Advice on missing package

[GregMitch34]

Well, it's finally happened. A card sold via eBay, sent to someone halfway across the U.S., has gone missing. Was mailed first-class 12 days ago and shipping tracks it to the major mail center not far from my home--where tracking stops. I filed for a USPS probe a few days ago and they are due to update me today but no change in tracking so far. It was a Pay Pal purchase. No insurance beyond the $50 I guess you get with tracking. Any advice on 1) what happens when USPS tells me they are coming up empty--and how long to wait until it's clear it's gone 2) getting any compensation via PayPal or eBay.

I've kept the buyer fully informed on all this.

Thanks for anything!

[insccollectibles]

Hey Greg,


This happened to me last month. I sent a card across country that made it to a distribution center close to his house in California. Than no update for a week in a half. The card ended up in New Jersey at a distribution center than was resent to the buyer in California. No explanation but the card ended up making its way. I've also had the distribution center and the mailman forget to scan the card but it still arrived to the buyer. Of course this depends on the ethics of the buyer and I was lucky they were honest.

[bnorth]

I have had this happen a lot. If you sent first class with tracking you have 0 insurance unless you paid extra for it. In reality there is nothing that can be done other than hope it turns up. Ebay and paypal will not help you out, but ebay might make you refund the buyer. This is my experience.

I have never lost a package, some just take a long time to get there. I sent Leon $ for a t-shirt and it took 28 or 29 days to get there but it finaly did. For me the big thing is communication with the person who is supposed to get the package. Hope it shows up for you.

[npa589]

1) I usually wait 3 weeks, staying in contact with the buyer the whole time assuring them that they'll be refunded if it doesn't show up. It's annoying, yes, but of the 3 parties who are most responsible for the loss of the package, the seller is always 2nd place, albeit a distant 2nd. When I've refunded buyers, I tell them "If it does eventually make it to you somehow, you can then re-send payment then."

2) Unless something has changed, you will receive no compensation from PayPal/eBay.

Hope it shows up!

[KCRfan1]

Greg, it sounds like you are doing all you reasonably can with the situation. I hope the buyer is being reasonable as well. The USPS is pretty good, and with the volume of mail they handle mistakes are few and far between. The buyer, while anxious to receive their purchase, needs to be patient and give some more time for the package to arrive. I trust you will be patient too. I had a purchase take 10 days from NJ to arrive to me in KC. The card arrived to me after spending a few days in the Houston postal system. Mail may get misdirected, but it usually ends up where it needs to go. I would think that 30 days is more than fair for a package to arrive. Since you are the seller, I hope the buyer gets his purchase. Otherwise, I expect Ebay to refund the buyer.

[steve B]

The tracking of course depends on the package actually getting scanned.

I had an item I bought that somehow missed scanning for nearly its entire trip through USPS. Tracking showed the label as having been printed, then.....Nothing. And nothing showed for a couple weeks. I asked the seller if it had actually shipped since I've had stuff get missed at the bottom of a box or under something else on the desk.

USPS didn't help by changing the expected delivery date to whatever the date would be the next day. (Neat way to be 99.9% on time, simply adjust the expected delivery date )

Then one day it was scanned as "out for delivery" and arrived with that days mail.

Steve B

[pawpawdiv9]

if send by USPS priority mail--- you get $50 insurance included and with tracking as well.

the only thing i lost, was my submission to Beckett. It made it to my atlanta center and it stopped...didnt make it to Texas (if i remember thats where Beckett is)...this was several years ago...and i no longer use Beckett and use SGC these days...

One thing i did do, was get insurance, in which i filed my claim and got my money,
I learned (anything over 100, to ship priority mail (small box) or whatever.
anything less could always go in bubble mailer (pending any issues of cards bending) -- in which i use the priorty boxes.

Note: if buying insurance, its makes them sign for the package (signature confirmation)

[ibuysportsephemera]

I have had this happen from time to time. As weird as it sounds, if you sign up for the email alerts on the package, sometimes it shows up within a day or two.

