How Long To Wait For Inr Claim?

In the United States, for an item shipped by first class mail with no tracking, what is a reasonable amount of time to wait after the last expected delivery date determined by eBay to contact seller about item not being received? I am patient and reasonable, because I know USPS delivery in unpredictable these days.

Does a coast to coast letter travel by ground/truck or air these days? There's been so many changes in the last two years it's difficult to keep up.

A media mail item with tracking and a first class letter with no tracking were mailed out of the same day one week ago from locations both approximately 2,000 miles away from where I live. The media mail item arrived today, but the first class letter with no tracking did not.

Thus far, knock on wood, I've had good luck with resolutions by sending a message to the seller about issues with items. I did read a recent thread in this section about a seller being snarky about issuing a refund vs receiving negative feedback and that got me a little discouraged.

If I am polite and message the seller about item not being received, are there any shenanigans they can pull vs going directly to an INR claim? Shenanigans like giving me a pre-emptive refund for 1c to where I have no more recourse?

I believe they tell you about thirty days to file a claim?
By the way, you did not mention how long ago it was mailed


Peter

Peter,

Correct. One has up to 30 days to file a claim, but it would be foolish to wait that long.

I have had numerous First Class items take up to three weeks to travel from PA to MA.

Yes, it can be slow, HOWEVER, I mailed a small first class package (get free tracking number) Friday morning from rural San Francisco Bay Area and it was picked up at the POB this morning in New Jersey.

That said, still contact the seller and directly ask when it was sent, confirm the address to which sent and advise it has not arrived. That will alert the seller to a pending claim likely. If the sellers response is reasonable, great; if not, file the eBay claim immediately.

Mail can be delayed, misdirected, misdelivered or unknowingly destroyed.
It happens and eBay hates paying out for that and is why eBay wants sellers to ship via a tracking method at an extra cost to the buyer.

Me, just last week I received a priority envelope from New Jersey which contained my eBay order from Japan which was accidentally addressed not to me but to another client in New Jersey. The seller had alerted me to the issue previously. In this case I received my several hundreds of dollars of goodies as the client is New Jersey was the seller's largest client. There the client's fear of being cut off from the seller was the likely biggest motivator to send me the material if just common honesty was lacking. Of course the seller refunded the $8.95 US Priority cost and then some to that client.


Also last week I received a remailed item which had been returned as unable to forward from an old POB address (I held it for 45+ years and closed it only 3-31-2022) which has a current forwarding order with other first class item being forwarded to me. This time the sender used the correct address, the address I emailed to him five times previously. The original item was sent certified. So sender error and postal error (not forwarding) combined. It happens.

I messaged seller and received a reply apologizing for being late on shipping and that my order would ship out tomorrow.

Seller addressed me by my first name, which is unusual, because that probably took an extra step to research.

Seller marked item as shipped and even left me positive buyer feedback the day item was marked as shipped, but apparently hasn't shipped item yet. What's unusual is that a similar item sold one day later to another buyer was received by buyer because positive feedback was left by that buyer. Don't know why my order was forgotten about.

Guess I will wait and see what happens.

I think would be helpful if sellers who don't use tracking would use the eBay standard envelope that has tracking. Very ingenious and helpful offering and low cost too.

I sold a pamphlet some time ago and the buyer chose media mail. I sent the envelope across the country, this might have been 2 years ago and the buyer said he never got it. I asked him to wait and he did not. He filed and eBay had me refund him his purchase. I was not happy but had no recourse. after that was done the buyer received the item, was happy with it and made sure I got paid. He also left positive feedback, although there was a comment on the shipping.
I now use eBay shipping, tracked and insured of if it is a larger item will insist on insured and tracked mail. I do not sell much and why should I have a big hassle when the services are reasonable, just not real fast.

My issue in using the eBay standard envelopes is that the labelling, sort of like Registered Mail, seem to scream "steal me" since obviously there must be something of value inside.

Haven't received orders and filed an INR claim. Seller has not responded.

I remember a post by Don (51Studebaker) that mentioned how 100% positive feedback is meaningless. He was correct in this regard. This seller has thousands of feedback over a decade with 100% positive feedback.

These orders were NOT auctions of $100 face value stamps that I was the only bidder on for 99 cents. They were fixed price listings with NO best offer where the seller has 100% control over the price.

I guess there are few ramifications by eBay to ignoring an INR request.