Item Suspiciously Lost In Post

I recently had a guy file a refund claim for an item 'lost in the post'.

I'm suspicious for the following reasons:

1. He filed on the the first possible day on which he could do so.
2. he has a zero feedback rating.
3. He joined a couple of days before the item went up for auction.
4. I think less than 1% of my items do genuinely get lost in the post.

Of course I shall no doubt end up having to refund, and its not for much money, but its annoying that ebay can allow you to get stung like this.

It is hard to believe that can happen, although I had an item returned after being damaged as the buyer claimed it was not authentic. Was surprised at their process, or lack of process.

On ebay, every seller who does not require signed for, or tracked delivery is at risk.

There are many threads on SCF discussing lost or undelivered ebay items. Some of them focus on the zero, or low feedback bidders.

The signed and tracked delivery also does not help as people will then just say it wasn't as described and send back an empty package. This is worse imo as you now lose your item, your money, the extra priced shipping cost, and possibly the return shipping cost.

Unfortunately there is zero seller protection no matter how good your record is and how poor the buyer's. To top it off, you can end up with negative feedback and no recourse. Sometimes you can battle and have the feedback removed but it's a hassle and still doesn't ameliorate the original losses and issues.

Just today I ordered hundreds of dollars of stuff on Amazon without paying for anything upfront. I just put in the order and will pay only once I receive the items. And I also ordered some stuff from HipStamp and Delcampe and did not have to pay anything upfront. I also bid on and won a bunch of lots with several auction houses and they do not make me pay upfront.

Obviously I am joking, but the point is that online commerce venues all have the same business model. This model includes;
1. Favoring buyer protections so that people are willing to buy things sight unseen and from a seller half way around the world where there is no other legal recourse or remedies.
2. Sellers control the shipping process and are the ones who pay the shipper. This is important because the party which pays the shipper is the party who has the responsibity for making any shipping claims.
3. Tracking is a critical requirement in fraud prevention, without tracking it would be a nightmare for ethical sellers and buyers.

One of the biggest reasons that online venues like ebay even work is due to the policies that favor the buyer. These policies are the assurances that gets people to open their wallets.

If favoring buyers was exclusively a harsh ebay business model, then other venues would have a different model and be picking up all kinds of new business as sellers left ebay.
Don

Because of this lost in the mail issue "plus" other seller type scammers tactics.

I have redesigned my mailing with 2 ebay stores so all items purchased include tracking no exceptions!

Don't you just love the ebay buyers who wait 5 weeks before opening a case or even contacting me. So the buyer leads with a "have you got a tracking number?"Very rarely do I wast heaps of my valuable time typing tracking numbers into purchased listing for buyers.

Truly have had a gut full of ebay scammers. So I put tracking on all items to stop most of this behaviour.

I had a similar case with a zero feedback buyer on an expensive item that somehow "disappeared". The buyer made a claim. I refused to accept it and then reported the buyer to ebay. I never saw a response to my report, but I never saw the refund go out either.

Are most "Lost in Mail" experiences you all have had, shipped in country or overseas from wherever ya'll live?

I'm curious because I did have one I shipped here across the US (which does't say much, kinda normal) early Dec take 3 weeks but the buyer did receive it finally. Simple 55c letter shipment. I shipped a lot of stuff over the years on ebay and other venues, and never any issue with stamp collectors, so far. Did have a coin that the buyer said never arrived. Gave him the tracking info and never heard back. That one was years ago.

The other threads on this subject are interesting and "tell the story." It would be well worth your time to read them.

"Lost" mail can be from anywhere, but as I recall, two things seem to stand out, 1.) buyers with zero or low feedback, and 2.) registered mail coming through NYC.

If you have had only one "lost in the mail" buyer over the years, you are most fortunate, IMO.

I would speculate that the size, value, and type of listing also comes into play in 'how likely it is to be stolen'. For example I assume that there is some 'sweet spot' in terms of value. Perhaps the upper limit being what a seller might send without tracking and a lower limit of enough to make it worth a thief's time and effort? I would also assume that the listing would not contain material would be fairly easy to spot if reselling (i.e. no single cancelled stamps).

Sellers might consider thinking about this issue in these terms and consider revising listings to avoid any 'sweet spot' for ethically challenged buyers. In other words, think beyond just geographic limitation parameters.
Don

On the other hand, I recently ordered two used Scott catalogues from an ebay seller, and in the box that arrived there was only one catalogue. The box was taped up on top with clear plastic tape, but the bottom was the old Amazon paper shipping tape and was NOT retaped in plastic by the shipper. My guess is that the two catalogues were so heavy in the same box, that the seller's failing to reinforce the tape on the bottom of the Amazon box let one heavy catalogue push the paper tape aside and fall through the opening. But I have no idea what happened or why both didn't fall through. The seller assured me she had shipped both catalogues. I believe her, but I only received one. So how do I prove it? I can't. But I contacted her with the problem. After over a week of back and forth with photos and "what could have happened" discussion, she agreed to refund me for one of them.
Sometimes things actually don't arrive the way they're supposed to.

I've also received the wrong stamps once or twice. And from Europe I recently received an order missing a few stamps that I'd ordered. I checked repeatedly in each case because I assumed I just wasn't seeing the stamps that I'd ordered, but they really weren't in the envelope. Both sellers corrected the mistaken orders after I described the problem to them.

I'm sure there are scammers and cheats out there, but don't take it out on honest people who don't receive what they ordered. I would no longer do business with a seller if they did that, even though I understand their concern.

A few weeks ago I bought a copy of the first volume of the Minkus worldwide catalog on ebay. The seller also had a Minkus British Commonwealth catalog. When the package arrived I was surprised to see the Commonwealth catalog instead of the volume I was expecting.

A quick message to the seller and all was resolved. I received my book a few days later.

Dale