I put up an auction at the end of December for a sealed copy of Eternal Sonata with the faceplate set, guide, and original OXM demo of the game. A CAG ended up winning, and after New Year's, on January 2nd, I shipped him the package to his address in Chicago and PMed him with the delivery confirmation number.
A week went by and I received a PM from him saying that he still hadn't received anything, and that the DC showed that it had been delivered...in Virginia Beach. 900 miles from its actual destination in IL. The box had no old labels or anything like that on it that could have confused someone about the address. Just a standard brown box with the address on it. The zip code it was mailed to (60616) looks nothing like the Virginia Beach zip code where it was delivered (23450), so it wasn't a matter of simply transposing a digit, either.
After checking my receipt to make sure it had the correct zip code listed (it does), I fired off an email to USPS customer support, and followed up with a phone call the next morning. The bewildered CSR that I spoke to gave me a case number and flagged my case for "immediate action," then told me I'd be updated within the next business day.
Sure enough, today they called back, with no additional knowledge whatsoever. Between the various people I spoke to, I was given the theories that:
I spoke with a man who, after laughing quite a bit, was able to confirm that the package had been delivered to their post office, and he somehow knew that it had ended up being put into a post office box. He wasn't allowed to check the list of names of P.O. box holders himself, so he gave me the name of someone who could. I called back and spoke with that man, named Dallas, and he took my number and told me he'd let me know whatever he could. Not having heard anything for a few hours, I called back later, and, after laughing as well, he told me that there was indeed a P.O. Box holder with a similar name, but that he did not have the authority to look into anyone's P.O. box or to remove a package from a P.O. box, and that there was no guarantee that a similar name means that he's the one who ended up with it. He took my number once again and told me that if someone turns in the package as having been delivered to them incorrectly or if it turns up somewhere in the back outside of an actual P.O. box, he will give me a call.
So basically, I'm left with absolutely nothing else to do but hope that it turns up. The latest USPS CSR I spoke to basically told me that since it wasn't insured, there's absolutely nothing I can do. I'd assume that the zip code showing up correctly on the receipt would be good for something, but apparently that gets me nowhere. I don't want to screw over the buyer, either, so I'll be refunding him in full, but that leaves me with less than I originally started with, since I lose not only the items themselves, but, to add insult to injury, the eBay fees involved with the auction.
Since that's a pretty shitty situation to end up in, I'm wondering if anyone else has been "lucky" enough to experience a similar situation, and if there's any solution anyone can think of or something else that I can try. I feel like I've exhausted most of my options here, but I guess it never hurts to ask, so if anyone has any suggestions, I'd really love to hear them
If nothing else, at least I've learned that it's always worth insuring packages in the future, or just using UPS and their included insurance and more up-to-date tracking.
A week went by and I received a PM from him saying that he still hadn't received anything, and that the DC showed that it had been delivered...in Virginia Beach. 900 miles from its actual destination in IL. The box had no old labels or anything like that on it that could have confused someone about the address. Just a standard brown box with the address on it. The zip code it was mailed to (60616) looks nothing like the Virginia Beach zip code where it was delivered (23450), so it wasn't a matter of simply transposing a digit, either.
After checking my receipt to make sure it had the correct zip code listed (it does), I fired off an email to USPS customer support, and followed up with a phone call the next morning. The bewildered CSR that I spoke to gave me a case number and flagged my case for "immediate action," then told me I'd be updated within the next business day.
Sure enough, today they called back, with no additional knowledge whatsoever. Between the various people I spoke to, I was given the theories that:
- It could have been scanned incorrectly and shown Virginia Beach as its destination instead of merely a stop along the way
- It could have been stuck to another package
- It could have been next to a different package that needed to be marked to be forwarded to VA and had a sticker slapped on by mistake
I spoke with a man who, after laughing quite a bit, was able to confirm that the package had been delivered to their post office, and he somehow knew that it had ended up being put into a post office box. He wasn't allowed to check the list of names of P.O. box holders himself, so he gave me the name of someone who could. I called back and spoke with that man, named Dallas, and he took my number and told me he'd let me know whatever he could. Not having heard anything for a few hours, I called back later, and, after laughing as well, he told me that there was indeed a P.O. Box holder with a similar name, but that he did not have the authority to look into anyone's P.O. box or to remove a package from a P.O. box, and that there was no guarantee that a similar name means that he's the one who ended up with it. He took my number once again and told me that if someone turns in the package as having been delivered to them incorrectly or if it turns up somewhere in the back outside of an actual P.O. box, he will give me a call.
So basically, I'm left with absolutely nothing else to do but hope that it turns up. The latest USPS CSR I spoke to basically told me that since it wasn't insured, there's absolutely nothing I can do. I'd assume that the zip code showing up correctly on the receipt would be good for something, but apparently that gets me nowhere. I don't want to screw over the buyer, either, so I'll be refunding him in full, but that leaves me with less than I originally started with, since I lose not only the items themselves, but, to add insult to injury, the eBay fees involved with the auction.
Since that's a pretty shitty situation to end up in, I'm wondering if anyone else has been "lucky" enough to experience a similar situation, and if there's any solution anyone can think of or something else that I can try. I feel like I've exhausted most of my options here, but I guess it never hurts to ask, so if anyone has any suggestions, I'd really love to hear them
If nothing else, at least I've learned that it's always worth insuring packages in the future, or just using UPS and their included insurance and more up-to-date tracking.
is that?
/
