Am I guilty of bad practice? What do you do with postal tracking?

[darklisruthven]

A buyer bought a CD, I sent it off and it came back due to some random bizarreness within the postal service. The buyer is very upset that I did not know from the tracking beforehand that it was being returned to me, (I told them as soon as I knew, when the item came back, this morning) and the fact is that I do not check tracking numbers unless someone reports a problem or has a question about the delivery.

Is this wrong of me? Do you check your tracking numbers as a matter of course? It is just with work and volunteering and studying and everything, I simply havent the time to do that

[Idealproductsales]

My opinion: no.

Once the package is handed off to the delivery service (and being shipped to the address buyer specified or being shipped to confirmed shipping address as the case may be) - Control over delivery is entirely out of your hands - Even if you HAD been checking tracking numbers (not your responsibility - they are just there in the event something happens or buyer complains) there is *nothing* you could have done in any event until the package was returned to you. Imagine Amazon.com checking each and every tracking number of every package they ship every day! - They would have to hire a couple thousand more people to do JUST that!

[darklisruthven]

not your responsibility - they are just there in the event something happens or buyer complains

or if delivery needs proving for some other reason.

They just seemed upset that I did not contact them, and that they had to alert me that the item was missing, rather than me alert them that it hadnt arrived As it was it must have arrived this morning, so I found it when I came home and was able to let them know.
I have said I will re-send and check the tracking off my own bat to make sure they get it OK and alert them to any problems, since this is the service they expect, but that in itself is going to be a challenge as most of the time I will be having to do it off wifi on my ipod while out at work and things next week. I would seriously give up selling if I had to do it for every item though.

[astral276]

Online tracking is unreliable anyway. It will often state that an item is still within the postal system long after it has been delivered. Sometimes it never goes to 'Delivered'.

Yes, I do think your buyer had unreasonable expectations.

[buttons-and-bows]

I just put my tracking numbers down in paypal and send it to the buyer, Most infact I would say all of mine track it themselves, especialy the international ones whe drive me spare sometimes, but no like you ruth I don't always check unless something goes amiss.

[rokins_toys]

The phrase you're looking for to tell the buyer is "build a bridge and get over it".

Once a letter/parcel is in the hands of the postal service it becomes the responsibility of the postal service to deliver the item, keep tracking up to date etc. Reality is, and from our own experience when we have sent items recorded signed for, the update to the system can be very slow and as you have already said, an item can be delivered and Royal Mail do not update the status for tracking. You cannot be checking online every 5 mins to check the status of a recorded item. It gets there when it gets there. They update when they update.

One thing we always do if ever sending something recorded signed for is making sure the customer is given the tracking number so they can check it themselves at the Royal Mail site, not that there is often much use in doing so as they are often very slow to update things anyway.

As a business, we have no reason to check the status of a tracked item unless a customer contacts us to say it has not arrived within the delivery aims laid out by Royal Mail, after all, we're not psychics, we do not know when something goes missing or gets damaged during transit until the customer contacts us to say it has not arrived yet or has arrived damage etc. It's very rare for us to use recorded signed for because there's very little point in it unless an item is of a certain value and is worth covering.

We do not use PayPal tracking either, cannot be bothered with their nonsense either. Certificate of Posting is all we need to prove to Royal Mail we have sent an item etc.

[RonOne]

In my opinion.........It is up to the seller to ensure delivery / satisfaction to the buyer.
If the delivery service is not up to the sellers required standard,
that is not the buyers problem, it is the sellers.
The buyer has paid over their hard earned wages and deserve the best possible service.

My practice......
After posting an item,
the tracking number is sent to the buyer through the AAL when logged as sent,
stating the item must be signed for.
Special delivery, I check the next day.
Recorded delivery, after 3 days
overseas Europe, after 1 week.
Overseas other, after 2 weeks.
I admit, there are some sorting offices that are not interested in customer satisfaction.

As soon as the item is declared as delivered,
I inform the buyer through the AAL as information only.
Just in case somebody else has signed for it.

In my opinion it is just a common courtesy,
if you want a returning customer, you nust put them first.

[madelaine]

I've never come across this problem. Usually buyers tell me the item hasn't arrived. Only then would I check the tracking.

[Salomina27]

I do think this is unrealistic and so do most people it would seem.
For the reasons already given, for goodness sake how much time is there in each day?
We spend so much time as it is on listing already, research, photos etc and often for a tiny amount, you dont have to go through all that palava in a shop.
I certainly wouldnt expect a seller to do that either, unless I was paying for a very expensive item perhaps that they had more responsibility with, like recorded delivery but even that is flawed.
It is in the hands of Royal Mail when we post it off, we did our bit up to then and obviously do the contacting, feedback etc but what about people listing thousands of low price items like stamps. Its unrealistic and we do have lives to live.
Dont beat yourself up Ruthie, Im sure you are doing a great job as a seller, there are always awkward buyers sometimes. I like Rokins first line, I think that sums it up

[Gill]

Why send a cd tracked? It's just not worth the expense for the buyer unless it's very rare or one of a kind.