ebay/delivery confirmation ?
 

happy new years all of you,
I sold a card on ebay with delivery confirmation...sent dec 13 delivered dec 16th.todayrecieved email that the individual did not receive it.the person has 100% rating . any experience with this?
thanks,
scott

Get in touch with the buyer and show that you have proof it was delivered. Sometimes the PO will accept a package, scan it and then send it out for delivery. If it was left at someones door or on a porch, it is possible that it was taken and the buyer doesn't even know it.

Good luck.

Jeff

update....was delivered to wrong address....what is my responsibility if any?
scott

I think if insurance wasn't purchased, you may be on the hook for it. I usually insure cards over $100, not for damage (they'll never pay) but for loss.

Good luck.

more info
 

If you made a mistake it's on you. If the other person made a mistake it's on them. Hopefully it will be ok anyway. That is the way I usually see these things. I also do try to bend over backwards to help situations but that is sort of beside the point...I do that just because I am a great guy :)

It's been quite a December!

Is this about the E90-1?

It's not the seller's fault, and it's certainly not the buyer's, but everyone needs to be aware of this. The card was $23.06, so insurance would be seemingly irrational. It ended on 12-12-10. Knowing the seller was receiving good feedback, etc, and after not receiving the card, I didn't ask for shipping information until today, which was the final day of the expected delivery time frame. The seller quickly replied and provided the tracking number. It showed shipped on the 13th, delivered on the 16th. This corresponded to the feedback the seller had been receiving for the others items he sold on the 12th.

I still have not received the card. The delivery confirmation showed the card was delivered at 9:12 AM. Our mail rarely runs before noon, and when it's before noon, never before 11:30 AM or so. I had to ship a package today, and my wife said she'd drop it off so I printed the information requesting she ask them about it. While she was there, a post office employee called me. Our conversation went as follows (pasted from sent message to seller so I wouldn't have to re-type it). This message followed other messages the seller and I exchanged:

"You're obviously a good seller and a good guy....Just talked to the PO as I was typing this. They said their scanners have been duplicating numbers and it's all messed up due to the holidays, adding they talked to our mail carrier and at that time of the morning she hasn't even left the office to start her route. She said she certainly isn't in our neighborhood at that time. The lady said they have a partnership with FedEx, and when Fed Ex delivers a pallet of packages to our post office, he or she scans in the pallet, which also scans in each and every package on the pallet. She said they don't scan each individual item. She said they've been having a lot of problems like this (!). I told her it sounds like there's an internal investigation they need to get started on. She reluctantly agreed.

WOW!"

The card never made it to my mailbox. It was allegedly on a pallet that was scanned received by my local post office. How did it get scanned as delivered? Is there an employee there that knows this holiday procedure and may take advantage? Maybe, but something happened to the package. The employee I spoke to concluded it may show up later.

If this is about that card, don't worry about it, I'd buy from everest012000 any day. I would appreciate it if you'd e-mail me an image of both the card front and back so I can bolo for it.

It would have been my first E90-1 for my recently started type card collection, and quite a deal for a PSA 2.

scanning
 

I have to disagree with the Post Offices explanation about the scanning. When Fed Ex drops off their Smart Post parcels at the PO (We have agreements with Fed Ex and UPS), we make one scan that accepts the entire shipment, but we are also required to scan each individual parcel as "arrived at delivery unit". This way we know that each parcel on the manifest did indeed arrive at the Post Office. It looks like someone isn't performing their job correctly.

Once these items are scanned they are broken down by route and given to the carriers. The carriers are then required to scan each parcel with a "stop the clock" scan. These are scans made out on the street at the time of delivery. It could be "delivered", "attempted delivery", or various other options.

Each scanner has a unique number, so it is easy to tell which scanner delivered the parcel. Each route has it's own scanner, so if your carriers scanner scanned this parcel as delivered, then either the regular carrier or the sub is the person who delivered this parcel. Your Postmaster should be able to take care of this for you. The local Post Office has a computer that is hooked up to the scanners that will print a list of items that shows the scanner number, route number, time and date of delivery for every parcel.

Good luck,
Rick

Great information.

Our regular carrier was delivering that day according to the lady I spoke to, and I knew prior to them telling me that she is never, ever on our street that early. The person I spoke to said she spoke to our carrier, whom we know and speak to often, and was told she hasn't started her route at that time of day. She said numbers have been duplicated, etc and blamed it on the holiday season.

Your information helps. BTW, the date and time of delivery was noted on the web site tracking information. Are you saying the postmaster will have more accurate information as to the date and time of delivery, and that the web site's information may display incorrect information compared to the site?

