Order was sent back by post office, customer wants it still, how to cover shipping?

ladyiolanthe

Hello folks,

I had shipped an international order in March. It was returned to me from the destination country with an "Unable to Forward" mark from the destination's post office. I have contacted the seller and confirmed the address they gave me was correct. They let me know they had been having some troubles with their local post office and that's why the package was returned to sender. The customer still wants the order and is willing to pay shipping again. This is the first time I have experienced such a situation, so I am looking for advice on how to handle this request.

Do I need to cancel this order and ask the buyer to place it again in order to get the shipping costs? Or is there another way to handle this situation? Thank you!

Regards,

ladyiolanthe / Aurora Bricks

ladyiolanthe

Whoops, typo. I contacted the *buyer*. The buyer confirmed the address is correct. The post office in the buyer's community failed to deliver the package to the buyer and sent it back to me.

Neiljones

Which country did you sent it to? Ask your post office why it was returned they should know. I somehow get the feeling there was an import duty to be paid on it.

ladyiolanthe

It went to the USA from Canada. I very much doubt that customs charged any fees - it was a small order, worth less than the shipping cost that the buyer is willing to pay a second time in order to get their parts. The envelope was clearly marked Return to Sender Unable to Forward.

I really just need some advice on how to charge shipping again on this order, since that is what the buyer has requested I do rather than cancel the order completely. Thanks!

Hoddie

I believe the following works but can't guarantee it as I've never needed to do it myself:

Click on 'Contact Customer' from the order, then copy the email address that ends in @m.brickowl.com, then go to PayPal and send a request for payment to that email address.

tons_of_bricks

If the address is correct and you can get rid of/hide any return stickers they've placed on the package, you should be able to send it out with the same label. We did that once with a very similar issue.

Emporiosa

Just double checking, but was this sent via Lettermail, or did it have the proper label + customs doc? I've been hearing that sellers keep trying to send goods from CA->US and vice versa using Lettermail, which isn't allowed and they're cracking down on. All packages must have customs documentation.

Assuming you didn't send it via Lettermail, what did the tracking say? For that length of time, it sounds like they held the package but they didn't pick it up. Also, it could be customs related (but if you didn't see a label on it for that, then I guess that axes that part - our threshold is VERY low. It's $20CAD ($15.54USD). I know you mentioned it being less than shipping, so that comes back to my first point... it sounds like this may be a package being sent via Lettermail. If that's the case, it may return to you yet again as they've really ramped up the crackdowns.

Emporiosa

Just realized your follow-up comment that it's Canada -> US (so yes definitely not a customs tax issue). I'm assuming this was using the untracked small packet service? For some reason, this tracking works in eBay, so if you happen to have an account and ever sold anything, you can plug in that tracking # in an old sold item and see info about its location/tracking to help identify what may have happened.

As for reshipping at their cost, like Hoddie mentioned, you can do an invoice/request payment from PayPal using that BrickOwl address (or actually, you should have their email from PayPal on their original payment I believe).

ladyiolanthe

Emporiosa, thanks. I don't send Lego internationally via lettermail as that is illegal. I ship small packet US Air Mail or international and fill out customs forms and stuff. But that method doesn't have tracking. There was no customs stickers on the bubble mailer but it did get opened and re-sealed by US Customs. It was literally 4 pieces of Lego so not worth vast sums of money.

nita_rae

@ladyiolanthe In my view, you need to use a stated policy (which doesn’t help you much on this order, but that’s how it is). You can take a strong view, but be more relaxed upon your choice, but the policy needs to be spelled out before hand (which unfortunately leads to a longer terms page than most people would like to write or to read).

Hoddie

You cannot have bespoke terms on BO other than those you set in your store's settings.