Maybe you guys can give me advice on the following:

 

I sold a polybag last week on ebay. I mailed it with normal mail in a normal envelope. I have done this before and everything went just fine. Yesterday I got an email from ebay that the buyer stated he did not receive anything yet. I agreed with the buyer to wait until Wednesday to see if it will arrive anyways.

 

I believe I do not have many options. But maybe you can surprise me with some.

 

Thanks in advance.

If you did not use delivery confirmation, I believe you are out of luck and the buyer will win the case if he opens one. Delivery confirmation is automatically included if you print labels through ebay, but if you mailed it on your own, delivery confirmation is purchased separetely.

He already opened a case. So I guess I will have to refund the buyer?

 

If I refund the buyer, should I still pay ebay/paypal fees?

well if you sold it as a private person, did not offer paypal as payment and had uninsured shipping in your auction, you will only receive a negative feedback. you do not have to refund the money.

 

When you offered paypal, never send without tracking number, even if the buyers ask for it, because paypal wants to see proof of shipment, if the buyers claims that he got nothing, the amount will be reimbursed by paypal with your money.

 

If you want to refund the money to the buyer and get the fees back that is the way you go. 1.Login 2. Mein Ebay 3.ebay-konto 4. Probleme kl

I also sometimes ship items without tracking, mainly because shipping costs are crazy when shipping overseas. And will cost more than the item itself, which will scare potential buyers.

 

What if you mention clearly in your ad shipping costs is without insurance and without tracking, and if the buyer would like to have tracking or insurance they should ask for a quotation before bidding. Will this be in your benefit as a seller?

I also sometimes ship items without tracking, mainly because shipping costs are crazy when shipping overseas. And will cost more than the item itself, which will scare potential buyers.

 

What if you mention clearly in your ad shipping costs is without insurance and without tracking, and if the buyer would like to have tracking or insurance they should ask for a quotation before bidding. Will this be in your benefit as a seller?

I don't think so, the rules are through ebay/paypal and they require delivery confirmation. Insurance is more for the sellers protection, as you are responsible for getting the item to the buyer. If it gets lost in transit, it's on you as a seller and you won't be protected without insurance.

I think you are out of luck.  This happened to me once (out of perhaps 100 or so polybag shipments in the last 16 months) and I just had to eat the cost.  Adding tracking (at least in Canada) makes the polys prohibitively expensive to sell, especially internationally, so I just roll the dice, as it were.  I have tried to keep my sales to those with recent feedback and ratings over 10 and hope to find good, honest folks.  If someone has a better solution, I'd love to hear it.

Only items i do not ship with tracking are polybags. So far never had any bad issues with these. However i did have some issues shipping water cooling parts to Australia sans tracking and the buyer claimed he didn't receive them.

 

Luckily they were just cheap used fittings, but i had to cave and give him the money back. To this day i'm pretty sure he received them and just "beat the system".

For polybags you should better use these thick, air-cushioned envelopes. With normal envelopes it sometimes happens that the content just gets pushed out by the sorting machines in the post centres (when it is running over these roll cylinders). But there are more possibilities where your polybag could be now (even under the driver's seat in your postman's car...) like it was just sorted wrong and is now about to be sent back from the other side of the country and just takes 3 more days or so.

 

My advice: for polybags and very small pieces use the option "Einwurf-Einschreiben" as long as it is not worth more than 25 Euros (source: www.deutschepost.de).

If you did not use delivery confirmation, I believe you are out of luck and the buyer will win the case if he opens one. Delivery confirmation is automatically included if you print labels through ebay, but if you mailed it on your own, delivery confirmation is purchased separetely.

 

If you're sending from an address within the US, yes. Not if you don't live there because we simply don't have that option. Adding tracking costs like $8-$9 extra over here.

 

 

He already opened a case. So I guess I will have to refund the buyer?

 

If I refund the buyer, should I still pay ebay/paypal fees?

