Question about Amazon Marketplace and USPS tracking

[ShortyBoo]

Ok, so this isn't pony related, but I figured I might be able to get some good answers here. So two weeks ago I ordered a GameBoy Advance game for my son (he paid for it) through an Amazon Marketplace seller. The seller didn't have any feedback yet, but I figured everyone had to start somewhere, and at least there wasn't any negative feedback.

So the next day, (May 22nd) I got the email saying it shipped and it showed a tracking number. Now, if I check the tracking on Amazon itself, it says "Shipment has left seller facility and is in transit" but just shows "US" as location, not what city or even state. And if I enter the tracking number on USPS site, it just says "Electronic Shipping Info Received" and there's no location listed at all there. According to the tracking, it was sent First Class with delivery confirmation. Both the Amazon and USPS tracking results have not changed at all in 2 weeks and I'm getting worried. But because Amazon gives a ridiculous amount of time, it's still within the shipping estimate, which is June 14th. I know it doesn't take that long for a package to arrive. In fact, I ordered a bunch of Pokemon figures for my son the day after I ordered the game, and every single one arrived within 5 days.

Now when I looked up what "Electronic Shipping Info Received" meant, from what I could find, it means that the package wasn't actually handed over to the post office yet, they just notified the post office to expect the package. Now I don't ship too much, so I have no idea how this works, but it sounds like the seller has just been holding onto the package for 2 weeks now which is ridiculous. Is this really what this means?

I also ordered a few items from Hong Kong (from a different site) around the same time, and it's looking like those might arrive before a game that's coming from the US will. I know one of the two packages from Hong Kong has been processed through a sort facility in New York already, so it probably will get here first.

Has anyone here ever sold on Amazon? It seems like since she gave them a tracking number, they just believe it's been shipped. Is it really that simple? I've thought about contacting the seller to ask what's taking so long, but when I clicked on the contact thing, it said that I shouldn't ask about where my package is since it's "on its way" so I changed my mind. And I can't leave negative feedback yet either since it's not past the crazy long estimated arrival time. Anyone have any advice on how to handle this?

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Yep, it means they probably paid online for shipping, printed the label, and haven't gone to the post office yet.   

[Alatariel-Silimaure]

Don't worry!

Amazon sellers have 7 days to ship an item out. Also the USPS tracking numbers are usually just delivery confirmations and usually are not kept as up to date as UPS or Fedex, many times it will just show that it's in transit and then when it's delivered.

Don't fret about it until after the delivery estimate is up. You can always email the seller and ask them where the package is and if it's been shipped out yet. If the delivery estimate passes email the seller and tell them you didn't get your item. The seller then has three days to respond, if they do not respond to your email, you contact Amazon then and you can file an A to Z guarantee,  The amazon team will take it from there, investigate it and 99% of the time it will equal a full refund for you.

You are protected by Amazon, so try not to worry too much :3


if you've got any other questions please sent me a pm :3

[ShortyBoo]

Well, if they're supposed to ship in 7 days, they clearly didn't do that or I would have my item by now. Packages sent from California tend to take longer than from anywhere else, but I've still never had one take longer than a week to get here.

I know I can just order from another seller if the item never shows up, but that's even more time we'd have to wait to receive it and my son saved up his allowance to get the game so he'd have something to do over summer vacation. And since the prices are never the same, he'd probably have to spend even more money to get it from someone else, so I hope it does show up. I usually don't have any problems with any sellers on Amazon, but in the few times I did, I'd just complain and usually get a discount and most of the time, I'd get shipping refunded. I've only ever had to leave negative feedback once. But I think regardless of the outcome, I'm leaving the seller negative feedback. There's just no excuse to wait this long to mail out an order.

[Alatariel-Silimaure]

yeah sometimes they take longer to ship out and it's also possible it could just show up. my experience has been that the items show up about half way through the estimated delivery timeframe. As I said though don't hesitate to contact the seller to find out when they shipped it. if you have a tracking number you can sometimes call USPS and sometimes they can track it down and find out where it is too, the online tracking sucks at getting updated.

