About to get my first negative feedback in 13 years because buyer provided bad mailing address

[big_mikey_mike]

I am a casual seller (and frequent buyer), here on eBay for many years.  You know, the type to sell something that is just a bit too valuable or nice to send to a landfill.  13 years so far, and not a single negative feedback!  I've probably been lucky, plus my volume is relatively low.

Recently I sold an item for $140 with free USPS Priority Shipping.  I promptly dispatched the item to the buyer, added the tracking number, and even messaged the buyer to let them know the item is en route.  It cost me $16.30 to mail the item.  All good!  Until:

1.  Several days later, the box appears on my own doorstep: "Unable to deliver item, problem with address".
2.  I messaged the buyer, asking what happened.  The buyer replied, "Hello sorry about that I moved and thought the USPS accepted my new address please send it again."
3.  I replied saying, how do I know this won't happen again?  And I asked the buyer to approximately meet me in the middle and pay $7.50 of the cost to re-ship.
4.  Then the buyer simply opened a "item not received" request, saying only "if you could resend the item".  I responded politely with a recap of events, stating I will reship for $7.50.

I'm not sure how best to proceed.  I could eat the shipping costs and issue a refund, but then the buyer could still give negative feedback, which would be disappointing.  Or I could 'Report Buyer' and choose 'Buyer made unreasonable demands' and state my case.  Or I could re-ship to the same address at my expense and risk the item returning to me again.

Thanks for the help!

[castlemagicmemories]

OK, sorry this happened to you.  What a mess.

Not your fault.

Report the buyer, unreasonable demands, did not provide proper address.

Just refund the buyer.  Block.  You are not required to reship at your expense.  You did not make the mistake.  Sorry, but you can then relist the item, after first blocking this buyer so this does not happen again.

The buyer does not say he had his mail forwarded, and he should have gone in and changed the address in Paypal before he paid.  I think you would have a very good chance of this happening again as buyer is taking no responsibility by relying on USPS forwarding his mail.

I think that is very generous of you to offer to pay half of the shipping.  Sorry that is not appreciated.

[ryanrobyn]

Take a photo of the box that says undeliverable and send photo to buyer via the resolution center. Also take photo of his message to you about wrong address and send that to mentioning that this is what he wrote to you aleady. If he wants the item he will have to pay postage himself since the post office already used  your paid postage.  If he leaves negative feedback you can have that removed. Do not ask him to pay half of the postage when he is responsible for the whole amount. Do not close the case but call Ebay (Important: tell the rep DO NOT APPEAL anything or you will automatically receive a BIG defect. Eventually Ebay will have to resolve the matter so do nothing else but send the photos and send mention that you have already spoken to Ebay via phone re this and are just following their instructions. PAY NOTHING.

[castlemagicmemories]

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@ryanrobynwrote:

Take a photo of the box that says undeliverable and send photo to buyer via the resolution center. Also take photo of his message to you about wrong address and send that to mentioning that this is what he wrote to you aleady. If he wants the item he will have to pay postage himself since the post office already used  your paid postage.  If he leaves negative feedback you can have that removed. Do not ask him to pay half of the postage when he is responsible for the whole amount. Do not close the case but call Ebay (Important: tell the rep DO NOT APPEAL anything or you will automatically receive a BIG defect. Eventually Ebay will have to resolve the matter so do nothing else but send the photos and send mention that you have already spoken to Ebay via phone re this and are just following their instructions. PAY NOTHING.

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Very good!!!  I am  just afraid that if the buyer escalates, the seller might get a case closed without seller resolution defect.  Calling Ebay before that happens might help, though, this is not the seller's fault and they should not have to pay for the buyer's mistake.

[ag47silver-us]

I give them all their money back and block them. I've only gotten neg feedback from bad shipping and bad buyers. They can still leave neg feedback if it's their "honest experience".
So pay them off and move on.

I've had eBay customer service tell me the neg feedback would be removed, and after a few days when i called they said they'd never heard from me before. Straight up lied to me.

It does cost you. If you think about it in the future 6 months from now you would gladly pay a fee to have the neg feedback removed. When you could have paid them to most likely prevent it altogether.

[luxe_beauty_4_less]

I don't think you'd even get a defect if the ebay tracking show address problem.  All you should be required to do is refund.  If he wants to purchase again, fine, but I'd block him so he couldn't.   If he gives you a negative over a refund, eBay 'might' remove it based on the fact you did nothing wrong.  Especially if he specifically mentions not receiving the package.  If he says poor communication or rude, then that's an opinion and it's hard to get those removed.  But, you shouldn't have to reship at your expense or even half your expense.  

[missjen831]

You should actually win the INR since the buyer admits he gave a bad address. If you are really worried about bad feedback, upload the tracking and then call to plead your case. otherwise just issue a full refund.

[ryanrobyn]

You are correct so send the photos immediately and call Ebay and let them know what you did. Do these 2 thing RIGHT NOW.

[sodelight]

Can't you just cancel stating problem with buyers address, which would refund them. Any refund already made should close out their case without them winning since they were already refunded. I'd try doing this since buyer refuses to cough up the monies to reship. Sorry this happened, none of it is your fault and it's a shame your expected to be out monies because a buyer fails to update their address. BTW, it's against ebay policy NOT to have a current address on file.

[big_mikey_mike]

Thanks to all for the responses! I will absolutely keep you updated.

@ryanrobyn I don't fully understand when you say "Important: tell the rep DO NOT APPEAL anything or you will automatically receive a BIG defect." if I was to call.

[missjen831]

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@sodelightwrote:
Can't you just cancel stating problem with buyers address, which would refund them. Any refund already made should close out their case without them winning since they were already refunded. I'd try doing this since buyer refuses to cough up the monies to reship. Sorry this happened, none of it is your fault and it's a shame your expected to be out monies because a buyer fails to update their address. BTW, it's against ebay policy NOT to have a current address on file.

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The transction can’t be cancelled while there is an open INR. System doesn’t allow it. 

[missjen831]

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@big_mikey_mikewrote:
Thanks to all for the responses! I will absolutely keep you updated.

@ryanrobynI don't fully understand when you say "Important: tell the rep DO NOT APPEAL anything or you will automatically receive a BIG defect." if I was to call.

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You don’t need to tell the rep not to appeal. Because you aren’t appealing a thing. It’s the wrong word to use here because there isn’t anything to appeal right now. All you are doing is calling and asking them to close the INR in your favor on the grounds the buyer did not provide a good address. 

[ryanrobyn]

I have had calls to Ebay reps result in them sending it for an appeal so I have found it is necesary to remind them NOT TO DO THIS. One cannot of course trust the reps.

[castlemagicmemories]

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@ryanrobynwrote:

You are correct so send the photos immediately and call Ebay and let them know what you did. Do these 2 thing RIGHT NOW.

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Guessing this is for the OP.

[missjen831]

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@ryanrobynwrote:

I have had calls to Ebay reps result in them sending it for an appeal so I have found it is necesary to remind them NOT TO DO THIS. One cannot of course trust the reps.

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They can’t possibly send anything in for an appeal at this point in time though. The request is still open. eBay hasn’t been asked to step in. The OP does not need to use the word “appeal” when he calls in.