eBay

dippitydoo · ‎07-31-2017

Ok ok, I know I've seen this before, but it didn't stick because it didn't pertain to me...so please someone tell it again: about how sellers should avoid sending stuff to a different address from the buyers address. My buyer just bought a vintage mailbox, asking me to ship to a diff. address....I see on his feedback, that he's SOLD vintage mailboxes before, so duh, I realize I'm sending my mailbox to HIS buyer....don't want to do that! So, what again is the excuse? That Ebay prohibits? discourages? what is the key phrase? I'll lose my sellers protection if diff. address??...I can't remember! So help please, if you can. THANKS!!!

1946donaldo · ‎08-01-2017

I just encountered the same thing regarding a laptop I sold earlier this evening, but the name of the person sending me the message didn't match up with the buyer's name. I'm wondering if it is a scam. Sent a message to the Help desk, but I'm going to call in the morning to talk with someone about it.

pjcdn2005 · ‎08-01-2017

If you send an item to an address different than the one on the payment info and IF the buyer files an item not received, you would not be able to prove that the item was received because it was sent to a different address so yes, you would not have seller protection. I have sent items to a different addess and haven't had a problem but it is up to you whether you are comfortable doing that with this item and this buyer.

I assume that they have already paid? If not, they can change the address when they pay and then you can send it to the payment address without worrying about it.

pjcdn2005 · ‎08-01-2017

@1946donaldo

This is for the $600 laptop? Are you saying that someone messaged you and wants you to send the laptop to a different address that was on the payment address? If so...do not do that. Any type of electronic items can be high risk here and you should never take a chance like that. You must send it to the payment address. If the person who messaged you about the laptop was using a different ebay id than the person who won the auction. that is also a huge red flag.

cumos55 · ‎08-01-2017

Refund the payment.

Send an invoice through Paypal, with reference to the new address. The new address becomes the mailing address on Paypal

Once the buyer pays you can mail the item to the new address... and you are protected on Paypal.

All communications should be through eBay Messages... Ask the buyer to confirm the new address.

Communicating through eBay messages provides a record of everything that happened with respect to this transaction.

I have done this a few times over the years, Only once did I sense that the buyer was unhappy with the process.... but I was protected by Paypal as the item was mailed to the Paypal address on record with the payment for a specific purchase.

------------------------------------------------------

In today's eBay a buyer must identify the mailing address on eBay.... The Paypal payment is inked to this address, and cannot be edited on Paypal

---------------------------------------------------------

If the new address is to as country that you do not ship to, then confirm that you cannot ship to the new address with the buyer and ask them if they want to cancel the transaction or ship to the eBay-Paypal payment linked address, and not the new address.

cumos55 · ‎08-01-2017

Always communicate through eBay messages.

This becomes a record of what happens with a transaction, and this record can be viewed by eBay personnel if there is any problems with a transaction

klassic*kids · ‎08-01-2017

@dippitydoo I would kindly tell the buyer that you can only send to the address in paypal. If they would still like the widget sent to another address you will have to cancel the first sale and then relist it and then they can buy it with the correct 'ship to' address via paypal.

If you send to an address other than the one in paypal you take a risk of losing the item and the money. It's up to you but I wouldn't take that risk.

Happy 2018! May this upcoming year be a prosperous one!

itownvideogames1 · ‎08-01-2017

I've had this happen to me as well a number of times...

This is a situation where eBay will let the seller cancel the transaction without penalty. You'll have to go through the quick process to do so and refund the buyer if they paid. Like others said it's up to you, but I wou'd avoid it for anything you don't want to potentially lose. I've done it in the past for items under $10 where the hit wouldn't be too bad. Most of the time it's a buyer who recently moved and forgot to update their address.

a_c_green · ‎08-01-2017

Unfortunately we have two different posters with two different but similar situations here:

MAILBOX SALE: If you've been paid, ship to the address provided with the payment. Your buyer may be a seller of the same thing, yes, but providing an alternate Ship-To: address with the payment is perfectly legit; there's no point in trying to second-guess why he's buying from you.

If you have not been paid and got the alternate address in a message, tell him that he must provide that with the payment. You only ship to the address received with the payment.

LAPTOP SALE: This smells like a routine (but relatively new) scam in which a third-party scammer pretends to be a relative of the winning buyer and asks to have the package redirected. They have no connection to the actual buyer, who probably knows nothing of this. Again, ship only to the address received with the payment; that's how you maintain your seller protection. (Also don't forget that Signature Confirmation is required on sales of $750 or more.)

retrose1 · ‎08-01-2017

@a_c_green wrote:
Unfortunately we have two different posters with two different but similar situations here:

MAILBOX SALE: If you've been paid, ship to the address provided with the payment. Your buyer may be a seller of the same thing, yes, but providing an alternate Ship-To: address with the payment is perfectly legit; there's no point in trying to second-guess why he's buying from you.

