Shipping troubles

[Cricket]

I'm pretty new at ebay - still trying to figure things out. I've bought a few things, and had good success. Never had any issues with shipping, or the quality of the product, etc. I recently bought a little dress for my daughter - nothing expensive, I think it was $8. I paid with paypal, item was shipped, and the package arrived today, opened and empty. I was pretty disappointed. I didn't purchase shipping insurance for it, because it was such a small amount. Do I have any options, or is that just "one of those things"? BTW - I don't think the seller cheated me. I think it was stolen in shipping. Any suggestions?

[Phteven]

I don't think there's much you can do. You should lodge a complaint with your local post office. You could also contact paypal. They have buyer protection but I don't know if it covers items lost in the mail.
I've got a dispute open with a seller at the moment about shipping but my seller actually has the item because it was returned to sender because the courier didn't bother leaving a card.

[alioops]

did the package appear tampered? if it look like they normally do i would say they sent an empty box, but if it looked like it had been taped and re taped i would suspect a dodgy postie/courier.

[Phteven]

If they sent an empty box it's easy enough to see - just look at the little printed label thingy that the post office puts on it and see wht it cost and how much it weighed.

[Cricket]

Thanks for the advice ladies! I am pretty sure she shipped it with the clothing inside - it looked like the envelope was carefully opened - steamed maybe?
How should I leave feedback? I intend to leave positive feedback, but I think if the seller had packaged it more carefully, this might not have happened. (It was just in a full sized envelope, no packing, no box, etc.) I feel that I should at least leave a comment saying that the item was stolen in shipping, so that if this happens more often with this seller, people will be warned. Should I maybe e-mail the seller to suggest more careful packaging next time?
What do you think?

[Phteven]

I think it's a good idea to leave something in feedback and contact her to let her know what happened.