First Lost Package
 

Hi Guys,

After years of getting lucky, i finally had a package lost in shipping. USPS priority mail.

The most annoying part is i even had the package tracked. The tracking information said delivered so i threw the slip away. Buyer contacts me two weeks later and says no package.

Long story short, i just refunded the buyers purchase+shipping no questions asked because it was only $20 and i do not want to risk my selling reputation over $20. The buyer had feedback of 100+ 100% positive.

What was your first package that was lost? Do you have a story of a lost package you would like to share? How long have you gone without a lost package?

I've learned this lesson the hard way. When dealing with mailing collectibles(or any thing you sell that's mailed) not only should you get tracking, but you should email that tracking number to the recipient so that they have that number also. This way they can have something to look at and not blame you, but blame the package carriers.
It's been more than 5 years since I had that experience, but I ate about $20 in the form of a refund to the buyer when that happened.
My most recent bad experience wasn't due to postal carriers losing a package though... I'm having to deal with what I believe to be a person attempting to extort me via my ebay feedback. I know this might sound ridiculous, but I have 6+ years of never having unsatisfactory comments in my ebay feedback. Then all of a sudden without any contact explaining a problem to me, this guy plants one on my feedback that's just harsh. Besides me thinking he's not being honest, he didn't try to inform me of a problem and let me rectify it, and he's not being reasonable after the fact either. I offered a full refund if he returns the items that were supposedly damaged by the mail carrier, which he refuses. (There are 'dromers here that can vouch for the way I pack comic books and there's NO WAY these arrived damaged). He says the only way he'll play ball and retract the feedback, is if i refund a little more than half of the auction price... sounds shady to me.
There are some tough situations out there you get to deal with when you sell online. Not everyone's honest, and there are people that want to cheat you and make you think it's your fault.

That sucks Lordmylar, I had a recent issue like that, really got under my skin. I post in all of my auctions, "I don't ship internationally, US Bidders only" in all caps, but of course some moron doesnt read the description and buys one anyway. So I contact the buyer and try to explain hey I don't ship internationally, its a pain in the butt, it costs more, and I can't guarantee your package will arrive safely, as many times packages are open and inspected by customs. I said he can purchase insurance if he wants to ensure it arrives safely. He says basically he doesn't want the insurance so go ahead and ship it in broken English. So I ship his package off to Argentina, a week later I have negative feedback, left in Spanish. I contact the guy to see what the problem is, and he sends me some big long angry rant in Spanish. Hey that's all great buddy but I don't speak Spanish. So I attempt to get the gist of his message and he claimed it arrived with the box clearly opened, then re-taped, and the Flash figure I sent him had the head removed. Which is pretty obvious that someone in his postal service, whether it was customs or just some a-hole mail carrier decided to open the package and break it. Again out of my control, how can I control that. It's his fault he didn't heed my warning and buy the insurance. I asked him to send me a picture of the figure headless, he refused but demanded a full refund. I pretty clearly laid out I don't see why I should feel any sort of guilt or responsibility to compensate him since he ignored my warning and then gave me negative feedback without ever contacting me first. He again went on another angry rant demanded money back, and I again asked for a picture of the headless Flash figure. Well then his story changed, he refused to send me a picture again and this time the figure wasn't headless, he was just missing one of the lightning bolts from the side of his head. The guy clearly just wanted to have his cake and eat too and get the figure and money. So I filed a dispute with eBay, that initially told me there was nothing they could do about it, but they would forward my case on, a month later I log onto my count and they had removed the negative feedback, it turns out the buyer had tried to pull the same thing on 2 or 3 other people after my incident with him and eBay wisened up. So it all worked out in the end, but damn it had my blood boiling at the time.

I've sent, on average, 200 packages a year for the last decade or so. In that time, I've had 3 go missing. One was straightforward enough, and turned up about 8 months later. Another (along with a few I was supposed to be recieving) got lost when we had a big postal strike a few years back.

The last one... Wow, that was a nightmare! I'd sold a load of rare Simpsons figures & playsets to a guy who lived about 30 miles away. He kept quibbling over the postage price, asking for exact measurements (down to the milligram!) so he could calculate it himself, then changed his mind and said he was going to pick them up. I told him that wasn't an option (he sounded WEIRD on the phone), but he still turned up unannounced. My housemate wouldn't let him in, so he sat outside the house for 2 hours, waiting for me to get back from work (my housemate had phoned me to warn me, so I stayed a little later on purpose), before giving up. He then wanted me to cover the cost of driving to my house!

To add insult to injury, he ended up trying to file a claim after complaining that several of the items were damaged (they weren't.). Didn't stop him sticking everything on ebay for 5 times what he'd paid for it either...

Had something like that happen recently too. Sold a lot of old Nintendo stuff on Ebay to someone who was clearly a reseller. I offered tracking info for a dollar more upon request but he didn't request. He said he never received the package and wanted the tracking number. I felt like he was scamming me. I filed a claim with USPS and gave him that confirmation number. He left me alone after that.

Never throw your shipping receipts & tracking receipts away ever. I have needed them 6 months down the line for stuff. I put them in a folder & stash them away for just in case moments.

I just left my first negative feedback in several years to an eBay seller involving a set of three handhelds: Two TMNT games and one baseball. Allegedly, the seller shipped. As you can see from the link, two of them still had their original packaging, even though they were opened. I paid two days after the auction ended, but the seller did not allegedly ship until nearly a week later. It did not come with a tracking number, which would have been a USPS First Class package which normally only takes 2-3 days. Well, about two weeks after the ship, I tried to contact the seller, didn't respond, then contacted him again two days later, but still didn't respond, so the next day I opened a "Did not receive my item" case, still got no communication, escalated it to eBay Buyer Protection, and got a refund a couple days later. Thank goodness for eBay Buyer Protection! I've also had a couple packages get lost before when shipping records, but I usually just issue a refund since you don't want to get NARU'd (Not a Registered User) ending your membership with eBay. I always insure packages valued at least $75.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Konami-LCD-V...vip=true&rt=nc

I'm not sure I've ever had a package lost. Thought it was lost, yes...in reality customs takes FOR EVER!!

However, I have had packages going to purchasers that have gotten demolished by USPS. I return their money and depending on whom it is and the item, let them just keep the item (cause god knows I hate, drunk loose figures and stuff).


Just gotta keep the customers happy. And of course, vise versa, if something comes destroyed I hope others will return or give partial refund. So far though everyone has shipped my items to me after I've sent payment.

Shipped a package today that sold for $110. I will be holding on to the tracking and insurance slips! Thanks for the comments.