On my way to my first Negative Feedback on eBay?

[Grateful11]

The guys being a jerk but never ever ship anything, I don't care if only cost $5 without Delivery
Confirmation. My wife has over 3400 feedback and if you print labels through eBay and
PayPal it automatically puts Delivery Confirmation on it as far as I know, it's included with
Priority but cost like 20¢ with Parcel Post. She won a dispute where a package was delivered
but the woman claimed she never got it, maybe it was stolen from her box weI don't know.
The Delivery Confirmation saved her on that one. She's heard ever excuse in the book.

Not trying to steal your thread but:

The one that gets me now is the guy that claims his son got an empty Lego box on Christmas
morning. The box was factory sealed, we have pictures of the seals. He claims it a box in a box
with a manual and no Lego pieces. Odd thing is we have the sheet where we wrote down all
the actual weights of the Lego sets before listing them and an empty Lego box even with a
manual doesn't weigh 14oz, no way, no how. He emailed on Christmas day and we haven't
heard anything since so I'm thinking he's lying. He bought 3 expensive Lego's and if he's
telling the truth she feels bad about it but It been 3 weeks and no other communication.

[DavidS]

The post office clerk did not suggest Priority or Delivery Confirmation, but I also told her that I wanted to send it Parcel Post. I'm not sure what the cost difference would have been. Yes, hindsight is 20/20. I sent out two other packages that day. I have not heard from those buyers, but they were in California and Mass, so they are probably expecting it to take longer for shipment.

PayPal has temporarily dinged my account for -$57.16 ($60 - their fees), but I always clear out my account right after making a sale, so there is no money currently in it.

A few years ago, I bought a fragile item that showed up broken and was barely packaged. I filed a dispute and did all the right things. PayPal sided with me, but because the person had no money in their account, they could not refund my purchase price. Since then, I never leave money in my account, in case I'm on the receiving end of a dispute, like now.

I agree with eBay being ruined in their own success. I try to use Craigslist more for selling now, but will look into Amazon Marketplace.

[Mac1337]

Does Delivery Confirmation require a signature? If not, then what is the proof that the buyer actually received it? You can go down this road further. Does the person receiving the merchandise have to show ID that he is indeed the buyer?

[vicrock]

Delivery confirmation is a bar code scan. It doesn't show who it was delivered to, just that it was delivered.

[Zoidberg]

Back in the 90s I sold an old Treo on eBay. At least, I think it was a Treo. Anyway, I shipped it FedEx (had an office in the building I worked and the guy there would always give me his $5 shipper discount).

A few weeks later I got an email from the buyer (he was in NYC), claiming he never received it. I looked it all up online, and it was shown as received and had the signature/name, etc. I passed this on to the buyer, who was claiming someone else must have signed for the box and then, "I'll tell you what; we'll claim it as stolen and I'll split the money with you that FedEx gives us for the insurance".

I simply countered with, "well, I shipped it via our FedEx agent; I'll turn it over to him and one of their investigators in New York will come to you to question you about it -- can I get a phone number for him to call? my agent tells me a NYC Detective might accompany him, so don't be worried if a cop shows up at your door".

I never heard from the guy again.

[RAMd®d]

As mentioned, an electronic shipping label with a proper Delivery Confirmation barcode gets that service for free for either Parcel Post (also Media Mail) and Priority Mail.

I use an old app called Swordfish when I mail. But it doesn't provide postage payment, so I take it to the window. This also gets a delivery scan that parcels with postage already applied and just "dropped off" usually do not get.

This guy is definitely a jerk. You mail it on Wednesday and he's already complaining on the following Monday?! I have no idea where you from and to, but that's just not enough time to say "it shoulda been here by now!!"

Requiring proof of delivery is a good idea and protects the buyer. Very reasonable. But is this made obvious in the ebay Regs? Or is it a fine print thing? (I do not do ebay.) Such a policy mandates that one use Delivery Confirmation at the very least, and Insured mail if the article is worth some real money. Otherwise it seems you're at the buyers' mercy.

Sometimes people really suck.

[Zoidberg]

I miss Swordfish. They farked it all up when they upgraded it to Encidia and made it a pay-for-postage app.

Another anecdote re/the buyers we deal with, and a note that Amazon is not immune from the eBaydiots: sold a video on Amazon, and got an angry email from a woman the next day demanding her money back because she hadn't gotten the DVD. I emailed back and said it was shipping via MediaMail that day, as she had only ordered it the night before. Her response; "I am supposed to get it TODAY, everyone knows that EVERYTHING you order online is delivered THE NEXT DAY, Mr. Amazon com!"

[clay]

Zoidberg wrote:
Another anecdote re/the buyers we deal with, and a note that Amazon is not immune from the eBaydiots: sold a video on Amazon, and got an angry email from a woman the next day demanding her money back because she hadn't gotten the DVD. I emailed back and said it was shipping via MediaMail that day, as she had only ordered it the night before. Her response; "I am supposed to get it TODAY, everyone knows that EVERYTHING you order online is delivered THE NEXT DAY, Mr. Amazon com!"

But the customer is always right! ;-) Gotta love those idiots!

[Grateful11]

I believe if the declared value is over $250 or some amount then a signature is required.

DC is free only with Priority and if and item is under 2 lbs. Priority is cheaper than Parcel Post
if postage is purchased online. Be very careful using Media Mail, there are new regulations on
what can be shipping via Media Rate.

[Zoidberg]

Media Mail is generally for books and film (DVD, VHS, etc.) as well as CDs. The ages-old poster in my Post Office says "no game cartridges" which, of course, is anarchic as few games are on cartridges per se. There's no specific mention of games anymore, but "computer-readable media" is allowed.

The 2010 rules are as follows:

"Generally used for books (at least eight pages), film (16 mm or narrower), printed music, printed test materials, video and sound recordings, playscripts, printed educational charts, loose-leaf pages and binders consisting of medical information, and computer-readable media. Sound recordings may include incidental announcements of recordings and guides or scripts prepared solely for use with such recordings. Books may contain no advertising other than incidental announcements of other books."

http://pe.usps.gov/text/qsg300/Q370.htm