I'm now waiting on our carrier to come by so I can speak to her.

scans
 

I haven't heard of any problems with the scans during the holidays. The Postmasters info will probably contain the same info as the website, but the Postmaster will have more details about the scans.

The Post Office has had a rough December for me. I've had several packages take long circuitous routes across the country for items being shipped one state over.

Had one where Delivery Confirmation stated "Out For Delivery" in a town about 100 miles away from the town it was supposed to be delivered to, and just disappeared for a few days.......and several packages which entered New Jersey (not the destination) and just sat there for days or weeks on end.

It's made for some interesting e-mail exchanges with customers.

Luckily, outside of one package heading towards the Netherlands...........which still hasn't left New Jersey 5 weeks later.......all of the packages eventually got where they were going.

Spoke to the mail carrier. She said other people in the neighborhood have had the same problem and pointed at one of the houses across the street, stating her package was scanned as delivered but she too didn't actually receive it. I asked, the one with the white van? She said yes. The house she pointed at is my in-law's house and they haven't mentioned it, which is not typical, but I'll find out later. She asked me if I was sure someone didn't get it out of my mailbox, and I replied that she never delivers that early in the day, right. She said no, never here that early. She said it may have gone to the incorrect route and the driver of the route may have given it to her, which would've resulted in some sort of scan. She said, can't you replace it, that lady up there (mother-in-law) said the company is replacing her stuff.(?????)

The seller sent the card in an 8x10 envelope, so I mentioned this in case it jogged her memory. She said, was it not at your door? I again said, I didn't get the package, door or no door, box or no box. She said my wife should start watching to make sure nobody takes things out of our mailbox. Wait a minute, it was placed in my mailbox, why did this conversation go in circles? I don't know what's going on with this, but I'm not getting straight answers. She said the postmaster was having trouble finding the information, so I told her I was glad they didn't forget about it and that I would be checking in soon. Getting pissed now.

Alright, just before the carrier went by, two Waste Mgt trucks entered the neighborhood. Our two cans sit alongside the road, arranged accordingly so that their machine could pick them up. Well, they got one of my cans and left the other full. I walked out, looked up and down my street and noticed there was literally trash all over the roadway. The trucks contained a driver and a passenger for some reason, arms slung out the windows, laid back, seems not necessary since they never, ever abandon the seat cushions. One truck was following the other for some reason. Come to find out, they didn't empty our second can because it's not a waste mgmt can. I was told, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

One day a few years ago, I had a box sitting next to my can, and our town just switched to Waste Mgmt. They didn't get it, put it out again and they didn't get it. The third time I put it out I was home when they came by, and when they didn't get it, I got the box and walked down the street to where they were. I told the guy that I was putting the box in the garbage truck. He told me not to because it would clutter up his truck. No kidding. I threw the box in there.

What happened to the garbage men?

My in-laws said they did not order something through the mail and not receive it. :confused:

I work as a rural carrier and after reading your posts I don't think the answers you're getting make any sense.

If it was shipped USPS it should not arrive on a pallet dropped off by either UPS or FedEx. How we get our parcels from those companies and how we scan them has nothing to do with your parcel. (I'm assuming it was shipped USPS because you checked tracking information with USPS).

The parcel being scanned delivered early is a red flag. Some sloppy or careless carriers will scan all parcels as delivered when they're putting them in order before loading the truck. On a normal day I'm loading at 9-930 am. We're not supposed to scan that way but some of the terrible ones do. Your Postmaster should be able to tell from a scan report.

I don't know if I could remember every parcel I ever delivered, but if it doesn't fit in the mailbox then I have to find a safe place to keep it out of the weather, away from curious eyes, and then I fill out a 3849 form to tell you where to find it. After doing that I'm pretty good at remembering where I put a parcel.

It might be different in my district, but where I work there are no extra scans involved if a parcel goes to the wrong route and is handed off. If I get a parcel for a different OFFICE, the clerk scans it as MISSENT and it goes to the correct office. If I get a parcel for R1, I hand it to Kathy and she delivers it. There's no scan. If it's accountable mail (certified, insured, etc) I hand it to the clerk, and the clerk hands it to Kathy. Again no scan.

The carrier pointing to the house across the street is trying to make you feel not alone, and also to deflect responsibilty from herself. Maybe it's the garbage guys. Might be kids who are off school right now.

