posted on April 18, 2001 11:41:01 AM new
I mailed 4 ebay payments to sellers and 1 utility bill on either March 22 or 23. Both days I was home sick, so as soon as I noticed the flag was down on my mailbox, I went out and retrieved my incoming mail.
Well, none of the 5 payments made it to their destination. I first started noticing that none of my checks were being cashed. As I recall, I made the first contact with 3 of my sellers and one seller contacted me about not receiving payment. I told them about the old "lost in the mail" story.
Thankfully, I use duplicate checks, and so, with each new payment that I sent to my seller, I included a copy of the duplicate check. I have received 2 of my items, but still haven't received the other two. I suspect the sellers are suspicious now of me and will hold my checks until they are certain the checks have cleared.
Well, it gets better.
My husband is a Parole Agent and we have our scanner going in the evening. Last night a police officer called his dispatcher and told her to call "someone in authority" over the post office and meet him at a specific address. The dispatcher asked the police officer for more info. The police officer told her he just found a dumpster 2/3 full of discarded mail.
I called the post office this morning to get more details, and they won't tell me anything except their investigators are dealing with it. I told them that I had already reissued payments and late fees for my 5 pieces of missing mail, and if my 5 pieces of missing mail are in that dumpster and they remail them, they will cause me further problems. Needless to say, the post office was no assistance.
Not my name on ebay.
[ edited by Valleygirl on Apr 18, 2001 11:42 AM ]
posted on April 18, 2001 11:49:31 AM new
Gee you are having one of those weeks! For what it is worth I feel for you.
If you put stop payments on the 1st set of checks the bank will charge you an arm and a leg. Maybe you can check the sellers feedback and talk to each of them to see if they will tear them up of they do arrive or maybe mail them back to you? On the other hand this might be bad if any of the sellers cash both. What a dilemma!
posted on April 18, 2001 11:58:14 AM new
I've been there and done that, as seller and buyer.
Contact the sellers and let them know that there was a massive mail theft/discarding problem in your area. Ask them to cash the FIRST check that gets there and send back or tear up the second and let you know the numbers of the check that shows up.
posted on April 18, 2001 12:07:22 PM new
Valleygirl, sounds like a real nightmare!
I would suggest getting some kind of documentation about this problem (newspaper article, an info flyer from the P.O., etc.) and take it to your local bank branch. Ask to speak to a supervisor, and show him/her how many checks you reissued (very easy since you use dups). Because this problem was not your fault, they may be willing to waive the stop payment fees entirely, or maybe only charge you one fee instead of five. On second thought, you might try the branch manager first--sometimes they're MUCH more casual about waiving fees (I worked in a large bank for almost 10 years, so I speak from experience). It's worth a try!
Without eBay, I might have a real life...
[ edited by mcbrunnhilde on Apr 18, 2001 12:10 PM ]
posted on April 18, 2001 12:21:46 PM new
abacaxi: believe me, I've been in email contact with all my sellers. Like I said, when I mailed out my second payment to each of my sellers, I also included a photocopy of the first duplicate copy.
Since I just learned of the found dumped mail via inside sources, the media and the public isn't aware of it yet. However, I did email each of my sellers with the info I did have, again reminding them not to cash both checks.
I had one seller about a month ago, who said I didn't pay (my FB is stellar about fast payments), and since the check hadn't cleared yet, I sent another. The seller cashed both on the same day.
What is happening with the post office? We give them more money and we get worse service.
posted on April 18, 2001 01:42:40 PM new
Valleygirl,
May not necessarily be the post office at fault.
I had a repeat customer contact me & ask if her check had shown up. When I replied it hadn't, she told me her neighbors had caught some kid robbing mailboxes in the area & to contact everyone she had recently written a check to.
Turned out her original check never showed up but her second one did.
She's always been very prompt & we chat from time to time, so I believe her story. So your problem could be the work of vandals.
posted on April 18, 2001 08:21:56 PM new
The seller should not cash the checks because if and when you put a stop payment on them they will also be charged by their bank a fee. You might want to warn them about that because feedback is free but your hundreds of dollars lost to unethical people is not...
If you can get a postal inspector report or because this information was obtained through unofficial sources, you might be able to get a statement on Post Office Inspectors letterhead informing the seller of the situation and that they can be prosecuted for mail fraud or whatever... Nobody wants to get a letter from the Postal Inspectors...
posted on April 18, 2001 08:59:08 PM new
I went through some of this stuff a year ago as a seller. Most likely, a homeless crazy wandered through my neighborhood stealing mail, ripping it open, then putting empty envelopes back into other boxes, or in a pile on a dead-end road. I got some empty envelopes from buyers back, so knew who to email explain things to. One fellow actually got a check cleared back to his bank with my endorsement forged onto it, signing it over to somebody else. (I'd guess the homeless guy conned some sucker in a bar into taking the check..). I had to send a notarized affadavit to the buyer's bank certifying that the endorsement wasn't mine, then the bank refunded the buyer his money.
I immediately sent all items out to the buyers whose envelopes I recovered, too, pointing out I hadn't actually received payment so please send a duplicate? Pretty please? Out of maybe 5 buyers, one (for a few dollars) didn't bother to send a duplicate. Doubt I'd've been that nice if hundreds of dollars were involved, this was for the $5-15 range.
Offhand, it seemed easier to handle lost checks than lost money orders, too. The endorsement info and whether or not they'd cleared was much more readily available. Postal employees referred me to local sheriff detective, who referred me back to a postal inspector who seemed to make the info vanish forever. Soon after, all the sad homeless people vanished from hanging-out on nearby highway medians and no more thefts have been reported that I know of.
Edited to spel more gud
[ edited by pyth00n on Apr 18, 2001 09:04 PM ]
posted on April 19, 2001 04:26:00 AM new
Keep it simple and nice and the sellers will do what you ask. Send each seller a SASE and ask that if they get a duplicate check from you please drop it in the envelope you have provided. Provide check numbers of both payments and auction information. I was happy to do this for a buyer who had 1st payment lost. She was happy to get the check back and I was more then happy to do it. Provide nice stamps/stickers to help them remember your request and give them a smile.
I would still keep available funds in your account you wrote the checks out of in case the sellers do accidentally deposit or cash them. You wouldn't want a domino effect on a whole bunch of checks going NSF and all the charges going along with it.
mikeselis
You can't be serious....having the Postal Inspector send threatening letters about mail fraud?!?! hmmmmmm Intimidating and threatening a person or attempting too will backfire on you. If the Postmaster sent me a threatening intimidating letter like you mention the buyer would not like my response if they had not tried to deal with me person to person.
I notice more and more buyers and sellers are obtaining this "I am going to jump down this guys throat and go for the juggler vein 1st to take care of this and then demand they give me answers to what I want to know!" attitude. A simple NICE email/letter would work and make the seller and buyer happy to exchange nice words. What happened to common courtesy anyway????
posted on April 19, 2001 05:43:36 AM new
Valleygirl: Can I ask where you are from? I have a bidder who insists that she mailed a payment to me on 3-22 or 3-23 and it has still not arrived.
She keeps in constant email contact and I have no reason the believe that it wasn't mailed, but it was a MO and was under $15 and it seems like a waist to pay to have it traced and since it hasn't been 30 days yet, they won't even start.
Just wondering if my buyer could be from your area, this would explain it.
[ edited by mcbrunnhilde on Apr 18, 2001 12:10 PM ]