USPS Shipping Question

Recently bought a small figure off of someone on Craiglist for $100. I was roaming the site, even managed to find Iron Monger for cheap from a different member.

After contacting the seller, he asked me to send it via Gift due to the fee issues and what not. Now of course I told him that it was risky on my end and I asked him to send me his address and name so that I can confirm it. Being a cop, I told him I was going to check his address and name to see if it checks out. I told him that it did and he gave me his paypal address and I sent it as a gift.

He told me he would ship it off Sat, March 2nd because he had his day off that day and it sounded great.

Sat night he texted me saying he printed out the label on Stamp.com and had mailed it later that day, he had it shipped via Pririoty Mail and added Signature Confirmation because I live in NYC, he lives in Florida.

Right now, it still says Electronic Info with no update. I have texted him all day and have gotten no reply.

If it ends up with him being a scammer, is there a way to get my money back? I'm not afraid to take it to court IF that is even needed, which I'm hoping it's not.

I have heard many stories of how USPS does not scan packages when printed out online and then dropped off and it is only updated once the package is delivered.

Any thoughts? He had other figures as well that he sold so I'm pretty confident this is more along the USPS delay.

Sending that payment as a gift is a big no no. next time calculate the 4% and send it. Im not sure how much power you have sending it gift, but i have a feeling it aint much. Either way i hope you get it with no problems.

Usually if its just at "electronic info received" that means he's printed the label but hasn't dropped it off yet/not yet scanned. Its true USPS is really bad at scanning at times.

If he really did mail it on Saturday though, you should have gotten it by now.

I know it's a risk on my end but being that I told him I was a cop and all that junk, he would have backed out of sending me his information had he felt like I could get back at him.

Also, why go through the trouble of paying for the shipping stuff if he wanted to scam me in the first place?

If I sent it as a gift, he shouldn't have printed the label + paid for signature confirmation if he wanted to scam me.

I'm hoping it's on USPS.

If he dont send nothing let me know where he at! im in FL ill buttmunch that *****!

p!tu said:

If he dont send nothing let me know where he at! im in FL ill buttmunch that *****!

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Wow great to hear you're in Florida as well.

I'll give it to the end of this week and see what happens. If nothing happens, I'll contact you first!

Hope it works out, but I've had plenty of items sent via USPS have "slow" tracking updates.

I have had instances where it is shown delivered days after I already received it.

I say give it ~5 days after the expected date of arrival, and then investigate.

USPS has horrible tracking so it's quite possible that it did go out.

bruin1773 said:

Hope it works out, but I've had plenty of items sent via USPS have "slow" tracking updates.

I have had instances where it is shown delivered days after I already received it.

I say give it ~5 days after the expected date of arrival, and then investigate.

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I plan on giving it till this week. I'm reading online and there are COUNTLESS of cases where USPS simply does not scan the package because it was printed out via a label and then dropped off compared to it being bought at the office.

They're failing as a system for a reason I suppose.

But yes, there are a lot of times where it shows no scans until the item is actually delivered so I'm hoping it's that.

What I don't understand is why a scammer would go that far to buy a label, add signature confirmation (I didn't ask for it, he added it because he knew I was in NYC) and then give the number to me AFTER I sent the payment as a gift.

Makes no sense to do that. If I was a scammer and someone sent me money via gift, I wouldn't even waste the money to pay all the label and such.

Here's hoping this seller is not one.

a lot of times they dont scan it.

Never Ever sent payments as gifts. nothing Paypal can do about it. Not sure if you can contact authorities. the fee is not that much you could have just sent 105 dollars and he would have gotten his 100 anyway.

darthviper107 said:

USPS has horrible tracking so it's quite possible that it did go out.

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This. A lot of times their "tracking" is only updated after the package is delivered which really defeats the purpose and is mostly for delivery confirmation.

USPS really doesn't have a good tracking system

I stopped reading when the seller asked you to send as gift.

Yeah, USPS tracking is not always accurate and up to date. I've sent stuff through USPS several times where the tracking wasn't even updated until it was DELIVERED.

Yeah, I would not send payment as a gift unless the seller is highly reputable and the purchase amount is something you are willing to lose in case something goes wrong. I would have just paid him the extra $4 for fees and sent a regular Paypal payment to make sure I was covered. Good luck to you though. I hope he just mailed it out late. Priority Mail should only take 2-3 business days to arrive.

EVILFACE said:

I stopped reading when the seller asked you to send as gift.

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But I'd agree with everyone else at least about the shipping part... I've had stuff I sent never update tracking. Or end up with tracking numbers showing shipments from 3 years ago

I wouldn't trust the usps tracking system,I've had a couple times were they don't do a good job on it.maybe go to your local post office and see if they can get to the bottom of it.