Christmas ORDERS LOST!

[Gloxk]

Guys I'm in a jam right now. I sent out 15 orders so they will arrive by Christmas but they're lost and now my customers think I'm a scam! I was stupid enough not to get a tracking number. I don't know what to do. They are going to ask for a refund and I don't have it due to the cost of production.


I don't want the police knocking on my door(even though I used all stealth info).

I removed my bank account and debit card just in case they try to remove money from those accounts.

I'm trying to be patient but they're sending hate emails.

I'm not even responding to them I will just wait until the orders are sent back (which can take weeks!) to contact them. If they aren't returned by the end of January I will scrape up the costs and refund them.

[unkown5454]

Always use tracking and even insurance/signature confirmation if the item is expensive. You are learning a hard lesson right now, especially during Christmas time. Ignoring the customers will only make things worse for you.

And, how do you know they are lost? All of my shipments are encountering delays right now. Not only for my customers, but also from my suppliers. You really need to start learning how commerce works during holiday seasons.

[rsot]

You NEED to respond to your customers - not responding makes things MUCH MUCH worse

[SaiJin]

Sorry to say, but you didn't do your homework and you are being irresponsible now.
You just shot yourself in the foot. I have damaged good myself and I always respond within 24 hours to work it out.

So go work it out.

[Gloxk]

They were in the US. My ebay was connected to Paypal, I just "unlinked" them. Can Paypal take my real address and phone number from eBay and use that to harass me? I've had them call me previously for listing collections(didn't sell one product).

Originally Posted by rsot

I dont follow Gloxk - what do expect forum members here to do? Were these orders international or US?

You NEED to respond to your customers - not responding makes things MUCH MUCH worse

[Gloxk]

I've just emailed all of them about it. Hopefully they respond in 24 hrs(even the mean ones) I just don't want Paypal harassing me because my real address is not on paypal but on eBay and I'm scared that they will look at eBay and get all of my real info. Will they do that?
Edit:These orders are on Etsy.

[An0nym0u$]

Good move by responding to them. Hiding from the problem won't make it go away, it will just make it 10x worse. People are expecting their items and many of them can be presents for others, which would make anyone irate.

What type of shipping service did you use that you opted to go w/o tracking #?

Tracking #'s is a MUST when selling most items nowadays. By now, I hope you realize this.

[Gloxk]

Thanks. I used USPS. From now on I will ALWAYS get tracking. This is a total headache. I just hope they don't get my address and phone from eBay.
This is a complete lesson for me in terms of business and stealth.

Originally Posted by An0nym0u$

Good move by responding to them. Hiding from the problem won't make it go away, it will just make it 10x worse. People are expecting their items and many of them can be presents for others, which would make anyone irate.

What type of shipping service did you use that you opted to go w/o tracking #?

Tracking #'s is a MUST when selling most items nowadays. By now, I hope you realize this.

[unkown5454]

Your information is already in their database. You can't just hide stuff from them. Once it's there, they have a permanent file of you. EB/PP is the same company.

[rsot]

Dont panic Gloxk - sort out with the buyers - you have a lot of time before problems go to collections

[user3657]

Provide more details.

15 packages are not "lost". I have only had one lost package in the past 5 years out of prob 2500.
My guess is they were sent with no tracking and due to the holidays are just extremely backed up, but will get there.

how long has it been?

[GreenBean]

Originally Posted by Gloxk

Guys I'm in a jam right now. I sent out 15 orders so they will arrive by Christmas but they're lost and now my customers think I'm a scam! I was stupid enough not to get a tracking number. I don't know what to do. They are going to ask for a refund and I don't have it due to the cost of production.
I don't want the police knocking on my door(even though I used all stealth info). I removed my bank account and debit card just in case they try to remove money from those accounts. I'm trying to be patient but they're sending hate emails. I'm not even responding to them I will just wait until the orders are sent back (which can take weeks!) to contact them. If they aren't returned by the end of January I will scrape up the costs and refund them.

You are trying to be patient by ignoring customer emails?

Be serious. You must communicate with the buyers.

You would be on here crying foul if a seller showed you the same type of treatment.

Take a deep breath and act like an adult.

All of your info is still there on paypal's side. Unlinking it did nothing except make you think you were being clever.

For the future, learn to do business correctly.

[joesshooze]

OP, Greenie is correct, this is business 101. The very 1st thing is to answer em's and apologize for any inconvenience caused and reassure your customers that the pkgs. will arrive on time. USPS is particularly screwed up this past week. I know that when seller does not respond to me I go ballistic because it's rude not to. Answering the em's is paramount to establish credibility. Always be humble and very low key. In my experience most scammers do not communicate so that's half the battle. I personally will not ship anything without tracking and yet the past days USPS has missed scanning a lot of pkgs. It also just took 9 days for me to receive a 1st class pkg. from CA that should have only taken 3-4 days and was only scanned once on pickup. Good luck & happy holidays.

[rsot]

Time for an update Glozk - made any positive moves? 6 days