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Question regarding a shipping address issue
Summary: hami7110 expressed frustration over an eBay seller shipping an item to the wrong address despite initially agreeing to send it to an alternate location. evry1nositswindy explained that sellers must ship to the address on the order due to eBay's policies and suggested arranging for someone to pick up the package. hami7110 acknowledged their oversight but felt misled by the seller. Another participant, inceptions, advised setting up a mail hold with USPS to prevent delivery issues and clarified that the address change wouldn't affect the current transaction. Despite the back-and-forth, the issue remained unresolved between the participants and the seller.
I bought an item while working out of town without thinking about that beforehand. I quickly messaged the seller and asked that he ship it to my current address as I would not be back home for another month. He agreed.
The next day he said he could not ship to an alternate address and that i would need to change my address on my eBay account. I updated my address and messaged him back within a couple of hours. He messaged me and said he could not wait because eBay would penalize him and he had shipped my item to my unattended address. He said he had done nothing wrong. End of story.
Do I now have to take a loss if my package is not still at my door 6 weeks from now when I get home? Or will eBay help me with this?
inceptions
Mentor2 weeks agoHi @hami7110
Your seller was misinformed about how to handle this situation. Updating your address on your profile would have no effect on this sale...only on future transactions.
eBay requires the seller to ship to the address you used on the order (the one that was displayed for your review at checkout or modified by you at checkout before completing payment).
What I would do if I were going to be gone for so long whether I was expecting a package or not would be to put in a mail hold with USPS. You can still do that here:
https://www.usps.com/manage/hold-mail.htm
Unless you're too late, I would do that right now before the package gets to your post office for delivery.
hami7110
OP2 weeks agoI made an offer on an item that the seller agreed to, and it doesn't seem like I saw the address on my phone app. I may have and just skipped past it. As I've said, my fault.
I have my mail forwarded, but find it doesn't always work with packages for some reason, and the package shows delivered.
And he certainly would be allowed to cancel and resell the item to me, correct? The seller may be in compliance with eBay's rules, but I wouldn't say he was right. The address issue was my fault, but the sellers disinterest in getting the purchase to me is his issue.
I've been on eBay for 20+ years with hundreds of purchases and haven't run into anything like this. I guess I've been lucky enough to have only dealt with people who have been genuinely helpful.
The fact that this seller has 35,000 sales and 100% positive feedback also tells me feedback is no longer a useful tool either.
evry1nositswindy
Mentor2 weeks ago · EditedI'm sorry, but the seller is correct. eBay requires sellers to ship to the address provided by the buyer with no changes, even if requested. The seller also must ship within their required shipping time or risk a late shipment defect. You will need to make arrangements for someone to pick up your package for you.
hami7110
OP2 weeks agoThank you for explaining the rule. But does that forego any expectation of reasonable customer service?
The seller has more than 35,000 sales, while I am just a guy trying to purchase a used cap.
Could he not have canceled the transaction and resold the cap to me using the correct address?
I am not claiming to be an expert on eBay’s seller rules, but buyers should not have to be experts in those rules to expect a seller—particularly one with 35,000 transactions—to explain the available options accurately.
I also do not have anyone who can retrieve the package for me. So as a buyer, I'm just out of luck and $27? And all is well with eBay and the seller? Is that where things are with eBay these days?
And just to add, I actually purchased two caps the same day, same situation, and the other seller sent it to my alternate address without question.
evry1nositswindy
Mentor2 weeks agoWell, the second seller was wrong and could get into trouble for that.
Yes, the first seller could have cancelled the transaction and had you buy it again. I have no idea why they didn't. That was acceptable and they way they handled it was also acceptable in eBay's eyes. Many buyers fuss about having to repurchase, providing the correct address and maybe that is what they were worried about. I have come across this same issue as a seller. It is difficult to know how the buyer will respond, especially if the seller is under a time crunch to ship.
Perhaps you can file a forwarding order with the USPS. I'm sorry to point out that this was a buyer error, not a seller error.
hami7110
OP2 weeks agoThanks for your responses.
I readily admit that it was my oversight to not think about the shipping address- absolutely.
But had the seller not twice told me he would ship it to my preferred address, I'd be more willing to chalk it up to a mistake on my part. I would have asked him to cancel it if he'd told me he was going to ship it to my unattended address. I've been in sales all my life, and to have a buyer lose money while a seller falls back on a "them's the rules" defense rather than make sure the buyer at least receives their purchase is bizarro world to me.
evry1nositswindy
Mentor2 weeks agoI understand, but we do have to follow the rules set forth by eBay to protect our seller accounts. We have very few protections, less than buyers have, so I understand their position. The second seller has no proof of tracking and would lose their seller protection because they shipped to a different address. This is also a common scam, asking a seller to change an address, rerouting a package. I hope you can forward your package through the USPS or arrange a pick-up by a neighbor etc.
hami7110
OP2 weeks agoThis buyer might disagree re the depth of his protections, lol.
Like you said, he could have offered a change such as cancel rewrite that would have helped me and protected him. He didn't. My conclusion; he's a rat, you sound like a nice person. Thanks- Have a great day!