Recently, there have been INR claims that come in past the 90 day time frame. Some times these orders have been scanned delivered … some times these orders are just in transit … some times these orders will show out for delivery but do not get the delivery scan.
If you had shipped USPS Priority Mail Flat Rate envelope purchased through Amazon Buy Shipping and the order shows out for delivery but does not have a delivery scan after 15 days of shipping, would you automatically file a claim with USPS when a customer has not yet contacted you for INR?
The customer could still file an INR and Amazon should cover since the shipping was purchased through Amazon Buy Shipping, but Amazon could put the claim on you (an appeal would most likely be won). The shipment is covered by USPS insurance, is over the 15 day wait period and qualifies to make a USPS claim.
What are your thoughts on processing the USPS insurance claim under these conditions?
I have 2 claims being reviewed - not flat rate envelopes but Priority Mail boxes.
Both shipped day of purchase, scans showing in transit. Not updated for 12 days.
So you are filing the USPS claim before the customer has contacted you or filed A to Z for INR?
We thought the wait period for submitting a claim with USPS was 15 days after initial ship day. Does submitting the claim a couple days early help get the claim processed any faster?
And when you say “not updated”, was this after an out for delivery scan or just not having a scan during transit?
Personally I would make the claim. It’s on USPS for not scanning. In the case of it going on past 90 days, at 120 the tracking number would likely be recycled by then and there would be no proof. You might get a double dip if USPS funds AND Amazon funds an A-Z but how many times have you been on the losing end?
Yes. We made the mistake during COVID to wait until the buyer filed the claim. The time had passed and all claims were then denied. We’re being more attentive to these shipments now. If we see a package that appears not moving we file. Sometimes that pulls it out of “hiding”, in several instances it remained moving through the system for quite a bit of time. One or two never did show delivered.
The most recent shows delivery attempted . Buyer was refusing to contact the PO so we did on his behalf and scheduled delivery for today. When we told him that he filed A to z last evening (more than likely AZ will fund it and then he’ll go pick up the package).
We have seen both scenarios, some not scanned at all enroute then scanned at delivery .
Others show regular scans then an out for delivery scan but nothing.
Frustrating
Bottom line … you file the USPS claim even if the customer has not contacted you or Amazon?
We normally have USPS send us an email update after a shipment is MIA for 7 days.
Depending on the type of last scan… at 10 days, we open an inquiry as “where is my package”.
Then, after 15 days and no update, we file a USPS claim and figure an INR claim will probably follow. Since we are covered by Amazon Buy Shipping INR policy and by USPS insurance coverage, we feel it is just added protection and doesn’t hurt us whether Amazon funds a refund or for some reason we have to fund the refund due to USPS’s mistake.
We just wanted to see if our thinking was inline with other sellers. Thank you for your input.
The big risk to filing a claim before the customer has contacted you is that your claim is potentially invalid, and a collection of invalid claims with USPS can affect you in negative ways if the USPS thinks you are trying to cheat them.
As always, this is a risk/reward tradeoff.
I always choose the low risk path, but I never have significant money at state with missing shipments, since I have few claims, few issues - real or fabricated, and high enough margins to absorb any fraud.
I really do not want the Postal Inspection Service looking askance at my reports, and if the buyer says they received the item and I opened a claim they might.
P.S. I just refunded an Ebay buyer without being asked because their shipment was not scanned within 10 days of shipping. I has emailed to ask if they received the shipment, got no answer and chose to throw money at the potential problem. It was peanuts.
We probably have only 5 or 6 MIA packages a year and, of that 5 or 6, maybe only two of them would be Priority Mail with insurance. The rest are First Class Package with no insurance. All of last year, we filed only one claim.
In July, First Class Package becomes part of USPS Ground Advantage and is suppose to include $100 insurance like Priority Mail now. That might change the number of claims that could be filed.
In the past, we skipped the inquiry “where’s my package” only if the customer contacted us first. Putting in the inquiry before filing a claim gives USPS a chance to find the package. Occasionally a package will pop up in the system after doing so. But if USPS can not locate it, then we feel following up with a claim is justified as we paid for the service.
We have one right now that was out for delivery but never received the delivered scan. It is now 15 days later and the customer hasn’t contacted us. The customer has 90 days with Amazon to file an INR; however, USPS only allows 60 days to file the claim. That creates a 30 day gap where we could possibly have to do a refund (if Amazon doesn’t honor the INR Buy Shipping policy). If the USPS claim is made prior, then we would be covered. If we do not do the claim, then we could be out (but didn’t need to be had we filed a claim).
Sales volume tends to skew the way one looks at handling an issue.
