The Yak Shack Forum

I mailed out a couple of cards earlier this month with insurance and signature confirmation.  The seller never went to the post office to pick them up and now I fear they're probably heading back to me.  The package is worth almost $250.  Should I ask the seller for additional postage to send the package back to him?  I won't send it without sig confirmation and insurance just for my own protection.

I believe you should for sure...although, if you send with delivery confirmation, you cannot ever loose a dispute with paypal.

It isn't your fault, Kelly, that the buyer didn't go to the post office to pick up the package, or make arrangements to have it delivered when the buyer could be home.  All it would have taken was a simple phone call to have the package delivered on a Saturday.  If the buyers wants the items, he or she should be charged for the extra expense.

I'm not so sure that you can't lose a dispute with PayPal with delivery confirmation.  A package I recently sent to a buyer was not scanned by that person's post office, so there was no record of delivery.  I knew the item had been received only because the buyer left me feedback.  When you get delivery confirmation through PayPal shipping, a number is generated, but there is no proof that the seller actually put the item in the mail.  I don't know what PayPal would do if a buyer claimed to not receive an item and delivery confirmation showed only the default message that the shipper notified USPS that a package was ready for shipment. :-\

PayPal also requires that shipments worth $250 or more have signature confirmation, or the seller won't be protected by the Seller Protection Policy.  Kelly's package was worth a little less than $250, but still, I'd feel better with insurance and signature confirmation.

If you have to resend it, then they should repay for the shipping.

Signature confirmation should be proof enough for paypal.  Delivery confirmation (online shipping) may not always be scanned, but delivery confirmation (post office shipping) should be - it definitely shows exactly WHEN the purchase was shipped where online shipping only shows that it was expected to ship...

Thanks guys!  What an idot.  He must be made of money or something not to care about a package he paid so much for.

I would put your cards in a safe place, contact the buyer, and let him know the cards were returned to you.  Don't remail them until you hear from the buyer.  I had that happen several years ago with a book that was sent to me on approval.  I decided I didn't want to buy the book and shipped it back the the seller via UPS.  The seller refused to accept the book back and returned it to me.  I ended up keeping the book.  Obviously this person isn't a Potter Card fanatic like us.  I would be sitting at the Post Office until my cards arrived.

Plus, delivery confirmation only really shows that the package was delivered ... somewhere. There's always the chance that is was delivered to the wrong place, or was stolen from a mailbox or a porch. With signature confirmation, you have confidence that the recipient actually signed. Though yes, sometimes it's not 100% convenient for somebody to synch schedules with a mail carrier or find a way to pick something up at the post office.

Within the U.S. delivery confirmation is pretty cheap. But for shipments from U.K. to U.S., signature confirmation is actually cheaper than Recorded/delivery tracking. Foreign or domestic, you can't usually tell much about the progress of a parcel like you can with (say) UPS until final delivery.

But in response to the original question, I think it should be automatic to request additional $ for reshipping. You kept your part of the bargain under the original contract. If signing is a big problem for the receiver, I'd ask them for a work address first (or the name of a care-of address from a trusted neighbor who ought to be home at delivery time) before I'd settle for a lesser form of confirmation.

Thanks for the response everyone, and now I have good news.  The buyer contacted me and said he got a final notice in his box today.  Apparently the other notices were never delivered.  Crisis OVER!  ;D  YAY!