Today was eBay’s turn to do stupid interactions 
I flipped the exchanges so that it can be read from top to bottom
(of course I double checked that the address was the right address)
When I get the INR junk on Amazon I have a template (I have them for almost everything since my typing ‘skills’ are minimal) that asks them to verify the address as current.
Since too many people ‘save’ their information it never gets looked at or changed when they move but use the ‘check out now’ buttons.
It’s amazing how many people admit they didn’t look and now have to recover a package from the house/apartment currently occupied by a FORMER husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend/partner, etc.
How inconvenient… 
I never understand why people who shop online think that the website where they placed the order hand delivers the items.
Then again, I met a woman once who was offended that we still have farmers since “we no longer need their services.” She honestly did not understand the question when I asked her where the food in stores comes from.
I think she might be your customer.
I have a template for Amazon. But I updated every so often because Amazon keeps changing the interface. Ridiculous
eBay is usually easy. If tracking shows delivered, it’s delivered. We will see on the 15 when they “issue their doom”
I get very few returns/complains. But the few that I do get try to make up for the volume I don’t receive
Today’s the day! Keep us updated.
You spent 99.9% longer on that then I would have. On Ebay or Amazon, I tell them it shows delivered and they need to contact the shipper, end of discussion. Ebay or Amazon are going to rule in your favor. Those INR protections from those sites are in place for a reason…
Things happen. Once I had an Ebay order shipped Fed-Ex. Seller said package was delivered. I looked at the delivery photo and the package was on the ground by a red car, that from looks of the surrounds, looked like it was in a junkyard. Not my car not my property. Messaged seller again, crickets. Called Fed-Ex and they would not do ANYTHING unless the shipper called.
I never ship anything by FEDEX. I used to make an exception for items I shipped by FEDEX Express, but when they combined the operation into the FEDEX Ground fiasco I ceased.
Too much regional variation in the quality of their contractors and the contractors’ drivers and a higher set of metrics than many of those drivers will meet without deterioration of service and fraud.
Shipping has gotten so high that many sellers cannot survive without inferior carriers.
Exactly zero of these messages received using FBA in over a decade. Looked up zero tracking, called zero carriers, gave zero F’s.
Having to talk to stupid, lying, scamming, arrogant customers has an emotional value that for many of our PTSD prone employees, is priceless.
We cringe a little with the remaining FBM orders we do still do, knowing the math will eventually force us to cross paths with some clown like in the OP story.
Jeez, there are days when I don’t want to have to hear an opinion about my purchases from my CURRENT spouse.
I do try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but one this is settled today (I can’t imagine a surprise) I’ll block the buyer for good. Not worth it
I believe that UPS may be better than FedEx on average, but in Tallahassee, UPS is hot garbage, while FedEx runs like a swiss clock.
I know that if I give my packages to Tallahassee UPS 100% of the packages will be handled by incompetent idiots. If I give them to FedEx, maybe 80-85% (heck, even 95) will be exposed to them across the country, but 85 is still better than 100. Just the luck of the draw
FBA has many advantages, but an advantage of FBM is that there is (still) some autonomy when handling these people. Particularly when your products (like mine) don’t qualify for RFS or any of those nonsenses
I would assert the automation is what saves you. You lose NOTHING if there is an INR without inventory being put back in 90 days. The customer gets to be mad at someone with Amazon next to their name, not your business.
If no inventory is put back you get reimbursed for the replacement and get to keep the money for the first order.
We knowingly choose not to pay any employee to waste time calling a carrier, communicating with the customer, looking anything up as we have more productive/enjoyable things to do when paying $70K/yr for our cheapest employee. At a full compensation rate with health insurance, etc we don’t want to waste $0.51 a minute to reply to the person in your email above.
Not paying $15 to sit on hold with UPS/FedEx/USPS for a claim/research/reply for 30 minutes. Not when the overwhelming majority of the messages are from “customers” exactly like the one in your message. If the overwhelming majority of customers were polite, we would gladly change the plan, just like if the overwhelming majority of phone calls were not from marketing/political/scams, we would probably answer the phone again. 
In my experience, FEDEX is worse than any bad experience I have had shipping via UPS in close to 50 years.
The FEDEX problem is last mile. Tallahassee may be great for outgoing traffic, but the contractors doing last mile deliveries is where it breaks down.
