Opinion on a shipping deal and liability for lost package

[cave_hero]

I shipped a package back in June. I shipped within hours of payment being received and provided tracking to the buyer via PM and on PayPal. Package shown delivered a few days later.

Two weeks ago the buyer contacted me and said it didn’t arrive. The USPS still says it delivered on the tracking.

His post office is no help and I asked mine and they said since it shows delivered they can’t claim insurance (package was under a 100).

I take my deals very seriously, I offered a partial refund but I don’t feel I should have to offer a full refund as I did everything 100% as the seller and provided tracking correctly.

13+ Years of selling/trading and this is the first time this has happened.

What are y’all’s opinion?

Thank you.

[Carp]

The only thing extra you could've done was a courtesy follow up PM/email, to check for any problems. But, that's going the extra mile. USPS's online tracking has been hit and miss, as of late, for me at least

[Cyberpyr8]

Over a month went by and no response, I would have assumed it was fine too. You went above and beyond by offering a partial refund. The buyer should have followed up on that sooner. It starts to get shady if they wait that long and then claim it never showed up.

[BigRed]

You gave tracking and it showed delivered. Did the buyer ask for any additional security like requiring a signiture? If they agreed to that shipping method then they can't complain all that much. Surely they tracked the package and saw it said delivered.

[punkncat]

Unfortunately for buyers from any source, once it shows "delivered" it's a pretty much done deal. We can only hope our postman isn't dumping stuff in the trash (topical, eh?). It isn't your concern that they don't have a camera on the porch or had asked you for signature delivery, etc. You went above and beyond even offering a partial refund. Your conscious is clear aside from the compassionate thought of something that DOES suck for the buyer.

[Interl0per]

Yep it sucks I would feel sick to my stomach if this happened to a buyer but as said above, you provided tracking, it shows delivered, your responsibility is fulfilled. Last year I had a gun show delivered and it was nowhere to be found around my porch. I live in one of those neighborhoods where we have 4 streets with the same name differentiated only by cardinal direction with the same street numbers (genius!) As it's not unusual for me to get others mail and have to take it to them, I went to the nearest home with the same number as mine and sure enough there it was. I lucked out, the owner of that house could have had a sweet paintball gun for free and there would have been nothing I could have done about it once they disposed of the packaging with my name on it. You take a gamble with the cut-rate service.

[punkncat]

I have a local issue where there is another street with the same exact number and the name is barely off, same zip. There was a period of a bit longer than a year that most of my paintball gear was going there by mistake. I traded info with the very nice woman who lived there and knows absolutely nothing about paintball and she would call me when stuff arrived there. I was able to have the issue resolved, luckily.

[Lazarus78]

shit. if you sent tracking and it said delivered. you're done.
offering a partial refund is already too much.

[Carp]

shit. if you sent tracking and it said delivered. you're done.
offering a partial refund is already too much.

Mental note to self: Don't purchase anything from Lazarus78, punkncat, greystone or...

[cave_hero]

I had 28+ pages of perfect feedback before the mcb crash, I certainly don’t want to ever leave a deal as unfavorable, even though it was the post office’s fault and I did everything right.

I took care of the situation. This has never happened before, regardless of it not being my fault, I don’t want bad paintball karma.

Thanks all for your input.

[Lazarus78]

Mental note to self: Don't purchase anything from Lazarus78 or punkncat...

words to live by! 😘

[Cdn_Cuda]

Tough one. If tracking said it arrived it becomes between the post office and the person who bought it. Guy could easily just say he didn’t receive it when he actually did. Yes, there are people like that. You even provided tracking, so it should not have taken a month to be contacted. They’d could check, see the package was delivered well before then. Sounds like buyer’s regret.

That being said, I’m Canadian so different postal system.

[BigRed]

I had 28+ pages of perfect feedback before the mcb crash, I certainly don’t want to ever leave a deal as unfavorable, even though it was the post office’s fault and I did everything right.

I took care of the situation. This has never happened before, regardless of it not being my fault, I don’t want bad paintball karma.

Thanks all for your input.

Very stand up move! Way beyond what was needed.

This could have been a porch pirate scenario as well.

[punkncat]

Mental note to self: Don't purchase anything from Lazarus78, punkncat, greystone or...

Lol...I guess I should make a mental note to make sure you get signature delivery.

There is no question that is sucks...but as far as liability and proper form are concerned, feedback be damned...if the shipper put it on your porch, marked as delivered, calls were made to verify the package went to the correct address (I have caught issues this way) then there is really nothing more to do as a seller. If you are willing to give your shit away, what is the purpose in selling?
How do we know that the buyer isn't a douche canoe that got the package and is now pulling a scam? As above, porch pirates?

I have a camera on my porch/drive so I KNOW when things go on out there.

[punkncat]

I had 28+ pages of perfect feedback before the mcb crash, I certainly don’t want to ever leave a deal as unfavorable, even though it was the post office’s fault and I did everything right.

I took care of the situation. This has never happened before, regardless of it not being my fault, I don’t want bad paintball karma.

Thanks all for your input.

TBH I don't think anyone has paid much attention to my feedback in years. I certainly didn't seem to be able to "remind" folks to leave it very often, even now on the new site.
With that said, even when I see one bad feedback, I typically try to look and see what the story behind it is and whether it's just retribution from sour grapes, etc. If you had 28 pages of good and one bad it certainly wouldn't faze me up and until it started showing as a trend.

[freedom]

i'd say you're good. i've shipped about 700 packages (ebay and MCB). you offered a partial refund even.
However, I would call paypal and ask them but i'd have all the pertinent information in front of me.