Shipped a package but buyer had mail forwarding, forwarding time expired and package sent back to me

I have a few questions about the following situation I have before contacting the buyer: I sold an item to a buyer, but was surprised to see it was returned to me today with an attached label from the USPS saying "forwarding time expired, return to sender".

Looking at the tracking on eBay shows the package was delivered in mailbox at the original shipping address, however upon looking at the tracking on USPS.com, the package was forwarded to the buyer's forwarding address, and after a couple of failed delivery attempts at this second address, the package was eventually sent back to me.

I wanted to reach out to the buyer and give them the option of either getting a refund or I re-ship the item to them, but I'm not even sure if it is worth re-shipping if there is no guarantee that their package won't go through forwarding again.

If the buyer wants me to ship the item a second time, and since the transaction ended, is it OK to message the buyer and coordinate sending a PayPal invoice over e-mail-- or would this still be against eBay's rules and regulations (and what would be a good solution for this)?

On the other hand, if the buyer wants a refund, is it suitable to give a partial refund for the amount of the item while leaving out the cost of shipping?

Alternatively, would it be OK to just wait until the buyer reaches out? I understand from a customer service standpoint this is not recommended- but from my understanding on packages with multiple delivery attempts, the buyer would no longer have buyer protection and if the buyer submitted an INR claim, it would resolve in my favor given the circumstances. I would prefer to reach out to the buyer, but I wouldn't be opposed to taking this approach if it is reasonable.

Please let me know your thoughts and advice, and thank you for reading.

richarkis4

21 View listings

Posted 2 years ago·Last reply 2 years ago

5 comments

wastingtime101

·2 years ago

0 View listings

Hi @richarkis4 . 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

imperio-numismatico

·2 years ago

2233 View listings

Ebay in their policy do not allow that, if he ask for a refund and you told ebay, ebay will give you the reason.

it happened to me time ago

12345jamesstamps

·2 years ago

8762 View listings

I get returns every month. I don't have the time to email these buyers. They need to contact me.

And none have. I would give a refund if a buyer contacted me. None have. Would I spend more shipping to mail something out again. Nope.

richarkis4

OP2 years ago

21 View listings

Thank you for your response, this is pretty much the same attitude I have about this. In the event you were asked to give a refund, I assume you would only refund the item value, or would you refund the full value including shipping? In my case, shipping was nearly $10, which would be inconvenient for me considering I did everything right on my part (and for the buyer since they didn't receive their package).

1786davycrockett

·2 years ago

5726 View listings

@richarkis4

Because I receive so few returns for the issue of bad addresses, I always contact the buyer to notify them of the problem -- then I refund all but the shipping fee, plus the 30 cents eBay selling fee.

I also advise the buyer that I will be re-listing the item if they're interesting in purchasing again, providing that there won't be any future delivery problems.

And, if I have already re-listed the item, I provide the new item number for the buyer's convenience.

Sometimes they respond -- and sometimes they don't.

Flip a coin.