Anyone else having issues with USPS Delivery Confirmation?

[Doug]

I sent a card out Priority Mail w/ delivery confirmation Saturday morning. Everything was running smoothly until last night when I checked the tracking # to see if the package was delivered and this is what I get:

Out for delivery August 02, 2010, 9:42 AM only to be followed by Delivery status not updated as of August 02, 11:42 PM

So basically it seems like the card went out to be delivered and disappeared off the face of the earth. I called my local post office to see if they could provide any info and all I got was "Call the post office it was sent to and see if they have it". The only problem with that is when I did a post office location search on the USPS website there are three Post Offices with the same zip code so I have no idea which one it went to. I emailed the buyer to see if he received it and I haven't heard back yet, but if not I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do.

[t206hound]

I was alerted to an item that never got delivered when paypal withheld funds from me. It was a full month after shipment. Looking at USPS (even now), I see only the following:

Status: Processed through Sort Facility
Your item was processed through and left our [removed] facility on May 03, 2010. The item is currently in transit to the destination. No further information is available for this item.

I've come to learn that delivery confirmation does not guarantee delivery. It's simply a notification once (if) delivery occurs. This was an approximately $20 item (I always insure over $50). I went to the post office and they had no information. They promised a call back, but never did. I chalked it up as a loss, and figured in the long run it was still cheaper to not insure under $50. If it happens more frequently, however, I might change my opinion.

[Peter_Spaeth]

In all likelihood it will get there today but start by calling one of the post offices, I am sure they will help you or direct you to the right one.

[Doug]

I'm hoping to hear from the buyer soon. The person I talked to at my post office said they could have delivered it and just not bothered to scan it. Kind of defeats the purpose of having delivery confirmation if they don't bother to confirm delivery.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by t206hound

I was alerted to an item that never got delivered when paypal withheld funds from me. It was a full month after shipment. Looking at USPS (even now), I see only the following:

Status: Processed through Sort Facility
Your item was processed through and left our [removed] facility on May 03, 2010. The item is currently in transit to the destination. No further information is available for this item.

I've come to learn that delivery confirmation does not guarantee delivery. It's simply a notification once (if) delivery occurs. This was an approximately $20 item (I always insure over $50). I went to the post office and they had no information. They promised a call back, but never did. I chalked it up as a loss, and figured in the long run it was still cheaper to not insure under $50. If it happens more frequently, however, I might change my opinion.

It's insured, but if the delivery confirmation says it didn't arrive what's to keep someone from getting the card and then demanding a refund because the evidence suggests they never received it? Given the guy has a 2400+ perfect feedback rating I'm not really worried about that, but it seems like it could be possible for a buyer to make that claim.

[slidekellyslide]

Delivery confirmation is a joke. I had an item recently that said it was delivered to me at 12 noon on a Friday...I didn't get it until Saturday. I have no clue what happened, but I'm thinking the fill in mailman for my regular guy just scanned it in the truck and didn't bring it up to my house...of course when questioned about it he swore he delivered it to my front porch..which caused me to freak out, but I digress....

[mintacular]

Your best bet in the future is to have the postal worker scan it in person, there is a thing that looks like an iron that they should hold up and scan it in...If you just drop it off in your mailbox it will probably never get scanned properly. Also, if you just hand them the package at the office and don't say anything they usually don't bother to scan it in. I'm referring to paypal printing labels.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

Delivery confirmation is a joke. I had an item recently that said it was delivered to me at 12 noon on a Friday...I didn't get it until Saturday. I have no clue what happened, but I'm thinking the fill in mailman for my regular guy just scanned it in the truck and didn't bring it up to my house...of course when questioned about it he swore he delivered it to my front porch..which caused me to freak out, but I digress....

Apparently the tracking is a mess across the board. I had a seller send me a card last month Express Mail and it was guaranteed to be delivered by noon. I met the mailman at the box around 11 AM expecting my card and he said the Express packages hadn't even come in when he left to start his route. I checked the tracking number and got the "delivery was attempted and a notice was left message" which I found odd since I had just talked to the mailman. I called the post office to ask where my package was and they told me the Express truck just came about five minutes before I called and it was sitting at the post office. I assume the guaranteed delivery by noon means to the post office and not the recipient?

[BearBailey]

This also can happen if someone has their mail on hold. I recently came back from a one week vacation and had my mail on hold. When they delivered everything all of the things that needed to be scanned and or signed for were attached to the packages, I had a few emails from sellers wondering what happened as they had similar messages when they tried to track the packages. I checked a few days later and the status for the items I received were never updated.

[D. Bergin]

Score 1 for the Post Office.

Just got a call from a customer. A media mail package that showed it was stuck in Jersey City for the last 50 days, finally made it's way to it's destination in Los Angeles.

