I’m having an uncomfortable shipping-delivery issue with a retailer and want to get the right perspective on it. In sum, after a shipping SNAFU, in which the shipment was inadvertently returned to its origin, the retailer at first indicated he would re-ship it, then, during the subsequent five weeks, hasn’t answered my calls or returned any messages.
Details:
The retailer is a known New York seller, albeit – in his words – a one-man operation. I’m a minor buyer at this address, but have purchased from the seller several times without a hitch. Like many sellers, this one allows buyers to assembling full cases piecemeal – a few bottles here, a few there – before shipping. This is a courtesy I acknowledge and appreciate. During 2018, I assembled a case and, in December, I invited him to ship immediately, so he could get the order out of his warehouse. The seller agreed, but stopped the shipment at the last moment because of sudden extreme cold – again, kudos to him – the point being that he is generally a decent, professional guy. We held the package and shipped in May 2019 instead.
In the past, the seller had shipped by UPS, and my address of record with him was a local UPS transshipment center, where I can pick up and sign for packages. Since my last order with him, however, the retailer had changed to a third-party shipper. Unbeknownst to me, the third-party company morphs into Fedex once the package enters my state, and the UPS address would not accept the Fedex package, so it was returned to the shipment center in NY.
A week later, I asked the retailer if package had been re-shipped, and received this response:
“Hope to get it back by today/tomorrow and have to [sic] inspected and make sure it’s all ok.”
After this, I called or wrote him once a week asking how things stood. In the fourth week after the original shipping date, I left messages several days running, expressing my discomfort with the lack of response.
This is the end of week five since the original shipment date, and I’ve heard nothing since the message above. I’m beginning to wonder if the shipment was lost or damaged, and his way of dealing with it is to ghost me, but who knows? In any event, it seems fair I feel to put me in the picture, rather than leaving me hanging.
Both sellers and buyers read here, and it would be great to hear thoughts from each group before drawing a conclusion. A cordial resolution would be my first choice.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts or insights.