I think my ebay buyer is purposefully sending in refund requests

[parpourtcg]

This may go on the side of skepticism a little bit but recently I have noticed that a lot of my higher priced items 20+ have been shipped through Canada Post and have been sent refund request as buyers have not received the item.

I ship via lettermail(I understand this is my bad, if anyone has a better way to ship with tracking ideally please inform me) and am genuinely confused if these are genuine refund requests or not. I'm trying to use this as a learnign oppurtunity and was wondering if anyone ideally who also deals in the tcg community can help me out a little. 😄

[flipistics · Accepted solution]

Are the INRs shipped to Canadian buyers or have they been shipped internationally?

Are the INRs opened on the first possible day?

Some suggestions: 

Select "Economy Shipping" rather than "Canada Post Lettermail". You'll still send the items lettermail, but eBay's delivery estimates for lettermail are ... optimistic, especially this time of year. There's a very real chance that some are arriving after the estimated delivery date. "Economy Shipping" gives you a much more reasonable delivery window.

Check the addresses with Canada Post's Address Complete (canadapost.ca/ac). The way the customer wrote their address is irrelevant for untracked items. Make sure they're written in the format Canada Post wants as this will help prevent misdeliveries or delays. Using a printer for address labels (or directly on the envelope if possible) is also a much better idea as opposed to handwriting the addresses.

DO NOT send items by lettermail internationally. If caught they'll either be (eventually) returned to you or more likely simply destroyed / sold as undeliverable mail.

If you do want to send items tracked, using expedited lite (for Canada) or tracked packet (for USA) through eBay labels is your best option right now. The cost would probably be around $8 give or take.

[reallynicestamps]

a lot of my higher priced items 20+

I use LetterMail a lot and don't see that but your customer demographic and mine may vary .

Gamers gonna game,eh?

For the next month you can ship the the USA using tracked packet at a discount of over 50%. Don't count on this lasting. It's a special promotion.

And within Canada you can ship using LetterMail + Registration for $9.75 plus postage.

And I would do myself a disservice if I didn't mention that you can buy mint postage here on eBay and reduce your shipping costs that way.  You can use stamps to pay for tracked services, but you will be getting the tracking label at the PO counter.

[vtwinparts2015]

i would like to suggest never use letter mail only use tracket packet international or the new lite shipping that Canada Post offer for Canada destinations only. People are getting smart with out a tracking numer you will have issue with claims 

[reallynicestamps]

You are not wrong, but a lot depends on the customer demographic.

I am quite comfortable shipping without tracking and have much less than one percent "failed transactions".

Game parts, cell phones, sneakers, dolls, or horse tack ? Not a chance. Tracked all the way.

[ricarmic]

@vtwinparts2015 

As @reallynicestamps  mentioned not all categories are the same. Here are my actual loss results for the last 10 years, I'm in the same category as femme, stamps. So far 2023 looks much like 2022.

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