If you have not been paid and got the alternate address in a message, tell him that he must provide that with the payment. You only ship to the address received with the payment.

LAPTOP SALE: This smells like a routine (but relatively new) scam in which a third-party scammer pretends to be a relative of the winning buyer and asks to have the package redirected. They have no connection to the actual buyer, who probably knows nothing of this. Again, ship only to the address received with the payment; that's how you maintain your seller protection. (Also don't forget that Signature Confirmation is required on sales of $750 or more.)

The only seller protection that ebay offers is the tracking on Item Not Received disputes that shows delivered to the address on the paypal payment. Everything after is a huge risk for the seller. AND the only cancel that a seller can do without fear of punishments is to cancel after the buyer attempts to void the seller protection by asking to ship to an address not on the paypal payment.

I would immediately cancel any request to ship to a different address - but in the case of the laptop where the new scam involving a stranger checking to see if the new seller does not know ebay policy, I would email the buyer to confirm their ship to address before I shipped.

In the case of the mailbox, I'd just cancel - and block the buyer. But then again, I would have hunted through the genre and blocked the ids of specialized sellers of the item, so a reseller wouldn't have been able to buy it in the first place.

ebay has instilled a aura of fear about the place to the extent that sellers, especially new ones, will overthink a simple procedure and panic over any request. The fear about problems - and the solutions to any problems - should be dealt with long before the items are listed. If a seller is listing an expensive high risk item, they should consider treating the listing and sale the same way they would if they were setting the same item out on a table in a garage sale.

(*Bleep*)

a_c_green · ‎08-01-2017

retrose1 wrote:
I would immediately cancel any request to ship to a different address - but in the case of the laptop where the new scam involving a stranger checking to see if the new seller does not know ebay policy, I would email the buyer to confirm their ship to address before I shipped.

I would not contact the buyer just because a third party contacted me claiming to be a relative and wanting the laptop shipped someplace else. If you want to respond to anyone, you could tell the third party that you only respond to requests received from the buying account. Just for yucks, you could also ask the third party what the name is on the buying account. You won't get an answer to that because they will have no idea. (For that matter, they won't be able to tell you the buyer's ID either.)

There's no need to get the buyer to "confirm" their address that accompanied the payment; just ship it. Waiting for a reply from the buyer before shipping their paid item can drag things out, especially if the buyer is not one who checks his messages very often, and I don't see any need to confuse the buyer by asking them about some third-party message from someone they've never heard of. If, as I suspect, this new third-party redirect attempt catches on with scammers, we may be getting these scam messages with every big-ticket sale.

retrose1 wrote:
In the case of the mailbox, I'd just cancel - and block the buyer. But then again, I would have hunted through the genre and blocked the ids of specialized sellers of the item, so a reseller wouldn't have been able to buy it in the first place.

Why would you cancel, exactly? So what if he sells mailboxes like yours. To begin with, if you can't find a Sold item of his that resembles yours, there isn't even any evidence that he's using you as a dropshipper, and even if he was, you can't just up and cancel a transaction on that theory. It doesn't matter why he wants the mailbox shipped elsewhere, as long as he's paid for it and properly provided the Ship-To: address.

As for blocking the IDs of specialized sellers of the item, you can do that if you like, but I suspect that most seasoned sellers will be using a buying account anyway, so you won't achieve much that way.

retrose1 wrote:
ebay has instilled a aura of fear about the place to the extent that sellers, especially new ones, will overthink a simple procedure and panic over any request. The fear about problems - and the solutions to any problems - should be dealt with long before the items are listed.

On that we agree.

dippitydoo · ‎08-01-2017

Wow, so much help from everyone, that's wonderful!! I still am a tad confused tho...I keep hearing something like "As long as he properly provided the address with the payment"....the "address with the payment" I assume is the paypal address on the account? He send me an Ebay email requesting the item be sent to a different address....(still his name)....is this considered proper? I mean, I really don't have a problem sending it wherever, nor do I mind if he is reselling it...but I don't want to be his buyers shipper, HE needs to do that....and I do want my sellers protection, so I think I will take the advise of telling him I only ship to the paypal account address. Thanks everybody!!!

retrose1 · ‎08-01-2017

@dippitydoo wrote:
Wow, so much help from everyone, that's wonderful!! I still am a tad confused tho...I keep hearing something like "As long as he properly provided the address with the payment"....the "address with the payment" I assume is the paypal address on the account? He send me an Ebay email requesting the item be sent to a different address....(still his name)....is this considered proper? I mean, I really don't have a problem sending it wherever, nor do I mind if he is reselling it...but I don't want to be his buyers shipper, HE needs to do that....and I do want my sellers protection, so I think I will take the advise of telling him I only ship to the paypal account address. Thanks everybody!!!

