Letter Template: Buyer Says Item Not Received, but it's Marked Delivered

[Bananas]

Anyone who sells online at any kind of real volume has probably experienced this exact issue. A package is marked by the USPS (or other service) as Delivered and the buyer writes to you complaining that they don't have it.

I have discovered through years of experience in dealing with buyers like this, and through much reading of eBay, Amazon, Etsy, and other forums where online sellers gather, a near perfect way to deal with this situation when it comes up and I'm going to share it with you.

This letter is something I have cobbled together from extensive research, through my own experience and knowledge, and through other sellers sharing their tips, tricks, and verbiage.

It works about 99% of the time. This is because while mail theft happens and occasionally packages are stolen right off the porch after being delivered, most times the package is there but misplaced, or the buyer is straight out lying. Last year I shipped a few thousand packages so these circumstances arose several times, yet I only paid off one guy. All other "missing" packages were located after I sent this letter, sometimes within minutes. These are the magic words:

Dear Buyer,

I'm sorry you haven't received your package yet and I appreciate you letting me know about it. The address on your order is: (ENTER BUYER ADDRESS) Is this the correct mailing address for you?

Sometimes when trying to locate a package, it helps to know exactly what you are looking for. Your item was shipped in (CLEARLY DESCRIBE THE PACKAGE). Many times, a lost package was simply laid aside by a family member. Sometimes your postal carrier leaves it with a neighbor. Or it may be awaiting pickup at the local Post Office and the postal carrier forgot to leave the slip, the slip was lost or was retrieved by another person in the household.

If you don't find the package this time, I can contact your Post Office and have the manager speak with your postal carrier. Postal carriers are now equipped with GPS scanners so the Post Office should be able to locate the exact delivery location via GPS data from the scanner. Using this information, I can tell you exactly where the package was left.

If the package is still not located after speaking with the Post Office, further steps can be taken. This includes filing a missing package report with your Post Office who will have you sign an affidavit that the item is missing so that an investigation can be started, and filing a mail theft report with your local law enforcement if warranted based on the Postal Inspectors findings. Basically doing everything possible to find the location of the delivery as the Post Office takes mail theft very seriously.

Please let me know, and we can start the process.

Seller

No matter what actually happened with the package, this letter covers it. It provides exact steps to locate the package, should it be at the delivery location. It scares the crap out of dishonest buyers hoping you will just refund them so you don't have to deal with their hassles and potential negative feedback.

A note on package description. I describe the exact dimensions of the package and its color. If it's a cardboard mailer, I say "cardboard mailer" and if it's a box, I refer to it as "box." Sometimes people expect a box when you sent a small cardboard mailer. If I used a Priority Mail or other box that's labelled in some way, I include that as well.

This letter has saved me time, aggravation, and money. I am posting it in the hope it does the same for other online sellers here.

 

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[Jon L]

This is awesome...though where were you 10 years ago? I lost probably thousands of dollars in an ebay business I had back then because of 'missing' packages.

Now, I write software, and that doesn't go missing nearly as frequently.

 

[biophase]

This is awesome...though where were you 10 years ago? I lost probably thousands of dollars in an ebay business I had back then because of 'missing' packages.

Now, I write software, and that doesn't go missing nearly as frequently.

Personally, I don't like this letter because it puts the onus on the buyer. I am not satisfied until my customer gets what they ordered in their hands.

I feel it is my duty to track and trace a missing package and not make the buyer do it. Most of the time I just ship them a new product. It's much easier and time efficient to do that then wasting time contacting Fedex or especially the post office.

 

[Bananas]

Personally, I don't like this letter because it puts the onus on the buyer. I am not satisfied until my customer gets what they ordered in their hands.

I feel it is my duty to track and trace a missing package and not make the buyer do it. Most of the time I just ship them a new product. It's much easier and time efficient to do that then wasting time contacting Fedex or especially the post office.

It only puts the onus on the buyer to check within their own house/property and with their family members, which is something an online seller literally cannot do for them.

If you read the third paragraph, I do state that if it's not found after checking their own household, I will call the Post Office on their behalf and start looking for the package, which I actually will do and have done in the past.

The whole point is once they read the letter, one of two things happen:

The buyer finds the package, which was actually lost inside their own house, or is at the garage door when they expected it to be on the porch, or is on the porch when they expected it to be at the side door OR

The buyer realizes the seller won't simply pay them off, and has no desire for a postal employee to investigate their delivery dispute, because they do in fact have the package.

It is absolutely not designed for sellers to shirk responsibility to their buyers, but instead to locate honestly missing packages while deterring scammers.

 

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[Jon L]

yeah i see this as part of a two step process...
Step 1 is: Scare away some of the liars
Step 2: ship a new product if necessary

 

[Vigilante]

Personally, I don't like this letter because it puts the onus on the buyer. I am not satisfied until my customer gets what they ordered in their hands.

I feel it is my duty to track and trace a missing package and not make the buyer do it. Most of the time I just ship them a new product. It's much easier and time efficient to do that then wasting time contacting Fedex or especially the post office.

There's a crop of novice scammers that Amazon has enabled, who know that if they claim they have never received an item, they can get compensation.

They can get a second unit free, or the original unit credited back to them by Amazon.

Letters like these have a tendency to cut through the crap and flush out the scammers from the real issues.

