Almost got scammed....

[qui-goncain]

Beware This person had me send a package to the following address: 

xxxx NW xxth St Ste 100
Miami / Doral , FL 33198
United States

DO NOT ship to this address. I did a Google search on this address, and it is apparently a known "forwarding" company that repackages merchandise and reships it internationally without the sellers knowledge.  It is called BM Cargo. This firm is used by eBay buyers in Central America to pretend they have a US address so they can buy items from US eBay sellers that had no intention of shipping their item outside the US. This firm will repackage your item to try and reduce the weight so they can save on shipping charges to the buyer in Central America. As part of this repackaging process, they will lose key accessories for your item. The buyer in Central America will receive an item without those accessories and attempt to blame the US seller, who had no idea they were sending their item to a third party for repackaging and shipment outside the US. This firm will then support the Central American buyer in blaming the US seller for an incomplete shipment and deny they repackaged the item from the original packaging. If you watch your tracking information, you will notice the zip code change when it is rerouted to what is provided to Ebay by the seller.  The buyer will then claim the package was delivered, but not to the address provided, and then attempt to file a claim. I print my labels using Ebay/USPS, so there is no discrpancy. This is the second time this has happened to me. I had to fight it for months last time and was awared my lost monies, but not my lost time. Avoid at all costs.

Thankfully I caught it in time (I hope) and reported it to both Ebay and PayPal. I will update if anything changes with the outcome. 

[qui-goncain]

When I sent him the link with the info on the forwarder he had me send it to, along with the reviews posted, and then mentioned he would be reported to both eBay and Paypal if he proceeded with a claim, he disappeared. The address registered with Ebay and Paypal are one and the same with regard to this particular transaction. I of course checked beforehand. Therefore, an assumtion can be made here, and I think I made the right one. Not really sure what motivates those to try to convince me I am wrong in this scenrio as I am just trying to advise those who might have the same problem shipping to these forwarding companies unknowingly. Believe what you will.

[dinpavent0]

I am sure there are buyers that will try to take advantage of that problem and try to scam you. Luckily my buyer was honest and said he checked and yes it was there. I appreciate you putting that out there though because I didn't really think about it being a possibility since I am an honest person and try to give everyone benefit of the doubt. Since he disappeared, I am sure he was probably trying to scam you. He probably already knew that the item would be delivered to different zip code and probably got away with it with someone else.

[yuzuha]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

Then the buyer should have contacted me first to make sure it was ok to bid knowing the package was going to reshipped out of the country

I have friends in the UK, Norway, Australia, Japan and Germany  who have received packages and then forwarded them to me. As long as my address is valid, It is none of the seller's business what they do with it. 

The delivery confimation has been somehow altered to reflect a different zip code, one that does not match the buyers delivery address. His next step was to tell me that he did not receive the item.

 I simply do not believe that the buyer was able to change information on the USPS site. I think have a fundamental misunderstanding about how eBay uses delivery confirmation. When checking delivery confirmation, eBay matches the zip code of the delivery confirmation to the zip code of the PayPal shipping address provided by the buyer, not the buyer's eBay default address. 

Now, just to be clear ...

I am not for a minute suggesting that a buyer using a forwarding service cannot rip off a seller just as easily as any other buyer can rip off any other seller at any time. Any purchase can be a scam.

I am simply pointing out that:

a) there is nothing wrong with - and no eBay rule against - using a forwarding service, and

b) there is nothing wrong with - and no eBay rule against - having a shipping address that differs from your registered eBay address

c) neither of these is something you can "report" a buyer for, because there is nothing to report

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Indeed.  I used to forward things to my friend in the Netherlands for quite a while.  She simply added my shipping address to her eBay and PayPal and would have things shipped to me so that I could forward them on to her.

[aklee30fi]

Instead of using USPS, if we ship with UPS or Fedex, the item will be delivered to the reshipper's address, so it won't be forwarded by USPS to another address.

[enaaa30]

Forwarding companies do not open packages. They charge buyers for actual weight and ship it. That is why many times those buyers ask me to use light weight packing materials. However, I do receive many complaints from SA buyers that item not as described. There is nothing to do with forwarding companies. Many of those buyers just want to get discount of free item. They are scammers by nature and always try their best.  that is why I do not ship to South America.

[dek74801]

Had this happen to me on 3 phones first time ship buyer complain it lock to ATT which was I listed that way. Have herd nothing more I explained listed that way. Second time just cancel and eat the 30 cents thay charge to refund. Third I **bleep** I said no third part address and again I got a wining bid third party address. Think doing a partial refund of dollar seeing eBay back off. I sell old cheep personal use phones to a red flag if goes over $20.  00 

[shipscript]

This thread is over a year old, but since it has been resurrected, I wanted to further clarify what @a_c_green  has clarified.

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@sam9876 wrote:

I ship to forwarding companies several times every week and have never had a problem.

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Me, neither; however, there is a little bit more to this specific situation that I have uncovered, so listen up, everyone, please.

The Doral reshippers are indeed widely known and I ship to their buyers regularly, all the time, with zero problems. However, the OP has come across something that I hadn't noticed before: the final delivery ZIP as shown in tracking does seem to waver between 33198 (as seen in the payment address from the buyer) and 33122, where it is sometimes shown as delivered.

USPS confirms that both 33198 and 33122 serve Miami and Doral addresses (where Miami is the "recommended" name but Doral is a "recognized" name for the same area). I picked four recent shipments of mine that went there, and checked the tracking results for each:

Ship Date  Tracking Number         Delivery ZIP
---------  ----------------------  ------------
6/20/2018  9400109699937711513994    33198
7/5/2018   9400109699938604326370    33122
8/22/2018  9400109699937868202956    33198
8/29/2018  9400109699938743460072    33122

Again, every outbound package I sent had the same 33198 address, but as the OP described, the tracking showed a delivery to 33122 instead, which would be an instant fail for the seller if an Item Not Received dispute was filed. In my case, no problem occurred and the buyer was happy each time.

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The Doral shipping warehouse was recently assigned its own zip code and is close to the Miami airport. Even as recently as mid 2019, eBay labels (and other online venues) were unable to print a label to that new zip. The shipping warehouse is next door to the USPS sorting center in Miami, so packages addressed to the zip code for the sorting center are correctly redirected to the warehouses next door. Thus, the mix of zips between those two buildings should be easily tolerated until eBay catches up to the new zip.

Any claims of zip code redirection should be rebutted with this info.