USPS Delivery Problem

[toppygray82]

Well,I never had to do this,but I feel I need to put out an alert of some sort.

I recently shipped a knife a fella purchased through Paypal . The guys name is not going to be mentioned at this time,as I have no proof of where this knife actually went. In his correspondences during the purchase,he told me the knife would be delivered to a " locked Postal Locker " ,and that is was under lock and key,this is how they get their mail ( I believe at his work) ,and I should use " my own descretion" as to what I should do sending it. But,he made it sound as if it were no big deal. I took that ,did not think anything more & just sent it out ,priority small flat rate box ,with the tracking and $50. insurance it came with,I did not add any insurance.

Now in the past I have 100% with this system & last year costs at the P.O. were well over 6K for me,so I'm not new to shipping boxes.

Sure enough,I get the email. Buyer claims he tracked it,sent his wife down there to get it & no box in " lockedstal locker" Tracking says it was scanned/ delivered to that locker

I basically replied to him,I could call the PO ,the # he gave me,but I do not know what else I can do,what would you like me to do ? type answer. He replied that me as the sellier should look into it better ,and make some kind of something,I dunno what ?

I did mention,seems at on the end of delivery line there is a theif.


So he says I leave him not much choice but for him to put in a Paypal claim.

I write back,don't do that,lemme look into it. I told him without letting me look into it,he's jumping the gun.

I then went directly to Paypal sent his money back to him. I'd like to add,too,this buyer haggled me a little on price ,I cut him a break,so it certainly seemed extra expense on shipping was not going to happen to make the sale.


Then I'm on facebook ,in a group that alerts members of the group of scams,ng buyers,etc. I always like to look to see what's what. A knife maker has a post up about a knife was not delivered ,but tracks to ,delivered,at " postal locker " ( buyer said " locked postal locker " ) I mention this postal locker deal had just happened to me . Another member then posts " this is the third one of these in less than two weeks" ,he's heard of.


So with no other options, I am putting out this alert. I will also be adding extra shipping expenses to newly listed knives after this,I'll eat the cost of everything listed so far. Signature confirmation,and I found out or a little extra I can get restrictions on the signature as well,meaning the exact name on the package has to be signed.

There is no real garauntee at the end of the day. I know sellers ,makers,who send high end items only registered US mail.

This will add cost,more work,on my end. Less wiggle room on prices.

Prior to me starting to write this , I did get off the phone with the post office at the zip code of delivery,telephone # provided to me by the buyer. She advised me to make a claim at my PO box for the $50. at the very least,then added," I need to get off the phone asap,as the alarm for the hurricane was going on,an evacuation"

There's a lot to think about here ,concerning something that to me,was just another day popping out boxes. But when I here someone say " third one like this in less than two weeks" ,well that's an eye opener.

So be careful how you ship and consider this alert

Thank You all.

I may or may not show the said knife ,as a " stolen knife alert " type thing,I really can't see how that could make a difference

Wow
Sorry to hear that Vince.

Fortunately i had never had a problem with usps. Im crossing my fingers as i type.

I have sold and purchased many knives from good fellas but i always played it safe.

When i ship expensive items i ship express insured and signature confirmation unless i know or have conducted business with person before.


If this person is a scammer..

Not saying he or she is.

Karma exist.

It pains me to read your post as i know you are a good man and have made purchases from you before.


In the knife community there
arent that many asSHOLES as they end up being shuned , exposed or take their business practices somewhere else. i have only dealt with gentleman who are men of their words.

I am young but not too young old but not to old but i grew up ,respecting and adhering to my word. as i am a man of my word.

Integrity is a must.

Dear bf members

If you know anybody that should be exposed for good reasons please let us know.

We have to help each other.

 

[craytab]

How can you collect insurance on a package when the tracking says it was delivered correctly?

 

[palonej]

How can you collect insurance on a package when the tracking says it was delivered correctly?

Collecting the PO insurance is hard enough to do when they lose your package......I think, in this case, it would be impossible.
What really sucks here is who is lying.......the buyer or the post man??
Hoping you get squared away Vince!
Joe

 

[VCM3]

How can you collect insurance on a package when the tracking says it was delivered correctly?