I wish the sellers didn't have the 4 to 14 days for delivery shipping methods, waiting 2 weeks sucks for an item you really want. I hope it all works out for you and your son

[Breyer600]

Yeah, I'd go ahead and contact the seller to confirm whether they actually shipped it yet.  It's not uncommon for the tracking to never be updated especially when it's purchased online.  I've only once used online shipping, but I had to print a separate form for them to scan in order for it to show that they had accepted the package.  The way I understand it, without that form it would likely have been stuck as "Electronic Shipping Info Received" until it was actually delivered.

[ShortyBoo]

Well, I emailed the seller. Hopefully I'll get a response soon. My son asks every day if there's any update on his package and is always disappointed when there isn't.

Post Merge: June 04, 2012, 07:57:42 PM

Ok, now I'm getting worried. I sent her a message through Amazon and I got this response in my email:

We are sorry to let you know that your email(s) below cannot be delivered. The recipients have decided to leave the Amazon.com platform or are not eligible to receive any further email communications.

For answers to any further questions please visit our online help:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200465390

We hope our online resources meet all your needs. If you have explored the above link but still need to get in touch with us, please use the Contact-Us form in our online Help department.

And below that was the details of the email I sent. I'm kind of freaking out now since if this person is no longer registered on Amazon, what's to prevent them from not sending my package? I can't believe Amazon would allow people to cancel an account with sales in progress. That just seems really odd.

I swear I must have "Scam me" written on my forehead. I got scammed out of a pony at the Trading Post last October, then I got scammed out of another pony here recently and now this. I have the worst luck.

Post Merge: June 04, 2012, 08:47:19 PM

So I went on Amazon's help chat and explained the situation. I was advised to report the seller for a violation of rules (which I just did) but unfortunately, they can't initiate a refund until after the delivery estimate (which was between May 29th and June 14th) so even though the seller is long gone with my money, I can't do anything for another 2 weeks. I asked why the estimate was so long since it doesn't take 4 weeks to deliver a package within the US, plus all the other items I ordered the same time all had much earlier estimated dates) and he said the sellers get to choose their own estimates, which didn't make me feel any better. I'm guessing she did this same thing to several people and set the long estimates so she'd have plenty of time to get the money and cancel her account before anyone noticed their packages never arrived. I guess that's what I get for ordering from someone without any feedback.

[teresat]

ShortyBoo I'm sorry that you had to go through this. Thanks for sharing as this is good information to note.

We have Amazon Prime. I tend to purchase fulfilled by Amazon. My understanding of Amazon Prime for the Marketplace is that Amazon holds the sellers' goods and ships for the seller. The items tend to be a little more expensive but I try to factor the shipping costs into the item price.

[Alatariel-Silimaure]

Well, I emailed the seller. Hopefully I'll get a response soon. My son asks every day if there's any update on his package and is always disappointed when there isn't.

Post Merge: June 04, 2012, 07:57:42 PM

Ok, now I'm getting worried. I sent her a message through Amazon and I got this response in my email:

We are sorry to let you know that your email(s) below cannot be delivered. The recipients have decided to leave the Amazon.com platform or are not eligible to receive any further email communications.

For answers to any further questions please visit our online help:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200465390

We hope our online resources meet all your needs. If you have explored the above link but still need to get in touch with us, please use the Contact-Us form in our online Help department.

And below that was the details of the email I sent. I'm kind of freaking out now since if this person is no longer registered on Amazon, what's to prevent them from not sending my package? I can't believe Amazon would allow people to cancel an account with sales in progress. That just seems really odd.

I swear I must have "Scam me" written on my forehead. I got scammed out of a pony at the Trading Post last October, then I got scammed out of another pony here recently and now this. I have the worst luck.

Post Merge: June 04, 2012, 08:47:19 PM

So I went on Amazon's help chat and explained the situation. I was advised to report the seller for a violation of rules (which I just did) but unfortunately, they can't initiate a refund until after the delivery estimate (which was between May 29th and June 14th) so even though the seller is long gone with my money, I can't do anything for another 2 weeks. I asked why the estimate was so long since it doesn't take 4 weeks to deliver a package within the US, plus all the other items I ordered the same time all had much earlier estimated dates) and he said the sellers get to choose their own estimates, which didn't make me feel any better. I'm guessing she did this same thing to several people and set the long estimates so she'd have plenty of time to get the money and cancel her account before anyone noticed their packages never arrived. I guess that's what I get for ordering from someone without any feedback.

