Buyer's Mail Forwarding

[sin-n-dex]

On the tracking of a recent sale, I see all the USPS scans, and then this:

Available for pick up

Your item will be delayed

Forwarded

All three are showing in the buyer's town. I don't know where it's being forwarded to, the Forwarded scan is from this morning.

If it's the buyer who purchased, I'm not so worried... if the account was hijacked, I have concerns about this forwarding. I've read here that you will lose an INR if the package is forwarded by USPS.

Can someone please help with the policy on this?

Thank you,

C.

[expertbattery]

Have you tried confirming with your buyer that they have moved? There is a possibility that their old address was used and the package is being forwarded to the new address. 

[a_c_green]

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@sin-n-dex wrote:

If it's the buyer who purchased, I'm not so worried... if the account was hijacked, I have concerns about this forwarding. I've read here that you will lose an INR if the package is forwarded by USPS. 

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Actually I think it's the buyer who loses protection if the item is forwarded by him. It wouldn't be the seller's fault if the buyer sets up forwarding at his address. The seller would have no way of knowing about a forwarding order before the package reached the old address.

In any case, if the account was hijacked, the poipetrator would simply plug in his new Ship To address at payment time and have the item sent straight to him. He wouldn't go to the extra step of setting up a forwarding order at the original account-holder's local post office. That would put him on the USPS radar as well as eBay's.

I wouldn't be concerned at this point. If the buyer asks you where it is, you can point him to the tracking details that you're seeing.

[sin-n-dex]

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@expertbattery wrote:

Have you tried confirming with your buyer that they have moved? There is a possibility that their old address was used and the package is being forwarded to the new address. 

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Haven't contacted the buyer. I was just hoping to know the policy on an INR if they claim non receipt with USPS forwarded the package. I'm assuming the buyer moved, put forwarding on file, and forgot to update their paypal/ebay address.

But on the off chance it's a hijacked account and my coin got forwarded, I wanted to know if there's any seller protection against an INR in this case.

Cheers, C.

[mokagroup]

Theoretically, sellers are protected, but in practice, eBay will not honor this "protection". I had a buyer a few months ago who had mail forwarding set up so her item was forwarded and delivered to a different address. She promptly filed an "item not received claim", but was I worried, not at all, as I was sure she wouldn't be able to win that case since setting up an address forward requires pretty tedious verification process and the PO makes sure to verify every mail-forward request.

I guess you know where I’m going with this; this buyer won, even though I had a written statement from the post office (I filed an insurance claim), stating that since the buyer had a valid mail forward in place the package was delivered to the correct person. And, yes, I tried to call eBay and appeal their decision but in the end, it was not worth my time to spend hours upon hours on the phone so I just took the loss. I hope your buyer is honest and in that case, it doesn't matter that the package was forwarded.

[ted_200]

If it shows "delivered" to a different location (where it got forwarded) than the ship to address, and the buyer files an INR, you're toast. 

It could be a scam, it could be a legitimate buyer moved situation.  At this point, there's little you can do, you'll have to wait to see what happens.  Some sellers have started marking outgoing items "Do Not Forward, Return To Sender" to deal with scams that happen because of this loophole.  I don't personally since I'm selling stuff where this would blow up more good transactions than prevent bad ones.