Help! My item broke!

[brittneymac]

Hello! I recently shipped my first big, heavy, fragile item, and alas, it broke. I need help on how to go about this. The item was a pitcher and a bowl. The bowl broke but from the photos I don’t think the pitcher broke. Do I refund all of their money? Do I ask for the pitcher back? I shipped priority so I have insurance. How do I go about making a claim? The shipping was $40, will I get that back? I’m so bummed! I’m sorry for all of the questions. Ive been selling very part time for a few years but I’ve never had this happen. Obviously I want what’s fair for the buyer and want to get this resolved and them refunded asap. Thank you!

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

Hi BrittneyMac
This is not a big disaster, rest easy. We have been selling online since 2002. We ship a whole lot of breakable items. While we use a packaging process, we call our “cocoon” method [discussed here on SL several times through the years], which has kept our breakage down to only 6 or 8 items broken in 18 years, it does happen.

You did a good thing by shipping USPS Priority” because you are covered by insurance.

First, make sure you get several photos from the buyer that shows, the outside of the box, and the inside showing the type and amount of dunnage material you used to wrap the item and of course of the broken item.

Then, yes, in your seller hub, go to your sold items list, scroll down to find the item and click on more actions and do a complete refund to the buyer. This way they are made whole.

Now, get yourself a copy of the eBay Sold data from Ebay and PayPal. We do this by taking a screen shot of the Sold information. This is just to prove that you made a sale online, show the tracking number, and the Sold Dollar amount. See, you are just gathering details of the sale to prove you shipped it with them, what the amount was and also get a shot of the refund you did.

Now the easy part. Go to the USPS.com official post office web site, find the tab that says make a claim. Click and proceed through one or two tabs and you will then get to the claim form. All you have to do is fill out the form [only a one pager], write a short description of the issue, then fill in the tracking number and then you will see a section that says, Attach Photos. Attach the screen shots your customer sent you along with the shots of the business details you have taken. With the box photos, and the proof of the sale did take place and the dollar amount of the sale and submit the form.

If you missed anything, they will tell you while you are at the form. Complete it and submit.

In every case we have submitted we have gotten a check from them in about 10 business days +/-. Deposit that in your business account and then you will have been made whole also.

Actually, this sounds more complicated than it really is. It is fairly easy and aside from getting the photos from the buyer [some balk at sending you a couple more when we ask, but finally do when we explain it is for the insurance claim, not that we are questioning them]

Good luck. Also, you can read the USPS details on how to file a claim, but once you do it, you will see how easy it is.

If you sell expensive delicate items and use services other than Priority or FedEx make sure you pay the extra couple of bucks for insurance or always make sure if the cost of your item is over the $50 or $100 limit which we get on Ebay, to insure it. We sell items that at times run into the hundreds of dollars and have to stop and remind ourselves that we need to get the extra insurance to cover that dollar amount.

See, the real issue at hand for the USPS is who is the responsible party. Did they mishandle the package or did the shipper not package their item properly? As busy as they are, they don’t have time to argue the point. Add the fact that you provided several photos and the business information, I would expect a 99.99% chance you will get reimbursed.

Good luck and hope this helps you out.

Mike at MDC Concepts, Inc.
MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta

[Jay]

Mike gave a good detailed explanation.
–We’d refund the buyer since they did nothing wrong. We’d ask if teh buyer wants to keep the pitcher and would be happy with a partial refund.
–File a claim with USPS who will likely refund you.
–Shipping cost isnt refunded but shouldn’t matter since the buyer paid for shipping.

[brittneymac]

Thank you guys! She responded and does NOT want to keep the pitcher, as it is useless to her as it was part of a set. Her words. She seemed pissed I asked. Obviously I did not think it was useless without the bowl or I would have never asked. So now my question is, do I return all of her original shipping also? She said she was going to ship the pitcher back to me. Do I have to pay for that too? I don’t have free returns on. At this point I feel like I want to just give her all the money back and just say keep it. I will be gun-shy to ship something breakable again for a while. The shipping was $41.73.

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

Well this has already been answered above. But to put it into an example of what we do all the time. Once we have our photos needed for an USPS claim we refund the customer 100%. We also say, we don’t want any of our customers to be unhappy with their purchase.

So simpley stated…. we give a 100% Refund, fill out our insurance claim and get reimbursed. That’s it. That simple. They get to keep a broken item that they can’t use and get their money back. You are out for an item you can’t resell either and you get 100% of your money back on your insurance claim.

The easiest way to look at this is to completely forget the buyer now and just keep it into your mind that you sold a broken item to the USPS for full price and they paid you and the USPS is happy and you’ll get your check in a week or so. Works for us.

Mike – MDCGFA

[brittneymac]

Ok great! Thank you so much!!

[Old Dad]

Just to add, there is a $50 or $100 limit on the USPS insurance that is included at no charge with Priority Mail unless you bought extra insurance. https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/503.htm#ep1233501

[Author]

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