Open Forum → Re: USPS Lost package no insurance, priority mail

billy... chill... your fuel pump is still coming.

In the very unlikely event that the fuel pump never arrives and Delivery Confirmation still only says, "Electronic Info received," you will notify your seller and he will most likely agree and reship the pump (if he has more than one) or refund your money (if he doesn't). In the very unlikely event THAT doesn't work out, either, you file an Item Not Received claim with Paypal within 45 days of auction close and they will most likely refund your money.

Paypal and eBay hold the seller responsible for delivery. Seller can add insurance costs to shipping costs or starting bid to force buyer to pay for it, but it's seller's responsibility to actually pay for insurance if he wants it. On an Item Not Received claim, Paypal just looks at the Delivery Confirmation to rule on Item Not Received claims. If it says the widget was delivered to seller's zip code, seller wins. If not, buyer wins.

You can get burned on eBay this way if Delivery Confirmation says you got the item, but you really didn't. Then you're out the cost of the item. It's rare, but it happens. Shipping insurance may not back you up in that event anyway. Frankly, shipping insurance often doesn't pay off even legitimate claims. They almost never pay off marginal ones.

CylonRed and Harddrive posted incorrect information as far as eBay auctions are concerned. eBay/Paypal procedures take precedence in resolving their disputes internally. What Hall and Krk posted is correct as far as Paypal is concerned.

I agree that the Post Office's "tracking" is the worst by far of them all.

Let me tell you a story about an incident I had.

I had one of those "Delivery Attempt missed" notifications on my door. When I took the note to the post office they couldn't find it. "Confirmation" shows the item as delivered but all I had was the sticky on the door. They never delivered the item, and it was never located. It was a small cost item. (DVD) I didn't dispute it with the seller, because I knew it wasn't their fault the post office screwed up.

About a year later I read an article in the paper. The Feds had broken up a mail theft ring inside the Post Office. They had arrested a number of postal employees for theft of mail, not the actual route carriers but people in the post offices. They recovered a fair amount of stolen items. 2 of the suspects arrested worked out of my post office location. The article said the items that were recovered were small electronic items, DVD's, CD's, video games etc. So there you go. Route carrier returned it to the post office and then most likely these thugs lifted it. So, yeah, it can happen.