I can't tell you how many times I have sent a letter like this, only to have the "customer" suddenly "find" the item they previously claimed was not delivered.

I think this letter should be sent every single time this issue is raised. Especially when you are dealing with the USPS, who usually disavows any interest in forensic discovery, this letter has become a mandatory tool in the hands of low ticket sellers on Amazon.

if you send this letter, and the buyer sticks with their story, there is a much higher likelihood that the story is authentic. However, I can tell you that we average a ballpark of 90% of "suddenly found" items using a letter similar to this one, sent specifically through the Amazon messaging system.

 

[Vigilante]

eBay is different, by the way. Paypal/eBay accept delivery confirmation as proof of delivery and defense against claims/chargebacks.

Amazon does not. You will either lose an A-Z claim outright, or Amazon will fund the refund (which still hurts your account) if your only defense is proof of delivery with no signature confirmation.

So @Jon L is correct. This is step 1 of a 2 step process on Amazon specifically.

I would not use this language on eBay though as it implies seller liability where none exists.

 

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[PaulRobert]

I actually had an issue where I sent the order to Mexico via USPS with Priority Mail. (With tracking.) The customer claimed that he never received the items even though the tracking clearly stated that it was delivered to the address. We went back and forth and I told him to check his local post office because sometimes they hold packages there. I also spoke with the USPS on my end to multiple people and they said that after looking at the tracking, the package definitely arrived. After a few days he files a claim against me via PayPal. I contacted PayPal and explained the entire situation including that I have sent orders to Mexico before without any issue. PayPal asked for a few items which I provided and within a few days PayPal ruled the claim in my favor....

I've had another issue where I sent a Flat Rate Box order to Virginia and the package was in a loop going from the Post Office to the address then going back. (Turns out the customer provided a non existent unit number) The customer contacted me and was understanding that things happen. We both worked at contacting the USPS to figure out the issue. Finally I sent out another unit to him and the other package came back to me as non deliverable.

So it really depends on the situation on which action to take, if you believe you are being scammed and someone is trying to take advantage, take the proper steps to resolve the situation and protect yourself and your biz reputation.

If there is an honest mistake it's better to be understanding and send another unit. Your customer will be even more happier that you care and they will more than likely talk about your product and write a great review.

 

[whiteglovesj54]

Thank you so much for posting this, its great. Do you have any tips when calling the post office manager branch. they dont seem to help.

thank you

 

[AWR]

Anyone who sells online at any kind of real volume has probably experienced this exact issue. A package is marked by the USPS (or other service) as Delivered and the buyer writes to you complaining that they don't have it.

I have discovered through years of experience in dealing with buyers like this, and through much reading of eBay, Amazon, Etsy, and other forums where online sellers gather, a near perfect way to deal with this situation when it comes up and I'm going to share it with you.

This letter is something I have cobbled together from extensive research, through my own experience and knowledge, and through other sellers sharing their tips, tricks, and verbiage.

It works about 99% of the time. This is because while mail theft happens and occasionally packages are stolen right off the porch after being delivered, most times the package is there but misplaced, or the buyer is straight out lying. Last year I shipped a few thousand packages so these circumstances arose several times, yet I only paid off one guy. All other "missing" packages were located after I sent this letter, sometimes within minutes. These are the magic words:

Dear Buyer,

I'm sorry you haven't received your package yet and I appreciate you letting me know about it. The address on your order is: (ENTER BUYER ADDRESS) Is this the correct mailing address for you?

Sometimes when trying to locate a package, it helps to know exactly what you are looking for. Your item was shipped in (CLEARLY DESCRIBE THE PACKAGE). Many times, a lost package was simply laid aside by a family member. Sometimes your postal carrier leaves it with a neighbor. Or it may be awaiting pickup at the local Post Office and the postal carrier forgot to leave the slip, the slip was lost or was retrieved by another person in the household.

If you don't find the package this time, I can contact your Post Office and have the manager speak with your postal carrier. Postal carriers are now equipped with GPS scanners so the Post Office should be able to locate the exact delivery location via GPS data from the scanner. Using this information, I can tell you exactly where the package was left.

If the package is still not located after speaking with the Post Office, further steps can be taken. This includes filing a missing package report with your Post Office who will have you sign an affidavit that the item is missing so that an investigation can be started, and filing a mail theft report with your local law enforcement if warranted based on the Postal Inspectors findings. Basically doing everything possible to find the location of the delivery as the Post Office takes mail theft very seriously.

Please let me know, and we can start the process.

Seller

No matter what actually happened with the package, this letter covers it. It provides exact steps to locate the package, should it be at the delivery location. It scares the crap out of dishonest buyers hoping you will just refund them so you don't have to deal with their hassles and potential negative feedback.

A note on package description. I describe the exact dimensions of the package and its color. If it's a cardboard mailer, I say "cardboard mailer" and if it's a box, I refer to it as "box." Sometimes people expect a box when you sent a small cardboard mailer. If I used a Priority Mail or other box that's labelled in some way, I include that as well.

This letter has saved me time, aggravation, and money. I am posting it in the hope it does the same for other online sellers here.

Found your letter this weekend and it’s really helpful!! Was wondering if you had a template or recommend any specific language for delayed shipping issues? USPS seems to stay behind due to Covid etc.

 

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