Bad Shipping Addresses

[2013grotz]

Course I run into the problems with the usual non-payers if I give it that route, but I'm reminded today I run into another nasty problem: There's something wrong somewhere with fulfilling the order, usually a nonsense shipping address or the buyer sending a message saying to ship to another address.  They have multiple buys usually (which I don't get), but most of the time when I do try to contact the buyer to find a fix whatever the issue is, they never respond back within my shipping window.  So in the end, I'm either forced to guess whether shipping to "buyerfirstnamebuyerlastname (or buyeralias even!), 123fakestreet, anytownst93339" can be interpreted into something valid and potentially have them not receive it (INR), or cancel for the "Bad Shipping Address" reason (do I get strikes or second guessed on that by ebay?  Just did that with an order)

If I don't get strikes, I'll probably start immediately cancelling orders anytime I have doubts like this, but just feeling like I'm being put in between a rock and hard place on this in not feeling 100% sure on how to handle this.  And the thing I don't get is that since ebay shipping seems to red flag a lot of stuff on the back end that they can't red-flag any of it periodically to invalidate buyers that don't have correct addresses.

But yeah, you'd think the buyers would want their stuff they paid good money for.  But guess not?

[soh.maryl]

It has been fairly well established that the seller is required to ship to the address he sees when the buyer pays, even if it seems ridiculous to him.  

Even though you might think that cancelling is your best idea, using "problem with address", hope you will keep in mind that a seller who does this too often is in danger of losing his selling privileges.  

And, with millions of sales going on daily, it's not reasonable to believe that eBay would or could check out every buyer's address for accuracy.  

[coolections]

Sorry you are having such bad luck . I have only had one buyer give the wrong address in years. He was very nice about it, I cancelled, he put in correct address and repurchased. All went well. Just cancel with incorrect address.

[ebooksdiva · Accepted solution]

@soh.maryl Sellers can cancel for problem with buyers address without repercussion, it’s cancelling for Out of stock that can be detrimental to a sellers account. 

When a seller can cancel an order

A seller can cancel an order if:

• The buyer asks to cancel the order and they haven't shipped the item yet
• The buyer hasn't paid within the time allowed
• The buyer used the wrong shipping address when they completed their purchase
• The item is out of stock (this will result in a transaction defect)

[2013grotz]

Indeed.   I seem to be the bad luck magnet on these kinds of issues.  With my low volume, I'm surprised I even hit multiples of these kinds of issues.  Been muddling through and doing the Post #2 thing if the address checks out with Google Maps after I correct it for spacing and obvious typos and things of that matter (or ship to the other address the buyer specifies) and then worry on the tracking number until it shows "Delivered", but this is probably the 6th problem address I've run into now. 

I can't believe everyone else runs into these kinds of things this much on ebay.  But yeah, cancelling seems the safer bet and probably good I haven't gotten cases on the back-end when those things have come up.

[reallynicestamps]

There are some pretty strange looking addresses out there, even without the VAT number showing up in the middle of British addresses.

Rural Saskatchewan had a really weird system before they went over to the community mailboxes.

It is worth checking on Google Maps before deciding that an address is fake, and also worth upgrading to Tracked or even Signature Confirmation for your own peace of mind no matter what eBay's (minimal) standards might be.

But never ship to a different address.

Politely explain to the buyer that you can't change the shipping label, but he can ask to cancel the transaction, change his address, and repurchase.  The scammers won't.

[dhbookds]

I find it odd, with you selling mostly books/cd, etc.......I've been selling since 2004 and Better half since the late 90's and only a couple of problems with addresses.....mostly just buyers wanting items to go to Aunt Sally......

are these buyers with any feedback?.......