Buyer is requesting an invoice to ship to an International courier

[aerienne47]

I sold an item 4 days ago and have been waiting for payment from the buyer. I just received an email from eBay:

"Action needed: Please send buyer total amount due"

A buyer has requested a total for their committed purchase 

Your order will ship to: [insert funky looking address here - it appears to be a US-based international courier service with some international routing codes on it. It's unclear if it will ship to a US address or Venezuela...I've never seen an address like this.]

My policy clearly states US only, no international shipping - the buyer is located in Venezuela and they have 0 feedback. I'd really prefer not to send the invoice / fulfill this order, because I'm worried about being scammed, but can I get a strike on my account for not fulfilling the sale if I don't send the invoice? I'd prefer to wait until tomorrow and just cancel the order for Unpaid Item.

[pjcdn2005 · Accepted solution]

If it is a US address they shouldn't need an invoice as there is already a shipping cost on the listing. You said that you can see the address,what is the country in the address?   If it is for a freight forwarder in the US it may have a line with various letters and  or numbers which would be the buyers account number with the forwarder.  If it is Venezuela  they cannot pay unless you send an invoice so if you don't want to ship there, just cancel for unpaid item when you can. 

[fab_finds4u]

eBay automatically sends an invoice as soon as they win.

[soh.maryl]

Regarding the "international shipping" issue:  Many overseas buyers use various freight forwarders.  In that case, you will NOT be shipping to internationally.  

In any case, there is almost never a need for a seller to send an invoice because it happens automatically with eBay.  

[aerienne47]

This seems like the case - it has a street address in Miami FL but also includes the country code VE for Venezuela, as well as some various letters/numbers. I'd rather avoid it since it's a low value item, so I'll take your advice and wait to file an unpaid item claim. Thanks!

[janet9988]

The buyer does not need an invoice if they gave you a US shipping address.

Do NOT send one as it lengthens the cancellation for unpaid item.

[slippinjimmy]

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@soh.maryl wrote:

Regarding the "international shipping" issue:  Many overseas buyers use various freight forwarders.  In that case, you will NOT be shipping to internationally.  

In any case, there is almost never a need for a seller to send an invoice because it happens automatically with eBay.  

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Some countries, and if this shipment is ultimately going to Venezuela require a "real" invoice to be included with the shipment, a) because the Forwarder needs that information to prepare for customs clearance and b) because the notice that eBay sends to buyers is wholly insufficient for customs purposes.

[buyselljack2016]

The next "possible" problem with these "freight forwarder" sales is the new "delivered to agent for final delivery" event scan that the USPS has added to their scan choices.

Shipped to a  "Miami" FF, and got a scan like. eBay is not showing the item as "delivered".

A whole new can of worms in the making.

[tdrake]

The extra numbers/letters is usually their coding for the person or account they are handling it for.   

Now, with Ebay International Shipping,  there are "extra" words and codes on several of the lines of the address to the Ebay forwarding center in Illinois.