Disappointed in USPS & eBay
Longtime seller and sometime buyer on eBay. I've always had good experiences until recently.
I purchased 3 separate lots of trading cards from the same seller. 2 of the packages arrived ok but the third, well... The USPS delivered an empty box sealed in their plastic "oopsie" bag. The box had broken open and all the cards (~3000 of them) were missing.
I messaged the seller (who had 100% positive rating) and let them know. Their answer: open a claim with USPS. That's not how I would handle the situation as a seller but to each their own.
I opened the USPS claim and brought the empty box in for inspection. The claim was denied as they deemed the box had insufficient taping.
So, I message the seller again and tell them the USPS decision. Crickets. After a couple of days I decided to call in eBay's money back guarantee.
So I filed with eBay seeing as the seller was not making things right. First eBay tells me that they can't do anything since the tracking shows the package was delivered. I explained again that I received and empty box and sent the photos of the empty box with tracking number in a sealed USPS bag.
I thought this is just about as clear of a case as one can expect, right? USPS acknowledged they damaged the box, delivered a sealed empty box, and they examined the packaging and said it was insufficient.
Ebays response: we can't independently confirm that the item was not received so I would have to file a police report. After giving eBay my police report number they would reconsider a refund.
I live in a large city. When I called to file a police report I felt a fool. They had no interest in taking my information. Because I had filed a claim with USPS they said it's a job for the postal inspectors. Seeing as postal inspectors are federal, they won't get involved.
So basically I did everything right and still got the shaft in this whole ordeal.