If an order was shipped with tracking via Buy Shipping Services, and the buyer files a claim stating the order was not received, Amazon will cover the A-to-z claim and the claim won’t be included into your Order Defect Rate. To be eligible for this benefit, the order must be shipped using a label purchased via Buy Shipping Services.
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/200202220

If you did not use amazon buy shipping - and did not get a signature as proof- you have no recourse if they file a claim and will be forced to refund yourself instead of amazon covering it for you if you used amazon buy shipping

I had an order on Sept 30th. I shipped the order and paid for shipping through Amazon. I had no idea there was an issue with this purchase until this morning when the buyer sent me an email wondering why this has been out for delivery for the last 3 weeks and is demanding a firm date for delivery or a refund. This was a 138.00 order

I never want to raise the scammer flag, but this one would make me be very careful in how I proceeded. First, you have to wonder why the buyer waited all this time to contact you. That would make me suspicious that the item was delivered just fine, and they recently happened to check their orders for some unrelated reason and saw that tracking showed never delivered and figured it was worth asking if they could get a refund based on that.

You’ll want to cover all your bases, in case the buyer does file a non-delivery claim. First, call the delivering post office. Get a name of the person you speak with. Ask them if they can do any kind of investigation. I’ve never had to investigate an Out for Delivery/no delivery scan problem before, so others might have specific questions you should ask, but I’ve had several cases where there was an Out for Delivery scan followed by… nothing. I never heard anything from the buyers, so I assume this is something that happens on occasion and does NOT necessarily mean the package didn’t get delivered.

What you want to do is gather facts to support that it WAS actually delivered, and the only problem was a missed delivery scan, not a non-delivery.

The customer in his email is upset and I did ship this.

Start by contacting the customer, being empathetic (thank you for alerting me to the problem, I’m going to start an investigation with the PO right away…), and NOT being accusatory even if you suspect a scam.

If he is a scammer, you want him to know he’s doing a bad thing, but if he’s not, you don’t want him to feel like you’re treating him like one. The wording can be tricky, but I usually say something like -

Lack of a delivery scan doesn’t necessarily mean lack of delivery, sometimes it might just mean the carrier’s equipment didn’t read the label when they tried to scan it. I’ll check with your post office when they open tomorrow and ask them if they can provide any information.

In the meantime, would you please check once more to be absolutely sure you didn’t overlook the package? It was shipped in a (describe the box or envelope, size, shape, weight, color, return address etc) and with the amount we all shop online these days, it’s easy to overlook one delivery.

Mail theft is a serious crime and may require involving the postal inspectors or the police, and we don’t want to start such a serious process unless we’re 100% sure the package was illegally removed from the mail stream after it was loaded onto the delivery truck.

With this, you sound empathetic and helpful (important if this turns into a dispute, see cover all your bases above). In the second paragraph, you give them an ‘out’ if they are trying to scam you. They can simply come back and say they found the package. You emphasize the point that package theft (or false accusations thereof) is a serious matter.

Well, your buyers so far have been…not smart.

I’m not stupid and I would read right through that baloney.

There is no obvious theft, the item seems to be stuck somewhere or lost. The buyer has been more than patient and shouldn’t have to deal with seller bs. You’re not doing the buyer any favors and I’d see right through that game. OP’s buyer may also.

Negative feedback.

But, as I’ve stated many times before, this is why I never, ever buy from 3rd party sellers. I’m not into playing games or dealing with unprofessional sellers.