 

 

He opened a case after a week? Jeez, how about a little patience and just contacting you first....

I always use delivery confirmation for everything. Here in the states it's essentially free for most types of shipping if using ebay/paypal shipping including shipments through the GSP. I would issue the refund and try to make the customer happy. It's not worth negative feedback if it's a small dollar item.

Why would anyone NOT use the eBay shipping with the discount? Are there better shipping options domestically than shipping first class through usps ebay discount?

Why would anyone NOT use the eBay shipping with the discount? Are there better shipping options domestically than shipping first class through usps ebay discount?

 

Because, as I stated a few posts back, not everybody lives in the US.

I wish they would roll that feature out in other countries - that would be sweet! 

update:

 

Yesterday, the buyer still claimed not having received the TC-4 Droid Minifig. So there was nothing left to do than to refund the buyer.

 

I learned my lesson well and will not send anything anymore without tracking.

 

Thanks for your support. I appreciate it.

Should any of you be interested in a tc-4 polybag I have 4 available

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Same issue here.  Been selling on ebay for 2 months now, sold about 4 items, and got my first "problem" sale ... yay!

 

Sold mini-cooper polybag for $16 (about $2 shipping included), I DID use ebay label, tracking, paypal, etc.

USPS says item was delivered 8/13, but I got no feedback on it.  Stupid me... I decided to send him a note saying (more or less), "Saw you got it Wednesday... just wanted to make sure your happy... if so, would really appreciate your positive feedback..."

He replied 8/16 that he did NOT get it.  He has not yet opened a case.  (We're actually trading ebay messages right now 8/16 AM).

 

I replied: Were yo home that day? Have you checked the neighbor's box? (Google maps says he lives in a duplex, with mailboxes a couple yards apart).  Anyone else have access to your mail?... etc.

 

He said he was not home for a couple days... and said he'd check with his local post office.

 

So... what's going to happen next?

Any other steps I should take... or just wait for a case to be opened?  Is my feedback going to get "dinged"?  All advice appreciated.

If he opens a case and it showed delivered you win. Either have him call the local post office and inquire about it, or better yet, do so yourself and tell him what they said.

Same issue here.  Been selling on ebay for 2 months now, sold about 4 items, and got my first "problem" sale ... yay!

 

Sold mini-cooper polybag for $16 (about $2 shipping included), I DID use ebay label, tracking, paypal, etc.

USPS says item was delivered 8/13, but I got no feedback on it.  Stupid me... I decided to send him a note saying (more or less), "Saw you got it Wednesday... just wanted to make sure your happy... if so, would really appreciate your positive feedback..."

He replied 8/16 that he did NOT get it.  He has not yet opened a case.  (We're actually trading ebay messages right now 8/16 AM).

 

I replied: Were yo home that day? Have you checked the neighbor's box? (Google maps says he lives in a duplex, with mailboxes a couple yards apart).  Anyone else have access to your mail?... etc.

 

He said he was not home for a couple days... and said he'd check with his local post office.

 

So... what's going to happen next?

Any other steps I should take... or just wait for a case to be opened?  Is my feedback going to get "dinged"?  All advice appreciated.

 

Bro, you don't ask questions after the sale is complete. No news is good news. Don't worry about getting positive feedback. It's meaningless. Agree with reply above. It shows delivered so you will win if he opens a case. He may still leave negative feedback but you could probably get it removed. 

Thanx jbacunn... Yep, I had a feeling I shouldn't ask. 

 

But on the one hand, if it is lost, I thought I might show myself as an interested and caring seller, checking in proactively, to make sure the customer is satisfied.  God knows I've bought plenty on ebay... sometimes waited a week or two for delivery, and wondered "Where's the seller? Has he shipped? What's going on?" ... and on the other hand, if he's just planning to try and rip me off, well, he's likely to do that anyway, whether I ask him "How's it goin?", or not.

 

Tho, I think I'll take your advice.  Next time, I won't ask.