I recently sold about 200 dollars worth of cards to a user on a facebook group. However, he doesn’t have PayPal and instead paid by concealed cash (which I strongly advised against - I asked him to send a check but he didn’t). He provided a tracking number (which says it was sent 1 day priority mail with 50 dollars insurance), and the tracking information says the package was delivered today, but it actually never arrived. I’m on hold with USPS customer support right now, but am unsure what else to do. Is it possible that the package would actually be delivered tomorrow for some odd reason? And what next steps should I take? I already contacted the buyer but am waiting for a response from him. Only thing I know is that I’m never considering taking concealed cash as payment again…
I thought about that, but I just find it odd that this is the first time this has ever happened to me personally, and it just happens to be the time when money was sent. I’m not actually home - I called my parents to see if the package arrived, and they say it didn’t. I’m considering making a trip home from University to maybe talk to my neighbors to see if they may have received it by accident.
I’ve had this happen a few times. It’s been delivered to neighbors, but also to completely wrong addresses. I lived at 1133 S. Poke Street, for example, and it was delivered to 1133 S. Ball Street. Completely incorrect many times.
Alright. So hypothetically speaking, what do you think would be the best course of action if I talk to my neighbors and they don’t have it, and my post office has no idea what happened? I really can’t send out the cards without receiving the payment, and I can’t even give any sort of partial refund (which I don’t think I should have to anyways) as the buyer didn’t pay by PayPal which would allow refunds.
When you accept physical funds, and the other person can prove it was “delivered,” you are going to come out behind. At this point, your choice is between a negative reference or being out the physical cards.
Is it a terrible situation? Yes.
Is it fair to anyone? No.
But if they can actually prove it was delivered, you are now responsible for your end of the deal.
Think of it this way. You go to a store to purchase some items. The cashier takes your money and drops it between the counter and the wall. They can’t get it out. Are you still entitled to your items? You can prove you fulfilled your part of the transaction. You gave the person who is to deliver your money to the corporation your half. They failed to deliver it to the corporation safely, however, but you can prove you gave your half. If the corporation had said to you: “Sucks, but it’s still your problem,” would you be satisfied?
The post office has screwed you. And that’s between you and the post office. But you definitely are ethically responsible for sending out your half at this point.
And again, I’m terribly sorry this happened. It is 100% not personal. I’m not taking anyone’s side because of who they are, just laying out the situation and whatnot. I know you strongly advised against physical funds, but my best advice moving forward is to 100% not accept them under any circumstances.
Best of luck to you. Hopefully it all works itself out easily.
I really hope it works out for you. I have a policy that until funds are in my account, the item isn’t sent. By any chance did you hold on to the cards?
That’s all fair enough. On my way home I’m stopping at the post office in my town to talk to them as well. I’m honestly just really mad because I will send out the cards (they’re still in my possession at the moment) as it’s the right thing to do but I can’t afford to take a 200 dollar loss at this point in time given my current situation.
I sincerely hope that they are able to find the package. It’s extremely unfortunate that things like this happen.
But not all hope is lost just yet. Many people are responsible and put packages out for re-delivery when they go to the wrong address.
I would also have them be certain they sent to the correctly written address is possible.
Thanks. Hopefully all will sort itself out. My other main concern is: At this point how can I be certain what the buyer sent was really the right amount of cash? For all I know at the moment, he could have sent me monopoly money, but there really is no way to know unless I have the package in my hands. And if I did, I would not be obligated to send out the cards. That’s just another hypothetical situation which I don’t believe happened, but I’m just putting that thought out there.
That’s something I’ve definitely considered. I’m going to explore all my options tomorrow when I go home/to the post office, and hopefully something will come to light.
If he has a tracking number, it should pretty clearly say where it’s been shipped to, right? If it’s in your city, it would be a touch conspiratorial to assume it was sent to a friend or something.
That’s true, but I was more getting at the fact that he could have sent me something bogus instead of real money but I’d never find out without receiving it first.
I don’t on facebook, but I have plenty enough elsewhere scattered through reddit, pokegym, and pokebeach (80+). He has two on facebook and that’s it, which is why I had him send first (he asked to send at the same time and I was like no way).