Jeff

[buymycards]

We have been seeing this a lot lately. The package gets accepted at a Post Office and it gets scanned at a processing plant near the Post Office, then it disappears off of the radar for a week, or 10 days, or 2 weeks. Then all of a sudden it shows up as "arrived" at the delivery Post Office and it gets delivered. It seems like for the past couple of months this has been happening more frequently. I wish I could figure out why is happening, but if you are patient, 99.999% of the packages will be delivered.

As far as an item not getting tracked at all, there are some problems caused by the mailers that contribute to this and I am seeing many, many of these.

First, replace the ink cartridge on your printer. The tracking hardware can't scan a bar code that is faded or that has some bars missing. You wouldn't believe how many of these I see every day.

Second, don't shrink the size of the label that is generated from eBay so you can save some paper and ink. We can't scan a bar code that is compressed and only an inch long.

Third, make sure the entire bar code is flat. We see a lot of labels that aren't applied correctly and the labels are wrinkled, which results in a couple of the bars in the bar code that are missing. We need to be able to scan all of the bars in the bar code.

Fourth, make sure that the bar code is on the address side of the package. These packages all go through machines and the machine will read the package label, but if the bar code is on the back of the package it won't get read.

Fifth, don't use glossy or colored paper for your labels. The glossy paper reflects the beam from the scanner and sometimes the scan is missed. Colored paper also causes problems, especially red paper. Don't tape over the bar code because of the reflection from the tape. Make sure you are printing the bar code with black ink.

I hope this saves you from some problems down the road. Remember that until the final delivery, all of the scans and processing are performed by machines and computers with very little human contact, so you need to make sure that everything is legible and machine readable.

Rick

[ibuysportsephemera]

Originally Posted by buymycards

We have been seeing this a lot lately. The package gets accepted at a Post Office and it gets scanned at a processing plant near the Post Office, then it disappears off of the radar for a week, or 10 days, or 2 weeks. Then all of a sudden it shows up as "arrived" at the delivery Post Office and it gets delivered. It seems like for the past couple of months this has been happening more frequently. I wish I could figure out why is happening, but if you are patient, 99.999% of the packages will be delivered.

As far as an item not getting tracked at all, there are some problems caused by the mailers that contribute to this and I am seeing many, many of these.

First, replace the ink cartridge on your printer. The tracking hardware can't scan a bar code that is faded or that has some bars missing. You wouldn't believe how many of these I see every day.

Second, don't shrink the size of the label that is generated from eBay so you can save some paper and ink. We can't scan a bar code that is compressed and only an inch long.

Third, make sure the entire bar code is flat. We see a lot of labels that aren't applied correctly and the labels are wrinkled, which results in a couple of the bars in the bar code that are missing. We need to be able to scan all of the bars in the bar code.

Fourth, make sure that the bar code is on the address side of the package. These packages all go through machines and the machine will read the package label, but if the bar code is on the back of the package it won't get read.

Fifth, don't use glossy or colored paper for your labels. The glossy paper reflects the beam from the scanner and sometimes the scan is missed. Colored paper also causes problems, especially red paper. Don't tape over the bar code because of the reflection from the tape. Make sure you are printing the bar code with black ink.

I hope this saves you from some problems down the road. Remember that until the final delivery, all of the scans and processing are performed by machines and computers with very little human contact, so you need to make sure that everything is legible and machine readable.

Rick

Thanks for the good advice Rick. I have shipped thousands of packages with USPS and sometimes they take a while, but I have never had one lost.

I always tape over the bar codes when affixing to the package. It has never been a problem that I know of...Rick could it slow delivery down?

Thanks,

Jeff

[autograf]

Don't forget tracking gets you ZERO insurance on regular first class mail. ONLY on Priority Mail do you get the $50 insurance. Also if you print out your labels from ebay/paypal, be sure that when you drop them off, they are scanned in. That at least gets you a receipt that they received them. If you put in a mailbox and they don't get scanned then, you will have trouble getting reimbursed even with insurance. Had that happen.

Unlike UPS/FedEx, the USPS doesn't (to my knowledge) do intermediate tracking. It's generally just a scan upon delivery. If it doesn't get scanned, you don't know if it got delivered or not. I'm assuming that they're working towards intermediate scanning--physical or logical scanning, linking packages to bags or trailers.

