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Thursday, January 28, 2010

Unclaimed Items



Overall my years of selling online, I sometimes come across "unclaimed" parcels that were returned back to me. Most of them were returned because they were left in the post office "unclaimed".

My next steps are usually to inform the buyers that their purchased item was returned back to me and if they require them to be resent, additional postage costs will be required. Most of the customers will reply and I will resend the item.

However, there are some that DO NOT reply, and I end up stuck with these items.
  • What should I do with them?
  • Should I resell them?
  • How long should I wait before I "resell" these items again?
  • Have you experienced this before? What would you do?

8 comments:

Dionne said...

Wow. This has never happened to me before.

I would suggest adding something to your policies section on Etsy saying that in the case of returned packages, if you convo the client and they don't reply after ___ number of days, you will resell the item. That way you are covered, and they can't email you back after 6 months whining about it. You can just say, look at my policies. And maybe even put a date in your policies (eg. Update as of 1/28/10: All returned packages will... bla bla bla).

willowonthewater.com said...

I wonder if there are any state laws governing this... might be worth checking.

TMCPhoto said...

interesting.

If they don't reply do you refund their money minus shipping?

Nicole said...

Hi!!

I tagged you! If you would like to play along, you can go to my blog and see the rules.

Alyssa S. said...

I think you have a right to resell as long as you refund the purchase price. You can send a message saying the item was returned as unclaimed by the post office and that you are refunding them and canceling the order.

Anonymous said...

What a strange situation. The Etsy forum might be a good place to ask about this :)

Piggy said...

Dionne - I agree with you. I may have to put something in the policies to address it.

Ubiquitous - I don't think so but I will check.

TMC & AlyGatr - At the moment, I have yet done anything with the item, thus I have not refund them the money. I am not sure if I can cancel the order and get refunded from Etsy after an X number of months. Also should the seller suffer the costs and refund the buyer if it is the buyer's fault for not collecting the item from the post and replying convos / email?

Kelley said...

I agree with the Lost Earring - this would be a great thread for the Etsy forums.

Dionne had some good advice, and I would definitely put something in your policies section if this is happening on a regular basis.

To me, refunding the money minus shipping seems fair, especially if the shipping costs a lot.