BST question/opinions please
 

I recently sold a low dollar card on BST. Included USPS tracking, tracking info indicated the package was delivered, but the buyer claims he didn't receive the package.

I agreed to refund half the cost of the card, but have been wondering what I would have done on a more expensive card?

This ever happen to anyone else and how did you resolve?

I think the instant reaction of most, if not all, people is the guy is a crook, but I personally have had things marked as delivered to me (and it was also via our BST) that weren't delivered. One specifically was an expensive Mantle card from the 60's. I kept checking the tracking number and it showed up as delivered, and I couldn't believe it, nothing was here. A day or two later the package (unopened) appeared in my mailbox. It was originally delivered to a neighbor, and they dropped it off, so the marking of "delivered" was a complete ruse. I brought it up with someone at the post office and she reluctantly admitted that sometimes the carriers just mark their stuff as delivered before anything actually is, so they can get through their routes quicker. That was alarming. But my point is the card could possibly still be floating about. Maybe ask people here about the member in question, to see if there is any reason for concern?

Thanks Darren,

I had a few PM back n forth and didn't get any red flags regarding chicanery. But I'm pretty naive.
He has a low post count here, so probably wouldn't do much good to ask. He did say he'd pay me back if the card showed up.

It was low dollar, and I'm not happy but ok with losing a few bucks.

Just a little paranoid now on my next "bigger" sale and have thought of prefacing with "Hey, I was bitten, so if the tracking says "delivered" I'm not going to refund under any circumstance. That seems paranoid tho and almost like I'm trying to pull a fast one.

life goes on, at least I haven't bought any H.E. cards from any eBay auction houses ..... first world problems (one of my favorite sayings these days)

If you're uncomfortable sending a more expensive card, spend the extra couple bucks for signature confirmation.

With tracking showing delivered I would not have refunded anything. As a buyer IF it really did not show up I would be mad at USPS. There is a big difference between losing a package and marking one delivered that wasn't.

Don't those delivery scans now show an exact GPS that the post office can trace to show if it was in fact misdelivered?

Wow - Have done many BST transactions on these boards for many years and have never had a single issue.

Not sure what I would do in this case as I would guess all members are generally upstanding and the ones that prove to be not are pretty much outted in a very short amount of time.

I guess I would suggest that "post" count could be some indicator - zero or very low might raise an eyebrow.

I suppose that low dollar transaction I probably would have refunded also.

Peter is right about the GPS coordinates. The post office supervisor has to do it though. As I was googling to check that out, I saw a half dozen instances of items scanned as delivered, but were not received.

Sadly, Jim is right too, I'm just pretty cheap , but it probably is the thing to do.

thanks everyone

Not just USPS
 

Several years ago my son sent an overnight Christmas gift to me in Northern Wisconsin. He seemed quite upset a couple of days later when I told him it hadn’t arrived. FedEx showed that it had been delivered on time. A couple of days passed, but still no package. Utter disappointment on my son’s end of the phone.

We lived in a wooded subdivision with large lots. Our street was a short culdesac with only two homes addressed on the street. Unknown to me our unfriendly neighbors (hi bob) were out of town (and the woods) for the holidays.

Our mail box was at the other end of the culdesac. Our neighbors had a P.O. Box.

Six days after the undelivered delivery while out to get our mail, I glanced at our neighbor’s driveway and home tucked in his little corner of woods. Lo and behold the corner of a box caught my eye. Not knowing they were out of town, I proceeded carefully up their driveway. No gunfire, whew. The box on their front door step was mine.

My son’s angst over this whole episode was related to the contents of the package, his gift to me. The temperature for the entire week that the package sat outside never exceeded 20 degrees, but the contents were just fine.

His gift to me was from a specialty shop in Columbus, Ohio. A selection of gourmet ice cream was his gift. Living in a freezer does have at least one benefit.:D

I sold a high-end card to a member many yrs ago. I take the extra steps to protect & insure.
In this case several K, i used the registered mail method. (where its under lock & key and every handler has to sign it).
Of course this was going coast to coast. And it took like a week to get there. Generally the buyer was worried and was i after the 3-4 days. If i had used priorty mail it might of got there quicker, but it cost more than registered mail. In the end, it got there.
IDEA- anything above 100$ i insure it.

This!

Supposedly. I have tried to get answers a couple of times on packages that showed delivered but weren't. Most of the time it's just a carrier marking an item delivered to keep on time deliveries at a certain percentage and it shows up a day or two later. But I've gotten the run around before and just given up on small dollar items.