You can't

 

[VCM3]

Collecting the PO insurance is hard enough to do when they lose your package......I think, in this case, it would be impossible.
What really sucks here is who is lying.......the buyer or the post man??
Hoping you get squared away Vince!
Joe

And that's why I will not name the buyer,but I am am changing policies as I go Thanks All,-Vince

 

[BBuser]

There is always a risk in package delivery. If a package is tracked, left at the door etc. but not there later the seller obviously shipped something, it just went astray. I once sent a camera to a private party for repair. He shipped it back UPS but didn't add extra insurance. It would have helped if I was expecting it but the box was gone. UPS paid the $100 basic insurance. In your case the post office should pay you the basic insurance. You obviously shipped a package and deserve the benefit of the doubt. So does the buyer if he has a good feedback rating. Packages get miss deliverved. That's what insurance is for-lower blood pressure.

 

[craytab]

There is always a risk in package delivery. If a package is tracked, left at the door etc. but not there later the seller obviously shipped something, it just went astray. I once sent a camera to a private party for repair. He shipped it back UPS but didn't add extra insurance. It would have helped if I was expecting it but the box was gone. UPS paid the $100 basic insurance. In your case the post office should pay you the basic insurance. You obviously shipped a package and deserve the benefit of the doubt. So does the buyer if he has a good feedback rating. Packages get miss deliverved. That's what insurance is for-lower blood pressure.

It will be USPS's position that it was delivered correctly and they can prove it with the tracking. You can't collect insurance on something when there are no documented issues.

 

[knifeswapper]

In my experience, USPS will not pay a claim on a scanned delivered package. But you probably should have let him filed the PP claim. Because paypal is hard to convince that a package scanned delivered by the USPS to an address the buyer provided is the seller's fault. I have heard of them finding for the recipient; but in my experience, with a scanned delivery, they will find for the seller. In this situation, there is no fault whatsoever on the sellers part. In the least, the buyer needs to work over his local USPS.

 

[Heirphoto]

If you only ship to the buyers PayPal confirmed address and the USPS tracking shows it delivered to that same confirmed address PayPal will side with you on a claim, ship anywhere else, even if tracking says delivered you are not protected.

Sent from my LGMS769 using Tapatalk

 

[zzyzzogeton]

I have all my packages sent to a PO that has the same type of parcel lockers. I've done so for years. They even accept FedEx and UPS deliveries. Doing so has prevent the loss of many packages due to "mailbox shoppers", thieves that follow delivery trucks out in rural areas and pick things out of mail boxes and off porches.

I have frequently had packages show up in the system as being "Delivered" and they are not in a locker. THAT DAY. The way I understand the system, as relayed by my Post Master, is that package are scanned as arriving at the post office. If a package does not require a signature, it goes off to the side to be sorted. As soon as the package is scanned into the system as being at the PO, it shows up in the tracking system as having been delivered. Then the package gets distributed. As most knives in boxes will not fit into the smaller PO boxes, the package gets put into one of the parcel lockers in the lobby and a key is placed into the PO box.

EXCEPT - IF the postal clerks go to box up the package and ALL THE LOCKERS ALREADY HAVE PACKAGES IN THEM FOR OTHER PO BOX HOLDERS, the package goes to a holding zone - shelving in the back. The next day or so, the packages get redistributed from the shelves to the lockers as packages are removed by postal clients.

I have waited 2 or 3 days for a key to be put in my box. But then I am not impatient as some people. On more than one occasion, usually for high dollar knives and swords, I'll take the tracking number to the front desk and say "This tracking number shows as delivered, but I don't have any keys in my box." They go in the back and track it down.

To me, this sounds like a case of the buyer not having any patience, and not knowing how the package distribution system at the PO works.

 

[VCM3]

Thanks everyone for posting info to this thread ,and great posts all around.

I found my initial emails on my phone. Now looking back I realized the buyer,in looking for his " best deal" was offered send funds " f&f" ,to lower his cost ( we avoid fee's) He did it,sent me his addy seperate,as I asked.

So key facts here ,package tracks " delivered" ,and $$ sent with no Paypal buyer protection.

It is my opinion that the buyer talked about filing a Paypal claim immediately the next morning ,was due to my replies to him,they were short,as I knew there was not much I could do for him. He was frustated & possibly aggrevated him. It pisses me off too if I get a bad feeling about a deal from the get go and it goes South. It has happened before to me .

I was not able to talk too much to the po people on the delivery end as it was bad timing due to hurricane Matthew.

I did discuss this with my PO people.

I will be discussing,with the buyer,the fact I need participation on the receiving end of each deal. I have already done so with one,and guess what,it was going to a ' locked box' We went the sig. required method.