From my understanding, the money you pay for an item from a seller is held by us for 30 days before it is given to the seller. The seller does not get away scott free if they do not send out the item. If you don't get it, you will be refunded by Amazon that is not an issue as far as that goes, and Amazon will take action against the seller as well. If you don't get your item, you will get your money back so you do not have to worry about being scammed as far as that goes.


I'm actually a little surprised the seller could close their account down with a transaction still in progress. Please keep me updated on what's going on and I'll do anything I can to help out as well :3

[ShortyBoo]

I usually buy directly from Amazon or I buy from sellers that are fulfilled by Amazon if possible since the stuff tends to arrive much sooner. I hate when they use Ensenda, though. It always seems to be a random guy that shows up in a rented truck like a U-Haul, etc. And last time it was an ex boyfriend that delivered it who had threatened me several times when we were together that I didn't particularly want to know where I lived. Luckily he didn't seem to recognize me.

But with this game, it seemed the only ones that were fulfilled by Amazon were much more expensive. I'm not too worried about getting a refund in the end, since I know it's covered by the a-z guarantee, it's just kind of bad for my son who now has to wait until the charge is reversed on the Amazon Visa since it's close to the limit. And then he'll have to wait for another seller to ship it to him once we order after the refund has gone through. So he probably won't get the game this month. If the seller hadn't marked it as "shipped" when it wasn't actually shipped, I could have just cancelled it instead of having to wait until after the 14th.

I'll still use Amazon plenty, I'll just be a bit more careful about checking feedback in the future. They have awesome customer service. Well, most of the time anyway. I had a problem one time with our PS Vita pre-order (they didn't want to add the credit to our order since it shipped after they added a 2GB memory stick as a bonus to compete with Target) where the cs rep was very rude, but I tried again with a different rep and was helped right away.

[Maniah]

I have ordered from Amazon sellers before and had it take a full month for the items to show up. It's uncommon, but it DOES happen.

If it shows that they purchased shipping for your item, you may still get it!

It sucks, but yes, sometimes they just ARE that slow.

[Alatariel-Silimaure]

yup, in the shipping policies on sellers it usually says "4 to 14 business days (can take up to 21 business days)" and holidays in there increase that amount of time as well. I wish it was faster, but sadly is not

[ponylady]

  Shorty, you sure are having a run of bad things happen lately.
 
And I can only imagine your son's dissapointment    That's a big deal for a young man to save his money and purchase something he really wants and not friviously spend it on junk.
 
My experiences on Amazon have never been bad but I have only bought a few things on there and they were books.   But reading everyone's input on their shipping policies makes me a little put off.  And I thought ebay was bad with pushing a 1 day handling time for sellers and Amazon allows you up to 14 days to ship? Crazy?

[ShortyBoo]

Well, in this case at least everything turned out fine in the end. I got an email from Amazon saying that they completed an investigation based on the report I made yesterday about the seller and they issued a refund. So now I can order a replacement game for my son. He'll have to pay a higher price (the cheapest I can get it now is around $25 after shipping where the original order was only around $13 with shipping) but since it's not his fault, I'll probably just pay the difference. It kind of puts a dent in my pony budget (I've been saving up for the TRU collectors set, Lyra and the Comic Con pony) but I think my son deserves it more than I do. If it takes a bit longer for me to get a few ponies in the end, I guess it's ok.

[Alatariel-Silimaure]

Well, in this case at least everything turned out fine in the end. I got an email from Amazon saying that they completed an investigation based on the report I made yesterday about the seller and they issued a refund. So now I can order a replacement game for my son. He'll have to pay a higher price (the cheapest I can get it now is around $25 after shipping where the original order was only around $13 with shipping) but since it's not his fault, I'll probably just pay the difference. It kind of puts a dent in my pony budget (I've been saving up for the TRU collectors set, Lyra and the Comic Con pony) but I think my son deserves it more than I do. If it takes a bit longer for me to get a few ponies in the end, I guess it's ok.

what game is it? If the item is fufilled by Amazon at all I can get you free shipping on it with my Prime member ship and your son can have it in 2 days :3 I'd be more than happy to place the order for you if you sent me the money for the item