I had already given a refund and given up on it, so props to the customer for letting me know.

[Tsaiko]

Class: Priority Mail®
Service(s): Delivery Confirmation™
Status: Acceptance

Your item was accepted at 11:35 am on August 02, 2010

This could be a coincidence or something went wrong on this date.

I found the above notice on Track & Confirm about an hour after I dropped off the package. Since then, nothing. Usually it gets updated by late evening. I ship the same time of day every time, so it's become expected to have a sort facility confirmation at least by midnight. This doesn't always happen and sometimes the only other notice I get is when the delivery is completed, but...

Today I tried out the "Track & Confirm by email" and gave my cell phone email. I immediately got a confirmation email from USPS...then I started to get text messages from various "people", that I didn't know to my phone every 60 seconds, with all kinds of general messages. After going around in circles on the phone with USPS for about an hour and a half, with apparently no way to do anything, I called my cell carrier and blocked all text messages. I got 60 texts in an hour and my carrier would only refund the texts that I received while I was on the line with them, about 12.
I've never had anything like this happen before. Either USPS was hacked or my cpu was hacked, but this was totally whack. The packages usually get there in two days, so I will be a bit on edge if it doesn't arrive by tomorrow.
Sheesh!

[Doug]

I got an email and a positive feedback from the buyer yesterday stating that he did get the card Monday. Oddly enough the tracking info still says "Delivery status not updated as of August 02, 11:42 PM". Hopefully PayPal doesn't try to take the money back from me like what happened to the person in the earlier post on the assumption it didn't get delivered. At least I have an email and a positive feedback from the buyer stating that he did receive it.

[Tsaiko]

Today I finally received confirmation that the package was processed through the sort facility at the receiving end, so I feel a little bit better. It should arrive at the destination tomorrow.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by t206hound

I was alerted to an item that never got delivered when paypal withheld funds from me. It was a full month after shipment. Looking at USPS (even now), I see only the following:

Status: Processed through Sort Facility
Your item was processed through and left our [removed] facility on May 03, 2010. The item is currently in transit to the destination. No further information is available for this item.

I'm a bit confused as to what happened in this situation. Did PayPal take the money because the buyer reported the card as not being received or was it because the tracking number showed it as not delivered? Considering delivery confirmation doesn't seem to be too reliable I'm hoping PayPal can't just take money from you because the tracking number says it wasn't delivered.

[t206hound]

I didn't get a single message from the buyer. At exactly one month after shipment, the funds associated with the purchase were withheld. I can only assume that the buyer opened a case with Paypal.

Personally, I keep track of all of my purchases, and if something didn't arrive within 10 days, I would contact the seller. It was odd to me that it was a full month after the shipment. It almost appeared as though the buyer trolled through all of the paypal confirmations looking for instances of the DC not stating 'delivered'... but that's the conspiracy theorist in me. It's just as likely, however, that the individual typically wins several items and does a month end reconciliation on items purchased and received.

Originally Posted by Doug

I'm a bit confused as to what happened in this situation. Did PayPal take the money because the buyer reported the card as not being received or was it because the tracking number showed it as not delivered? Considering delivery confirmation doesn't seem to be too reliable I'm hoping PayPal can't just take money from you because the tracking number says it wasn't delivered.

[Doug]

I was wondering from the way that it sounded as if PayPal has some kind of system that alerts them if an item is shown as not delivered within a month after it was shipped and they just take your money. If your buyer did open a case for an item not received I thought PayPal would have to contact you and try and see what happened before they just go taking money from your account. It doesn't seem like there's a lot of protection for the seller to keep a buyer from filing a claim on you even if they did get the card as long as the tracking number shows it as not delivered.

[t206hound]

Originally Posted by Doug

It doesn't seem like there's a lot of protection for the seller to keep a buyer from filing a claim on you even if they did get the card as long as the tracking number shows it as not delivered.

Agreed. If there was a DC, and it never gets scanned as delivered, then the arbitrator (Paypal) will always side with the buyer if a case is opened.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by t206hound

Agreed. If there was a DC, and it never gets scanned as delivered, then the arbitrator (Paypal) will always side with the buyer if a case is opened.

I'm pretty sure I don't have to worry about a case being opened since the buyer emailed me that he received the card and left me a positive feedback, but from your other post it seemed like they took the money from you without the buyer even opening a dispute since nobody ever contacted you about it. I tried calling them and getting an explanation as to if they will take money from your account if you have an item that shows as undelivered for so long and they didn't give me a straight answer. In fact they suggested I call USPS and tell them change the delivery status to "delivered" which I'm not sure how that would even be possible since I assume they need the bar code off of the already delivered package to scan it.

