Experience With Lost Mail

Hello,
How often does items you buy from ebay and other sites like that get lost?
I made some purchases(5) in december from other EU countries and none of them have arrived. I don't think it is the sellers fault, they had 1000+ feedback and refunded the money.
The stamps were not expensive but rare in a sence that I almost never see on ebay in good condition.

In my experience, from extensive buying in the past and extensive selling now, it's about 0.1%, although the vast majority of my purchases and sales are domestic.

The next might sound a bit unfriendly, but I mean it with good intentions.

If the shipments are from various countries and they did not arrive in Latvia, maybe the problem is before you recieve the mail somewhere in Latvia.

I went to my post office, they said that they could not do anything as the letters weren't registered. Wouldn't be surprised if they were stolen.

Its the buyers that open a case on the very 1st day they can. No dialogue about anything. No replacement just want the full refund.

Europe to me is dead in the water. All the South Americas + Africa. South East Asia is a worry as well.Lets not leave out the Middle East.

Have a very small amount of international mailing options. Sad because of the honest buyers in those countries but that is life.

I've lost some items going to Latvia over the last 10 years but it's been a very small amount overall. I still get nervous when I send something but it's been a couple of years now since the last one. At one point in time I would not have put it past someone at Latvijas Pasts to be helping himself to some of the incoming mail but I think your problem may lie outside of Latvia.

This past December, I sent some stamps to a family member in Slovakia who collects stamps. The package never arrived. I think this is the 2nd time that this has happened.

I've bought Czechoslovakia stamps, via ebay, many times in the past from a seller in the Czech Republic. So far, all of the packages have arrived.

The seller from the Czech Republic always uses tracking on his shipments, so that may be the reason why I've never had a problem. I guess the next time I send something to family in Slovakia, it would be wise for me to also include tracking.

In my experience, Latvian customs often delay packages, extort taxes from buyers, and, probably, steal letters.

I have in over 50 years of collecting never had a problem with Western Europe. East Europe is a totally different story though.


Peter

I'm not sure there's a 'one size fits all' answer. The last item that was lost coming here was from the Netherlands. The last 2 items I lost going the other way were to Latvia and Finland. It's just part of doing business thru the mail these days.

I should add that my last 2 losses were a magazine I sent to Australia which I'm waiting for the buyers response to the refund right now. And an old automobile brochure to El Paso, TX which finally came back to me after making a trip around Texas. I refunded that one and then resold it to the original buyer who got it the second time around.

I think I will just make sure it is sent as registered mail next time I purchase an item. Never had problems with registered letters.

Why I believe I get ripped off so much is I send kiloware and it has very nice looking $100 worth of new issue mailing stamps in sets on the parcel for international buyers.

Then I get into a dispute with the buyer for non receipt of the parcel. Tracking lets me down and signature on delivery fails and have to issue a full refund then it takes 6 to 7 months to get money back from Australia Post with their extra cover.

Many times Auspost wanted me to prove I sell kiloware. And what is kiloware? The last time after 7 months the Auspost rep wanted me to prove I sell kiloware on ebay. They did a search from my info while I was on the phone to them and found that indeed I have got lots of kiloware for sale on ebay and was told my claim would be reversed from being closed to an immediate refund.The amount of phone calls to get to that point is..........

I buy regularly form Germany ebay sellers, usually from respected vendors in the specific area of Allied Occupation. I never had a problem - until now. One of my last items got stuck in New York. I can see tracking information and the last record shows that small envelop (just few stamps) arrived in New York:
"Processed Through Facility Feb-05-17, 22:14 PM, ISC NEW YORK NY(USPS)"
So now it is sitting there for 11 days without any further moves. I actually talked to seller and he mentioned that this is the second case with his shipments recently - both stuck in New York. Anybody else with similar problem?

Would it be better to use FedEx, DHL, or something similar???

Over the Holidays I had 4 International shipments that were "lost". This included shipments to Italy, Hungary, Netherlands and China. I was suspicious of the China shipment because the buyer started complaining 5 days after payment. Netherlands tracking showed the item had been sent to Israel and the other two showed they had reached the destination countries but were in the wrong city.

I refunded all 4 payments and thought that was it, but last week Italy and Hungary reported the items delivered and repaid me! It took over 2 months in both cases.

I've experienced long delays in receiving mail from the EU. On February 10th I received an nitme that had been mailed on December 136th.
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