses each year.

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/RICARMICs-Self-insurance-cookie-jar-statistics-to-end-of... 

I've mentioned in other threads that with the "closeness" of tracked vs non-tracked small packet costs to the US, I've been sending 100% tracked now and no small packets to the US anymore.

[marnotom!]

What proportion of your sales are to the US? If that proportion is greater than your sales within Canada, it stands to reason that you’re going to see more INR claims from the US.

[regs43]

Selling in the card category as well, when I used to sell with letterpost pre July 2022 about 40% of my overall sales were to the USA. I started getting some returns from customs Feb 2022-July 2022 and then my post office refused to accept anything to the USA with no customs form because they know I send cards/merchandise. Some of thoese returns from customs took a while and customers did open INR claims but I got the items back a month or two later, so not false in these cases. Overall usually most of my INR were from the USA when I used no tracking and sent letterpost. I would say 85% were USA but never more then 1-1.5% of overall sales. I could usually tell when somone would be lying about it, in the way they word messages, and fish for a tracking number and then wait out the time and it never "came".

Now I sell about 25-30% of stuff ot the USA with a higher cost shipping price but that covers small Packet UR code or Tracked Packet. I have had 1 INR opened where I used a UR code that sjowed delivered, and the buyer closed the case becasue it was delivered and they eventually found it.

2023 I have a 0.73% refund rate, most of that is just shipping overpayments where I sent a refund. I large $130.00 order canada Post delivered to the wrong person and province (don't ask me how this is even possble lol) sent with Registered mail and signed for.  I was paid out $100insurance + postage costs by Canada Post so not that bad of a loss in the end like $25. and I have had 1 INR where I gave the person their $5 back. So overall a low INR year.

[rocketscollectibles]

I started getting some returns from customs Feb 2022-July 2022 and then my post office refused to accept anything to the USA with no customs form because they know I send cards/merchandise.

That's very unlucky. I think i got only 1 return from letterpost in 2 years selling. I also shipped a few packages that i never thought would pass letterpost and it did. I shipped packs of dices literally making the sound of dices when shaking, not returned too. I drop in mailbox tho. 

I could usually tell when somone would be lying about it, in the way they word messages, and fish for a tracking number and then wait out the time and it never "came"

I noticed this pattern as well. I had a buyer repetively asking for tracking number even if i was telling it was shipped by mail. Like he wanted a confirmation i had none. He ended making a claim. 

I can also tell false claims from people jumping in the first days after estimated delivery to open cases, and not even asking for their orders. Today for exemple, buyer did not even messaged. He opened the case, said 'i did not received yet, please refund' and that's all. You know they know what they are doing. You  also know it's a false claim when they are not interested at all in receiving their order. It's easy to assume that it's because they already have it. Other cases i tried to contact buyers 2 weeks after, to see if they received, no coincidence i'm getting ghost. I personally don't think a single case was legit since i'm selling. I never seen someone claiming a cheap order, i also never seen someone asking for their item, they always just want a refund. I bought hundreds and hundreds of items on eBay and i think it happened only once i did not received. This is extremly rare that a package is lost or that someone steal mail. 

What proportion of your sales are to the US?

Probably between 10-20%, i sell way more domestic. 

[mcrlmn]

Sorry I didn't write a short story.

Maybe... Given the U.S. population is 10x that of Canada.

[femmefan1946]

I've never kept statistics, but even given that 80% of my sales go to the USA, it feels as if a higher percentage of Not Received claims come from there.

In any case it is less than one percent of sales, and since my items are mostly  cheap enough to ship without tracking, I don't see it as a worry.

Cookie Jar Insurance means that you inflate your shipping charge* by a few pennies to cover the occasional problem, valid or not.

Those virtual pennies go in a virtual Cookie Jar until they are needed.

And I can also use the Cookie Jar to upgrade shipping from LetterPost to Registered Domestic, or to Tracked Packet USA if I feel uncomfortable.

* I use Flat Rate/Free Shipping so this is not evident to the customer. The actual cost of shipping has been folded into the asking price.