You ONLY send to the address on the paypal payment.

And I agree with acgreen a lot - but the second a legit paying buyer asks me to ship to any address that is not on the payment after they have paid, I immediately cancel the transaction - using the reason - problem with buyers address. That will refund them.

The reason is that while there are a few ebay employees that will say that as long as you have it in ebay messages the buyer asked, you will be protected - but the problem will be getting a CS to know the policy when an Item Not Received shows up. And even if you have the message saved in your ebay messages - paypal won't read them if the buyer files a INR dispute with the pal. All the pal will see is that you don't have confimed tracking delivery to the address the buyer imputted on the payment.

I will find a way to cancel any transaction that the buyer starts contacting me after payment about something. The time to be asking questions and getting addresses proper is before you pay, not after. I will makes exceptions for combined shipments (but not on ebay) and ebay glitches.

If you ship to the address the buyer asks you to ship to, you can count on an INR dispute seconds after tracking shows delivered and you will lose the item and the money and the postage you paid to ship it to your scammer.

(*Bleep*)

a_c_green · ‎08-01-2017

@retrose1 wrote:
You ONLY send to the address on the paypal payment.

And I agree with acgreen a lot - but the second a legit paying buyer asks me to ship to any address that is not on the payment after they have paid, I immediately cancel the transaction - using the reason - problem with buyers address. That will refund them.

Well, when you put it that way, we're in agreement on that, too. A buyer who agrees to reset his Ship-To: address to the desired location in the proper manner is going to need refunding first anyway before he can do that.

The two topics we're juggling here, the mailbox and the laptop, are good illustrations of the difference between real and fake address change attempts. According to the OP (with the mailbox sale), his request for an address change came from the buyer under his own ID, and according to his later post, the new address still has his name at the top as well (although it's still permitted to have a different name also). It's up to the OP whether he wants to gamble on an undefendable Item Not Received dispute later on by making the requested change manually on his Shipping form, or if he wants to maintain his protection by explaining to the buyer that he'll need to take a refund and then re-pay with the desired Ship-To: address.

As for the other poster (with the laptop sale), that address change request came from some other ID that he'd never seen before, offering some vague request to have the laptop sent somewhere else instead, and I'll bet dollars to donuts that that ID has no connection of any kind to the actual buyer of the laptop. Since the request is not coming from the buyer, it can be simply ignored.

I think we'll be seeing a lot more of those fake third-party requests in future, too. I don't recall ever hearing about fake redirection requests beyond more than just a few months ago, and they're already increasing in frequency. One scammer seems to have had one original idea, and now, of course, all the others are copying it.

Anonymous · ‎08-01-2017

@a_c_green wrote:
@retrose1 wrote:
You ONLY send to the address on the paypal payment.

And I agree with acgreen a lot - but the second a legit paying buyer asks me to ship to any address that is not on the payment after they have paid, I immediately cancel the transaction - using the reason - problem with buyers address. That will refund them.
The two topics we're juggling here, the mailbox and the laptop, are good illustrations of the difference between real and fake address change attempts. According to the OP (with the mailbox sale), his request for an address change came from the buyer under his own ID, and according to his later post, the new address still has his name at the top as well (although it's still permitted to have a different name also). It's up to the OP whether he wants to gamble on an undefendable Item Not Received dispute later on by making the requested change manually on his Shipping form, or if he wants to maintain his protection by explaining to the buyer that he'll need to take a refund and then re-pay with the desired Ship-To: address.

This thread brings back memories. I experienced a similar situation as the OP with the mailbox sale a couple years ago. Buyer made a BIN purchase for a $110 item. Normally I have no problem making post-sale address changes for low-ticket items. But for this $110 sale, I wasn't comfortable. So I asked the buyer to accept a cancellation/refund and re-purchase with the correct address.

The buyer was a bit annoyed by the request, but she really wanted the item. She accepted the refund and repaid right away. She lived in New York, but her daughter lived in California, and she wanted the item to go to her daughter. The package was safely delivered.

A couple weeks later, I got a negative feedback. Something along the lines of "seller was friendly, but I was hassled with a double-charge". What the buyer meant was, two charges were debited from her bank account, and it took longer than expected for the refund to show up. Even though I had issued the refund immediately, perhaps because she used a debit or credit card instead of instant bank transfer, it took close to a week for the refund to appear.

Anyway, through the help and advice here on the community, I was able to discuss this issue with eBay and get the negative removed. The CS agent took a look at our messages and saw that the buyer initially requested an address change. The agent realized that the problem with the buyer's address led to the need for a cancellation/refund and repayment, so he agreed that the negative FB was inappropriate. I'm glad they removed the neg, because I had no luck getting the buyer to revise.