Need help identifying if I was scammed

Yeesh, that sounds awful. I'm really sorry this happened to you. I have not had this happen to me but reading your post I found it funny that the other person wants some sort of compensation for this? Don't they want the doll? Who did you talk to when you called the post office? Sweden's or the US? It just sounds fishy to me, the whole *neighbor gave them a post message but too late.* You should let them know that postal fraud is a federal offense here, it is serious business and if you call for an investigation and they find that they did receive the doll they could be prosecuted.

Don't give them anything, if my doll went missing and my post office said it was delivered, I'd expect that I would have to do all the work in finding out why it's not at my house. Why is it your problem? It's not. You provided tracking, this isn't your problem, in my opinion.

 

Sounds like a scam to me. Send her copies of everything the Post Office sent you saying it was delivered and that it is out of your hands.

 

That does not sound good at all. If you have the tracking number and it says "delivered", that's all you can really do. She should've been tracking it on her own, and this "neighbor gave me a note too late" thing is very suspicious.

 

I tried to tell myself that there should be the benefit of the doubt, until you said that the tracking said it was delivered. I had many issues with USPS and a few of these included even marking of packages as "delivered" despite they were not, but these were all domestic mail and have sorted themselves in a couple of days. A system error for an international package with a "trackable" tracking number sounds very unlikely.

A neighbor bringing a notice with a passed due date sounds unlikely, too. Even if it was left in the wrong mail box, did her neighbor hold it until the last day?

And if someone indeed did not get the package and is very sad because of this, they wouldn't simply keep quiet for weeks and then suddenly just want to know how it is going for you.

But all of this reasoning isn't even necessary, I agree with @Victoria Victrix, since you have proof from the post office that it was delivered, there is nothing you can do. I wouldn't give her any compensation, this is all too fishy.

 

Just out of curiosity... if the tracking says the parcel has been delivered then someone must have signed for the parcel, no? Would the Swedish post office be able to tell you the name of the person who has signed for it? Or at least confirm to you the someone has given a signature in order to receive the parcel?

 

I am not sure what information the swedish post is able to give out, but the tracking should say that the packet has arrived at the place of collection, and no more, unless it has in fact been collected, yes. It should say when it was collected as well - as in at what time.
I do not know what site you use for checking the trackingnumber, I am asuming you might not have used the swedish one, as this should give you all the information about the status about the packet:
Postnord

But if it does not...
Seeing as we have a system which means that packets are delivered to designated stores and what not, for pick up, I hope that it will not be much of a delay or hassle to get the information you need.

 

As for the "how is it your problem?" - I dunno how this works in the USA but here in Europe, when a parcel is lost, the one who needs to initiate a postal investigation is the sender of the parcel - and they're the only ones who can do so. The addresse, unfortunately, can't do a thing other than maybe call their post office or local mail storage facility and check with them whether they have the parcel.

 

Have you tried tracking the package on PostNord – brev- och pakettjänster för privatpersoner as Yumeiro duggested? I think the website is available in English but I would be quite happy to help you translate. If you could get the information and quote what it says I might be able to help out a bit with what it means.

May I ask which shipping method you used when sending the package? Because how the packages are handled once they arrive in Sweden depends on that and how long they are held at the Collection Point before being retuned. For instance the mailman (or woman) will bring a EMS package along for delivery at the door and if you are not home it will be sent to the place we usually pick up packages. If there are custom fees involved the package will not be brought along for a delivery at the door and instead sent directly to the place we usually pick up packages.

I'm not going to take any sides and will just explain what I know from experience about the "notes" from the post office about packages being ready to pick up. Sometimes it does happen that these are delivered to the wrong address, it shouldn't happen, but does and how long you have to pick up the package depends entierly on the shipping service used. There shouldalso be a reminder sent if the package isn't picked up Before it is returned to the sender.

I really hope this gets solved

Edit: I just tried the tracking number of one of my EMS orders that was picked up by me this week on the english part of PostNord . If the package is at the Collection Point the tracking will say the following:

"The item has arrived at the recipient´s delivery point. Express to be dispatched to the recipient, other items notified"

If the package has been picked up the tracking will say this:

"The item has been consigned to the recipient"

 

I didn't see anyone mention this so forgive me if it's already been asked, but did she purchase insurance? It might be difficult for her to get compensation but it can be done.

 

Ask for a photo of the "post notice"!! That can clarify a lot.

 

I am Swedish myself and can tell you exactly how it work here with packages from outside and inside the country. I can also translate anything you're curious about so if you want help just send me a message through here.

 

If the package was returned to you from Sweden, it will take a couple months to come back. I have had packages returned to me from Europe because the recipient never picked them up from customs and it takes months for them to come back without tracking. It doesn't matter the shipping method either.

Does sound suspicious to me too. Once the packages says delivered, the post office usually doesn't care anymore. Their part is done. I hope you can get this sorted out!

 

Sorry to hear this happened, i hope it all gets sorted out. It does sound fishy, if it was me, i would keep in constant daily contact with the person in question, she may get so fed up of dealing with it that the parcel mysteriously turns up.

