Lost forever... or is there still hope?

Bought a coin on eBay on the 26th of February. I have dealt with the seller in the past and have had good experiences. The listing updated on the 28th with a tracking number, but ever since then the status still says something to the effect of "USPS has been electronically notified blah blah blah..." basically saying there is no status update and leading me to believe USPS never scanned it for pickup. Now, a week later I have contacted the seller, and they confirmed that several other items that shipped the same day show statuses that say they are in transit or already delivered.
Getting a bit worried about my coin. Any experienced this and then their item did show up? Fingers crossed...

 

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I've had that happen and nothing shows up until it is delivered, I'd wait a few more days.

 

That has happened to me a couple of times. My guess is that the seller purchased the packing labels
via paypal and didn't immediately box up the coins. So ebay shows the packing number assigned to it,
but the dealer neglects to get them in the mail. So, after a week or so, you email him and the seller thinks,
"oh, crap, I forgot to send that coin." Not wanting to receive a bad rating, he acts just as confused as you.

This has happend to me more than once. Generally, I end up receiving my coin shortly after my email inquiry.
Now, I would be worried if you don't receive your coin 3-4 days after your email reminder.

 

Yes, sometimes they print the label and then sit on it for a long time. But sometimes the PO botches their scanning, and you get the item while it's still listed at step 0.

I, on the other hand, just got a message about a lot of 20 Morgan and Peace dollars that I bought on the 4th. The seller says he had to leave town for work, and he'll be back on the 25th. I'm not a bit happy about a three-week delay, especially since he also "sold" around the same time a one-ounce gold bar for $900 BIN. I'm not especially optimistic about seeing those cartwheels, ever.

 

Delivery confirmation is just that, confirmation of delivery. It's technically not a tracking number. In rare cases it won't update until delivered.

 

How is it not a tracking number? I've always been able to see where and when my packages are picked up, when they depart the sorting facility, when they arrive at my post office, and when they're out for delivery. How much more tracking would you want?

 

I believe the "USPS has been electronically notified..." portion simply means that postage was purchased via the internet and does not mean that the package has been shipped. It may be just as the seller states, of the seller may have forgotten to mail the package.

 

Ya, forgot to mention that. Electronic notification just means your seller bought postage, and USPS is waiting for it. Once it gets scans in the seller's P/O, it will show as "acceptance".

 

I have already contacted the seller, and he says it got put in the mail on the 28th. Just hoping it got botched by the post office and it arrives a little delayed.

 

Anyhoo... Yeah been through it a dozen times at least, you can't trust the dealers not to fib about late mailing and you sure can't depend on the usps to get it right either. On the other hand even with this kind of thing happening regularly the packages do arrive (most of the time)

 

Aubade,

While I am sure your scenario does occur, other things, including post office issues can be the cause of delays. Little good will come from automatically assuming the wrost, plus put yourself in an honest sellers place; how would you feel if on the other end?

 

My concern is that the packaging will come in a body bag. Had the happen before where the sorter ate it. Just hoping the coin makes it at this point. The seller has been really good through this once they got back in touch with me. Maybe I am overreacting.

 

Postal Service tracking, is severely lacking. Give it some more time. The package will (I'm thinking) appear in your mail box soon. The same thing has happened to me in the past. "Real time" tracking is not available at the US Postal service. A package will disappear for weeks, only to show up at your door with the 'final scan'. Chin up dear fellow. There is yet hope....

 

Quite the possibility........

 

Well, I suppose I'm just going by personal experience.
When my labels are printed and I get them scanned (I always watch the postal worker scan the package), they have always shown up within 24 hours on the USPS tracking system. This is, albeit, from a fairly meager sampling of about 400 ebay transactions.
Perhaps I've been lucky.
But in my defense, as a seller, I follow up on the tracking numbers of the items that I sell. If I were to see that one is not updating after a couple of days, I start asking questions. If other items I sent out that day had been delivered, I would darn sure be in contact with the PO and the seller to express my concern. To me, it makes sense to let the buyer know that I did, in fact, send the package and I’m doing everything I can to figure out what the problem is.
So while I suppose I should not assume that the seller is at fault, I have had more than my share of purchases that bear a postmark several days after the date the seller bought the postage online. So I ask myself, does the seller ship only once a week? Did they forget me? I don’t know. But just like you don’t want to point the finger at the seller, I don’t think it’s fair to blame USPS, especially packages with tracking labels.

 

As a seller there is nothing more frustrating (well, except maybe the most extreme of insane buyers) than getting your item paid for, packaged up and shipped....only to see the USPS take FOREVER to get it to its destination. I currently have multiple items going to Canada (selling off most of my Canadian collection) that were paid for and shipped the next day...back in the third week of FEBRUARY...that still have yet to arrive at their destination. I especially love when you take the package in to a Salt Lake City PO on a Monday...and the next scan is in Los Angeles, five days later (no acceptance scan in SLC...) I've called on behalf of the buyer and gotten the "we can only see what you can see online" message...or the "there's nothing I can do" statement.

Personally, I have no idea what the USPS is doing right now, or why they don't follow their own procedures (Registered Mail or Signature Confirmation packages being left outside my apartment on multiple occasions?) but just please keep in mind that, if your seller shipped the item quickly, it may not be their fault that it hasn't arrived yet. Perhaps a constructive complaint to eBay about the USPS would be the best course of action, as I'm sure your seller feels as frustrated and helpless as you do.

 

Thanks for sharing all your experiences with this sort of thing. I'm just going to sit on my hands and hope for the best. I'll keep you guys posted on it when and if it arrives.

 

Delivery confirmation does not have to be scanned, after the initial scan at purchase, until it is actually delivered so it can travel from place to place and not get scanned at all. As mentioned the "electronic notification to USPS" says that they bought the postage. Now often sellers will buy the postage and then just have the package picked up from their mailbox or they drop it into a mailbox instead of taking it TO the postoffice. When they do this sometimes the package never gets scanned into the system until it is actually delivered.

 

USPS delivery confirmation is now called "USPS Tracking Service". There seems to be more emphasis on scanning the package along its route, at least that's what I've seen with recent sales. For some reason, the tracking info is more detailed when viewed from either the PayPal site or the USPS site as opposed to eBay.

 

Forget ebay tracking. It's worthless.......go to the postal site.