Buyer and Seller Responsibilities Regarding Shipping

[pearlharbourer]

I'm a consumer and I wouldn't trust the ordinary mail system, nor would I rely on a seller or PayPal to help me out if something went missing. So I always pay for Fed Ex or insurance and tracking, particularly when the item is from overseas. It's better to pay for extra coverage and not use it, than try to save money and be left totally out-of-pocket.

You can't trust people. For example, one Christmas a postman got lazy and deposited ALL of his letters from that run at my father's business when it was closed over the holidays. My father had to take it all to the post office, where they showed no concern at all! Thanks Australia Post.

 

[lisa c]

Oh gosh, Khanzy! I had a horrible thought -what if the package slips through Nashua, and heads for the facility at Richmond, CA, on its trip back to the seller? It could sit there for months, waiting for a ship-boarding container to fill up!

Can you quickly Flag the tracking number, to halt its progress when it's finally scanned again?
Thank goodness you have friendly local staff to help you, and PearlDreams who's really good with e-research and links!

 

[lisa c]

I guess you can see what I believe/hope will happen, that the pearls will make their way to you.

 

[khanzy]

That's a really good idea, Lisa, I hadn't thought about that possibility. It's a scary thought for the package to slip by and you know the lack of communication in general would mean the other post offices would have no idea that this was an ongoing issue!

 

[Pearl Dreams]

Wait; if it got back to California why would it not just be returned to Hawaii by air?

 

[kelluvpearls]

Hope your pearls turn up khanzy. Also keep tracking in case it returns to the seller then you can get a refund from him. It is disappointing the seller won't file a report and washed his hands completely from this transaction, I think that's the least he could do in this situation, it's not too much to ask of him.

I also posted my purchase experience with Jac on Price Scope, don't want to copy my original post word for word but too lazy to retype here.

 

[Katbran]

Just out of curiosity..did you attempt to schedule it for redelivery on line ? I'd do anything to bring this to someones attention and hopefully a few more people will become aware that it's gone 'walk about' .. and I'd not mention it's full of Tahitian pearls lol

 

[pearlescence]

On t'other forum someone says it's tough for you because you stepped outside of Etsy or whatever to make a specific deal. Wrong. If you and the seller agreed to the send-select-return-refund contract that is the contract between you. The seller agreed to a different contract. I've had endless fun with shops where a salesperson has agreed to all sorts of stuff to get the sale then come back and said 'oh my boss says you can't have that' and I just sat back and said, 'oh yes I can' 'you, as the agent agreed this contract' - One time it was free one year car insurance for my daughter who had passed her driving test the day before. Something like ?2k+
Perhaps you should be cheeky and say that you're returning them all, refund please....

 

[lisa c]

Wait; if it got back to California why would it not just be returned to Hawaii by air?

First, I want to say the letters the Hawaiian reporter was getting were from unhappy sellers, buyers, gift-givers and recipients. That's an unhappy, self-selecting reporting group.

According to what I read, feedback on the Richmond, CA way-station is full of conflicting information from the employees;
that small packages never go by container ship, or that they do go by ship
that small packages go by plane, only big items go by ship, or
there's no predictable pattern.

The conclusions were mounting up in the 'no one seems to know for sure what goes on', except that for sure items aren't scanned as they are put in the ship container.

So, if no one person is paying the shipping costs back to the seller, why would the default way be the fastest, most expensive one, except by Chance? Maybe it goes by plane, maybe not. There might be an unstated but well-practiced selection method in use that's customary, but not in the manual.

Also, my experience with USPS has overall been good, so I'm not out to bash USPS; my reportage and research is small and informal, not scientific.
I've only had:
-1 package go astray, and it was found and delivered to me 2days after it was reported 'found'. That's in 41 years of occasional shipping and card sending, but frequent letter writing.
-Only a few rude, dismissive service people on the phone, less than a handful
-1 card go missing 2 Christmases ago, so far not delivered
-1 card received today, opened, with the flap tucked inside and the card exposed. No gift was expected inside, so no loss...but. Y'know?

