USPS can recall Priority Mail packages and why I didn’t do it

Introduction

So yesterday, I woke up and got this email from my good friends at Paypal:

Now most people or new-to-eBay people would be scared poopless and ruin their day.  To me though, this is just another walk in the park.  It’s part of the scammer’s game.  But once you understand how eBay and Paypal’s seller protection works, you can easily win almost all of these cases.  First off, although not required, try to use eBay’s shipping label process.  This way, there’s a record of when you bought the label (this is important becuase once I printed out a label at 8AM, got the fraud email at 10AM, and was able to still win the case because I said I had bought the shipping label and dropped the pacakge off at USPS before the fraud email.)    Secondly, you’ll get a discount on shipping and you don’t have to drive to USPS.  Third, remember that signature confirmation is required for items over $750 (insurance not required – that’s up to you.)  Back to my story, so I went into the Paypal case and filled out my tracking information.  Usually I’m done there.

However, I was thinking – since the item is in transit, I wonder if I can recall it and a) get the iPad back and b) also win the case.  So I Googled “USPS Recall Package” and got this link – https://retail-pi.usps.com/retailpi/actions/index.action:

I actually put in the tracking number, and my item was eligible to be recalled.  I then filled in the address I shipped to and got to the payment screen, which looked like this:

WHOOOOA THERE NELLY!  $27?!?  That’s when I cleared my cart and stopped this madness.  There are 2 ways to go with this:

A) I’m almost certain to win the Paypal case since I did everything by the rules.  Not my fault the buyer is trying to scam Paypal.  If and when I win, I’m back to my merry ways and the scammer gets both his money and an iPad.

B) If I recall this item, I am out $27 + the $5 initial shipping fee = $33.  And most likely, by the time Paypal decides on the case in about a week, I’ll lose because the item came back to me.  Then I’d have to relist again.   The reason I know I would lose this is back in my iTunes eBay gift card days, I once shipped out a gift card to a US address, which got returned to me.  I don’t remember if I won the case or not, but I remember Paypal giving me a hard time basically saying, “You got your gift card mailed back to you, so you are not out anything.”  Makes sense.  You got me there Paypal.  But that shipping fee was lke $2; I’m not paying out $33 for this iPad.

Conclusion

You CAN recall USPS Priority Mail packages (probably need deliver confirmation since you need a tracking number,) but don’t recall it to try to double-dip a Paypal scam.  I can’t think of a good use call on when to use it, but just know it’s available to use.