Insufficient Address Provided Advice

I have a customer who made a purchase for 3 items each weighing 20lb.
The customer provided an address to ebay and I made 3 separate shippings through ebays shipping service.
To keep the packages as light as possible as I had a feeling usps wouldn't handle a single 60lb package properly.
Once the item was out for delivery usps found that the address the customer provided was incorrect or missing additional details.

Usps returned to me 2 out of the 3 packages.
Where the 3rd one has not been logged by usps for over 9 days.
So i opened a missing mail case for that item.

Now comes down to refunding the customer, and where I need some advice

1- Do I fully refund the customer and wait for usps to find my package/ pay me out for the lost package if not found

2- Do I only refund her for the 2 items I have received back so far and wait until the item is found or refunded by usps to refund her the final one

3- Do nothing besides letting the customer know I will take action once the last package is received by me or refunded by usps

Would greatly appreciate all your advice and insight.
If you need more details or questions about my issue let me know.

discount.electronics.for.sale

328 View listings

Posted 2 years ago·Last reply 2 years ago

7 comments

wastingtime101

·2 years ago

0 View listings

Hi @discount.electronics.for.sale . This is my standard advice for RTS (returned to sender) packages. Take the parts that are relevant to your situation.

You have a few options. You should decide which route you'll be taking and communicate with the buyer, but wait until the item is returned (and delivered) to you before you take any of the following actions.

You can refund the buyer the item cost minus original shipping and minus a portion of your eBay fees (fee credits are prorated on a partial refund so you won't get back fees on the shipping amount you withhold). Go to your orders page, find the transaction and select "send refund." On the next page enter the amount. After that, relist the item and if you still want to work with this buyer you can tell them to repurchase it with the correct name/address.
Have the buyer sort out their address issue then pay for re-shipping. Send them an invoice through PayPal or give them your PayPal e-mail. This is post-sale so it's OK to exchange e-mail addresses. It's also OK to ship to a different address because it's technically not tied to the original transaction. You would not purchase the shipping label through eBay or upload tracking to the transaction. You would purchase it from an alternate site like pirateship.com or paypal.com/shipnow and you can send the buyer the new tracking # through e-mail or eBay messages.
A different way to accomplish buyer payment for re-shipping is to create an eBay listing for the shipping cost (bumping it up to factor in eBay fees) and having the buyer purchase it, entering their correct address at checkout. You could purchase a shipping label through eBay for that transaction.
You can cancel the transaction "problem with address" which will trigger a full refund to the buyer and your FVF would be credited.
You can do nothing. The buyer's MBG protection is voided when there's a package delivery attempt. I don't recommend this because even though you'll win an INR (item not received) claim on eBay, there's nothing stopping that buyer from going to their credit card to file a dispute and why deal with all that? I also think handling it before it gets to this stage with a partial refund is the "right" thing to do if you're not going to make reshipping arrangements.
You might also want to direct the buyer to this page so their address is updated for future purchases: Account Settings: Addresses

As for that third package - it depends on what tracking shows. Did it make it to the buyer, get turned around for insufficient address then get lost? Or did it never make it to the buyer's PO? For the former see above. For the latter, wait to see what happens, but if the buyer files a non-receipt claim you'll have to refund in full.

discount.electronics.for.sale

OP2 years ago

328 View listings

Thank you for the reply, I'll need to read through the suggestions a few more times as tbh the last option of doing nothing is more my flow.
But still want to provide a fair service even though this customer has been nothing less than a massive headache.

for your question, yes all 3 packages show that delivery to the customer was attempted and that all 3 separately have the insufficient address provided on the tracking page of usps.

My main frustration is she was aware of providing incorrect shipping information as well as haggled my price lower than anything fair value.
I wish I had known better, but now I know just to immediately block these type of buyers.

The type of buyers who are actually resellers trying to cut themselves a good deal and want you to ship using a third party service and address.
fyi the customer never mentioned this, but one look at her profile and the fact that i had this happen to me once before, it is now clear that this person gave the wrong address to force me to use her third party labels.

To add fuel to my rage on this both packages i have received so far were clearly dropped and rolled around causing what was once a new pristine items to damaged goods that I am no longer going to be able to resell even at the price she had haggled me to.

just a little rant ðŸ™‚

sdneped

·2 years ago

0 View listings

@discount.electronics.for.sale wrote:
To add fuel to my rage on this both packages i have received so far were clearly dropped and rolled around causing what was once a new pristine items to damaged goods that I am no longer going to be able to resell even at the price she had haggled me to.

Unfortunately, you own that if that's how you packed to protect their pristinication.

When a buyer provides an invalid address at checkout, you don't need to do anything and they are not eligible for a refund for undeliverability due to the invalid address. But definitely block the buyer.

However if you'd like @discount.electronics.for.sale you could refund less your fees and shipping costs. Otherwise as warned, the buyer could escalate the nondeliverance to their payment source for a full refund.

mordecai8614

·2 years ago

2213 View listings

The buyer's MBG protection is voided when there's a package delivery attempt.

@wastingtime101

So when an attempt to delivery is made but unsuccessful, the buyer receives nothing & ebay makes them eat the cost of the sale? I've seen buyers claim the didn't receive a item, despite tracking showed delivered, and they still got a refund...

wastingtime101

·2 years ago

0 View listings

Why wouldn't I believe it when I've won several non-receipt claims when the buyer provided an insufficient address? After the claims were closed I voluntarily refunded buyers item cost less fees/shipping.

Here's eBay's official policy:

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy?id=4210#section2

Exclusions and special coverage when the buyer doesn't receive an item

The buyer provided an invalid or incorrect address at checkout - Not Covered

mordecai8614

·2 years ago

2213 View listings

edit: I stand corrected

janet9988

·2 years ago

127 View listings

@mordecai8614 wrote:
1- Do I fully refund the customer and wait for usps to find my package/ pay me out for the lost package if not found

yup

No the seller will not have to fully refund because the buyer made the shipping address mistake.