When Should I Give Up?

I bought a $40 item on ebay from a large-volume Pacific Northwest dealer on April 3, they marked it shipped on April 5, later in response to my query said they'd shipped it on April 10 (also claiming that mail everywhere was really slow). Still nothing as of May 8. Am curious to know, how many would ask for refund at this point, vs. keep on waiting?

Refund

Check the expected delivery date. Anytime after that you can claim


Peter

There hasn't been much of a slowdown on domestic shipping, but international is a nightmare. I have two inbound packages from Europe (1 Italy, 1 Spain) from the beginning of March that are still in transit, and another from Italy that I purchased 5 weeks ago that the seller has been unable to ship, as only EMS shipments are outbound, which would be $25 higher in shipping.

Note that with ebay you only have 30 days to file an item not received claim, which is woefully inadequate for international shipments, even under normal circumstances, let alone under current conditions. ebay *may* make exceptions if you call them, but you are locked out online after 30 days from making a claim.

PayPal, on the other hand allows 180 days for a claim/dispute, so you can file with them after the ebay limit has passed.

This begs the question as to what happens to consumer rights once ebay fully implements their Mangled Payments system, if they were at that point to decide to exclude PayPal as one of the payment options, as was the initial plan. International ecommerce on ebay could become problematic.

Sorry to hijack the thread, but I'm dealing with a related problem with a registered letter from Italy that has disappeared from tracking. It was mailed in mid-March and went through customs in New York in early April and then disappeared. I knew about the 30-day limit and filed an ebay not received notice. One the seller's time to respond passes, can I just leave the case open to allow more time for the letter arrive? Or do I need to request a refund within a certain number of days?

As a buyer, you have to protect yourself and file claims before the deadlines, etc. I had shipment mailed March 27 from the Netherlands to the US go off radar. In late April I filed a claim as the 1-month deadline approached and got a refund. the items arrived in today's mail and I just sent the full payment back to the seller. A little stressful along the way, but it works out in the end for both parties.

I ship 6,000+ orders a month on Amazon.com and I can tell you, USPS is a complete mess. There are HUGE delays and shutdowns. Luck is the biggest factor in shipping time and Amazon has made no effort to adjust their estimated shipping times to reflect the realities of the pandemic. So in a small sample, it's possible not to see problems.

In a normal day, we get 10-15 customer inquiries for various concerns, however now we are receiving more than 70 per day. The vast majority of these emails are to ask about when late packages will arrive.

Not to derail the conversation, but 6,000 stamp orders or a different industry/market? I didn't think collectibles were a vibrant segment on Amazon.

OP never did mention where the seller is shipping from. In today's crazy world, international shipping has been affected.

OP stated Pacific Northwest.

How about this: mail to USA from Barcelona, Spain dated 24 March arrived today!

Australia
Adelaide to Perth 3000Km 23 days for my birthday card.

An item I'm waiting has been stuck in The USPS Troutdale OR. facility for the last week.

I finally received an auction win from the USA after 7 weeks. Another one has still not shown up after 5.5 weeks. A buyer of one of my items that I sold on Hipstamp demanded a refund after 3 weeks. No matter how much I tried to convince him to be patient due to this pandemic and a closed border with limited flights he kept insisting every few days for the refund. I finally gave in and I'm sure he will not acknowledge if it ever arrives. It is a frustrating time to try and sell internationally.

It's not just international. I've had first class mail no tracking in a regular envelope take a month to the east coast and know others with the same issues. On top of that, since when does mail to a destination 3 hrs away take a week? Quite often now it seems. USPS is messed up big time. Tracked packages getting lost too. Very frustrating. Not as frustrating as the buyer demanding a refund a week after it shipped.

Also i'm not chalking it all up to USPS. When a buyer won't converse or answer any questions and only replies with "Never received my item, I want a refund" repeatedly after being told about delays etc yet it's only been a week, they're likely just lying and stealing it. Bold words but true as far as I care to see things.

I suggest patience. COVID-19 is slowing down everything nationwide -- mail included. Mail traveling thru metro areas hard hit by COVID-19, like New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, etc., where Infection rates amongst postal workers is supposedly high, as they have a greater rate of daily contact with people than those who are sheltering-in-place, has reduced workplace attendance.

If you are of the "Mickey-Dee'" and "Burger-Bigee" generation, where immediate gratification and instant delivery...on absolutely everything is expected and demanded, I'm sorry to say those days are basically over, at least for now...unless you ordered it from Amazon. So here's free advice with someone with gray hair. Sit back. Relax. The mail will reach you eventually. I'm retired from the mail-order industry...4 weeks is NOTHING when dealing with the post office on delivery.