I'd be very interested in how you guys may react here. After 2 months waiting for a watch to arrive, USPS have conceded that the parcel has gone awol and is lost forever. These things happen, I left it as long as possible to go for the refund and it has duly arrived. I am however, due to bank fees and poor exchange rates both ways, over £200 down on a deal that really was no fault of anyone but the seller or USPS (Labelling error) I cannot work out which.
As sellers with excellent reputations, how would you have proceeded to reimburse a client in a case like this? I am tempted to go again with another purchase, but would like a view if anyone has one.

 

I am not a seller but I bought a strap on ebay that broke after two weeks. The seller offered a refund if I sent the strap back. I already had to pay postage to have it sent to me. I pointed out my expenses to him and he agreed to send me a new but more expensive strap to cover the postage. I thought this was a reasonable way to deal with it. In your case I think usps are the ones who should cough up.

 

Did you choose the shipping method or did he list that as his method of choice on the listing?

If it truly was no one's fault, it doesn't seem fair that any individual should bear the entire loss.
I'd have a courteous, honest discussion with the seller. He may be willing to cover your loss in the interest of customer satisfaction and his reputation.........more than likely he won't.

Study the USPS obligation limit, see if you have recourse with them or your payment method(credit card, paypal, etc.) and at least firmly understand your risks on all purchases going forward.

While 200 Quid is substantial, it isn't enough to get into a protracted, probably losing battle. Glad you at least recovered your refund.

You asked for a view and that's what you get! Others will have much more legal knowledge, I'm just stating how I feel.

Sorry for your loss, I did note concern about the money but no real remorse about the watch.
Now a real shame would be if it was your "Holy Grail" gone missing!

 

Thanks, it was listed with USPS as the shippers. It was a watch I would dearly like to own, as it wasn't one of only 100 made, there are others out there so I am not going to get remorseful over it that is for sure. You have nailed it though, I appear to be bearing everyones costs when all I did was pay up front for a watch that never arrived.

 

If it is usps error then seller did his job. If the seller cause the error then restitution a little would be nice as a courtesy.

 

What does USPS have to say for themselves regarding this matter?

 

Seller is responsible for getting package safely to buyer. Seller should fully refund buyer if package does not arrive. That said, seller cannot be held responsible for secondary expenses related to the purchase, such as bank fees and exchange rates. The line has to be drawn there, else it's a slippery slope.

For example, if buyer took loan shark 10% per week loan to buy a $1K watch, and watch was a dud, or lost in shipment, and it took 2 weeks to resolve and refund, is seller then responsible for the $200 in loan shark interest (secondary expense)? A reasonable person would say "no".

Real examples:

A guy once paid for a watch via wire. He returned the watch for a refund, but he also wanted his wire fee ( secondary expense - $15) refunded. Is this reasonable? Probably not.

A guy once bought a watch from me, took a cab to the Fedex office to pick it up, claimed it was SNAD (it was clearly buyer's remorse) and sent it back to me for a refund. He wanted me to reimburse his cab fare (secondary expense). Is this reasonable? Absolutely not.

A guy from the UK once bought a watch from me, didn't like it, wanted to send it back for a refund, but wanted me to reimburse the customs fees (secondary expense) he paid ($600) on top of refunding the watch. Reasonable? Laughably not. He eventually decided to keep the watch.

So when I refund, I reverse the entire payment. I even eat outbound shipping. But dammit, I can't refund the stuff that you didn't pay to me - such as bank fees, your commute to the Fedex office, and the dam customs duty that I don't see a penny of!

 

Hi, I am London based and despite various attempts, USPS do not communicate with me. The seller has told me he has forms to fill etc, but that is it.

 

WV NYC. Your real examples maybe so, but none of them bare any resemblance to the situation I find myself in. I'm not talking cab charges or customs duty (really wish I had those problems) I am talking large fees that have been picked up, not my end I will add, my bank charge was just £20, so the rest has been dialed in US side, and it's my issue. I would have thought dealing with a trusted seller, would at least have given me some protection when stuff goes wonky, clearly from your view, I was wrong.

 

So what happened? Did the seller's bank charge a fee and seller subtracted it from your refund? If your seller made you eat his bank costs, that's pretty much wrong in my and probably most other people's book.

Or was the culprit poor exchange rates? If this were a wire in both directions scenario, I don't think that seller is responsible compensating buyer for a bank's poor exchange rate. Seller probably took a hit in the inbound payment as well. If payment were via Paypal the whole transaction would have been reversed and no money lost.

Come to think about it, I had a very similar experience to this. Buyer bought a watch paid via wire. Returned the watch, and I sent him a refund check.. an actual paper check. This way no money was lost in fees and poor interbank exchange rates. Buyer was first skeptical.. "what if the check is bogus?" he asked. I replied "I already have your money, why would I send you a bogus refund check?"

 

I would love to be able to answer some of these questions. The seller, known on here, has said nothing since the refund landed. Actually, communication has been at best poor, since I sent the bank transfer in the first place. It has been one calamity of a trade, since the money was sent. It has been me doing all the running with little, and now no, input from the seller. The costs I have swallowed are over 12% of the trade, I would be good with that if I saw the thing I was buying.

 

I don't want to take sides on the issue, but I think that asking for a documented accounting of how bank costs ended up being 12% of the trade is reasonable.

 

Thanks, it's a good idea. I do have the feeling however that there will be response, but worth a shot.

 

No response even.

 

1. Disclaimer: I'm a lawyer, but this is not my field of practice; I haven't done any research; and I do not purport to give legal advice.

2. The risk of loss shifts to the buyer as soon as the merchandise is safely delivered by the seller to the carrier, unless the buyer and seller agree otherwise. Yet, if the package were labeled incorrectly, that might be a different story.

3. Perhaps if it is indelicate, but dealing with the U.S. Postal Service is a bureaucratic nightmare. In recent years, the proliferation of email and overnight couriers has drastically affected their revenues, and that means severe cutbacks in service. The carrier who delivers to my office, in the heart of a metropolitan U.S. city, rarely arrives before 4 pm -- having worked since 7 am to sort and deliver mail on what used to be five routes. It's no surprise to encounter a line stretching down the block when visiting the post office in person, and when you do get to the head of the line, there's one person working (often not a happy person).

Legally, I think this is probably not true, but it indicates an excellent seller who should be appreciated for good customer service.

 

PS - Most of the overnight courier services like FedEx and UPS have better loss policies than USPS, which is why they may be worth the extra money.

 

The address was all good until Great Britain was replaced by Gabon, easy mistake!

 

Legally? What if the laws are different between jurisdictions?

Anyway, I purchased a watch via eBay and paid using Paypal. Watch came all the way from Greece, made it to the local post office in Boston a street from my house and USPS managed to "lose" it. Seller reimbursed without hassle. Didn't have to go through the eBay resolution portal. USPS didn't care to investigate the loss.

 

Amazing how bad USPS can get. The tracking number still shows the watch as being in JFK as of 31st March. The seller is telling me USPS have said it is lost for sure?? Like I say, caught up in the middle of a trade that started bad, went stupid mad in West Africa and crashed and burned back in the US. And my £200 odd was the popcorn in the intervals lol.