I had an auction last week on ebay. I shipped it with USPS priority with signature confirmation last Wed. Today is Thursday, the package is in status "sorting complete" and was supposed to be delivered on Sept 30. It did not show any attempt delivery. If the USPS lost my package, what do I do? I did not buy any insurance but it came with a $50 insurance. The auction was for about $200.

 

Do I need to refund the buyer if USPS lost my package?

 

I contacted USPS but I have not heard back from them yet.

 

in the future, should I always ship it with insurance and signature confirmation when over a certain amount?

 

Thanks.

If you call USPS you might receive a prompter answer.  Email might not be replied to for up to 24 hours.

I tried. But the stupid system would not connect me to talk to a real person. It even hang up on me after a few tries. :-(

Sorry to hear that.  This is why I always INSURE for the next threshold above selling price plus postage costs.  Hopefully USPS will show a goodwill gesture and reimburse you for the full amount.  The first thing is to apologise to the customer and hopefully buy a little more time before issuing a full refund or sending a replacement if you have one.

 

For anything of value, always insure and ask for signature.

If the buyer does not receive the package I believe you will have to refund them. Always insure for the proper amount.

 

You need to talk to USPS and ask them what is up. Also I think you can fill out a lost item report on their website but I've never done it before. Good luck.

Sometimes they just don't update the tracking until a while after they actually deliver it, if at all!. If you don't receive a message from your buyer over the next few days then you'll now he got it. Alternatively, you can take your tracking number to your local post office and the Postmaster will be able to tell you exactly where it is.

I would not jump to the conclusion that your package was lost. Priority Mail no longer means 2-3 day shipping and can take well over a week.  As stated above it may have been delivered and the tracking info was just not updated. Obviously if it never gets updated an unscrupulous buyer could have the package but still file a claim it was never delivered.

 

For seller protection under paypal if the item and shipping cost is above $250 you will need signature confirmation. Ebay is much higher but go with the paypal limit. Personally I don't insure domestic shipments. I have never had a problem with a package not being delivered domestically (or internationally for that matter) but I have had plenty of domestic ebay buyers in the past attempting to extort or commit fraud to try and get a refund. Once I tell them I will be contacting their local police department and their post master and that they should be expecting a call from both of those departments the packages mysteriously materialize. I guess felony mail fraud has that effect on people. Luckily I have moved 95% of my reselling business off ebay so I no longer have to deal with these scammers.

One recent buyer claimed never to have received their item, when the tracking said "delivered".  I couldn't tell if they were being honest, so I told them it was between them and usps.  Three weeks later the buyer updated saying it arrived.  I don't see a scammer leaving updates when they weren't getting any money back. So don't give up hope it might turn up. 

I had a package get lost to the system and paypal was kind enough to refund the buyer the money without taking my money from me. Though per eBay/paypal seller protection policy it's your responsibility and liability to get the item to the buyer safely.

I would attempt to see if the buyer is willing to wait longer before you issue a refund. The it may end up arriving or being returned to you. I've had things like the happen before. It would suck for your to refund the money and end up having the package be delivered and they get both the item and the money and be one of those buyers who would just keep both without telling you.

I had the same problem the other week. I shipped something USPS first class mail. It never showed any tracking info but after a week or so it finally showed delivered.. I never heard anything from the buyer so I assumed they got it and they did hopefully your buyer got the package.. good luck

There are a bunch of issues to consider:

 

1. If the tracking shows delivered but the buyer states they did not receive the package, I do everything I can to help them find it. I let them know to call their local post office (I provide them the phone number, which I can get by googling "Post Office" and their zip code) and tell them to ask to speak to the carrier who scanned the package as "delivered". I give them a description of the color and dimensions of the package and the type of packaging so they can describe it to the carrier. If they call within a day or two, carriers often remember specific packages and can sometimes figure out if they've mis-delivered them.

 

Keep in mind, the post office DOES occasionally screw up - a buyer is not necessarily running a scam if the post office says "delivered" and the customer says it's not. Also, some postal carriers scan all their packages delivered at the beginning of their shift - so at 8 a.m. the buyer may freak that the package shows "delivered" when it won't actually get to him until 4 p.m. And then sometimes, the carrier runs out of time on his route and doesn't deliver all his packages that are already scanned until the next day.

 

2. If the package is "lost in space" (no recent scans to tell you where it is), you can get the current tracking at USPS.com and ASK FOR EMAIL UPDATES (there's a box to click). You can ask for updates just to you, or to you and your customer. I don't know if I've just been lucky, but EVERY time I've had a package that the post office just vanishes in a puff of smoke and is stalled on tracking somewhere for days and days and have used this service, the package miraculously re-enters the flow of packages within a few days. Like I said, could be luck, or maybe they have to explain "never arrived" packages in some kind of internal auditing that this track-trace function generates.

 

3. If the package never does scan delivered, you will be refunding under both eBay and PayPal rules. This does not mean you should insure every package you send - for most sellers, that's a spectacular waste of money. Insure what you cannot afford to refund - for some folks, this "pain point" is $50, for some $1000. Bottom line, if you put a dollar or two in an "insurance jar" on your desk, you're going to find at the end of the year that you have a large surplus of cash even after a refund or three.