That is not to say UPS is perfect. Any shipper knows that when union negotiations are on-going shipments through Chicagoland will be delayed.
UPS drivers are better paid, with full benefits and a pension, they tend to not cause problems which get the attention of management. Some employees at the UPS hubs, are not paid union wages and have reduced benefits and may be the source of problems.
The gig economy, is noted for uneven performance, and whether that is a labor or management problem is beyond the limits of this forum. I personally have little experience with the gig economy beyond Uber and Instacart, FEDEX and Amazon Logistics. Amazon Logistics is far superior in my area to FEDEX. It is hard to believe that Amazon is providing better management, but they might.
Having been a UPS shipper for two decades now, I have to agree with @Tallytony
that there are chunks of America that UPS is unreliable in, and FedEx will absolutely dominate the area for SPD. Just like when the USPS has a particular hub where things are more likely to get held up or lost, UPS has issues in parts of the south, OK, and ID, IMO. If your local hub has issues it inflates the error of all shipments from your business if the problem is at a local level.
I do not doubt what you’re saying, but I currently move a bit north of 60k packages a year with FedEx, I don’t think that I have 25 real lost or damaged packages a year.
UPS on the other hand does not scan packages at pickup (at least in Tallahassee) since 2020, increases prices without notifying me, and when I have confronted them, they deny it, as if I wouldn’t know it. I don’t like doing business with people that i don’t trust, so I don’t work with UPS unless I need to (I still move maybe some 5k packages a year with UPS, significantly less, but enough to have statistics). The rate of loss/damage is very similar.
With those numbers in mind, I rather do business with the guy i like and with whom I’ve worked for the last 8 years, than with the company that has had 7 regional managers during the same time
That’s the other issue. Once scanned delivered, the carriers won’t actually give you any information on the package…..they will only give it to the recipient/buyer. Another reason we always tell buyers to contact the shipper in these situations.
My only rub with claims like this, is that Ebay’s policies support scammers with this exact vague tracking as proof of delivery.
Just a few months ago we did a trademark test buy and the scammer simply used a cloned FedEx label that was addressed to somewhere in the same city, and Ebay denied our claim with no actual verification that the label was addressed to our address.
We had to turn around and get the tracking from FedEx, and file a credit card chargeback which was the only way to get refunded, being Ebay automates its consumer claims process stopping further information from being given in the process.
I like the eBay system because I’m an honest seller, but I fully understand why Amazon needs the label to be bought through Amazon to grant the AZ. I
The reason I was willing to talk longer with this idiot was because at the very bottom of it, I don’t doubt that he may not have received the package, and there is undeniably a degree of responsibility from my part in ensuring that the buyer gets the package.
On a different note, but still regarding eBay, I have also had to implement a policy (on eBay) where if a new account buys from me, I automatically cancel the order and block the account. I was being plagued by orders of my most expensive item followed by a fake return and my success rate defending myself was low. It got so bad that I was going to lose the whatever nonsense star-seller name rating that they give you (which means higher eBay rates). This was in 2023, I called customer service and then they fixed a couple “mistakes” from their decisions and prevented me from “falling” below the threshold, but it soured the trust in the platform. All this to say that the policy worked for me this time, but the protections eBay offers both to seller and buyer leave a lot to be desired…
I completely understand, but as a platform it is in your best interests as a seller, if the scammers are not allowed to use such a basic tracking scam. IMO Ebay is just like Amazon and its intentional incompetence, forcing consumers to jump through hoops to keep their money when we all know they could require full tracking info from the seller/carrier for INR claims, but choose not to.
100% agree and understand, but we at the office just do not tolerate the whole “customer is always right” philosophy that has infected America and bled over to all manner of ease-to-outrage for everything from politics, civil discourse and parenting. Sometimes, the best answer is a simple “No”. Not saying in your case, but IMO too many sellers, people, societies simply placate others unreasonable demands for placation and has resulted in the Jussie Smollettification of everything. Manufactured outrage for refunds/reviews/clicks/etc.
In 2026, these issues should not exist with the amount of data available for every purchase and buyer out there, meaning Ebay exploits it. Google/Apple/AWS has more info on the buyer/transaction than all the Flock cameras everyone is crying about, but not a single phone, PC, ring camera, or tv with a microphone/camera has been turned in for privacy protections. SMH
I just think Ebay can do a lot better.