We have seen a significant uptick in no-scan for final delivery in the past few years, both with our businesses and our personal deliveries. We assume that it’s somehow an avoidance of accountability on the parts of individual postal workers, where the workload expectations are unreasonable; maybe it’s better to get dinged for “forgetting” an on-time delivery scan than for a later-than-expected delivery?
Other than filing claims, how else would USPS be aware of the no-scan issue, in such a way that it causes it to be a problem they need to fix?
It’s a numbers game. I recently had 2 denied claims for customers that claim the item was not in the envelope because they refused to bring the envelope to the post office.
So yeah make the claim because their will always be ones that get denied and hopefully they even out.
I can tell you when I used Amazon shipping if there was no delivery scan I put in the claim, just on principle.
I know this is slightly off-topic, but lately, I’ve been having lots of issues with USPS. I don’t know what is going on because this is not normal.
This week alone, I’ve had 3 orders show as ‘delivered’ but were not actually delivered until the following day.
…and 2 orders that were rerouted all over the place.
This one ended up in Washington, then rerouted back to Los Angeles to be sent to NJ. Why send it all the way back to LA instead of just forwarding it to NJ?
Then this one…left Los Angeles on June 8th, arrived on schedule in Nashville, got rerouted back to LA, then ended up in Florida, and now finally is back in Nashville…
On this order, we refunded the buyer; he was screaming and swearing at us for our “piss poor” service because, at the time, the order was still showing as in Los Angeles; sitting for 6 days in the LA Distribution center; the order was finally delivered yesterday.
We have seen things like that also but generally during the holiday times or when there is a weather event that has disrupted airline travel (USPS hitch hikes on planes to get to other state distribution centers).
The LA distribution center may have extreme volume or going through a system upgrade causing some issues. When they were revamping our local distribution center, it was a night mare service wise. Normally, we see issues with orders going through Brea distribution when we send to LA area, but that is incoming.
FYI … we lived by the South Bay Galleria for 20+ years. Spent many of days running cross country down on those beaches back in high school. Left the area 30 years ago … too much traffic (and that was then … don’t want to image now).
Our carrier hasn’t figured out how to scan packages. They keep doing delivery scans when they pick up our packages. We shipped a package on Wednesday from FL and received a message from the buyer in AZ the next day saying she didn’t receive the package that Amazon alerted her had been delivered the day after she placed the order. Seems once USPS shows a “delivery scan”, nothing gets updated after so I have no clue where the below package is now and if/when it will actually deliver…
Because for the past 18 months or more, there are no longer direct routes between all POs.
When a misroute occurs, the package has to back track through some or all of the distribution centers it passed through. The routing algorithm is optimized for the proper routing, and recovery from errors is not optimized.
For at least forty years logistics professionals have mathematically calculated optimal routes. The Post Office has recently applied state of the art logistics.
In spite of the controversy, the current Postmaster General is probably the first to have real experience which is relevant to the job. And it may be more advanced than his subordinates.
The Nashville one is strange, it was routed back to LA, and instead of heading directly to Nashville (again), it went to Florida. Thankfully it wasn’t rerouted back to LA but went on to TN from there.
If we are refunded by USPS we contact the buyer and let them know there appears to be a delivery issue. Most have already been notified by Amazon that their package was delayed and they are aware of the situation. We have never had an issue where we filed a claim and then the package mysteriously showed up a few days later. During COVID many disappeared, but many more were delivered months later, buyers had refunded long ago.
If a buyer is refunded, no one is being cheated. We have never requested a refund for a package that we did not refund. Being honest goes a long way.
The bigger issue we’re experiencing right now brings a lot of this to light. Our post office provides us with large postal bags so it’s easier for the carrier to pick up. At the bottom of almost every bag we undelivered packages. Many are Amazon packages More than likely those buyers received refunds from their sellers. Total post office fail.
We have a close relationship with our PO and have brought this to their attention . Many times. 4 polymailers with merchandise found in this weeks’’ bag drop off. 4 buyers never received their packages, 4 sellers were responsible to provide refunds. More than likely there were no scans on those envelopes.
Anything going through Newark NJ is a nightmare
The majority of our “missing” packages are NY and NJ deliveries.
During COVID and through most of 2022, Philadelphia was another nightmare.
That has resolved, at least for now.
When I have had routing that made it look like the package was bouncing all over the country, I have sat down with my local postmistress (“The Postmistress of The Dark”), and she has looked things up on the computer, and described this as a database error, not a misrouting problem. This makes more sense, as it explains the scans that would require jet travel and very efficient handling to match the timestamps. Some time/date stamps are “impossible”, which gives it all away as purely a database thing.
