mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
I got a package returned to me because the buyer says they didn't have a mail box.
The buyer told you or the package you received back said there was no mailbox??
They filed INRs (yes, it's multiple purchases). It returned to me with NMR, no mail receptacle.
I am surprised you have never experienced this before with how much you sell and your length of time on Ebay as a seller. Call Ebay and get it closed. As long as the tracking shows there was no mail receptacle, you are fine. Sellers have solid protections when it comes to an INR. The buyer is responsible for giving you a proper address to a safe place to have the item delivered. So call and get it closed in your favor.
Then if you decide you want to return the portion of the payment to your buyer less shipping and fees [if any], that is what I'd do. Your FB is protected because the claim was closed in your favor. Make sure you outline what you are doing in a nice polite email to the buyer. Let them know they can look at the tracking to verify what the PO told you about the mailbox.
The buyer wants me to re-send it to the same address because "I have a mail box now." I sent a payment request for the shipping fee again. Buyer asks if they have to pay it. That left me stumped as this issue never happened to me.
That is completely up to you, but know that doing this, the buyer is free to leave whatever type of FB they want. So go with your gut. But I have to say if your buyer is questioning why they need to pay you to ship again and are unwilling to pay the costs to ship again, I wouldn't do it. I would just do as I suggested above. I would not mess with it at all.
If it were my transactions. I would call Ebay, get the claim closed in my favor. Put the buyer on my BBL. AFTER that I would email the buyer and say that you will be issuing them a refund for the items less original shipping and fees.
Am I able to take this package to the USPS and say "try again" for free? I've done that before claiming USPS made a mistake with invalid address... but for NMR? Thoughts?
I personally would not do this. If a buyer is not willing to take responsibility for their own mistake and wants you to literally pay for it, it is likely they are going to hurt your FB. Personally I would not take the risk.
BTW, USPS didn't make a mistake either. It was your buyer.
NO, DON'T CANCEL. There is an INR in play here. The first thing to do is get the INR closed in the seller's favor.
Then you can do the cancellation. But get the claim closed FIRST.
However I would NOT do a cancellation at all. If you do that you can't withhold the original shipping. The process doesn't allow for it.
Once the INR is closed in the seller's favor, Ebay won't even make the seller refund the buyer. So a seller could opt to keep the money if they choose to. But I don't recommend that as I don't think that is the right thing to do. I think they should refund the buyer less original shipping and handling along with any fees that aren't recoverable.
@bigdeals.etc wrote:
I've had something similar happen here. But the buyer didn't realize they moved all the their mailboxes temporarily to the basement 3 weeks prior. So he at least had a mailbox still, just didn't know where it was. Still, that made me wonder how can that buyer not check their mail in 3+ weeks?
Trust me - it is easy! My mail person used to get really ticked with me because I would go weeks without checking/emptying the mailbox. They even took all of it down to the main office once. Fortunately, larger mailboxes were installed after someone stole the old ones (condo group), post and all. Now I can still go weeks without checking the mail and the mail person doesn't get nearly as ticked. 
