Shipping abused me, and I lived to tell about it

[Spincus]

it is 48 degrees outside this morning, and one of those normal low clouds covering the entire sky type of mornings. Bleh.


Things I like, a good cup of tea, chocholate in about any way shape or form but cookies are my fav, sunny warm beautiful spring days, my zune mp3 music player and the unlimited music and podcasts I can play on it. Things I do not like, squash, sour candy, shipping problems.

Today I have to deal with shipping problems, something we should not ever have to deal with. In my first company we shipped 2000 orders a month, 80% of those shipped in 6x9 inch bubble mailers. The cost of my software to manufacture was so low that if a customer did not receive the package we automatically just resent no questions asked.

We did run into lost packages but rarely. What we did notice over time is that there was one area we shipped into that we kept experiencing lost packages. We started sending to that township, and others in NY city, UPS instead of USPS, so that signature was required.

Even with that we still had theft, In one case we still can not figure out how that was done, and that was for a $1,500 item. We had to write it off. There are lots of ways to verify address with credit card processing, and we did them all. Still theft could occur.

Jewelry is much more expensive than replacing software. Even though I was aware of the problem with some NY city addresses, I sent out a package the other day USPS. The customer claims she never received the package. A little further research showed me she was a brand new customer to Etsy, and had place an order with one other vendor.

I contacted that vendor to see if perhaps he had experienced an issues with the customer. Low and behold, that customer made a defective product claim, and the seller promptly replaced the item for free. The buyer was two for two on problems with sellers on Etsy. Not a great record.

She filled a complaint with Etsy about her not receiving her order from me. Here is the letter I got from Etsy:


Hello,

The following transaction has been reported as incomplete by your buyer.

Report filed on: May 07 2008
Transaction Number: 8278102
Buyer: XXXXXX
Seller: Spincus (5600514) [e-mail]

If this is a mistake, please contact [e-mail] to have your case closed.

What to do next:

1)Contact the buyer to offer support, relevant information and to work out a solution. Include proof of shipping or proof of refund when applicable.

2)Contact Etsy: Reply to this email, or write to [e-mail] once you have contacted the buyer. You are welcome to include proof of shipping or proof of refund.

Tip: Please email us from the email address associated with your Etsy username and the claim. This will ensure your identity and protect the privacy of your case.

.........................

Our Policy:

1)Shipping Problems

Etsy does not hold sellers responsible for postal delays, failures, thefts, losses or customs problems. The buyer and seller are urged to file a postal claim in the event of a postal failure.

2)Address Problems

Etsy does not hold sellers responsible for incorrect shipping address submissions. The buyer must provide correct addresses in both their Etsy and PayPal accounts at the time of checkout.

3)Payment Problems

If the buyer has not completed payment, we will close the non-delivery case. A buyer may re-open their case if they send Etsy proof of payment.

4)Returns

The seller must refund a buyer for goods returned, provided the seller has offered a refund. The buyer may not force a return. Both parties must agree to the return. The buyer (sender) is not responsible for postal delays, failures, thefts, losses or customs problems.

5)Seller's Policy

Buyers will be referred to the seller's policy in any of the above events.

..........................

Please be in touch as soon as you can so that we can close your case!

Thank you,
Etsy Support
[e-mail]



It is worth noting that Etsy does not hold sellers responsible for lost packages...

I have the following text both in my in store profile and the message to buyers on the appearance section of my Etsy store.

STORE POLICIES:
WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR LOST OR STOLEN ITEMS. YOU MUST PAY FOR TRACKING AND INSURANCE IF YOU WISH TO PROTECT YOUR ITEMS DURING TRANSIT.


I really hate to do that, what I may do instead is ship USPS tracking and insured on all packages and pass that cost on to customers. This means a jaunt to the post office for every item I ship. What a pain and terrible use of time. As soon as i start getting enough orders I will switch to UPS pick up.

Even still theft can and does occur.

Thinking about it
There are lots of foreign countries that are not worth shipping to. I am sure there are lists out there of what countries to avoid. I generally ship to only known 1st world countries and some other countries with no problems. Beware, issues with custom agents is a whole area of possible theft also.

Cya,
today I get to pour some metal. I am really looking forward to it. Part of the casting leads to an outstanding order for a customer. I have several new handmade findings I cast that will help me create lots of different pieces. Can not wait :)



Welcome to Our Community, Cya

Scott

[artsfarm]

Ah yes, "missing" mail. I'm so glad Etsy changed their policy on undelivered packages because before, all I was hearing was that the seller's policies were being overridden and they were siding with the buyer 100%. There was a lot of controversy over this and a lot of shops were closed because of buyers' claims.

The problem is, even Delivery Confirmation doesn't help because all that shows is that the package was deilvered, so if something is stolen by a 3rd person, you can't prove it actually went to the customer. The only thing one can do is make sure it's signed for, Insurance will get you the money back, but it takes 90 days and you'd have to pay the customer first then wait for your reimbursement, whic has the potential for a whole new set of problems. Insuring in addition to getting a signature seems to be the best protection all around.

I had an 'adventure' a while back that was quite entertaining for a lot of people, but a frustration for me. I bought a few things that were delivered on Dec24. The seller provided tracking and I ended up watching the thing travel across the country until the middle of February, when it went back to the seller and she re-shipped it to me. It was amazing to watch, and I started a thread on it which had tons of people watching the saga and checking in periodically to see where it was that day. It was pretty funny, almost like a "Where in the World is Carmen Santiago?" :-)
This is the tracking info; read it bottom to top. It's pretty amusing, except if you think of all the gas and man-hours that were wasted:
http://www.stamps.com/shipstatus/submit/?confirmation=9101010521297664156688