Don’t Be a JERK! “Well I Shipped It”… WTH? That Is NOT An Answer

Fair enough.
I appreciate your response.

Personally W. I can not answer your question because it is TOO relative. However if a customer has a package that has gone missing, I make it OUR POLICY to take ownership of ALL missing packages. That is MY POLICY and it works for ME.

As it relates to the "I shipped it" as you laid out in your response above, unfortunately that has NEVER been a valid response for Paypal, Google or the major credit card companies, when challenged. In our experience, the ONLY acceptable method of proof has been DELIVERY CONFIRMATION and not simple proof of shipment. Also with many of the credit card companies they can sometime request signature proof of delivery before they will release fund that have been challenged.

Of course that is just MY OBSERVATION and it is very possibly that you are more of an authority than I am on this topic. I only speak to my experiences and although my experience on this topic is vast, with over 66,000 positive reviews from eBay customers, you could certainly have a different set of experiences.

Having gone through all of this, I hope you don't miss the point of the ACTUAL topic which is...DON'T BE A JERK to your customers, or they will NOT BE YOURS for long. That is the actual topic of the post.

The only thing John is right about is it pays to be courteous.
I get that you shouldn't be a jerk.
But when it comes right down to it when the seller verifies "I shipped it" that's more or less where his responsibility ends.
Give the buyer all pertinent info but then he's on his own.
The seller is NOT legally responsible for the delivery of the package beyond mailing it. This is factual. Not my opinion.
This is one of the few things that is right about Paypal. If the seller shows proof that they mailed the item to the address provided seller is not responsible for lost items.
This is basic common sense.
For the record, I always go above and beyond the call of duty for my buyers.
Not long ago a college student bought something from me & complained he hadn't received it. I found out he lived in a dorm. I went to the college web site & read the brochure for dorm residents & found out they have their own mail handlers that get the mail to each student & they have very precise rules about how mail should be addressed. If the room number was not on a separate line in the address they held it in a kind of "Dead Letter" pile.
Sure enough, the buyer put his room number next to the street address on one line & it ended up in the dead letter pile.

Now when I suspect I am dealing with a college dorm dweller I give them a heads-up in advance to be aware of the dorm rules for mail handling.

But that is beyond the scope of my obligation as a seller.

When I saw the subject line of John's vid I thought he might have useful tips like be on the lookout when you ship to colleges or other problematic situations.

So John, you never answered my question, what do you do when a buyer asks "Where's my package?" How much time & effort do you put in tracking it down for them?

John is absolutely right. The seller has to keep on top of these things...keep his customer calm and assured that he is tracking the item. I had it happen recently when I sent a large painting to the U.K. - even with all the labels, forms and insurance the USPS managed to send the painting to Canada where it made rounds in customs and delivery was attempted even though it was impossible - they finally listened to me and sent it on to the U.K. I kept the buyer informed every step of the way and sent her two small freebee paintings to keep her calm. End result...she got her painting almost a month late but in the meantime we both had laughs over it and we still email each other. She sent me pictures of the painting framed and hanging in her home. I think I found a friend...but it could have easily been a disaster if I chose to do nothing at all!

So "I shipped it" is THE answer as long as you are thinking warm & fuzzy thoughts while you're saying it?

A simple enough solution would be to add the recipient's name and address to the postal receipt the sender gets when he/she/it mails a package. Why should a USPS customer have to PAY to track a package? Track your own GD mail once I pay you to deliver it!

I have enough headaches besides worrying about what the government does with my mail.

The pizza delivery guy works for the pizza company and is THEIR responsibility. The USPS is a third party delivery service whose JOB is to assure that your packages arrive at the described destination safely.

Furthermore, this "delivery confirmation" thing is just another "fee" to tack onto a never-ending tally of fees.

BS.

Why does the pizza delivery guy "work" for them? Because they PAID him. Vendors PAY for delivery services so in essence, the delivery service "works" for the vendor and as such IS the vendors hired contractor. The responsibility still lies with the seller. That argument would get an eye roll from Judge Judy, LMAO.

Legally, the vendor is SOLELY responsible for the delivery of any package. Now, as a vendor, you can make YOUR claim with the post office for a lost item. So we do have possible recourse as well. But you can NOT pass that off to the buyer to handle, that is not customer service.

So what is the answer?
You wasted 3 minutes of my time telling me what is not an answer then leave me hanging.
I agree there is no excuse for copping an attitude just because a buyer asks a simple question but by the same token I am not gonna put on my Sherlock Holmes hat & break out my magnifying glass & get hot on the trail of tracking down a package I know I shipped.
If I used Delivery Confirmation by all means I will give the buyer this information for the 2nd time (because I already gave it to them once in the message notifying that I shipped the package) but beyond that what do you propose I do?

The answer? Well to put that in plain english, the answer is...To win and beat the competition at customer service, the seller/vendor has to "give a sh*t!"

If the seller is focused on self and NOT the buyer, someone else can WIN that customer who was poorly treated by the seller that really did not give a crap that the buyers package never arrived.

Does that mean being a doormat? NOPE, just give a sh*t! That is my 2 second answer. If you do not give a crap about the customer they will go somewhere else that does. We ALL do when the shoe is on the other foot.

I think the Platinum Rule is slightly better: treat others the way *they* want to be treated.