Sent Item, Never Got There, How Do I Cancel Sale On Ebay?

On December 8th, I mailed a set of stamps to Olympia, WA. The customer emailed me yesterday that he didn't receive them. This will be the first item I've ever lost here in the US. I asked him to wait for a refund until the New Year with the hope that the holidays led the envelope astray. Maybe it's taking the scenic route thru Sarasota on the way to Washington state. It wouldn't be the first time that I've seen the wrong bar code applied to a piece of mail How do I go thru the Resolution center to cancel it when the time comes? Since I'm probably going to have to make good on my customer's loss I want to at least get my Final Value Fee refunded. I just did a cancel last week on an item that I couldn't send out. But this was paid and mailed 2 weeks ago and I'm stalling for another 2 weeks and keeping my fingers crossed. If my customer agrees to wait that is.

This is my take as a seller.....
COVER YOUR BUTT!!

I used to charge basic shipping w/no tracking....
Seems that once the buyers realized that about 10% (yes!!) was coming
up missing. You know who loses...the seller.
I got tired of that.....
I raised shipping to $2.50 (combine extras for free)....
postage with tracking $2.54 + sturdy envelope, etc....
I lose on shipping (also ebay does take a cut of this)
BUT......NONE has come up missing since.

Does the shipping affect bids???
Probably....
But not nearly as much as the multiple refunds.
Now with the tracking.....
I am a TOP-RATED seller....
I even get lower listing/selling fees but also
20% off of ebay selling fees.

The end!

once you refund it and it comes back up as unpaid just go to resoloution center and put in item # and say both sides agree to cancel. If he agrees or doesnt answer in so many days you get your fee back, if he clicks he doesnt agree it is possible to get screwed but most will agree.

So, you could lose your stamp to the buyer who would get it for free? Would the cost of certifying be out weighed by the fact that it was sold. You might lose a little on the shipping price but you know if it was deliveted or not.

Unfortunately the honor system enters into it. We trust the buyer is honest when he says he didn't receive an item. You can register an item and request a receipt but if you add those prices into the cost the buyer pays you price yourself out of the sale. I had a $700 stamp that a buyer in Australia bought. I had included the cost of International Express for shipping and got an argument out of him since he didn't want to pay the $30+ shipping since things never got lost on the way to Australia. Except it's not his $700 on the line. He finally gave me an address of a friend in San Francisco to which I sent it insured. After that it was his risk. My loss here is going to be a $22 set of stamps. I just didn't expect USPS to be operating a 3rd world postal system.

As expensive is it might seem, there are advantages to mailing stamps as First Class parcels with tracking. This minimizes the likelihood that a buyer will claim non-delivery of a delivered item. The down side is that it is no longer possible to ship less expensive stamps unless the buyer picks up the cost. The price is $2.04 using metered postage or $2.54 with stamps with another excessive price increase on Jan 17. With enough tracking and prompt fulfillment it is possible to be a Top Rated seller and qualify for the 20 percent discount on final value fees. I ship enough expensive non-stamps to make the extra cost worthwhile. I can also sleep at night knowing that everything mailed to US addresses is tracked.

Clark

If I were selling a item(s) that were more expensive yeah I wouldn't mind a couple less dollars knowing I could sleepy easier at nights, but the less expensive item(s) would definitely have to be lotted up as you would lose too much.