Buyer told me not to send an invoice after accepting an offer, is the buyer trying to scam or not?

[sinistre]

Hello! I just accepted an offer for one of my books from a buyer an hour ago as the price wasn't that much different than what I listed. In their offer note they told me that they gave me that offer as it was the same price that a professional book seller on Ebay had, and they wanted to go woth me instead.

However, an hour after I accepted their offer and ebay sent the invoice for the item. The buyer paid for the item, but sent me a message saying  " PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE A PRICE INVOICE - its a gift - please let me know that you saw this note."

I told them that I saw the note, but this has me baffled.

Why would the buyer send me a message like this after paying for an accepted offer? 

What do you think? Is the biyer trying to potentially scam me? Or something else completely?

[castlemagicmemories]

No worries. It means just what it says it means. The item is going to someone as a gift, so they don't want a price or invoice, packing slip, anything that has a price on it, to go in with the gift as it is not appropriate. It's nothing unusual, most people sending gifts don't want the gift recipient to know what they paid for it. Do you leave price tags on gifts when you give them? Most likely, no. Same thing.

I'm puzzled, though, as to what made you think that this was a scam. Perhaps you think every buyer is a scammer? They aren't.

[cream_couture · Accepted solution]

They aren't trying to scam you. They just don't want an invoice including in the package you send. Just don't print off an invoice and put in with the book. They are probably shipping it directly to someone as a gift and don't want that person to know how much they paid. 

[sinistre]

Thank you very much for clearing that up, it seemed to me that the buyer was trying to get the item for free, which is why I thought that it may be a scam.

I really don't think that all buyers are scammers, and generally I give them the benefit of the doubt. 

I guess I really was overthinking what the buyer was saying a bit.

[gracieallen01]

Agree with Castle - they don't want or need a receipt enclosed.  ebay already took care of the 'invoice' and as long as your PayPal shows paid and to 'Ship', all should be well.

I don't use PayPal so I'm not sure about the shipping IF it is to a different address than the buyers.  Someone will be along who can answer that part.

[castlemagicmemories]

Buyer has the ability to add ship tos, names and addresses, as needed, but they must be sure to choose the right recipient and address so that it shows on the Paypal payment.  If a buyer asks that it be shipped somewhere other than that address, they lose their seller protection.

If the name and address isn't already an established ship to for them, they can add a new one while paying.

I have often added names and addresses and sent gifts this way, and have also asked the seller to not include anything with a price on it in the package.  Never had a problem.  I have quite the list of ship tos after so many years.

[sinistre]

Thank you very much, unfortunately I tend to overthink things sometimes, which causes me to think things mean one thing, but actually mean something else.

Anywho, I generally don't include an invoice inside of the package so it will be alright.

[castlemagicmemories]

So you are overly cautious, then.  Actually not a bad way to be as you may question something and it will work to your benefit.  That's good, but the downside may be you give yourself needless worry and anxiety.  That's not good!

Be good to you!

Love your siggie, BTW!

[sinistre]

Oh, I see.. I've never had a buyer ask me this particular request before so I didn't quite know what they were getting at.

Also, I didn't know that you were able to change the recipients name when buying something. I thought that you had to have the seller send you the item, then you sent it to the gift recipient afterwards.

[a_c_green]

It's not an invoice; it's a packing slip. An invoice is a demand for payment. A packing slip is a list of package contents. You can snip off the bottom half of the packing slip if they don't want the price to show. (It's also possible that they're listing your item elsewhere at a higher price, and don't want their buyer to know, although of course your shipping label will show where it really came from.)

[duncanvr]

This is a well known drop shipper tactic to, they may have onsold the item at a higher price to another buyer. They don't want their buyer to see the price. So they say don't send invoice with goods

[eleanor*rigby]

I'm surprised you're the first one to mention this possibility.