Postmasters don't have trouble getting information. I doubt if your Postmaster has heard that there is a problem. It might be time to call the PM directly. You could also file a complaint http://faq.usps.com/eCustomer/iq/usp...nquiryType#top and the Postmaster or a Supervisor will have to respond.

Sorry for the long-winded post, I hate to see bad service from USPS. All we have to offer is service and so many forget that.

Thank you for taking the time to write that. My wife was at the PO when I talked to the lady on the phone, so I asked her when she got home, and it was the postmaster I spoke to. She obviously knew something was amiss. I didn't care at all about this until I started getting those responses. A hard, honest worker can say, looks like it went in the wrong box and the person hasn't returned it, etc. They answered from all kinds of angles, and the mail carrier never mentioned Fed Ex.

Everything she said formed into this: it was placed in the wrong route/sector, and when that person realized it didn't correspond to his or her route, it was given to our carrier. Prior to giving it to our carrier, it was scanned as delivered (I'm assuming) and subsequently placed in our box (she would have forced that in the box based on my experience). Someone came along and took it after that.

I know it sounds unbelievable when I say that I know it didn't get placed in my box because I know someone didn't take it from my box. We have a two street neighborhood, and I'm surrounded by family and retired people who are home all day, including my wife. My wife is at our dining room table with our kids everyday when the carrier passes and has a great view. Also, everyone here is aware of my occupation and would not attempt such because they would be caught, not that anybody here would to start with.

Sorry about the Waste Mgmt post, but it was applicable in a way, insomuch as the hard work element is missing. I did not intend to insinuate they may have took something from my box, heck, that would require them getting out of the truck. Not possible. It was a very odd thing though, to see all that trash on the ground along the side of the street. One of our retired female neighbors who live just down the road in the cul-de-sac was out picking up the trash while the garbage truck was next to her spilling it out. I liked it when there was a driver and two men on the back jumping off, snatching the cans, and moving to the next. They always waved and said hello if we were in the yard. It was personal. I've always found it significant that the garbage man element was missing, at least from where I live.

Thank you for your hard work.

jimq
 

Jim,
You are wrong about the UPS/Fed EX parcels. We track these parcels the same way that we track the our USPS parcels. They all go through our tracking system. If Fed Ex drops off an eVS Smart Post package you will scan it delivered the same way that you scan a USPS parcel and our tracking system will show the Fed Ex parcel as arrived at unit and delivered.

For all of you that haven't fallen asleep, here is the way we "partner" with Fed Ex and UPS. A customer will ship a parcel with UPS, and UPS will deliver that parcel to a delivery Post Office, because UPS doesn't want to fool around with residential deliveries. The Post Office then delivers the package. UPS takes a cut and the Post Office get $1.50 to $2.50 per package.

Rick

Hi Rick,

I meant that there shouldn't be a way for his package to get scanned wrong because of FedEx or UPS packages getting scanned.

I know we scan them as arrived and attempted/delivered. I'm in a very small office and sometimes if my PM is busy with a line at the window I'll grab her scanner, make sure they're all there, scan as arrived, and split them to the routes (all 3 of them). Takes me a couple minutes and gets the UPS guy back to his route. He doesn't block our mailboxes. We don't have FedEx dropoffs at my office.



Back to the problem at hand -


There's really 2 ways this could have happened -

clerk gives the parcel to the wrong route
wrong carrier forgets they're handing it to a co-worker and scans it as delivered
carrier delivers it properly and forgets to correctly scan it as delivered
somebody steals the parcel out of the mailbox

(or)
poor carrier scans parcels as delivered while ordering them for delivery
poor carrier misdelivers parcel


When/if you call the postmaster again, ask her to check the 4240 form to see what time the carrier left to service the route. That will tell her and you if the carrier scanned it delivered before she left the office. That won't get your parcel back for you but it might help with future parcels.


I hate poor carriers. We have one and it's embarrassing.

Until the USPS does intermediate scanning on delivery confirmation instead of just beginning and ending scanning, it isn't that great of a tool. And always remember it's just confirmation that it did get delivered. If it didn't, then spending that money did nothing for you. No insurance attached. The USPS is light years ahead of where they were but, like all carriers, have issues. You can't pick up and deliver billions of pieces of mail or packages and have everything run perfect......not when humans are involved. Always insure something if it's high value or you can't afford to lose it......

Based on all the information obtained from everyone, it appears all the packages were pre-scanned that day to save time. The delivery of the package in question may or may not have happened. If it was removed from my box, it was done by a non resident who happened to hit other boxes as well, one of which was a lie by the carrier. It would have been difficult to do that here, resident or not.

