Hi I posted an item with tracking, no signature, and it has not been received. The tracking info sho

[charlotterosehelen]

Hi I posted an item with tracking, no signature, and it has not been received. The tracking info shows that the item is in transit and has been so for four weeks.

I have filed a lost property with APO. I have been emailing the buyer telling what I have been doing.

My question is if it cannot be found in the system do I have to refund? ($15)

Cannot see on Paypal site if I will be compensated.

I would appreciate advice from experienced sellers. Thank you.

[cq_tech]

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@*crikey*mate* wrote:

I wonder if the OP has such a receipt? I hope so.

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The OP would have been issued one upon acceptance by AP. However, whether or not they kept it is another matter.

Incidentally, some members have reported that their LPOs are now issuing receipts without postcodes but if so, it is just a matter of asking them to make sure it's included by manually entering it into the printer which issues the receipt.

[charlotterosehelen]

I appreciate the advice from you all. I did post thru ebay and I have the receipt fom the post office so I shall now see how I go with paypal. Many thanks Charlie

[digital*ghost]

In regards to regular parcel deliveries... Not all <500gm parcels are delivered by the regular postie, in fact, I'd say a pretty low percentage of them are, but regardless the regular postie does have a scanner so it is within the realm of possibiity for them to scan parcels as they deliver them (they have to for anything requiring a signature). I can't comment on whether or not they do because I haven't asked and it's been a long time since I've had a small parcel delivered straight to my home letterbox. 

Secondly, the parcels that are delivered by a contractor are definitely (supposed to be) scanned on delivery - that's why they have statuses like 'on board with driver, out for delivery', then 'delivered', and that applies to ALL parcels, regular, satchels, whatever.

[thecatspjs]

My small parcels delivered by postie are scanned - both those to my regular street address and those to my PO Box address. 

I also regularly monitor some of the parcels I post (large and small) usually those where the value is high, or other identified risks are in play - after a woeful performance in the successful delivery of my parcels last year, this year APs performance has signficantly improved in the number of scans along the way, and on final delivery,

I do note that parcels I send and receive seem to travel on some very "interesting" routes to get delivered to me - and I am often left bemused (or lamenting) at the inconsistencies and inefficiencies that are apparent in the time taken to travel from sender to addressee as well as the number of venues that are from time to time involved in handling and processing small and large parcels.

[digital*ghost]

Yours must get scanned more frequently than mine - sent or received - as I only ever seem to get the 'Accepted' > Out for delivery > Delivered scans, though the delivery time fluctuates quite a lot between the same locations, so I can only presume a few take the scenic route. 

I've noticed parcels being delivered to my PO box seem to have different statuses depending on who does the scan, sometimes it gets scanned as delivered and then re-scanned as awaiting collection, but usually if it fits in the actual box it's 'delivered' but if they have to card it, it's 'awaiting collection'. 

Thing is, now that anyone can subscribe via email to tracking events of the majority of parcels, including regular pre-paids, I imagine AP would have to field a high number of panicked / confused phone calls if every regular parcel was scanned as delivered before it actually was. 

[thecatspjs]

Yes, if items were scanned as delivered prior to being so, and it was reported AP would have to open an investigation, if reported. 

I had two of those last year (both being sent to me) and both were located by the AP team and were each actually in transit - and were then delivered to me the next day. 

I imagine it would a no no for obvious reasons.  I would speculate that these might be irate customers, lack of accountability, exposes them to accusations of internal theft and the time it takes to then takes to process and investigation and track down individual parcels. 

But who knows what a company management team is thinking, what they say and what they do are often two different things.

[*crikey*mate*]

When I rang AP about the parcel that happened to me on, that's what they told me happened and to wait until 5pm that night as it still might be on the way. If it wasn't delivered to ring back tomorrow.

Here in Qld at least the 500g parcels go by postman and those over go by the vans. If the postman can't carry all the pARCELS HE JUST oops sorry leaves a card for them in the letter box.

found out that anamoly when I got some packages, some cards and we had been home all day.

the 500g and letters go to a different sorting centre than the over 500g packages.

[digital*ghost]

Some of those anomalies are area / post office / postman specific, part of a decision to save time or money, or simply to make things easier for someone, somewhere, I have seen posties admit that they carded 99% of the parcels they were given to deliver, stating that it was partly to save time and partly because most of the time no one is home when they go by, but then the recipients get annoyed that they have to wait until the postie finishes their route and return the parcels to the PO so that they can be picked up, but either way in those instances the status should not ever be 'delivered', but 'awaiting collection'. 

I tend to think some of these things AP have advised would increase their workload rather than reduce, so don't make a whole lot of sense in context of how other things work, and certainly goes against the bulk of what I've experienced as sender / receiver of parcels.

While there's often an immediate visual indicator when a parcel is a regular pre-paid, express or eBay / C&S satchel, there would still be lots of C&S parcels in own packaging along with lots of regular own-packaging over-the counter parcels, etc, which means to treat all these different <500gm parcels in different ways would require sorting at a point before delivery, which I suspect would cost more than treating them all the same (in theory, and - as mentioned above - individual area manager / postie practices etc notwithstanding) . 

[shepherdsrule]

Refund the buyer, sort it out with AP and paypal later.

As a seller (supplier) you need to keep your customer happy, and deal with the rest later.

Even at BM stores, if you take an item back for a refund, they do not make you wait until they have been reimbursed by their supplier, that is all part and parcel of running a business (store).

If you can prove postage, then paypal should reimburse you from their own coffers, so neither you nor the buyer are out of pocket.

[thecatspjs]

Paypal does not reimburse a seller if they refund a buyer for a lost parcel.