This happened to me once with some bears, the person i sent them to said they were lost in the post, the post office said they were not. I wrote to and phoned the woman daily and she got so fed up she suddenly decided the bears were not lost after all and all was fine.

 

Package won't be 'returned to sender' unless you designated that on the custom form and it could not be delivered. If it says delivered, then it was delivered - you cannot undeliver something. If you provided tracking she should have been carefully watching her package and rescued it when it said delivered. Let it go, it's been all done correctly.

 

While I'm not familiar with Swedish post, I am very familiar with USPS and I frequently ship items. I have asked similar things before to the PO staff.

If the item is insured and not delivered, after I believe 14 days, you can file a claim on USPS.com and they're start tracking it down. If you did not require a signature, they can't do anything after it has been delivered, meaning if it gets stolen off a porch, there's nothing they can do. If the package is not insured, they can't do anything at all, especially after its out of the US. If it was marked down on the customs form, the most you'll be able to claim is whatever value you claimed. However, from what my PO worker has told me, marking down the value is mail fraud, especially if you insured it for more than the value you claimed, and in that case, USPS may refuse to reimburse at all. (This is why a lot of people refuse to mark down or mark as a gift.)

I would check the tracking on both countries' websites and screen cap them. If both are showing delivered, then I would show the buyer the proof. If they are claiming it was possibly stolen by a neighbor, then there's nothing more you can do. It will be in her hands then.

Also, if the package is being returned to you, you should be able to get that information from one end of the other. I've had things get returned to a seller before and it was four months before that got resolved, though it ended up being ok.

 

I'd like to add in here regarding "failed delivery" in Sweden:

If the package is brought to your door, as in the deliveryman knocking and getting no answer, they will leave WITH the package and leave a note in your mailbox. The note will inform you that they have been there and failed to deliver said package.

They will return at another time (when they think you will be home) the very next day and do the same. (Unless it's a Saturday, then they will drop over on Monday. This is also put down on the Failed-delivery Note)
If no one open the door they will take the package and leave a second note.

They will then try to deliver the package a third and final time. If the person fail to be home and open the door they will bring the package back with them. They are not allowed to leave the package outside your door without permission from the one supposed to get the package, so they will once again bring it with them to the post office where it will either be held for a period of 1-2 weeks or sent back (if there's a return address.)

If a neighbor got the paper-slip they should've easily been able to hand it to the person it was supposed to go to, then again, the neighbor might've not have been home during this time and only noticed the paper-slip once they got home. Even then it should be on the paper exactly how many times the delivery man were there and that they failed to deliver. To show that she's not lying you could ask for a picture of said paper.

 

1. You don't owe her anything until and unless you get the doll back! If you get the doll back, then it's up to you both what should happen... You can negate the sale and send back her money (return her doll if it's a trade) if you agree to that, or resend the doll--but it's not your fault the shipping did not work the first time, so she should pay for shipping again.

2. Marking down/ as a gift is against the law, as others have said. And the other problem with doing that is that you usually can't insure it at the proper price if it's marked down! It sounds like the package was not insured??? In that case you don't have any recourse through the postal service.

3. If it was delivered... it is not your fault or the postal service. If the buyer did not request insurance, they usually are out of luck if they don't get the package for some reason...

4. If the person said it should be returned to you, then you have to wait and see if it IS returned and then go from there.

---I think there is a section on DoA for discussion of shipping problems and questions, isn't there?

 

This!

It's similar here in USA, but sometimes the delivery man only comes 1 time, leaves the paper slip that says that you can pick up the package on the next day and after 15 days if nobody claims it, it will go back to the sender (if the sender marked it as "return to sender"). If what the customer says is true, she should provide pictures of the paper-slip because with that notice you have proof that the tracking number is giving false information. The tracking number should say "Attempted delivery" or "undelivered", and when it says any of those things, it gives a full description of where the package is at, if they will make a 2nd delivery or when you can go to pick it up. Sometimes it will say that it was left at the door or that it was left in a parcel locker.

OP hasn't said what kind of shipping method they used but when it is EMS, the tracking number shows who signed for the package if it was delivered and they never leave EMS packages without a signature.

What I find fishy is how calm the other person is and that she accepted compensation right away but you never know, maybe she is trying her best to keep calm so I would give her the benefit of a doubt.

Others have mentioned that it takes even 4 months to receive the package back, I would tell her to give me a picture of the notice so I can do more research and that I would wait for the package to appear first before giving her a compensation. It wasn't your fault after all because you put the right address and gave her a tracking number.

This is why I always put a disclaimer on my sales thread that says:

"EMS only. If you want to use another (and cheaper) shipping method, the item will be shipped at your own risk! once the item is out of my hands, it's out of my responsibility. I repeat, IF YOU WANT A LOWER SHIPPING METHOD, LOWER VALUE AND/OR WANT ME TO MARK IT AS A GIFT, YOU ARE 100% RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGES AND LOSSES."

So, if this happens to me I would just tell her (after trying to find out what happened to the package with the PO from both ends) "I did my job, sent it with the shipping method you wanted, marked as a gift and my thread clearly says that when you do that, it is not my responsibility anymore if something happens to the package. If I ever receive the doll back I will let you know and send it again but there's nothing I can do now".