The postmaster misled me because she knew I wouldn't know what she was talking about. She knew scans were improperly done. She and the carrier said the postmaster was searching for the scanning information and having trouble finding it.

The carrier lied to me when she said my in-laws (not knowing I knew them) did not receive a mail order purchase, just like me. She also said other residents in this two street neighborhood also did not receive packages. I'll find out what else she lied about. My living is comprised of such.

I'll follow up with what's been mentioned here.

I like UPS tracking. It includes each and every stop, from origin to destination. Fedex may be like that, but I have little experience with them. No offense to any one USPS employee, but the USPS lacks accountability, period.

I could have received a Paypal refund from the seller on this one because the scanned as delivered was not done at my mailbox or front door. This is based on the postmaster comment, the carrier comments, and our factual knowledge of the time of her daily delivery to my street. It was fraudulently scanned as delivered, which should be some sort of USPS standard operating procedure violation.

A note on "free shipping"

Not sure I'm a fan because the type of packaging and method of delivery will probably be poor. I purchased an ungraded '33 Goudey single and subsequently received it in a letter envelope. This seller said he mailed the E90 in an 8X10 envelope. Sellers need to put themselves in the shoes of mail carriers, especially lazy ones, and have knowledge of mailbox sizes. When I told the carrier it was in an 8x10 package, she immediately asked me if it was marked do not bend; I don't know, show me the package!

When the carrier lied about my in-laws package woes, she said "the company" is replacing her stuff. I told her the USPS needs to replace mine but this can't be replaced, so they need to pay for it. Chuckling, she said not unless insured. Chuckle, chuckle.....

I'll be following up. Thanks for all the information.

Accountability
 

Greg, I agree with you on the lack of accountability. When I look up a scan, the address info is not included, (Except for 1 or 2 companies), so I can't really tell where that parcel was supposed to be delivered. We can rarely pinpoint a mistake to a particular carrier, so if we have one carrier who is constantly screwing up scans it is difficult to do anything about it without more proof. I would like to another scan added to the system, which would be "received by the carrier", so the carrier becomes accountable for their packages and if the scans are screwed up we can hold someone accountable. We have the carriers sign for Certified, Registered, and Express Parcels, but insured parcels are not signed for, so we also need to change that rule.

Hi Jim, it is nice that you work in a smaller office and everyone can pitch in when things get busy, without worrying about the unions getting involved with "crossing crafts". I'm sure your Postmaster appreciates your help.

I agree with you about the embarrassment when carriers don't do their job properly. Fortunately, 95% of the clerks and carriers and managers are trying hard to provide good customer service, but there is always that 5% that is dragging everyone else down. In the private sector the 5% would be fired, but that doesn't happen in the Postal Service.



Rick

Another thing sellers may want to think about:

I don't want to send messages to sellers requesting mailing date, etc, and I never received any messages or information from this seller. Therefore, I judged expected delivery by the dates ebay provides, which was estimated as 12/20/10 - 12/31/10. On, 12/31/10, I sent the message because I had not received the package at the end estimated time frame, only to receive a tracking number indicating delivered on the 16th. Had I received a tracking number to start with, I would've known this on the 16th or 17th. In hindsight, I should have sent the message sooner since I noticed he was receiving feedback for other 12/12/10 sales near the beginning time frame. I will not blame myself for any aspect of this goat-roping however.

Scott, I sent you a message yesterday through ebay. Please begin responding, haven't heard from you since I began replying here. I need to tell you something.

just split the diff, seller refunds half through paypal. ebay has an add tracking feature now that takes 5 seconds to copy and paste. how hard is it to keep the buyer in the loop?

I recently purchased a postcard from a fellow Net54er and it had DC on it...I watched it as it made its way across the country only to sit in Hazelwood, Missouri for three days as it was scanned all three days..then it said it left Hazelwood and for two days it was in limbo before finally arriving. I attribute it to holiday mail, but it was certainly exasperating watching it sit in the same place for three days and then disappear for two. I also still have no clue what happened this past Summer when a priority mail package from Omaha to Lincoln (50 miles) took 7 days to get to me and was scanned as delivered the day before I actually got it.

The problem you have here is that delivery confirmation is worthless for lost or missing items. You need signature confirmation or insurance for the post office to take any action. I hope the card does show up! In the case of a fraudelt seller, they could send you a flyer and have delivery confirmation on it and you have no proof of what was delivered. This type of thing happens at Christmas time with people selling limited availability items that people pay a premium for such as zhu zhu pets last year for kids. I always recommend signature confirmation at a minimum for sellers.