[mcap100176]

I don't do delivery conformation. I do insurance for over $50. The post office can track packages through the insurance. Protects me while providing tracking. I also never do the Ebay/PayPal shipping label. I take it to the Post Office.

[camlov2]

Can someone give us the exact amounts for delivery conformation and for insurance?
I think DC is 70 cents while $50 of insurance is about $1-2.

It sounds like delivery conformation is useless and it would be a better choice to just insure every package for the minimum amount.

[D. Bergin]

Paypal/Ebay needs to see online tracking for disputes. The Insurance form alone doesn't provide that. They don't care if the Post Office can track it that way or not.

In other words. Your buyer files a claim with Paypal. Says the delivery confirmation states package was never deliverd. The Post Office may say the Insurance form says the package WAS delivered.

Paypal puts as few resources into their investigations as possible, meaning they will only search as far as the online tracking available to everybody, which is Delivery Confirmation tracking (last time I checked anyways).

Long story shot..........the Paypal claim goes against you because you didn't use Delivery Confirmation, and you also lose the USPS Insurance claim because internally it does say the package was delivered.

[Tsaiko]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

Paypal/Ebay needs to see online tracking for disputes. The Insurance form alone doesn't provide that. They don't care if the Post Office can track it that way or not.

In other words. Your buyer files a claim with Paypal. Says the delivery confirmation states package was never deliverd. The Post Office may say the Insurance form says the package WAS delivered.

Paypal puts as few resources into their investigations as possible, meaning they will only search as far as the online tracking available to everybody, which is Delivery Confirmation tracking (last time I checked anyways).

Long story shot..........the Paypal claim goes against you because you didn't use Delivery Confirmation, and you also lose the USPS Insurance claim because internally it does say the package was delivered.

Well, if this is the way it works, I'm going to rethink the way I send anything of significant value. Even if you use DC, if it doesn't get scanned, it won't show up online.

[t206hound]

I recently recieved an eBay card that had back damage that wasn't disclosed. The seller said I could send it back, so I sent it with dc. The dc says it was delivered on 8/9, so I contacted the seller about the refund. The seller claims to not have the card. What can I do?

[Jim VB]

Open a case with Ebay/Paypal. Provide them with the proof of delivery. They will refund your purchase price and incoming freight. You'll be on the hook for the price to send it back.

[ethicsprof]

jim's got it.

best,

barry

[Doug]

At least someone got the delivery confirmation to actually confirm delivery. After the card I sent out was shown as "delivery status not updated" for a week they finally updated the info and showed it as having been delivered about an hour and a half from the time it went "out for delivery". I'm not sure if it was a lag with their computer system or what, but apparently it did get scanned when it was delivered, but it took a week to show up as delivered on the website?

[Jim VB]

Originally Posted by Doug

At least someone got the delivery confirmation to actually confirm delivery. After the card I sent out was shown as "delivery status not updated" for a week they finally updated the info and showed it as having been delivered about an hour and a half from the time it went "out for delivery". I'm not sure if it was a lag with their computer system or what, but apparently it did get scanned when it was delivered, but it took a week to show up as delivered on the website?

Doug,

I think the postal carrier scans them in the little handheld device, but those have to be uploaded to get the info back into the system.

Sounds like that carrier didn't upload for a while.

[dabigyankeeman]

As a buyer, I recently tracked online an envelope with a card in it, and the Delivery Confirmation said it was delivered but I never got the card!!!

My mailbox is in a cluster box with a bunch of other boxes, and the mailman probably put the envelope into the wrong box, then scanned the delivery confirmation as being delivered.

Luckily whoever got the card must have dropped it back into a mailbox, as about 10 days later it was re-delivered to me.

But with delivery confirmation checked as delivered, i am screwed if this happens again and I dont get the card.

[Jim VB]

Originally Posted by dabigyankeeman

As a buyer, I recently tracked online an envelope with a card in it, and the Delivery Confirmation said it was delivered but I never got the card!!!

My mailbox is in a cluster box with a bunch of other boxes, and the mailman probably put the envelope into the wrong box, then scanned the delivery confirmation as being delivered.

Luckily whoever got the card must have dropped it back into a mailbox, as about 10 days later it was re-delivered to me.

But with delivery confirmation checked as delivered, i am screwed if this happens again and I dont get the card.

Delivery Confirmation is what it is. It's not designed to be the ultimate guarantee. It is a cheap and usually effective method to prove delivery, but the focus is on "cheap." For the 55 to 75 cents it costs, it usually works pretty well. Certain routes, cluster mailboxes, apartment buildings, indifferent carriers, all cause some problems. If you want guarantees, you have to go with more expensive options such as insurance and/or Registered Mail.

But in 99% of the cases, Delivery Confirmation is a terrific and affordable way to track a delivery.