eBay

jgrizzle33 · ‎05-31-2018

I just had a buyer send me a message right after a purchase asking me to do the following.

He purchased a item as a gift, and wants to share the joy with a friend. It’s shipping to another address not listed on his account.

he asked me to not send ANY eBay logos, invoice or receipt with the package. He then asked me to clean/wipe the exterior down and make sure I use lots of packaging materials with it. He purchase one of these recently from another seller and had to return it because he didn’t use LOTS of bubble wrap.

He then goes on to say he will be purchasing more of these from me if everything goes well.

the item is a tv tuner card which I only have one for sale. Everything about it seemed fishy so I refunded His money. The next email was “enjoy your one star review”

anyone else receive odd requests? Am I being to cautious?

dhbookds · ‎05-31-2018

Sounds like he's using you for a drop shipper, but then he wouldn't know how much bubble wrap you used if so.

You will get a ding if you just canceled without using buyer's request or address as a reason.

I probably would have stated that I always packed with a packing slip in case the label was destroyed and then given him the choice of canceling.......

lintbrush* · ‎05-31-2018

Did you at least respond to him before cancelling? I'd still do it now.

Dear buyer,

eBay and PayPal policy requires we ship to the address provided at payment. I cannot honor your request to change it. Also, our business practice is to enclose a packing slip in every order to ensure proper delivery, and we also use eBay branded shipping supplies.

We do not agree to your after-purchase demands to change the terms of the sale and our procedures and thus the sale needed to be cancelled.

If he balks back, give him the link for unreasonable demands:

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/rules-policies-buyers/buying-practices-policy?id=4374

If he does neg you, you might be able to have it removed. It's not extortion outright because the "poor review" comment came after the cancellation, but his many requests go against the Buying Practices Policy.

jgrizzle33 · ‎05-31-2018

I did respond to him and tell him I would be canceling due to the demands. I don’t sell a whole lot on eBay but this one just didn’t make me feel comfortable.

a_c_green · ‎05-31-2018

Wouldn't it make more sense to Cancel Due to Problem with Address? He's on record as requesting shipment to another address not on the account.

jgrizzle33 · ‎05-31-2018

That was the reason I selected for the cancellation. I just wanted to see if this was a common thing with eBay - requesting things like that.

retrose1 · ‎05-31-2018

It's not unusual. The buyer is going to use you as his dropshipper. Yo might want to do a general search for the item you are selling outside of ebay and you will probably find that your's had been listed on another site for double what you are asking.

This is something that has been happening for a few years now, buyers who are becoming middle men for merchandise with none of the risk.

(*Bleep*)

jgrizzle33 · ‎05-31-2018

Great. - just like truck brokers now!

thanks for the information everyone.

myboardid · ‎05-31-2018

I have no problem with being used as a dropshipper as long as I get the price I am asking for my item. I also have no problem shipping to another address. Note that I don't sell high-scam items. I have done this thousands of times without a single bad incident, have made a great deal of money from doing it, and do recognize my competitors when they ask this of me.

However, I don't think that is the case with this particular situation because of the request for so much bubble wrap. Maybe it is, but the buyer may just be worried because he has had problems in the past with poor packaging. I don't think the item is necessarily for sale in other places, the buyer may just have sold the item through eBay and found himself out of stock or that his last one was damaged and he couldn't ship it.

----------------------------
Successful and experienced seller since 1997, over 70,000 feedback, boardie since the boards were begun.

getitright1234 · ‎05-31-2018

@jgrizzle33 wrote:
I just had a buyer send me a message right after a purchase asking me to do the following.

He purchased a item as a gift, and wants to share the joy with a friend. It’s shipping to another address not listed on his account.

he asked me to not send ANY eBay logos, invoice or receipt with the package. He then asked me to clean/wipe the exterior down and make sure I use lots of packaging materials with it. He purchase one of these recently from another seller and had to return it because he didn’t use LOTS of bubble wrap.

He then goes on to say he will be purchasing more of these from me if everything goes well.

the item is a tv tuner card which I only have one for sale. Everything about it seemed fishy so I refunded His money. The next email was “enjoy your one star review”

anyone else receive odd requests? Am I being to cautious?

Depending value of the sale I would have done some vetting before I would have outright cancelled the sell.

#1. Check out his buying history, if from an eBay seller...............ask that seller some questions.

#2. If the other seller said something fishy happened, INR, Bogus SNAD, etc.............. then I would cancel the sale as you did based on buyer address: (he asked me to ship to different address.)

#3. If the other seller said the buyer was good and the item just arrived damaged, then that explains this buyer asking for better packaging, and therefore I would move onto #4.

#4. Tell the buyer you are cancelling the transaction due to the buyer's address; however after the refund and cancellation, he needs to update his receiving address to the address of his desire, and you will re-list the item for his re-purchase.

pburn · ‎05-31-2018

I don't think anyone has mentioned that you lose your seller protection if you ship to an address other than the one on record when the buyer paid. If a buyer emails in advance of the sale with the same request, tell them to change the address on record before they pay.

lewisburggold · ‎05-31-2018

We have seen this before its normal. We just roll with it. So far no problems. Best regards

pburn · ‎05-31-2018

@lewisburggold wrote:
We have seen this before its normal. We just roll with it. So far no problems. Best regards

"We?" Who's "we?"

lindyslucky · ‎05-31-2018

How good of you to ask these questions.

We do not sell high dollar items for fear of losing $$.

We have had several requests to ship to another address. At first, we refused, as ebays policy.

Now, we tend to go ahead and do it. The last request we got from a buyer, said he was afraid his item would get stolen. Porch pirates are becoming a problem, and it seemed reasonable.

We did recently sell an item, where the buyer had a large number of feedback, so he looks like he knows what he is doing. He requested incredibly exacting packaging. It took lots of extra materials, box in a box, bubble wrap. Taking nearly an hour to package.

We were a bit miffed, as we had planned on shipping in a bubble wrap mailer, both cost and time more effective for us.