What Do You Do When A Card Has Been Lost In The Mail?

[Archive]

Posted By: Joann

Dave,

My experience on the BST has probably been about 80/20 in that sometimes there is discussion about shipping costs, responsibilty, etc. but most of the time not. But it is not a slam dunk never, by any means.

I def understand that you believe it is on the seller and that is perfectly fine - I think there are very good arguments for that. But I read some of your earlier posts more as saying that that's how it is on the BST, a more definitive statement. I disagreed more with the extent of the comments, or the certainty, not so much with the philosophical basis for them.

I probably lean toward seller responsiblity myself, but think it's not clear in all cases - that there are times when it may be more of a shared responsibility. Certainly a buyer that provides a ship-to address that has semi-public access by roomates or other residents might be one of these cases.

It may be fair to say that Addie was taking on the normal risk of lost in the mail, damaged, whatever, that is inherent in any shipping of anything. But I think it might just be a bit unfair to ask him to also absorb the less common risk associated with certain delivery addresses - different from buyer and access by other parties would be a risk present in this case but not necessarily all cases.

This is all just speculation because we don't know who all may have had access to mail at the delivery address, but I know some postmen leave packages in apartment stairwells under the mailboxes if it won't fit in the mailbox. I'm just pointing this out as an example of why I think it's over-simplistic to say it's always on the seller. If the buyer's delivery situation presents some higher-than-normal risk, I think he is obliged to let the seller know or at least talk about delivery rather than assume that the seller is willing to absorb this extra risk.

As an example, Leon often self-insures packages - takes the risk but does not buy insurance, figuring he will pay out of his pocket if there is a problem. I would think that if a buyer had an unusual risk on his end, Leon would need to know before shipping or he would not be responsible for it. If he knows, he has the opportunity to buy commercial insurance. If not, he's on the hook for osmething he didn't bargain for or even know about.

I'm just saying it's not that simple all the time.

J