USPS: We’ll pillage your package

I usually take old college textbooks to the local bookstores during “buyback” time, but usually there are one or two books that none of the stores will buy. They are not needed because a new edition is already out or the professor hasn’t yet told the bookstores their students will need it. I’ve sold 3 of these “leftover” books on Half.com in the past month. It’s a good system because all you do is list what books you have and the price for each item, and Half.com will notify you when someone wants to buy it. The books will stay in your inventory until they are sold (or you remove them), and Half.com handles all of the payments (no messing with PayPal — the buyer pays Half.com and they send it, minus their commission, on to you).

The problem with Half.com is the shipping; mainly, the fact that sellers must provide the option of shipping via USPS’s “Media Mail” service, and most buyers choose that option. Media Mail is very cheap, but also very slow. And since it can only be used to send books, CDs, and simiar media, the USPS reserves the right to open your packages and make sure you’re not sending something else inside.

Three days ago, I got an email from someone who bought one of my books saying that they still haven’t received it after nearly a month. Then today, I got a letter from the USPS saying that they found my shipping envelope empty; somehow, the book got “separated” from the envelope in transit.

Here’s my guess: the USPS opened the envelope to make sure I was actually sending a book, and didn’t seal it back well enough. Then the book got lost. Oh well, they’re not responsible for it. I can file a claim and hope that they find the book, but if they don’t, I’m out of luck. Now I’m waiting for Half.com to tell me what my options are. If they can’t do anything about it, I can either send the buyer a refund and be out the cost of the book, or risk them leaving me negative feedback (Half.com shares its feedback system with eBay, so it will appear on both sites).