Dealing with Ebay/Paypal with incorrect addresses

[vavavroom]

My Ebay buyer asked me to ship to his new address, which doesn't match the address in his PayPal account. Neither do the names nor the gender of the recipient match. I told him/her to please change his/her PayPal address to the new address before paying. If I ship to an address other than the address in his PayPal account, I have zero protection if the shipment gets lost or if the recipient claims to never have received the goods. If the buyer does not update his address in his PayPal account but pays, what is my best COA? Refund the money? I cannot find any information on Ebay about a buyer with a "bad" address. If the vendor cancels the sale, it affects the vendor's rating. Any suggestions?

 

[Dylan1303]

I would not sell it like that. What if the account is hacked etc etc. worse case he leaves neg feedback, call ebay and they will remove it. Thats what i did with a terrible buyer.

 

[dishdude]

Cancel the sale with address as the reason and have them repurchase once they've updated their address.

 

[OilFilters]

Send to the address given to you by ebay from their PayPal account. Call ebay if you have any questions. It's his problem if he needs it shipped somewhere else. If you refund the money ebay will just count it against you as if you were at fault.

If you provide tracking for the correct PayPal address provided, you are protected no matter how much the buyer complains. DO NOT send to any other address.

 

[gathermewool]

Give the guy the benefit of the doubt. I don't see why the buyer can't quickly update his PayPal account information and resubmit payment.

I would not ship to another address. If the buyer gives you negative feedback, simply explain it to Ebay and fwd them the email correspondence.

 

[vavavroom]

I told him to update his PayPal address. No word from him after 48 hours.

 

[Rand]

High probability of shiestyness.

If legit
When they pay with paypal... should see it is his old address and update it.

no reason to not update the address.

unless they are buying it for someone else... however much more likely its a hacked acct or some other bad business... like trying to get it for free..

 

[vavavroom]

I was just notified that the buyer has paid with PayPal. A Texas address comes up when I go to "print shipping label." He told me he wanted the item shipped to Philadelphia. I'll ask him if I can ship to his Texas address, but I will refuse to ship to his Philadelphia address.

 

[SZR48207]

Originally Posted By: dishdude
Cancel the sale with address as the reason and have them repurchase once they've updated their address.


This is the correct answer. I had to deal with this a week ago and eBay customer service told me to do exactly this.

OP - DO NOT SHIP THE ITEM UNTIL YOU KNOW THE BUYERS ADDRESS IS VERIFIED AND CORRECT

 

[vavavroom]

Originally Posted By: dishdude
Cancel the sale with address as the reason and have them repurchase once they've updated their address.


I see the option for canceling for a problem with the buyer's address. However, according to what I've read, Ebay will ding my reputation for canceling.

 

[CarbonSteel]

Originally Posted By: vavavroom
Originally Posted By: dishdude
Cancel the sale with address as the reason and have them repurchase once they've updated their address.
I see the option for canceling for a problem with the buyer's address. However, according to what I've read, Ebay will ding my reputation for canceling.
Contact eBay customer support and explain the situation and prevent issues at the onset.

 

[vavavroom]

Originally Posted By: 2015_PSD
Contact eBay customer support and explain the situation and prevent issues at the onset.


That seems to be the only good solution.

 

[Ewag2983]

Ebay customer service over the phone is great. Much better than what I would have expected the 3 times I have had to deal with them. I had something similar happen and they cancelled the transaction and made it disappear so neither of us could leave feedback or contact each other.

 

[mehullica]

Originally Posted By: Ewag2983
Ebay customer service over the phone is great. Much better than what I would have expected the 3 times I have had to deal with them. I had something similar happen and they cancelled the transaction and made it disappear so neither of us could leave feedback or contact each other.

I agree. Their phone support is much better than it used to be. You will not be charged any fees & ive has this same problem before with a buyer, worked out easily with eBay support

 

[OilFilters]

Originally Posted By: Ewag2983
Ebay customer service over the phone is great. Much better than what I would have expected the 3 times I have had to deal with them. I had something similar happen and they cancelled the transaction and made it disappear so neither of us could leave feedback or contact each other.


It depends on who you talk to. Depending on the time of day, you get either American support or foreign support, I'm not sure when they switch over. Foreign support is absolutely HORRIBLE. They literally do not know their own ebay policies. And you can only understand half what they are saying. They cannot go off script. You can't get anything done without demanding a supervisor, and even then, it's extremely hit and miss.

Call later on and get American support with the same problem, they will have it solved in a few minutes.

I've been a power seller for 18 years.

 

[SHOZ]

I only worry about the address if USPS says it's a bad address. If you ship to the address provided and get USPS tracking then I feel I've done my part.

 

[vavavroom]

The buyer never responded to my request to please not pay unless his PayPal billing address and his shipping address matched. Instead, he paid and told me again to ship to his new address. His old address is supposedly his ex's address. He said he was hoping that mail forwarding would work if I decided to ship to his ex's address.

eBay CS says I must only ship to the address that comes in eBay. As I understand it, this is the same as the PayPal billing address, although the eBay lady could not confirm that. She said the buyer will have to change his shipping address in his eBay account. If the buyer does not comply I should cancel the order. Whether or not eBay will ding me for that she did not know. She said I'd have to talk to another department. I gave the buyer three days to change his eBay/PayPal address. to his shipping address. I doubt that the shipping address will retroactively change for that auction. The eBay lady did not know.

 

[OilFilters]

Originally Posted By: vavavroom
The eBay lady did not know.

Not surprising. I've argued with them dozens of times about their own policies because I know them better than they do. Really, if you know enough about ebay to be good at customer service then you likely are better off being an ebay seller than answering phones for them...

It will most likely count against you if you cancel the item. For example, if you have to cancel a sale because something is out of stock, it will count against you. Ebay isn't going to ask you why you canceled, or care.

Personally I would just ship it to the confirmed address and be done with it. It's the buyer's problem. If they leave you negative feedback for that you can call ebay and they will remove it. If you provide ebay tracking information that shows it was delivered to the given address within the correct amount of time, the seller always wins. Even if it was a hacked account, it's not your problem if you ship it to the confirmed address.

 

[vavavroom]

Originally Posted By: OilFilters
Originally Posted By: vavavroom
The eBay lady did not know.
Ebay isn't going to ask you why you canceled, or care.


When you cancel, you get the option to say there was a problem with the address. I understand I should be clear if I ship to his eBay/PayPal billing address. The problem is that he indicates that shipping to that address is not safe. I'm stuck shipping to an unsafe address or shipping to an address that will not provide me any protection. Neither option is acceptable.

 

[dishdude]

Originally Posted By: vavavroom
Originally Posted By: OilFilters
Originally Posted By: vavavroom
The eBay lady did not know.
Ebay isn't going to ask you why you canceled, or care.


When you cancel, you get the option to say there was a problem with the address. I understand I should be clear if I ship to his eBay/PayPal billing address. The problem is that he indicates that shipping to that address is not safe. I'm stuck shipping to an unsafe address or shipping to an address that will not provide me any protection. Neither option is acceptable.


It's a judgement call you'll have to make. How much is the item? How has communication with the buyer been? I've cancelled sales for address issues and not faced any repercussion from eBay. I've also shipped to unconfirmed addresses and it's been fine.

For the record, I only use eBay to clear my closets, my feedback is about 500 but I only use it to sell unneeded items around the house.

If it's a low value item you can afford to lose and your gut says ship, then ship. If it's something of value and you don't feel comfortable, cancel it.