Buyer's address is invalid because it only has 4 digits for street address. What do I do?

[modulok!]

First time running into something like this and I need to know what to do.  New buyer just signed up today and purchased a fixed price IPR item from me ($40).  When I try to print an Ebay shipping label, it won't let me because it says the address is invalid.  The buyer's address only has 4 digits (example: 1111) on the street address line and no street name or anything else (of course the next line has the city, state, zipcode just fine).  What do I do in this situation since I am not allowed to ship it with the address being the way it is.

[slippinjimmy]

You ask the buyer what the street name is!

[klhmdg]

I would cancel as “problem with buyers address “

Then message the buyer that you canceled because their address is incorrect and if they want they can fix the address  and repurchase.

[modulok!]

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

You ask the buyer what the street name is!

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If the buyer gets back to me with the rest of the street address and I add it in, will I still be protected by Ebay and Paypal against an INR claim?

[mam98031]

The first thing to do is like SlippinJimmy suggested and contact your buyer.  Let them know the problem and give them the opportunity to give you the complete information.

If you don't hear from them within your stated handling time so you can get it shipped out on time.  Send them another email and let them know that you have to cancel the transaction for an incomplete address and they will be fully refunded.  Once they update their account information they are welcome to come back and purchase the item again.

But hopefully you can avoid cancelling the transaction because while Ebay will refund you the FVFs they charged you, you will NOT get your fees refunded from PayPal.  So avoid having to do this if you can.

[gwzcomps]

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@modulok! wrote:

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

You ask the buyer what the street name is!

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If the buyer gets back to me with the rest of the street address and I add it in, will I still be protected by Ebay and Paypal against an INR claim?

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That is a really grey area. CS has told me in the past it is ok if the buyer asks for it in a message through eBay. They can't point me to the policy that allows that any time I ask. Problem now is if you cancel the transaction you will lose $1.46 in PayPal fees.  The way I see it is you have two options:

1. Get the buyer to message you what the address is.  Then change it to the proper address.  This may result in the loss of any seller "protection" you may have.  Or even the loss of the item and money.  (Do not send them their shipping info in a message. They have to message it to you.  Sellers are not allowed to send any account info even after a sale for verification purposes.  It is dumb...)
2. Canceling the transaction due to bad address and either redoing the transaction or moving on.

As a seller it really make me angry this has been going on for many years now.  They supposedly care about providing the buyers a good service?  If that is so why don't they have a system that VERIFIES THE BUYERS ADDRESS BEFORE PURCHASE!!!

[mam98031]

If a buyer sends you an address correction through the Ebay email system and the seller ships to that address, they retain their Seller protection with Ebay.

But unfortunately when you do this it does void your PP seller protection.  However if a buyer is going to file for an INR it is highly likely they would file in Ebay.  Yes there is a chance they will go to PP and file it and if this were to be an expensive item, I'd say cancel and as the buyer to correct their information and repurchase.  But I think this one is in a reasonable range to be just fine to go ahead and correct the address.  

I did that for a new buyer just this week and all went nicely.

[gwzcomps]

I am sure you are right on the eBay side of things. I just don't like it since there isn't a policy specifying how to handle these circumstances. I wish they would implement something that would fix problems like this. They obviously have the tools to detect these problems.

[fashunu4eeuh]

Hi, because this is a new buyer who might not check their messages on eBay, I would call the buyer. You can get the contact info of a member you've had a recent transaction with thru this link:

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/working-buyers/find-contact-buyer?id=4083

[modulok!]

The strange thing is that Paypal has this as a "confirmed" address.  How can that be?  The address is in Sag Harbor NY which has many streets and I don't think that just 4 digits for the street address is going to get it where it is supposed to go.

I messaged the buyer last night and haven't received a response.  I suppose I am going to need to call the buyer - not looking forward to that.  If this doesn't get resolved by tomorrow (Thurs is my ship by date) then I will have to cancel and relist.  Not really wanting to do that since this is a Christmas countdown item for a child and if the buyer never checks their Ebay messages and I can't get a hold of them by phone, they will be expecting it to arrive and when they find out its been canceled they might get fairly upset (it being a time sensitive Christmas countdown item for a child and all).

[city*satins]

If the zip code is fine, it won't matter what else you change in the address.

You could just google this based on the buyer's name and zip.

[jeweloftheheart]

Personally, I would cancel the order because of the address is invalid IF they don't respond. When you select cancel because of invalid address, the buyer can not leave you feedback. I had this happen to me the other day because the buyer was actually a scammer.

[hawkwind5454]

Whenever I get a sketchy address or a corrected address, I go to Google Earth and get a street shot of that address, and see if everything looks copacetic. That has helped me out more than once. I wouldn't suspect your buyer is trying to pull anything deliberately because of the lower price of the item. Of course one never can tell these days.

[loveyourimagination49]

It could be a P.O. Box and they didn’t feel the need to write it. As others have said, cancel with problem with address if you don’t hear back.

[city*satins]

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@jeweloftheheart wrote:

Personally, I would cancel the order because of the address is invalid IF they don't respond. When you select cancel because of invalid address, the buyer can not leave you feedback. I had this happen to me the other day because the buyer was actually a scammer.

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Just remember, Paypal won't refund the 2.9% they charged you for handling that payment.

One reason to think twice or three times about cancelling orders and hoping to get the buyer to pay again with a corrected address.