A buyer wants to have an item shipped to a diifferent address than her billing address

[paleocrassas123]

She would like to purchase the item as a wedding gift and have it sent to the bride-to-be's address.  She asked the receipt be sent to her (the buyer) address.   As a buyer, isn't our "receipt" basically the transaction information on our ebay profile? 

I have noticed that when I change the "ship to" address on the label, it says "may not be eligible for seller protection program" (I just did this as a test on another item I was shipping, there has been no type of transaction yet between us for the item in question, and I am glad she asked the question before purchasing.) 

I'm not 100% understanding what this means.  Is it a risk to the buyer/recipient?  Is it a risk to me?

I have one of those gut feelings that if I accept this situation, it's not going to end well.  Wedding presents are often duplicated and therefore returned.  If it were a low-price item, I would take the risk, but I am a just an occassional seller and anything over $100 is a great sale for me.  It is also a heavy item and my fear is that if I have to pay return shipping costs, I'm going to be out a good chunk of change.  

I know I can't base a sale on a gut feeling, but the last time I sold anything over $100 at this time of year, the package was mysteriously "lost."   I'm obviously willing to take the risk of selling a $100+ item again or I wouldn't have listed it, but is there any part of shipping to a different address than the buyer that puts this at elevated risk?

Sorry if I didn't explain this very clearly.   Thanks for any help you can provide!

[takikawa4]

In order to have PayPal protection, you MUST ship to the address on the transaction register. This is from the Seller Protection part of PayPal:

a. Basic Requirements:

• You must ship the item to the shipping address on the Transaction Details Page.

[richard1rst]

There are a couple of problems here. If your buyer is fairly close to you and the recipient is somewhat distant then you are going to get screwed on the shipping. eBay will calculate the shipping based on the address on their page (close to you). But if you ship it to the recipient (more distant) then the shipping will be higher than what the buyer paid. You lose.

As much as you do not want to lose the sale, it is better than being screwed by the sale. Contact the buyer and tell them that in order to ship to the recipient you will have to cancel the order (use either “there is a problem with the buyers address” or “buyer requested cancellation” - that way you do not get a defect). Then tell them to reenter the purchase AND CHANGE THE ADDRESS ON THE TICKET BEFORE THEY CLICK PROCEED TO CHECKOUT. That way the shipping will calculate correctly AND you will get your buyer protection.

If it was a fairly inexpensive item I personally would not go to all that trouble. BUT as the value of the item increases it becomes more and more worth my time to make an issue out of it.

[mam98031]

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@takikawa4 wrote:

In order to have PayPal protection, you MUST ship to the address on the transaction register. This is from the Seller Protection part of PayPal:

a. Basic Requirements:

• You must ship the item to the shipping address on the Transaction Details Page.

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@takikawa4

This requires a little more of an explanation so that there is no confusion.

Ebay's rule is that you must ship to the address on the transaction detail page in Ebay OR to the address that appears on the PayPal payment.  Ebay also alows you to change the address to whatever address the buyer wants as long as you have received an email in M2M requesting the change.

However, PayPal's rule is not so open.  One of the requirements to having Seller Protection with PayPal is that you MUST ship to the address on the PayPal payment notification.  PPs rule is very strict and leaves no room to misinterprete it.

Now Ebay of recent months has been pretty good about matching the address with the PP address, so it really should not be an issues as long as you ALWAYS ship to the address that appears on your PP notification.

[mam98031]

Keep in mind that any Ebay member may have more than one address.  Multiple ship to addresses.  So they may not match an Ebay member's billing address.  This should not be an issue.

For myself, I have a ship to address for my daughter in college and one for my Mom, along with my personal ship to address.  All are valid.

[postingid2017]

I highly agree with @richard1rst 

[phcd1]

Ship only to the address that is on the PayPal payment. That is the only way to have what little protection you have here. Have I done it? Sure, but I didn't car about the item and the money involved was small, but its a risk.  You can cancel the sale, have the buyer add their address in PayPal and have them pay again. But then you run the risk they may not pay.

[7198dave]

I wouldn't sell the item if it was 5 dollars. Sounds like buyer trying to scam you.

[partial*eclipse]

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@paleocrassas123 wrote:

She would like to purchase the item as a wedding gift and have it sent to the bride-to-be's address. ...I have noticed that when I change the "ship to" address on the label, it says "may not be eligible for seller protection program"...

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Seller protection requires you to mail to the address that is attached to the Paypal payment.  So if you change the address after payment, then the seller loses protection.

But during the payment process, the buyer has the option to change the name and address to anything they choose. It's very common for members to ship items directly to friends and relatives; I do it all the time.  If the ZIP Code for the new address is different, then the postage will be, too.    Risks related to returns (such as duplicate gifts) are the same as they would be if you shipped to the buyer rather than to the gift recipient. Maybe a little bit less, since the bride will get  yours first.

Some of the other replies seem to assume  the buyer is asking to change the address after the item has already been paid for.  But the original post said, "She would like to purchase the item as a wedding gift". So it's not too late to enter a new address.

[partial*eclipse]

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@richard1rst wrote:

There are a couple of problems here. If your buyer is fairly close to you and the recipient is somewhat distant then you are going to get screwed on the shipping. ...

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Calculated postage is based on the address that is entered  on the payment page.  

[paleocrassas123]

The good news is that there has been no official transaction yet. They actually thought to ask this question BEFORE purchasing!

(I'm making that "angel's singing" sound in my head right now.)

[paleocrassas123]

Does M2M = Ebay's messaging system? And is it up to the buyer to provide the desired shipping address info to paypal?

Thanks for your help!

[paleocrassas123]

I have had a single buyer with multiple addresses (I don't deal with international shipping, but I have had a few people from Japan request that an item be shipped to a CA address. This doesn't bother me because the eventual recipient and buyer are the same.) I hope I'm correct using that rationale...

This situation bothers me that the person she is sending these to as a gift may not even know they're coming. I'm also envisioning the scenario that these are also on her registry and she will end up with multiples and need to return one of them.

I know I can't base my decision on assumptions, but I'm not exactly known for my great luck! 😉

[paleocrassas123]

That's my gut feeling too.

[vintagecraze50]

See if the Buyer can change the ship to address to her daughters address by starting another account. No protection from Pay Pal if you ship to an address not associated with the account.