Like everyone above, 12 days may sound like a lot and it is, but with the holidays and weather plaguing people the last couple weeks, I'd definitely give it more time. Good luck....hope it shows.

[GregMitch34]

Thanks to all for your comments and advice. A regional customer service rep today told me that the state where package was/is going was among worst hit by ice and extra backup there. Also something about Xmas volume was 3x what expected and still backed up from that--huh?

[npa589]

Originally Posted by ibuysportsephemera

I always tape over the bar codes when affixing to the package. It has never been a problem that I know of...Rick could it slow delivery down?

I do as well, with the thought being that it would protect the bar code from any undesired moisture/rain-water bleeding the lines...

I've never had a problem with it either, but have always wondered about it, and am tentative enough about it to where I won't tape over the labels if the package value exceeds $500 or so...

[kmac32]

I had it happen to some cards about 6 months ago. Kept in touch with the buyer and miraculosly after filing a claim at the post office, the package showed up back on the radar about 2 weeks later. package was somehow routed to the East Coast and then back to the midwest. Have no idea why it took 2 weeks or why it went to the East Coast but it did. In the end, all was well and my buyer was happy.

[Pat R]

Recently I purchased two cards from the same seller one day apart, they
both made it to the Kearny NJ sort facility on the same day. I got one in the
mail the next day the second one came 5 days later.

[Clydewally]

I have had two recent experiences. In one, tracking showed it was delivered to my house, but it had not been. Ebay somewhat surprisingly stepped up to the plate and reimbursed me, but did not take any money away from the seller since they had sent it via the right type of mail and it was the post office's fault.

In another instance, the post office claimed we had signed for a package. The signature they showed us looked nothing like ours. The seller was able to get its insurance to pay and reimburse us, but we had to unwind that when the cards finally showed up at the post office THREE MONTHS LATER.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by buymycards

We have been seeing this a lot lately. The package gets accepted at a Post Office and it gets scanned at a processing plant near the Post Office, then it disappears off of the radar for a week, or 10 days, or 2 weeks. Then all of a sudden it shows up as "arrived" at the delivery Post Office and it gets delivered. It seems like for the past couple of months this has been happening more frequently. I wish I could figure out why is happening, but if you are patient, 99.999% of the packages will be delivered.

As far as an item not getting tracked at all, there are some problems caused by the mailers that contribute to this and I am seeing many, many of these.

First, replace the ink cartridge on your printer. The tracking hardware can't scan a bar code that is faded or that has some bars missing. You wouldn't believe how many of these I see every day.

Second, don't shrink the size of the label that is generated from eBay so you can save some paper and ink. We can't scan a bar code that is compressed and only an inch long.

Third, make sure the entire bar code is flat. We see a lot of labels that aren't applied correctly and the labels are wrinkled, which results in a couple of the bars in the bar code that are missing. We need to be able to scan all of the bars in the bar code.

Fourth, make sure that the bar code is on the address side of the package. These packages all go through machines and the machine will read the package label, but if the bar code is on the back of the package it won't get read.

Fifth, don't use glossy or colored paper for your labels. The glossy paper reflects the beam from the scanner and sometimes the scan is missed. Colored paper also causes problems, especially red paper. Don't tape over the bar code because of the reflection from the tape. Make sure you are printing the bar code with black ink.

I hope this saves you from some problems down the road. Remember that until the final delivery, all of the scans and processing are performed by machines and computers with very little human contact, so you need to make sure that everything is legible and machine readable.

Rick

All good advice.

When I was selling, and with the occasional label I print now I print onto plain paper. So I have to tape it. I just tape around the bar code so it's just paper where the code is.

