Returning Item to Wrong Address

[efrin49]

I won a SNAD dispute over a $500 wristwatch, but the seller continues to refuse a return. eBay has instructed me to return the watch via USPS Priority mail using the preprinted mailing label from the Resolution Center. This label has a completely different address than the seller's return address also in the Resolution Center. I telephoned eBay and was instructed to use the preprinted mailing label.

My concern is that I'm very likely shipping this watch to an old address, where the seller won't be available to sign for it. I think it might be a college dorm address.  Any advice on what to do here?

[missjen831 · Accepted solution]

Use the label. You are covered whayever happens because the label was issued by eBay or the seller. If it is refused or not picked up at the PO, you will have to call customer service and have the refund pushed through. 

[efrin49]

I want to add an update to this situation. I did use the shipping label issued by eBay and returned the watch. The seller never picked up the return and I was refunded in full by eBay.

Now, almost 3 months later, the package was returned to me as "nondeliverable". I don't understand why the seller hasn't contacted me about getting his watch back. But my guess is that eBay was never able to collect the refund amount from the seller, so he's not out anything and has moved on.

So should I keep holding the returned package unopened in case eBay or the seller want it, or is it okay to donate the watch to a local charity? And how does eBay collect money due back from a seller in a case like this?

[berserkerplanet]

You got your refund.

Contact the seller via eBay messaging or via email, and inform him that you have the watch and will return it if he provides a return label (he could create one via PayPal and email it to you to print out).

Alternatively, the seller could provide you the correct return address and reimburse you the return shipping amount via PayPal, and you could then create the label via PayPal and return the watch.

If you don't care about the few dollars it would cost to return it, just get a (valid) return address from the seller, print a PayPal label,  and send it back.

(PayPal labels are commercial pricing and as cheap as it gets in this case. If you use USPS.com or do it at the PO counter it is retail pricing and significantly more).

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now