Last fall I received an email from a reader who was upset that Amazon was no longer accepting USPS Delivery Confirmation (DC) as proof of delivery. She wrote that letter carriers scan DC at the delivery address only, not at the post office, so should be considered proof of delivery when buyers claim Item Not Received claims with marketplaces such as Amazon:

She elaborated and ended her email, "The logic that Amazon is using since the July 2007 AtoZ changes to deny these claims is severely flawed. Either kill AtoZ for sellers altogether, or do it right. But do not blame USPS."

Here is the Amazon policy in question and the part that has our reader so upset:

"Product(s) Shipped with Delivery Confirmation Tracking – Tracking Shows Delivery and Buyer Claims Item Not Received: The A-to-z Guarantee team will investigate the dispute. Amazon may contact the buyer to confirm non-receipt. If no receipt is confirmed, the seller may still be held liable for lack of fulfillment - Amazon will not cover service errors, including loss, theft, or postal/shipping issues. Amazon will, however, continue to protect sellers from fraudulent buyers and A-to-z Guarantee abusers."

I spoke to Shoshana Grove of the USPS about the fact that Amazon.com was not accepting Delivery Confirmation as proof of delivery in all cases, and here's what she said:

Unfortunately, I don't have a resolution for sellers who pay extra for DC and then lose claims, finding themselves out both the item and the shipping costs. As I noted in January, Amazon replaces products they've shipped to customers when they receive claims, even after customers' neighbors have signed for them!

The USPS is working on something called Intelligent Mail, which I first read about in the Windowbook.com blog, but today the Washington Post has an article that does a good job of explaining it (be sure and read the end). While it's a tracking service for Enterprise customers, I wondered if it could be integrated with PayPal Shipping Labels. I've asked several eBay and PayPal executives if this is what they are referring to when they say they are working with the USPS to improve tracking, and they say they can't comment on specifics.

Shipping and tracking issues get more difficult for sellers who ship internationally. One thing eBay sellers have complained about for years is that eBay won't let them block individual countries, but rather, it lumps certain countries together. I brought this up with Jeff Clementz of PayPal and John McDonald of eBay's Trust & Safety, in an interview earlier this month. I asked them why a seller wouldn't be able to block, say, Italy - which some sellers have told me has a notoriously bad postal system - but still ship to other European countries. John said it was a good idea (as if eBay had never heard the suggestion before). I tend to think the reason eBay's never unbundled countries may have more to with the way eBay prioritizes its programmers' time rather than eBay being unaware of the problem.

The high cost of shipping is hurting more than small online sellers. Catalog company Lillian Veron has had major layoffs and is now looking for a new owner, according to MultiChannelMerchant. Citing devastating increases in postal and parcel rates, coupled with a paper price hikes and a decrease in value of the U.S. dollar, Muoio says the company was left with no alternative than to find a new owner.

Consumers are being squeezed (especially with the word Recession being tossed around so much), and etailers are feeling the pinch. I'll end this long post with a letter I received from another reader this week, this one a buyer, not a seller. I've never said online selling was easy!