This point
"
Third, make sure the entire bar code is flat. We see a lot of labels that aren't applied correctly and the labels are wrinkled, which results in a couple of the bars in the bar code that are missing. We need to be able to scan all of the bars in the bar code. "

Would be a whole lot easier is they didn't require a non-priority mail piece to be 3/4 of an inch thick for delivery confirmation. Putting a packing peanut in the envelope makes it ok, but bulged so there's no way it will be flat.
I had one package rejected as being too thin, and when I was talking to the guy at the main PO it was pretty funny. I went home and printed out the section where it said stuff that wouldn't bend or that was 1/4 inch thick was a package as far as rates were concerned. And he had the printout that said 3/4" was the minimum for DC. What was funnier was that whoever wrote it up made it postage due, but returned it to me for more postage. But instead of writing it up for the balance between what I'd paid and priority they wrote it up for additional weight under rates that hadn't been current for around six months.
I even called the customer service in RI and asked about the 3/4 inch thing. They agreed that a flat object was much easier to handle than a puffy envelope, even for the machine. But also said that getting a rule changed could take years.

Steve B

[I Only Smoke 4 the Cards]

Good luck. I would definately be freaking out if I could not find my package either.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by steve B

All good advice.

When I was selling, and with the occasional label I print now I print onto plain paper. So I have to tape it. I just tape around the bar code so it's just paper where the code is.

This point
"
Third, make sure the entire bar code is flat. We see a lot of labels that aren't applied correctly and the labels are wrinkled, which results in a couple of the bars in the bar code that are missing. We need to be able to scan all of the bars in the bar code. "

Would be a whole lot easier is they didn't require a non-priority mail piece to be 3/4 of an inch thick for delivery confirmation. Putting a packing peanut in the envelope makes it ok, but bulged so there's no way it will be flat.
I had one package rejected as being too thin, and when I was talking to the guy at the main PO it was pretty funny. I went home and printed out the section where it said stuff that wouldn't bend or that was 1/4 inch thick was a package as far as rates were concerned. And he had the printout that said 3/4" was the minimum for DC. What was funnier was that whoever wrote it up made it postage due, but returned it to me for more postage. But instead of writing it up for the balance between what I'd paid and priority they wrote it up for additional weight under rates that hadn't been current for around six months.
I even called the customer service in RI and asked about the 3/4 inch thing. They agreed that a flat object was much easier to handle than a puffy envelope, even for the machine. But also said that getting a rule changed could take years.

Steve B

Yeah, if it's rigid it should be a trackable package. The 3/4 inch thing is only for flexible items.

Don't know why there's people who are still in charge of Post Office depot's who haven't gotten this memo.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by npa589

I do as well, with the thought being that it would protect the bar code from any undesired moisture/rain-water bleeding the lines...

I've never had a problem with it either, but have always wondered about it, and am tentative enough about it to where I won't tape over the labels if the package value exceeds $500 or so...

I usually always try to wrap half the bar code under tape and leave the other half exposed, since I use an inkjet to print my labels and it can smear easily if it gets wet.

[AMBST95]

I had to have a conversation with my mail lady because she would get in the habit of scanning my signature confirmation in as delivered although I might not be home. I'd get the card to go to the post office to sign and the package would be at the post office, but when you searched the signature you would just see the initials pm (postmaster). I almost lost it the first time it happened. It was just asking to get lost.

[glchen]

Originally Posted by autograf

... Also if you print out your labels from ebay/paypal, be sure that when you drop them off, they are scanned in. That at least gets you a receipt that they received them. If you put in a mailbox and they don't get scanned then, you will have trouble getting reimbursed even with insurance. Had that happen.

Unlike UPS/FedEx, the USPS doesn't (to my knowledge) do intermediate tracking. It's generally just a scan upon delivery. If it doesn't get scanned, you don't know if it got delivered or not. I'm assuming that they're working towards intermediate scanning--physical or logical scanning, linking packages to bags or trailers.

...

I went to my local post office yesterday to drop off a pre-labeled package from paypal, and after waiting 30 minutes in line, asked the clerk to scan the package for acceptance. She told me she would have to charge me $1.20 to scan it in, so I just said forget it, gave her the package, and left. (It did show tracking last night however.)

The USPS does do intermediate tracking whenever the package hits intermediate distribution centers. I would say it's comparable to UPS/FedEx. Personally, I prefer USPS because First Class is usually much faster than Ground for the other carriers, and much cheaper also.