"Are there legal guidelines for following up on your orders?" Topic

OK, first I seldom run into problems anymore with email, computerized replies, and so on. When something does happen, like the hiccups my computer had a couple weeks ago when I placed an order with Askari, I wrote to them, and Al at Askari (good troop!!) quickly checked and let me know that everything was in order.

Still, every now and then, there is some glitch, the order doesn't show up in a month and you don't know what the problem is. Once upon a time, I think I was told you needed to contact the company if you hadn't received the order in a month, or your order would be considered, well, "abandoned." Is this still the case? Can a company reasonably assume after (30 or 60 or 90 days with no follow up from the buyer, that they sort of changed their mind and no longer want the item? Or, is a follow up after a month or two simply a good business procedure? How long do others wait before following up on an aging order?

On the other hand, is there a point at which you just give up and assume the company will never send you your merchandise?

Grelber

Operating by selling on Amazon, the tolerance of customers tend to be very limited. Some are demanding refunds before the time allotted for media mail has not even came up. One issue is that you cannot contact the buyer unless they can't you first. Some customers also do not understand at once I put an item in the mail, I no longer have any influence over when it is delivered.

With none Amazon sales, you can contact the customer direct.

If you don't tell them you haven't received your parcel they cannot respond. I assume that if I don't get any follow up from my customers, the parcel got through.
Depending on the delivery times as advertised by the courier or service you are using, you should be contacting the seller once that time has passed and no parcel has arrived.
However, during the second quarter of this calendar year, two week delivery times were taking 6-8 weeks, but still getting through in most cases.

I doubt if your package was ever considered abandoned after 30 days, especially back in the day, when 4-8 week delivery times were normal.

If you have paid for the order, the company cannot presume that you no longer want the order and keep your money.

Nothing wrong with a follow-up email after a reasonable period of time.

1: Pay for trackable shipping, that way you should be able to see when the item/s have actually shipped and where they are. If they get lost in transit then contact the shipper and tell them to hit the Post Office/Courier for the insurance, that sometimes gets thing 'unstuck' also. I think Etsy also cover their vendors if the goods get lost in transit.

2: Use PayPal or a similar service that a: independently contacts the vendor in a way that they won't ignore (their bank account) and b: covers you for your investment.

That "abandoned" story sounds false. Would the company in that scenario expect to keep the money, despite having all the information required to refund it?

Sounds more likely you are getting two different situations mixed up. For example, if you had a parcel sent to some pick-up point. i.e. a train station, or hotel, and then failed to pick up the item, then the place where it was left might have a policy that if not picked up within a set time limit, say 30 days, it would be considered "abandoned". But that would have nothing to do with the shipper; the onus to pick it up was on the buyer.

PayPal will allow you to file a complaint up to either 6 months, or 9 months -- I forget. I am referring to domestic, USA transactions; I don't know how they work, with non-USA vendors, which likely will vary from country to country. After that, they will not attempt to recover your funds for you.

I've filed two non-delivery complaints, with PayPal, over the past 15 years. Received my funds back each time, with minimal hassle.

CC companies, and banks, have similar rules for how long you can wait to file a complaint of non-delivery, but I am not familiar with their rules. CC's and banks will make up their own rules, unless mandated by State/Federal laws, within the USA.

First step is to contact the vendor. Depending upon their response, or lack there of, the second step is to file a non-delivery complaint with your payment service used to finance the order. Follow their service terms, and they should be able to reimburse you. Cheers!