Advice on missing package

[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.

[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.

[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.