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

[darklisruthven]

I have been diddled four times when I have not sent things tracked on fleabay this past few weeks, so when it is someone new to the site, I just thought its safer.

[MelmacALF]

Dark, maybe it was returned to you because it was recorded ? ie postie did not leave card (Lots dont)

I dont think most buyers would expect a single newspaper cd to be sent recorded its just not worth it, if its a scam buyer it wont stop him geting something for nothing anyway as there are other scams :-(

Is it worth paying the post office all those recorded fees, would it not be better for you to self insure (ie save all the recorded fees to cover any refunds if/when a buyer does not get the item ?

[MelmacALF]

Is there any way you could ask the boys to remove that awful feedback comment. After all, you did your best and could do nothing more.

I think I would just leave the feedback as is, it would not stop me buying and it shows that when things go wrong the seller acts quickly to fix it.

[darklisruthven]

would it not be better for you to self insure

How do you do that?

[MelmacALF]

Its what my sister does for her site, she does not pay for recorded post at all. She saves up the money that would have been spent on the recorded fees and uses that to cover any refunds for lost items, so far se has saved a lot of money that way. She does get POP to cover any chargback PP fees and to claim from royal mail when stuff goes missing.

Shes happy because shes saving a lot in posting costs, her buyers are happy because they are not paying for recorded on cheep items :-)

[Salomina27]

I got a neutral comment one time too, and bent over backward to remedy the situation. I also refunded them more than I shouldve, I never got the item back either which was a really lovely dress. The buyer said I stapled through it during packing. I do sometimes use staples to seal the very end of the envelope, but I always wrap things up well before packing. It is possible I stapled through it I suppose but pins are often put through shirts in packing and dont ruin clothes. Im a dressmaker, we always use pins and needles for sewing and it wasnt the sort of material that it woudve ruined so though I thought it nonsense I pulled out the stops.
I think some people just try it on, cos they can.
I decided to leave the feedback there rather than ask for removal as it just lets people see how you handle things too and get a more human honest picture I suppose, though the feedback really did peeve me for a while!

[suesjools]

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!

Agree 100%.

I don't check tracking numbers either, though USPS has a feature where you can tick a box to be informed by e mail when the item is delivered. I tick the box but don't always check the e mail, LOL.

Sorry to hear about the bad fb, some folks are never satisfied no matter what you do, or as my late grandmother used to say: "some people wouldn't be happy if they were hung with a new rope." You can ask support to remove it if you want as IMHO you did the best you could and P.O. screw ups are definitely not within your control.

Best wishes for many sales to all,

[BAGHAG999]

How do you do that?

Recorded cost 0.95 even if you lost one in 10 it would still pay not to use recorded with low value items.