Opinions, please

[pepper1202]

Yesterday a woman messaged me and said her friend who lives in the UK wanted to buy an auction that was closing today but my auction was set up for the US only. It was less than 24 hours until the end of the auction so no changes could be made to it. I told the woman not to worry, I had an identical item in the same mint condition that I would sell her friend if the auction closed with someone else buying it. She said that was fine and I thought, yay now I’ll have both of them sold. So the auction ended just recently with 3 bidders. I find out that the woman who won the auction was the one who had messaged me yesterday. She just messaged me and said she was so excited to have won the auction for her friend and now would I please ship it to her in the UK. I have STRICT policy of only shipping to the address associated with the buyer’s PayPal account. The woman said for me to figure out what the additional postage will be and invoice her for it, which would be fine but again, I have a policy of only sending to buyer’s address. I am also annoyed with her because now I may not get back the two other bidders when I list the other item and I’ll lose a sale. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

[soh.maryl]

Why not simply cancel, citing "problem with buyer's address" as the reason? 

[nobody*s_perfect]

Tell the buyer that, as your listing states, you only ship to the US.  So you'd be glad to ship it to her, so that she can send it to her friend.

BTW, most options on an auction Including shipping terms) can be revised if it has more than 12 hours left and has not received any bids.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/revising-listing?id=4356

[gracieallen01]

If you have a real hesitation about cancelling the auction, tell the woman you will send it to HER and she can send it to her friend.  ebay's policies and seller protection - what there is - is quite plain.

[lacemaker3]

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@pepper1202 wrote:

... I have STRICT policy of only shipping to the address associated with the buyer’s PayPal account. ...

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You have absolutely no way to know what address is on the buyer's PayPal account. As a seller, that information is not available to sellers ... it's none of the seller's business.

For eBay listings, you have to ship to the shipping address that was on the checkout page, before the buyer paid. eBay passes that address to PayPal (with PayPal payments) and it then becomes the address associated with the PayPal transaction. It might be the same as their address on PayPal, or completely different. In fact, this is the only way to get an item sent to a different country, as PayPal doesn't allow you to enter an address that isn't in the same country you registered your PayPal account in.

I am positive about how this works because I have addresses in 2 countries (USA and Canada), and my PayPal account is registered in the USA. I can have items delivered to any address in either country, as long as the seller allows shipping there. It's the only way I can have one of my Canadian addresses associated with a PayPal transaction, because I can't change my PayPal address to one in Canada. PayPal won't let me.

In this situation, you can either ask the buyer to pay using her address in the USA, then you ship it to her, and she can ship it on to her friend.

Or, you can have the buyer change her address to the friend's address in the UK, and then request an invoice with shipping to that address. This may or may not work, if you blocked shipping outside the USA. If it works, then you can send the invoice, and when she pays, then you ship to the address on the Order Details page, to the UK. That same address will then be on the PayPal transaction as well.

[pepper1202]

Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind but looking back I did have a bid on it before the 12 hour period.

[a_c_green]

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@lacemaker3 wrote:
For eBay listings, you have to ship to the shipping address that was on the checkout page, before the buyer paid.

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Um, no... before the buyer pays, the only address you will see will be his registered eBay address. That tells you nothing about where he wants to send the item. When he pays, a Ship-To address will accompany the payment, showing the location (and name) to which he wants the item sent. It could be his eBay address, or somewhere else.

[femmefan1946]

That's right. EBay and PP will allow other addresses to be used. At one time they were called "gift addresses" because.... well, duh.

But their use is carefully curated, and if the buyer didn't add the gift address before the purchase, too bad.

Cancel as Problem with Address.

Offer the item to the underbidder as a Second Chance Offer. I think it would be fine to tell the underbidder what is happening and that you do have the second identical item and can make two buyers happy. Sound cheerful and positive.

Then set up a Fixed Price/Immediate Payment Required listing with Global Shipping Program added (excellent Seller Protection, although we Canadian buyers hate it) allowing shipping to the UK as Calculated Shipping.

Look up and include the cost for shipping to the UK and add that too.

https://postcalc.usps.com/?country=10440

You might need the "friend's" postal code for this.

Use the high bid from the auction as the price.

Use the customer's eBay ID as the title, so no one else will find it.

Give the customer the title and the listing number.

Add a deadline, say 48 hours?, and if she has not bought and paid and given the UK address by the time 48 hours is up, end the listing and Block her as a timewaster.

[luckythewinner]

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@pepper1202 wrote:

I told the woman not to worry, I had an identical item in the same mint condition that I would sell her friend if the auction closed with someone else buying it.

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IMHO that was a very confusing and roundabout way of telling her not to bid on the item 🙂