I won a sketch on an online auction. I sent off the money order, she received it and sent off the picture promptly. It’s been over a month and I still haven’t received it. Let me stress that I don’t doubt that she sent it.
She feels really bad and has offered me a refund of my money, but I don’t feel it’s her fault so I wouldn’t feel right taking it. I’ve pretty much just written this off as a bad experience with the post.
I’m just curious what others would do in my position.
I would have her contact the carrier that was supposed to deliver the picture. Or have her tell you who they used. Surely there is a record of them at least picking it up. I’m surprized that she didn’t insure the delivery.
Maybe you could get a 50% refund? I don’t know, it just sounds fair that way. Also, keep waiting. I had to return an defective ebay item to someone and I (stupidly) did not get insurance when I shipped it back. The guy was mad at me and wrote a couple of hostile emails, but agreed to refund my money when he got it back. He kept saying that he never got it for months and months. I guessed that he probably got it, but saw that I didn’t insure it and decided to lie and keep the money. I left him negative feedback after three months of waiting. Of course, two months later, I got an email saying that the package turned up and he refunded my money. I felt so bad for not trusting him (but if he hadn’t been so mean in his emails, I would never have thought he was a liar).
I wouldn’t take the refund either. Stuff gets lost in the mail and that can’t be helped by either party. (After all, it could still show up several months from now, all covered with dust, haha.)
I agree with Medea’s child. I’d talk with the company that the sender used. Better yet, I’d contact the sender and see about working together on the problem, so that the mailing company is fielding and answering the same questions twice.
I feel that the reciever has to do a bit of work when something like this happens, it isn’t all on the senders back.
If I were in this situation, I would definitely talk with the sender and see what happened to the tracking number of the package. In this specific case, it sounds like everyone acted in good faith, so it’s hard to know who, if anyone, is at fault. What you both need to learn is a hard lesson. If you want to avoid future problems, always always always send stuff that can be traced. You have to send your money order by priority mail/delivery confirmation/registered post. The seller has to do the same or use UPS/FedEx. If not, all you can ever have is an unresloveable problem. Hopefully the sketch didn’t cost that much.