Urgent Question! Who pays the package intercept fee?

I am having an issue in a trade. The person who is supposed to send my pins has not shipped them and he promised to do this 2 days ago. I have shipped mine already and have told him I will file a USPS package intercept on my package if I don't receive any tracking info from him by tonight, for fear that I could potentially get scammed and not be able to get my pins back if that is the case.

I get charged to intercept the package - is it right to ask the person to pay me back the fee so I can tell USPS to release it from hold and deliver the item to him? I am not yet ruling this as a scam as he is responding to my messages and apologizing regularly. I am blaming his lack of responsibility in ensuring my pins get sent out as he said he needed his mother to get the pins dropped off, but he keeps forgetting to tell her to do so.

Goodness! Is the window that narrow nowadays?

I usually give people a few days gap for what I like to call the "real life effect"- it can cover anything from sickness, migraines, and a busy life all the way down to "I forgot" or "I left it at home". I don't usually get concerned until about a week out.

I've only been scammed once in the entire time I've been trading, so maybe I'm just less concerned than some people.

To answer your question...I'm not sure. To me, I feel like maybe you jumped the gun a little? In which case, I wouldn't think you should ask him to pay. On the other hand, he wasn't super responsible about it. If he had been on the ball, it wouldn't have been needed.

I'm curious to see if anyone else has employed this technique, and who ended up paying for it....

Abyssinian28 said:

Goodness! Is the window that narrow nowadays?

I usually give people a few days gap for what I like to call the "real life effect"- it can cover anything from sickness, migraines, and a busy life all the way down to "I forgot" or "I left it at home". I don't usually get concerned until about a week out.

I've only been scammed once in the entire time I've been trading, so maybe I'm just less concerned than some people.

To answer your question...I'm not sure. To me, I feel like maybe you jumped the gun a little? In which case, I wouldn't think you should ask him to pay. On the other hand, he wasn't super responsible about it. If he had been on the ball, it wouldn't have been needed.

I'm curious to see if anyone else has employed this technique, and who ended up paying for it....

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In every trade I do, I always agree to ship pins out the same day as they ship out. We agreed we would ship this past Tuesday. I followed up asking for the tracking number Tuesday, he said he couldn't do it so he'd ship Wednesday. Again, yesterday I followed up again. Still did not drop off package. My package to him will be delivered to his home tomorrow, which is why I have to act now before it is too late.. I do not want to take the chance of getting scammed and want to do whatever I can to protect myself, especially since the pins I sent out were 2 WDI pins.

You should have him sending you tracking or pay the fee. Did they have any references?

Disneychildwithin said:

You should have him sending you tracking or pay the fee. Did they have any references?

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Im bugging him to get my tracking number by today and if not, my plan was to intercept my package to him, and only tell USPS to release it from hold after he pays me back the fee I had to pay to file the intercept request.

Yes this person did have one positive reference.


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How much is the hold fee? I've never heard of this.

slbrabham said:

How much is the hold fee? I've never heard of this.

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https://retail-pi.usps.com/retailpi/actions/rpiAction!howWorks

Thanks. I was wondering what it was.

Since you are wanting to do this because of your fears, and your own protection then you should be the one to pay the fee. It's your "headspace," making this necessary and not any standard in the pin trading community.

If this is what pin trading has come too, perhaps I should be grateful I don't do very many trades.

<-- Old timer

I think she is concerned because the stakes are higher now. I have been trading for many years too, and am an old timer, but the pins I generally trade are only worth $10-$20. Now pins are $50-$60 and the possibility of being scammed is much higher.

Trader followed through and sent me my tracking number along with delivery receipt. All is well for now