Make Offer Buyer beware of no Ship-To option.

[maxi314]

When a Buyer uses Make Offer, and "wins," eBay's programming does not offer a Ship-To address option.  So.  if purchased to send as a gift, for example, the item will be shipped to the Buyer's Primary Account Address.  The Buyer will then have to ship to the recipient.

I have spent 5 hours today with this problem.  It must happen to thousands of Buyers a day and I do not understand why eBay won't fix the software.  Ultimately, there was no sale of the much-wanted item because the Seller opted to cancel the sale and relist the item.  (All this time - all these hours, the Seller and I were in communication).

The Seller had extended herself to add the Make Offer option to the bidding auction to make it easier for me to purchase the item due to time constraints.  She lost out.  I lost out.  And, also, because many Sellers do not know that if they check the automatic payment option, the Buyer is going to receive "recurring debit card charges" notices with their bank, and the Sellers - as eBay will tell you - CHECK THIS BOX VOLUNTARILY - probably feeling they must do so in order to get paid, or for the Make Offer process to proceed.

This has been the most miserable experience for both the Seller and me.  So many hours spent and many of them spent with direct Customer Service representatives.  All because there is no Ship-To option with an accepted Make Offer purchase.

And, in the eBay instructions, Buyers are not alerted to this problem.  The only immediate possible solution - other than never to use Make Offer - is, prior to using Make Offer - going into the personal account and changing the Primary Ship address to the recipient's address - although I think that would probably create even more problems. Making a Best Offer | eBay

[*lady*madonna* · Accepted solution]

@maxi314 

The buyer CAN choose an alternate shipping address when on the Make Offer page:

[maxi314]

Thank you.  I have figured out my problem.  One is that I do not like to use "Make Offer" as, depending on what the Seller has checked, or unchecked regarding automatic payments, that option has resulted in my bank showing "recurring debit card charge."  It took two months for that to get straightened out - and, ultimately, the Seller of the one-time purchase had to uncheck the automatic payment option - which eBay keeps emphasizing to me is a "voluntary" action on the part of the Seller - whether to choose that option or not.  So, I hope not surprisingly, I am wary.

Then, I expected that what I saw before me - as you so kindly show - is all about payment method and my - the buyer's - account accuracy.  I have no difficulty with a regular purchase, as there is an additional step and page to choose the Ship-to address.  Thinking I was just verifying all static aspects of my account, and - a big factor now that I think further about it - the "Edit" section of the page is far to the right, and even with a good-sized monitor, and with typeface increased to 110% in order to see, I didn't "see" the "Edit" or "Change" button.

Thank you for taking the time to reinforce what must be plain to see by everyone but me.