Buyer sent message wanting to cancel because of failure to read shipping exclusions

[cooprr]

As a new seller, I tried to cover my bases and because of my past experience as a buyer not being able to receive Paypal purchases at a PO Box, I set up my shipping exclusions to include PO Boxes, as I accept Paypal. Having no experience on how payment systems work related to shipping addresses, my settings for payment saying Paypal accepted means that I only accept Paypal. I need to be straightened out on this if I am incorrect.

A zero experience buyer (account opened one day prior to auction ending) sent a message stating she/he has attempted to pay but cannot because of my shipping exclusion to PO Boxes and cannot find it anywhere in my listing, and wants the transaction cancelled IF I will not ship to PO Box.

I replied with instructions to find See Exclusions and asked for a reply after she/he reviews the listing and ebay policies.

Should I:

Cancel the transaction per buyer request? -> contact second highest bidder for second chance?

Let the 3 day payment timeframe run out and report non-buyer?

Thank you to those who assist the newly-confused sellers!

[emerald40]

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@cooprr wrote:

As the listing is closed, I am at a loss as to where to edit the listing after the fact. I looked in the SOLD section for the listing, but see nowhere to edit the shipping restrictions. Assist?

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Do you mean that you want to edit for future listings to exclude Post Office boxes?

If so - try shipping changes.

Ebay often changs their rules with little or no advertisement but in the past you could block APO and Post Office boxes.

From what I was able to find there seems to be a lot of confusion as to whether or not paypal accepts Post Office boxes.

From reading various threads, it appears they do.  Just do not offer UPS or Fed Ex as they do not deliver to them.

[muttlymob]

Listen to your gut, it will never steer you wrong.

What if a "gut feeling" is actually a tinfoil hat adjusted a little too tight?

When a gut feeling is based on ignorance (as in, PayPal payments can't be made with PO Box addresses) then you are being steered wrong.

Listen to your gut after all facts have been considered, not in place of fact.

[muttlymob]

From what I was able to find there seems to be a lot of confusion as to whether or not paypal accepts Post Office boxes.

I accept only PayPal.  I get a lot of payments that ship to PO Boxes.  PayPal obviously accepts PO Box addresses.

If you are a current seller and you accept PayPal, take a look through your sold-to addresses.  You likely will find some PO Boxes in there.

[emerald40]

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@muttlymob wrote:

Listen to your gut, it will never steer you wrong.

What if a "gut feeling" is actually a tinfoil hat adjusted a little too tight?

When a gut feeling is based on ignorance (as in, PayPal payments can't be made with PO Box addresses) then you are being steered wrong.

Listen to your gut after all facts have been considered, not in place of fact.

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Maybe in your experiences, but on ebay I have learned to follow my gut before the fact, because ebay will not protect my back afterwards.

I went on and googled the question, and even showed you a thread where there is a lot of confusion as to whether or not paypal allows Post Office boxes.  So apparently I am not the only "ignorant" one as based on that 8 page thread.

Do know that if I am not sure I look up all information before posting here.  And when I see several threads attesting to it, then I post that on here with a disclaimer showing this is what I saw but it may have changed.

[emerald40]

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@muttlymob wrote:

From what I was able to find there seems to be a lot of confusion as to whether or not paypal accepts Post Office boxes.

I accept only PayPal.  I get a lot of payments that ship to PO Boxes.  PayPal obviously accepts PO Box addresses.

If you are a current seller and you accept PayPal, take a look through your sold-to addresses.  You likely will find some PO Boxes in there.

_______________________________________

As I have stated many times in the past, I use Fed Ex only.  And no post office boxes are allowed.

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[readabouthorses]

From the time I started using PayPal when it first started until I moved in August 2011 all of my purchases were sent to a PO Box because I had no mail delivery (heck, I didn't even have a physical address the PO would accept ... it didn't exist).

Back when I first signed up to use PayPal both as a buyer and seller they would not accept a PO Box as your physical address when you were registering your account. Since I had no physical address the PayPal person who monitored the boards (Damon) helped me set it up with an exception to allow my PO Box as my physical address for registration. Maybe that is the thing people are thinking about when they say they don't accept PO Boxes .... thinking about the registration part and not the where is my package going part.

There are too many people on eBay using a PO Box for it to be a problem accepting payments.

[lacemaker3]

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@emerald40 wrote:

PayPal doesn't care if the item is being shipped to a PO box or not. I have no idea where that idea came from.

___________________________________

I found old posts from 2013 stating that paypal did not accept Post Office boxes.https://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-Selling/No-shipping-to-PO-Box/td-p/2762122

Cannot make heads or tails on this thread if it is allowed or not.

I would suggest calling paypal and asking if use can use a Postal box.

I know you cannot if it is going UPS or Fed Ex.

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From reading that thread, it wasn't PayPal that was the problem. The seller had the block on, to not ship to PO Boxes. It was nothing to do with PayPal.

Also, that thread was from 5 years ago, and a lot of sellers still thought that they had to ship to the buyer's address that was registered on their PayPal account. I don't think that was true any more at that time, but if it was, it was changed soon after. I don't remember exactly when this was changed, just "a long time ago".

