Buyer gets to change the address between invoicing and shipping now?

[ikea-breakfast]

I sold several items on my seller account to someone who, when requesting an invoice, showed an address in Canada.  (I'm in the US and I ship overseas.)  The invoice was sent back to them based on the shipping rate to Canada for these items.

However, the PayPal address for the shipment is to an address in China, which means I get to eat a few dollars in shipping because, apparently, eBay is allowing buyers to change their ship-to address between the time they request the invoice and the time they pay.

"Thanks" for everything that you do, eBay.

[femmefan1946]

Ship to the address in Canada.

Or cancel the transaction as Problem With Address.

Buyer Request and Problem with Address are the two Defect-Free choices for a seller.

EBay addresses and Paypal addresses do not have to match.  Paypal allows accounts to have several addresses because; gifts.

[fern*wood]

This isn't a new thing and precisely why sending out invoices is advised against.   I never send one unless absolutely necessary for a multi-purchase just as you did, and frankly, I need to remember to ask their ship to address before doing so. 

[luckythewinner]

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@ikea-breakfast wrote:

"Thanks" for everything that you do, eBay.

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eBay did not do this to you - your buyer did. 

eBay cannot prevent a buyer from changing his PayPal address.

[ikea-breakfast]

If I ship to the address in Canada, then I will lose an INR claim anyway, so my options really are to suck it up and ship to the China address or to cancel the transaction altogether.

I just think it sucks that eBay will let people get away with things like this in order to save money/eat into the profit of the seller.

[ikea-breakfast]

To the extent that eBay allows buyers to claim addresses in one country and them have something shipped to another country, they both did something, as far as I'm concerned.

[dhbookds]

YOU are letting them get away with it...........

[ikea-breakfast]

I'm not the one who changed their address.

[mam98031]

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@ikea-breakfast wrote:
To the extent that eBay allows buyers to claim addresses in one country and them have something shipped to another country, they both did something, as far as I'm concerned.

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As a buyer we have the right to decide where we want the item shipped at the time we submit payment.  We have always had that right.  And that should never change.  A buyer isn't "changing" any address, they are supply you WITH the ship to address at the time payment is made.

If a buyer had to designate the ship to address when they bid on a listing or when they purchase a BIN listing that could and would create problems too.  What if they forgot, then they would have to cancel bids or transactions.  It would become a mess.  

What was recommended earlier on this thread is the appropriate way to handle this.  Cancel the transactions for the reason there is a problem with the ship to address.  Let your buyer know you are doing that and if they would like to repurchase the item or items, you will get them relisted and they are welcome to purchase the items.  Then you can invoice them for the proper shipping charges to the address of their choosing.

The only other thing you can do is ship to their address which will cause you to lose money on shipping no doubt.

[sin-n-dex]

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@ikea-breakfast wrote:

I sold several items on my seller account to someone who, when requesting an invoice, showed an address in Canada.  (I'm in the US and I ship overseas.)  The invoice was sent back to them based on the shipping rate to Canada for these items.

However, the PayPal address for the shipment is to an address in China, which means I get to eat a few dollars in shipping because, apparently, eBay is allowing buyers to change their ship-to address between the time they request the invoice and the time they pay.

"Thanks" for everything that you do, eBay.

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Someone did that to me, but the address was Hong Kong. They emailed to ask about shipping to British Columbia, so I quoted, then they purchased, I invoiced based on the Canadian address, and after I invoiced they paid with an address in Hong Kong.

The end result is cancel with problem with address, and I sent a note to explain to them they were asking about shipping within Canada, so I quoted that. They provided a Canadian address, so they have one. Then they changed it to international shipping and I don't ship internationally (not with all this COVID and boat mail stuff happening).

I only have one outstanding international parcel and I'm afraid it's going to result in a $84 USD refund because his coin went by ship, and will take 3 months to arrive. (I knew things would be slow, but I didn't realize it was that bad when I agreed to give the exception). I won't be doing any more international shipping until things move back to normal enough that it doesn't take 3 months to send mail.

My partner ordered 15 items from China about 6 weeks ago and they're showing delivery dates in August.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@ikea-breakfast wrote:

"Thanks" for everything that you do, eBay.

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eBay did not do this to you - your buyer did. 

eBay cannot prevent a buyer from changing his PayPal address.

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Yeah well when it happened to me I went looking for that Canadian address, and even on the eBay sale record, it was showing Hong Kong.

Seems like whatever is provided on payment will appear on both the Paypal receipt and the eBay bill of sale.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@ikea-breakfast wrote:
If I ship to the address in Canada, then I will lose an INR claim anyway, so my options really are to suck it up and ship to the China address or to cancel the transaction altogether.

I just think it sucks that eBay will let people get away with things like this in order to save money/eat into the profit of the seller.

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Don't ship to China. If the item is such that you will lose an INR, it means you're shipping within Canada with some tracked method (which will start at around $12 CAD).

If the item is something like a coin that ships in an envelope, you will lose an INR no matter where you ship if there's no tracking, so in that case (for low value) I'd message them to request the Canadian address and tell them if they don't provided it (by this period of time) you are going to cancel because you don't ship to China. (Whether you do ship there or not doesn't matter, I tell the buyer I don't ship to their country when they try these things on me).

Your buyer probably isn't planning to file an INR, and there's no tracking to China from USA without spending a lot of money. They are probably just trying to get a discount on their postage. Don't give them that.

C.

[mam98031]

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@sin-n-dex wrote:

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@ikea-breakfast wrote:

"Thanks" for everything that you do, eBay.

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eBay did not do this to you - your buyer did. 

eBay cannot prevent a buyer from changing his PayPal address.

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Yeah well when it happened to me I went looking for that Canadian address, and even on the eBay sale record, it was showing Hong Kong.

Seems like whatever is provided on payment will appear on both the Paypal receipt and the eBay bill of sale.

C.

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The sales record updates when the payment is made if the buyer has selected a different address to have the items shipped to.

[mvls1]

We solved this problem by making all US shipments a flat fixed price, no calculated shipping. If there is a large difference in shipping one of our orders, we can refund the buyer. All our international shipping is through the Global Shipping Program, so if they furnish an international address at checkout we only pay to ship to Kentucky. Any large items we sell are not eligible for P.O. Boxes, Hawaii or Alaska. No more problems so far. The only potential for a problem seems to be freight forwarders now.

[mam98031]

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@mvls1 wrote:

We solved this problem by making all US shipments a flat fixed price, no calculated shipping. If there is a large difference in shipping one of our orders, we can refund the buyer. All our international shipping is through the Global Shipping Program, so if they furnish an international address at checkout we only pay to ship to Kentucky. Any large items we sell are not eligible for P.O. Boxes, Hawaii or Alaska. No more problems so far. The only potential for a problem seems to be freight forwarders now.

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I don't use GSP, but then I don't get a buyer that does what this OP had done to them either.  So I'm fortunate.  If it ever does happen to me, I will handle it the way I stated earlier in the thread.  

I'm sorry to hear you had such a problem with this behavior but sure glad you found a way that works for you.  Hopefully others that are experiencing this often will look into going with GSP like you did.