I've seen several scams lately where people claim they didn't receive their package.  The buyer usually wants the seller to refund the money to them and then work out the insurance compensation with the post so the seller can get their money back...  THIS IS INCORRECT!

 Think about it.  You sell something for $10 and ship it.  If it never arrives you might then refund the $10 to the buyer.  Now you're out the product worth $10 AND the $10 you received in payment.  Total $20.
 Next you file a claim with the post and (theoretically) recover your $10.    Funny, I thought we were out $20 total?!?!

 Okay, now that you see how insurance DOES NOT work, here's how it works.

 Buyer pays for item and you get your $10.  Now you ship the buyers property (it's not yours anymore).  Days later the buyer claims they never received the package.  You provide them with the tracking information and THEY contact the post asking "where is MY property".  If the post can't deliver it then they pay the buyer $10 for the lost item.  That way you keep your $10 for the item sold and the buyer gets reimbursed for the lost property and all is right with the world.

In short, once you receive payment for something; it's not yours anymore.  The post office only wants to deal with the items OWNER which is the buyer.  Once you ship, you're out of the loop.  Any buyer who complains to you about delivery time or a lost package should receive a politically correct "Call the post office, not me" reply.

Get it?  Got it? Good!

Wags wrote:  Think about it.  You sell something for $10 and ship it.  If it never arrives you might then refund the $10 to the buyer.  Now you're out the product worth $10 AND the $10 you received in payment.  Total $20.
 Next you file a claim with the post and (theoretically) recover your $10.    Funny, I thought we were out $20 total?!?!

 Okay, now that you see how insurance DOES NOT work, here's how it works.

It sounds good, but the reason the math doesn't add up is that you didn't factor in the $10 you received from the buyer. If you add that to the mix, you send back the $10 the buyer sent you, and you're only out the cost of the product... which you claim back from the post office and everything is square.

I've always worked on the principle that the buyer doesn't own the product until they have it in their hands, ie the delivery of the item is the seller's responsibilty. Thankfully I've not had anything go missing yet, but when it does I'll follow it through with the post office and make the claim... and refund the buyer myself.

Regards

Mike

Mars wrote:
This may work for domestic packages but doesn't work for international.  The tracking of a lost package needs to start at the source - at least this is what Canada Post told me.  For a package from the US to Canada, USPS would do the search since that is who the shipping was purchased from and then USPS would contact Canada Post if need be.

Canadian post is a little disengenous on this, though. They've told some of my customers the same thing, but the USPS can ONLY track the package up until the time it enters Canadian customs...where it often gets swallowed into a maw of long waits and delivery times from overworked Canadian postal authorities.  A couple of times lately all I was able to prove to the Canadian customer is that the package has indeed left the United States, and on what date...when presented this the Canadian postal people STILL told them that it needs to be tracked from this side, which just isn't true (nor is it possible).

I have heard of longer and longer delays since Canadians are buying more from the US due to the upsurge of the Canadian dollar....Canadian buyers should be aware this is entirely because of Canadian Customs and has nothing to do with the American side of things.  

Mike B.

I did go to a public school so there's my math training in action...  

 I did have a claim (started) with the post recently ~ the package arrived three days later...

 Anyway, the US Post Office fully explained the process...

Badmike wrote:
It's always good pub to help out the customer in these cases...particularly if the amount is $10 or lower, I'll just refund or replace the product without bothering with insurance...not worth the trouble, and the customer usually really appreciates the service.

Mike B.

Same here.  Especially if we are talking smaller amounts. And when I have had the occasional difficulty, when the seller has done more than they had to - you really do remember it when you go shopping again