Addressee unknown

[iamalwaysright]

If I get an “addressee unknown” tracking status on an international delivery (Dubai), will I win an INR if it’s filed?

[iamalwaysright]

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@gurlcat wrote:

Why don't you use EIS instead of roughing it on your own?  

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Because I’ve had history of buyers complaining about package tampering (facilities opening, inspecting, and repacking the item only to not repack it back properly and damaging the item), I have overall cheaper shipping cost for the buyer compared to if they bought thru EIS which equates to more sales. This gives me a cushion to be able to self insure.

Overall it makes me more competitive to ship internationally. I know EIS will protect me with cases and feedback for the first reason I mentioned, but that protection won’t help me retain the buyer for repeat business. I wouldn’t exactly call it “roughing it.” International issues where I’m not protected for are few and far away. As concluded, I’d most likely be protected for this issue in my OP even with DIY.

[mam98031]

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@iamalwaysright wrote:

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@mam98031 wrote:

Did you ship using EIS?

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Nope. I shipped it myself using Pirateship which is linked to my eBay with the orders imported in and tracking number automatically uploaded back.

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Why not use EIS?  It is such a good program for sellers and keep  you protected against this happening and many other things.  Just curious as to why you don't use it.

[mam98031]

To my knowledge, EIS doesn't repackage.  If what you send to their processing center requires repackaging because the seller's packaging was inadequate, they reject the package and send it back to the seller.

[richard1rst]

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@gurlcat wrote:

Why don't you use EIS instead of roughing it on your own?  

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Well. I can't speak for the OP, and there are always exceptions of course, but Asendia through Pirateship has always been cheaper than EIS. The amount that I save on Asendia, collectively, more than makes up for the occasional (and very rare) international problem.

[gurlcat]

Well on the bright side you have all the way til July 16 (over 2 weeks from now) before eBay would even consider favoring the buyer in an INR case.  Hopefully this buyer will be able to get the package from Ascendia before then, and also get them to close the tracking with a 'Delivered' scan.  

But please keep this thread in mind to update whatever happens, please!  I'm really curious now!  Even more so because I have literally never even heard of this 'unknown addresEE' notation, domestically or internationally.  

[iamalwaysright]

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@gurlcat wrote:

Well on the bright side you have all the way til July 16 (over 2 weeks from now) before eBay would even consider favoring the buyer in an INR case.  Hopefully this buyer will be able to get the package from Ascendia before then, and also get them to close the tracking with a 'Delivered' scan.  

Yea I always found it so weird how big of a range international shipping ETAs are. That's why I never buy anything from overseas or even other countries with exception to vendors.

But please keep this thread in mind to update whatever happens, please!  I'm really curious now!  Even more so because I have literally never even heard of this 'unknown addresEE' notation, domestically or internationally.  

I've gotten it domestically from time to time. Still find it really weird tho how some packages get tagged with this and some don't. This is my first time dealing with this internationally.

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[reallynicestamps]

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy...

Yes.
And you don't even have to refund a penny.

Be sure to manually enter the tracking number yourself.

Do NOT trust eBay to do it.

Here's a conversation with a Blue about this a couple of years ago.


An ethical seller would refund the payment, less shipping costs, eBay fees, and international payment processing fees.
But it's my belief that eBay will not require any refund.
 
...You're correct in that a refused package is on the buyer and not the sellers responsibility to refund. As long as tracking shows the package was refused, then we would side with a seller if the buyer opened an Item Not Received claim. 
 
I agree that I would not withhold all the money, but it is up to the seller if they would like to withhold shipping, refund the buyer entirely, or keep it all. If the seller is okay with refunding the buyer entirely and being out the shipping costs, then they can cancel the transaction using the buyer requested option since in essence, they did by refusing the package. If the seller wants to retain the shipping costs, then they can message the buyer a heads up (not a requirement but a nice thing to do) and then refund them partially through this flow here. 
Velvet,


[gurlcat]

If it's true that eBay wouldn't make you refund .... I wouldn't refund one cent of it, because why should you lose an inventory item through zero fault of your own?  It's 100% the buyer's responsibility to have the correct shipping address notated before they make payment.  

Just curious, have you shown the buyer the address on the order screen, and asked if it was correct?  What did they say?  

[iamalwaysright]

If you’re asking me that question, I never initially show (or type) what I see as the shipping address in the order details for the buyer to confirm or deny. Instead, I always ask the buyer to reply and type out their complete shipping address to me so I can match and confirm that’s what I have in my order details. I do this because of a few reasons.

A lot of people are really bad at attention to detail or very lazy on double checking things that are given to them. It’s much easier to misread or skip some crucial part of a text that is shown to you than to misspeak or mistype something out of thin air. Many times in the past I would paste the address and the buyer would literally confirm it multiple times only to find out after much later that the address was missing a unit number or was supposed to be North Main St instead of South (the buyer totally didn’t catch that until additional grueling back/forth messages).

Having a buyer type out their address might actually make the buyer incriminate themselves. I find getting that info from the buyer on a documented eBay message can help in INR cases. I’ve won cases where the item got lost and never delivered because I showed eBay the message that the buyer typed their address to me was different from the address I had on file. Had I not gotten that message, the buyer can just claim that we just shipped it wrong. When asked to type their compete address, I’ve had buyers reply “the one on file is correct.” That wouldn’t be good enough for me and I ask them to humor me and type out what that address is, and there’s been times we find what they typed differed from what I had. If they never reply, I might end up pasting what I have first and asking for a yes or no. But only if it’s been a long radio silence from them.

As for my buyer here, I haven’t asked them to confirm their address to me yet. They haven’t responded to my initial reply yet and I don’t like to send messages with too many parts in it as they can get easily ignored. I send these things out in smaller steps/messages.

[gurlcat]

To be clear I didn't mean before you shipped; I meant since the bad tracking scan happened.   But if they haven't replied to a message you've already sent AND haven't filed an INR yet, then I agree there would be no point in trying to contact them for any reason (unless/until ..... ).  

[iamalwaysright]

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@gurlcat wrote:

To be clear I didn't mean before you shipped; I meant since the bad tracking scan happened.   But if they haven't replied to a message you've already sent AND haven't filed an INR yet, then I agree there would be no point in trying to contact them for any reason (unless/until ..... ).  

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Right. I was referring to the same situation too, after the bad scan I pretty much do this with my buyers. On that other note, I never message the buyer about their address if the label prints out fine with no issues even if the address looks all weird to me. If it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it.

So an update, the buyer has been replying yesterday and I asked him to type out his complete shipping address. He replied with an address that’s totally different. He didn’t even put the city of Dubai in his typed address, sigh. Well hopefully this will give me some ammo to win a potential INR if necessary.