USPS/eBay/PP advice (1 Viewer)

mathewsarcher83

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Hi All,
I recently picked up a couple single chips on eBay to replace damaged chips in my rack.

ive seen various threads on USPS issues, and I don’t want to beat a dead horse considering all the issues that we’re aware of but I am looking for some advice here.

I purchased the chips on Sun July 26. It was received at USPS and scanned in on Monday the 27th, and made its way to the next checkpoint on the 28th (scanned). However, the Aug 1 line shows “in transit, arriving late”.... which I’m not even sure qualifies as a scan per se. I attached a screenshot of the tracking.

No scans or updates have been logged since Aug 1 and I reached out to the seller via msg on Friday Aug 7 stating that I laid no blame with them on this but that I was worried a small item may have been lost considering the lack of scans. They asked me to wait a while as the L.A. area is having significant postal issues due to covid rules. I take this at face value as true considering their 100% feedback score. They claim that 90% of their shipments have had issues with some being delayed a month. I was also asked to give it some time, which I agreed to.

long story short, how would you all play this? How long would you wait without additional scans or progress updates before filing some sort of claim with eBay/PayPal etc. I’m not a confrontational person by nature, so I’m not looking for drama or a fight with the seller - my issue isn’t with them at all.

The order was $8 total, so it’s small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. I’d even let the issue go if it’s a hassle to file claims with PayPal/eBay (I’ve never had to do one). I just find the whole thing odd considering I’ve been doing a lot of buying and selling on here and eBay, with packages going all across the country without one issue in recent months.

Any advice would be welcomed - thanks!
Ryan
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I’ve had a few packages stall in transit, but they arrived. USPS is undergoing some changes and I would expect major metro areas to be hit worse.
 
What @BGinGA said on giving it a week. You're definitely not alone. At least three of my recent deliveries hit the "in transit, arriving late" designation, typically the day before or day of expected delivery. One of them arrived in Kansas City two days before delivery date, then status changed while sitting at the main distro center. All three eventually arrived, with the latest being three days.
 
These days, two weeks seems to be more of the norm, than an exception. I don’t think I’d be concerned until it hit the three week mark.
 
I did some cursory investigation of my options and I think there’s like a 30 day window for filing a claim beginning on the expected delivery date. I was a few Wellers in when I started looking online for answered so perhaps I read it wrong! I’ll have to take another look.
 
What @BGinGA said on giving it a week. You're definitely not alone. At least three of my recent deliveries hit the "in transit, arriving late" designation, typically the day before or day of expected delivery. One of them arrived in Kansas City two days before delivery date, then status changed while sitting at the main distro center. All three eventually arrived, with the latest being three days.
Good to know. Thanks
 
I agree with giving it more time. I’ve sent out a number of eBay items to buyers over the last 2 months, and a few have taken a loooong time to arrive, often stalling in a hub with the same note, “in transit, arriving late”. I appreciate the patient buyers, because I know it sucks when your paid item is just sitting somewhere. For me, all my items go through the Jersey City, NJ hub, and some can sit there for 10 days before moving on.
Hang in there, I’m sure it’s still on it’s way.
 
Shipping first class mail domestically (with a tracking number via PayPal shipping), my packages haven't seen any delays lately. Pretty much everything gets to the intended destination in 3-4 days max. The only delays I have seen is shipping to Canada or Europe.
 
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long story short, how would you all play this? How long would you wait without additional scans or progress updates before filing some sort of claim with eBay/PayPal etc. I’m not a confrontational person by nature, so I’m not looking for drama or a fight with the seller - my issue isn’t with them at all.
It's funny -- shipping times seem to be all over the place recently, I've received some USPS priority mail boxes with little delay recently from across the country, but one small padded envelope with just 3 chips took 10 days to get from nearby in Maryland to Washington DC, (only around 30-40 miles), shipped first class with tracking. (Nothing was wrong with the envelope or tracking bar code or anything -- package arrived fine, just late)

And it's not just UPS -- I also had a recent issue with FedEx with a package delivery to my office in DC (on 4th floor of a mostly empty office building), FedEx tracking indicated the recipient "refused" the delivery attempt even though no one showed up at our door, no one called my cell phone number (which FedEx had), no one from FedEx left a delivery tag/post-it note at our front door like typically would, and the security person in the front lobby of our office building downstairs told me no one from FedEx came by, or she would have let them up to the 4th floor for the delivery. FedEx returned the package to sender, who resent it, and FedEx again said 'delivery attempt refused', although this time I had the tracking number and ended up driving to the FedEx delivery center after 6pm to pick up the package myself.
 
sorry to hear that. I had been picking up packages from ups or fedex stores and ups centers to combat porch pirates. It’s a hassle but I’ve enjoyed their service.

I’ve also had some weird scanning issues (“no access - locked gate” when I have no gate and single family home with an external mailbox) but always gotten my items, at most, a day late.

I’m leaning toward just letting it play out with no action taken on eBay/paypal. Like I said, it was like $8 and change, so i’m not really hurting here. And the chips are fairly available and therefore replaceable. Just a PiTA
 
USPS does not get it. Here at my office we rely heavily on the USPS to deliver things to and form our clients. On a normal day we probably receive 300 pieces of mail. Over the last couple of months we have seen many random days where the mail would be less than half the normal volume then seem to make up for it on other days of the week. I am convinced they are are broken, i only hope they do figure out how to get it fixed at some point.
 
It's hit or miss with USPS right now. Most of my orders are coming in on time, but I had 1 item that got lost for 4 months. Already had a refund for 30 days when the package finally showed up...
 
Yeah, it's really weird right now.

This week, I had four outbound priority flat rate packages delivered (three different destinations) just two days after a pm drop-off, plus a international priority package sent to Canada (Atlanta to BC) that also made it in just two days (that's like a record for me).

All five were Monday afternoon drop-offs, and delivered on Wednesday. Things weren't that good PRE-covid. And no Customs hold-up or charges on the CAN shipment, either.
 
An update: In keeping with the PCF community’s advice for patience, I have just noticed that my chips have scanned at a new USPS checkpoint - 19 days later. I’m not sure if the two chips slipped into a crack or if there was just some crazy backup in the L.A. area.... just odd as I’ve received chips from as far as AK with @Denali without issue.
 

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