Q&A: Should I use USPS Delivery Confirmation or insurance?
QUESTION: What "extra" service should I add to my Media Mail packages? I've been considering adding delivery confirmation. I recently had my biggest sale -- a $50 book -- and now realize maybe I should have insured it too.ANSWER: I use Endicia online postage. I gladly pay the monthly fee, which allows me to avoid standing in line at the Post Office.
I also use USPS Delivery Confirmation, which Endicia provides at the discounted rate of 14 cents. I give my customers the tracking number when I e-mail them for shipment confirmation.
Usually this works fine, but several times a month I have a situation where the customer checks the tracking result a few days after I've shipped and they get this response:
- The U.S. Postal Service was electronically notified by the shipper or shipping partner on September 01, 2006 to expect your package for mailing. This does not indicate receipt by the USPS or the actual mailing date.
It's not a huge deal, but it's irritating to pay for a service, then be forced to constantly make excuses for why it doesn't work.
On the other hand, Amazon has denied all the A to Z claims filed against my account by clueless or dishonest customers claiming nondelivery -- all based on the fact I had "tracking."
Have I gotten my money's worth from Delivery Confirmation? Maybe not. Last year I paid $4,760 for Delivery Confirmation -- 14 cents times 34,000 Media Mail packages during calendar year 2005. Since 2002, I've had 18 A to Z claims filed against me worth a total of $304.
Obviously, I could forfeit the funds from all my A to Zs and come out way ahead. So I guess I'm not getting my money's worth from Delivery Confirmation -- especially when it makes me look like I'm lying.
I'll probably continue using Delivery Confirmation, but I quit using insurance long ago. I used to insure every package worth more than $50, but stopped after my first year -- and I've never had a mishap. (I do upgrade to Priority for expensive books, just to add some reliability.)
A couple of times I've mailed books worth around $500 with no insurance, but I did add signature confirmation so I'd have certain proof of delivery instead of Delivery Confirmation.
posted by Steve Weber at 9/06/2006
13 Comments:
The Postal Service clearly states that Delivery Confirmation is just that.... confirmation of delivery.... and is NOT intended or marketed as a 'tracking' service. Any scans at the receiving office, and en route, are incidental; but they can frequently be used for tracking.
We don't notify the customer of the DC# UNLESS there is a problem and we have verified that the parcel lhas been scanned into the system.
We use DC on nearly all of our shipments, because we believe that it does make a difference on the number of suspicious 'did not receive' complaints.
I self-insure; that is, I allow people to buy insurance, but I don't buy it from the Post Office. If I do have to issue a refund, I do it out of my own pocket. I'm my own State Farm :)
Insurance only protects the seller, as any mail-order merchant is required to provide safe delivery.
Offering or requiring buyers to purchase insurance is borderline scamming, and charging for insurance and then not actually providing it is probably a violation of some regulatory agency. It certainly should be. I hope bishop's post was in jest.....
Okay, I may not be fully understanding this but if the seller fully refunds in case of mishap, why would I, as a customer, care if he got the money from the postal insurance or out of his own pocket? And, would I even know where it came from? I guess I had not ever had insurance come up as an Amazon seller. Does this mean customers can purchase insurance on Amazon and I've never had one do it?
As for the cut back on people saying they never received the package but they really did - this completely stopped for me once I started using Delivery Confirmation.
I use the post office's free program SHIPPING ASSISTANT and it allows me to purchase delivery confirmation (which is not tracking) for 14 cents. I use this only on books $5.00 and above. I do insure any books $50 and above. This is sort of a middle ground between DC on everything and none at all. As for self-insuring, I see nothing unethical about this. But that must be on ebay or some other site other than Amazon. On Amazon I don't see any place for the buyer to add insurance. It's got to be you the seller adding it to protect yourself if the book is lost and you have to refund.
I insure ALL my packages through U-Pic. I pay a flat rate of $25/month that covers anything I send plus stuff that's sent to me.
Is it worth it? I don't know. I've never had a claim so, in that respect, maybe not. On the other hand, when the buyer sees the card I enclose that says "This shipment insured by U-Pic, Policy Number ####, I fell it's just another part of being professional.
One hard-to-measure benefit of Delivery Confirmation is that some unscrupulous buyers are deterred from even making false claims that they didn't receive the book. When I first started using DC I didn't give the tracking info in the email. I had a buyer write saying the book had never arrived; when I then gave him the DC info, he somehow "found" the book again.
I use Delivery Confirmation for my benefit - it helps with the AtoZ claims and it also helps me keep track of delivery times. Be aware though that DC does not even mean that the item was delivered. It only means it was scanned by PO equipment. So for instance, it could be scanned then not delivered for some reason, or scanned then left on the door stoop and stolen. It's a false sense of security for everyone (yeah but I use it). Some POs will scan electronic DC when you take it to a counter and some won't. Even within the same PO office, some clerks will scan and some won't. It's pretty hit and miss. Also, if a package does not get delivered with DC attached, the PO will not take any extra measures to find the package which I have run into a couple of times. Priority mail is also a "scam" as the PO does not guarentee 2-3 day delivery. They say that's only an average. My first class mail gets to the buyer in the same time as Priority. If a Priority package is not delivered in the "average" days, you still have to wait 14 days for the PO to accept a complaint on it and they still don't do anything about it.
I'm not bashing the PO in general, as 99% of my stuff makes it to where it is going. It's the 1% of times when things don't get delivered that the PO falls flat on it face with all kinds of excuses about it not being their fault.
I purchased a book on Ebay and the seller charged me for DC. When I objected that she was charging too much for postage (I quoted media mail rates in my email to the seller), she reduced the amount of the mailing charges. When the book arrived, there was a $1.00 bill cash included in the book. I thought, she probably feels guilty about overcharging. Obviously, this seller overcharges her customers on mailing fees and gets away with it when there is no objection.
Delivery confirmation is nice if you can get it for 14 cents. But it does not replace insurance. I always insure books over $50.00 and sometimes books in the $20-49 range. Below that I can absorb losses. In over 2000 books shipped, i have had only two totally lost in the system and one case where I suspected buyer cheating. That one ws a $3.00 book so I just ate the loss as it would cost me more than that to pursue it.
Delivery confirmation is also available at a discounted rate for anyone who uses paypal as well. https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now
Regarding Paypal and delivery confirmation, if you print your mailing label through Paypal's service, they require delivery confirmation for media mail postings. They automatically charge an extra 14 cents. (Their priority mail label automatically includes delivery confirmation for free.) I know this because when I started selling books on ebay, I emailed them when I saw the extra fee showing up for media mail, and they said that it is a requirement.
This is a great blog. I am a bookseller who just started selling on Amazon. This posting was so helpful because I could not figure out how to print shipping labels with paypal without having an auction on ebay. Dan provided a link to paypal for postage and I really appreciate it. Thank you!
Yukio
www.boldandworthy.com
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