Buyer changed shipping address after payment

[lazer*lightning]

Ok this is the first time I ever had this happen. This isn’t my fault. I shipped an item out today that was put in the mailbox last night and the buyer told me this morning (before I had a chance to check the messages) that they forgot to update their address. It’s in the same town.  What do I do? Should I call eBay? 

[12345jamesstamps]

Wait to see what happens.

Calling would be useless.

You are suppose to send it to the address that eBay tells you.

It's not your fault...it's the buyer's fault.

[wastingtime101]

If it's in the same town they will have the best luck either working with the current resident at the address to retrieve their package, or going to their PO with the tracking number and asking them to hold the package for pickup once it arrives.

If the buyer moved they should be filing a change of address and request for mail forwarding with USPS which they can do online: https://www.usps.com/manage/forward.htm

Do not call eBay.

Wait to see what happens with the package.

If the buyer does not sort out their issue and the package is returned, see below.

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This is my standard advice for RTS (returned to sender) packages. Take the parts that are relevant to your situation.

You have a few options. You should decide which route you'll be taking and communicate with the buyer, but wait until the item is returned (and delivered) to you before you take any of the following actions.

• You can refund the buyer the item cost minus original shipping and minus a portion of your eBay fees (fee credits are prorated on a partial refund so you won't get back fees on the shipping amount you withhold). Go to your orders page, find the transaction and select "send refund." On the next page enter the amount. After that, relist the item and if you still want to work with this buyer you can tell them to repurchase it with the correct name/address.
• Have the buyer sort out their address issue then pay for re-shipping. Send them an invoice through PayPal or give them your PayPal e-mail. This is post-sale so it's OK to exchange e-mail addresses. It's also OK to ship to a different address because it's technically not tied to the original transaction. You would not purchase the shipping label through eBay or upload tracking to the transaction. You would purchase it from an alternate site like pirateship.com or paypal.com/shipnow and you can send the buyer the new tracking # through e-mail or eBay messages.
• A different way to accomplish buyer payment for re-shipping is to create an eBay listing for the shipping cost (bumping it up to factor in eBay fees) and having the buyer purchase it, entering their correct address at checkout. You could purchase a shipping label through eBay for that transaction.
• You can cancel the transaction "problem with address" which will trigger a full refund to the buyer and your FVF would be credited.
• You can do nothing. The buyer's MBG protection is voided when there's a package delivery attempt. I don't recommend this because even though you'll win an INR (item not received) claim on eBay, there's nothing stopping that buyer from going to their credit card to file a dispute and why deal with all that? I also think handling it before it gets to this stage with a partial refund is the "right" thing to do if you're not going to make reshipping arrangements.
• You might also want to direct the buyer to this page so their address is updated for future purchases: Account Settings: Addresses

[sextons-sweet-deals]

Let it ride! If undeliverable, it will be returned to you.

This is not the first time I have read this type of issue. What boggles my mind is that people who move don't seem to know how to change their address information overall and just put a USPS change of address request in.