I hope this incident was a " fluke" . I'm sure it was,I've been fortunate ,have a great feedback and only wish to continue doing what I do selling knives.
For me it is not all about profit,I do enjoy getting some knives into peeps stash . A lot of times it's knives they would not be able to get anywhere else . Sometimes my items are sold at cost,sometimes even at a little loss , so it is important not to add losses due to shipping .

Thanks everyone for discussing this through with me,-Vince

 

[Azula Gun Holsters]

You are covered by paypal if the item shows delivered. Has happened quite a few times with us. I just tell the customer to file a claim with Paypal and as long as we have the tracking number that shows delivery, we are covered and will not lose our money.

Now if you use the Friends and Family, this is not covered and someone gets the short end of the stick.

 

[Monofletch]

What exactly is a locked postal locker? Similar to a PO box?

Was said lockers address tied to ther paypal account?

In our district here in St.Louis some of the newer neighborhoods have "cluster boxes" instead of door to door delivery. Each set of boxes has a few parcel lockers. The carrier puts the parcel in the locked box and the key for that box in the correct mailbox of the recipient.
Ask your local Post Office to give you the GEO location of the delivery. They should be able to tell you if it was at said parcel locker!
It sounds fishy to me that the buyer pointed out or warned you of the lockers. I call BS!

 

[Monofletch]

How can you collect insurance on a package when the tracking says it was delivered correctly?

The Post Office uses a GPS system now. When the carrier scans a package at the door it will give a grid along with the delivery status. A supervisor can look at the delivery info in a program on our system that will show a picture and give the address of the location that carrier was standing from Google Maps. If the delivery GEO Location is different from the addressee they will issue a claim.
I hope that helps.

 

[VCM3]

The Post Office uses a GPS system now. When the carrier scans a package at the door it will give a grid along with the delivery status. A supervisor can look at the delivery info in a program on our system that will show a picture and give the address of the location that carrier was standing from Google Maps. If the delivery GEO Location is different from the addressee they will issue a claim.
I hope that helps.

This is all fine & well,but if the carrier scans it but then does not leave it,and walks away with it,how can you stop that.

In my case here,a little digging found this incident happened twice to the same guy. Both days it happened,there was a fill in person delivering mail. I'm 95% to 99.5% sure,that this was a Postal employee theft. It was reported once before by the buyer,with no compensations made. Now looking back,as soon as I told the person on the phone the tracking number,date and buyers address,she immediatly said,"oh we have to go,evac. because of Matthew" She could have said giveme your numberI'll get back to you about this. It's almost as if they themselves knew they had a thief there ,with this fill in carrier.

 

[craytab]

The Post Office uses a GPS system now. When the carrier scans a package at the door it will give a grid along with the delivery status. A supervisor can look at the delivery info in a program on our system that will show a picture and give the address of the location that carrier was standing from Google Maps. If the delivery GEO Location is different from the addressee they will issue a claim.
I hope that helps.

Right but most likely what happens is the box was delivered correctly but taken off a porch or something. Or as VCM3 has said, a dishonest employee has taken the package. The later rarely happens but it would explain this situation and defeat the GPS system.

 

[VCM3]

Right but most likely what happens is the box was delivered correctly but taken off a porch or something. Or as VCM3 has said, a dishonest employee has taken the package. The later rarely happens but it would explain this situation and defeat the GPS system.

Bingo. I'll be using signature required moreso. Anything real big dollar ,registered & insured

 

[Monofletch]

I am only trying to help. My opinion....for this to happen twice with the SAME addressee I'm betting it isn't the mail carrier.

 

[craytab]

I am only trying to help. My opinion....for this to happen twice with the SAME addressee I'm betting it isn't the mail carrier.

And you are very helpful. That is good info about the GPS and I bet it solves a lot of problems. I also bet this issue and most others are not the fault of USPS. Overwhelmingly more likely to be an unscrupulousness buyer.

 

[VCM3]

I am only trying to help. My opinion....for this to happen twice with the SAME addressee I'm betting it isn't the mail carrier.

It is a tough call ,especially add in more info,buyer met me half way on the loss. But at the end of the day,there's no insurance,no way to collect minimum insurance because it was scanned delivered,no buyer protection,buyer asked for discount and we mutually agreed to " f&f" Paypal payment.

Like I originally typed,this rarely happens to me. Bottom line is I will ask more questions about where the knife is going and let the buyer know a signature will be required and,participation on the receiving end will be expected. I have frequent buyers ,that this is not going to happen,but if I've never done business with the buyer I'll be all over it before I ship anything out. That's my own insurance.