++They check up on me if they don't see me for a while. :-D and I like that

 

[Pearl Dreams]

I guess I figured First Class would just go by air, even when being returned. Just an assumption, though.

 

[lisa c]

Sorry for the too long post. It's amazing how much I didn't know, what I don't think of in detail. I had many uninformed ideas and assumptions when I started reading this thread. It's a real eye opener.

for instance, I thought all mail went by plane and truck, so I assumed a plane (big or small) brought stuff to the islands, except for cars, trucks and heavy machinery. I never thought of ships. I wonder if trains still carry mail?

 

[Katbran]

I don't either, my postal branch is incredible but I live in the tippy end of Florida and all packages going and coming go through one sorting facility, and if that gets backed up there is nothing we can do. Thing is when I created the package it shows a tracking number but not that it was scanned. So I am thinking USPS thinks I just made labels to file claims. Whatever, it is what is it. It was right before Christmas too, so I had to remake and ship out hundreds of new orders so they would reach their destination on time, some orders I had to fork over for overnight delivery, and it got expensive!

Is this an Etsy store ckrickett? What do you make? The notion of having to remake hundreds of items is frightening !!

 

[ckrickett]

Is this an Etsy store ckrickett? What do you make? The notion of having to remake hundreds of items is frightening !!

That is one of my stores, thats where I sell my pop culture painting. I run like 6 Etsy stores.
The store/s in particular are Illuminated Lion and Fan Art Glassware, which are my etched glassware stores. One is for pop culture and nerdy gifts, the other is various other designs

we do a lot of etched wine glasses, tumblers, beer glasses, shots and champagne flutes. We do personalized wedding gifts and some special custom work (I have been doing a ton of pet portrait drinkware the past few weeks)


so with the loss of the packages I had to remake over 500 glasses in 3 days.

 

[Purranha]

That is one of my stores, thats where I sell my pop culture painting. I run like 6 Etsy stores.
The store/s in particular are Illuminated Lion and Fan Art Glassware, which are my etched glassware stores. One is for pop culture and nerdy gifts, the other is various other designs

we do a lot of etched wine glasses, tumblers, beer glasses, shots and champagne flutes. We do personalized wedding gifts and some special custom work (I have been doing a ton of pet portrait drinkware the past few weeks)

OMG! Pet portrait drinkware! I may need to get one for Purranha. #crazycatmom

 

[cmd2014]

so with the loss of the packages I had to remake over 500 glasses in 3 days.

Yikes! You must not have slept!

It must be horrible as a seller to have merchandise lost in the mail (especially custom pieces). I can imagine it's a most unwelcome occupational hazard!

 

[Katbran]

Holy Moly ckrickett! You are one busy bee !! I'm going to have a look at the pet glasses for my sister ! I can't imagine having to redo all that glassware !

 

[pattye]

Ckrichett, really fun items!

 

[pearlescence]

Anyone with a online shop will agree that shipping is the nightmare issue. It is slowly getting better but over here,where royal mail had a monoply until a few years ago and seems still to think it has, the provision is not good

 

[kojimapearl]

Khanzy : I'm so sorry to hear about this. Thank you though for starting this thread. I have learned alot.

I'm with Lisac on visiting the sorting facility.. I managed to find a lost parcel there years ago. Cookies can go along way

Shipping to and from most all islands is slow and risky in the best of times. This is common knowledge in Hawaii, making insurance all the more important. IMHO ..the denial of responsibility on the sellers part, is just LAME. I hope this is corrected and/or your parcel received.

One thing that came to mind is .. I wonder if the company name included the word "pearl".. I do try to avoid that just to cut down on the amount of unwanted interest in any of our parcels. It's a bit paranoid.. but it's a thought.

All in all .. I am with Pattye , most packages do show up eventually. It may well be on a vacation, leave a light on for it to find you!
Wishing you the best of luck!

 

[Katbran]

Sarah makes a good point about the name on the shipping label. Ever received gems from India...lol...takes 40 minutes to break into the box..often metal...and there must be a mile of tape around it .. labeled..beads.