The shipping address for an eBay transaction comes from the shipping address that was on the eBay Checkout page when the buyer paid. This address may not have anything to do with any address that the buyer has on PayPal. The buyer has the option to change this address to anything they like (as long as it is within the shipping area specified on the listing) up until they pay for the item.

For example, my PayPal account is registered in the USA, and I can't add any address outside of the USA on my PayPal account. But, I can have items shipped to my address in Canada anytime I want, by just choosing the Canadian address on the eBay Checkout page.

[myboardid]

My address is a PO box and always has been.  I accept Paypal and I also buy with Paypal, there has never been an issue with the PO Box since the first day Paypal existed.  So I don't care what you heard about no PO Boxes, it is just plain wrong.  They are perfectly fine. 

As to your buyer, ask him to put a physical address down on his Paypal payment, and for him to email you the PO Box number and you will ship it there.  You cannot change the auction at this point. 

[cooprr]

So lessons learned:

I cancelled the transaction per buyer's request in her first message saying "if I cannot have it shipped to my PO, then cancel my order" and this comes in:

"With respect, you're being incredibly rude and intentionally unprofessional.

Now, how can we save this transaction and how can you accommodate me? Let's have a happy ending, please."

Not a fan of being barked at, judged and then asked to be accommodating. Intuition screaming. Again.

When can I stop replying to someone?

[emerald40]

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@readabouthorses wrote:

From the time I started using PayPal when it first started until I moved in August 2011 all of my purchases were sent to a PO Box because I had no mail delivery (heck, I didn't even have a physical address the PO would accept ... it didn't exist).

Back when I first signed up to use PayPal both as a buyer and seller they would not accept a PO Box as your physical address when you were registering your account. Since I had no physical address the PayPal person who monitored the boards (Damon) helped me set it up with an exception to allow my PO Box as my physical address for registration. Maybe that is the thing people are thinking about when they say they don't accept PO Boxes .... thinking about the registration part and not the where is my package going part.

There are too many people on eBay using a PO Box for it to be a problem accepting payments.

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+1

I am reading more of that old thread and you nailed it.

But unfortunately I found another thread where that confusion was accepted as fact.

I did find it odd because Post Office boxes are the safest way to go imo.

But I do have a question, when the item is over $750 who signs for it.  

[a_c_green]

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@emerald40 wrote: 
I did find it odd because Post Office boxes are the safest way to go imo.

But I do have a question, when the item is over $750 who signs for it.  

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The recipient. He'll find a pickup notice in the PO Box, at which point he'll need to go to the counter, show ID and sign for the package.

[readabouthorses]

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@emerald40 wrote:

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@readabouthorses wrote:

From the time I started using PayPal when it first started until I moved in August 2011 all of my purchases were sent to a PO Box because I had no mail delivery (heck, I didn't even have a physical address the PO would accept ... it didn't exist).

Back when I first signed up to use PayPal both as a buyer and seller they would not accept a PO Box as your physical address when you were registering your account. Since I had no physical address the PayPal person who monitored the boards (Damon) helped me set it up with an exception to allow my PO Box as my physical address for registration. Maybe that is the thing people are thinking about when they say they don't accept PO Boxes .... thinking about the registration part and not the where is my package going part.

There are too many people on eBay using a PO Box for it to be a problem accepting payments.

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+1

I am reading more of that old thread and you nailed it.

But unfortunately I found another thread where that confusion was accepted as fact.

I did find it odd because Post Office boxes are the safest way to go imo.

But I do have a question, when the item is over $750 who signs for it.  

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I don't know how other POs work but at my old PO where I had my box if something came that needed a signature they kept it back behind the counter and put a slip in the box that you had a pickup at the counter and then you signed for it when you picked it up, even if it was an envelope that would have fit in the PO Box.

[emerald40]

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@cooprr wrote:

So lessons learned:

I cancelled the transaction per buyer's request in her first message saying "if I cannot have it shipped to my PO, then cancel my order" and this comes in:

"With respect, you're being incredibly rude and intentionally unprofessional.

Now, how can we save this transaction and how can you accommodate me? Let's have a happy ending, please."

Not a fan of being barked at, judged and then asked to be accommodating. Intuition screaming. Again.

When can I stop replying to someone?

____________________________________

That time is now.  Ignore and block.

Now as to the future, do you want to continue to block post office boxes knowing that you can accept them with paypal.  If so there may be some exclusion you can click on in your shipping category.

I just cannot remember.  I block post office boxes because I exclusively use fed ex.

But in my opinion they are a lot safter than the porch or what I have - a community box way down the street.

But I am again asking this question -

Who signs for an item over $750?

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[thevintagesilvershop]

So, OP, going to ship to PO Boxes now?

[emerald40]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@emerald40 wrote: 
I did find it odd because Post Office boxes are the safest way to go imo.

But I do have a question, when the item is over $750 who signs for it.  

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The recipient. He'll find a pickup notice in the PO Box, at which point he'll need to go to the counter, show ID and sign for the package.

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Not sure I am understanding as I never had a PO box.  Can you get into your own box or does the post office do it for you?

And if it is the former what is to stop someone from going around the counter, not signing for it, and then trying to pull a scam using it as an excuse to get their money back?