Seller is using my address

[mec19808]

For the past 6 months or so, every week or two my USPS Informed Delivery email shows outbound packages from my address, and the date they are expected to be delivered. These are labelled "eBay Powered by Pitney Bowes." When I check the tracking numbers on the USPS site it shows the labels originated from my ZIP code, but they were physically shipped either from Maryland or from a post office in my city, but not near where I live.

I don't have an eBay shipping account and have not sold anything on eBay in at least 15 years (when I did sell a few things it was when I lived elsewhere).  I'm not the one shipping these packages. Whoever is selling these items, whatever they are, has set up their seller's account using my address. 

It is possible this is the previous owners of my home, and they have just never updated the address on their account. But I don't know that for sure and eBay refuses to give me any sort of help. I have made several attempts. They won't tell me the eBay store name that is using my address (so that I can message them through their store) and they won't notify the eBay seller that they must update their address. (It seems like they could just apply a pop-up to the account that tells them they must do so.)

I was told that if something they sell gets returned and shows up at my home, then I should just mark it "return to sender" and drop it back at the post office. Then when it bounces back to the person who bought it and was trying to return it, that will probably lead to the seller realizing the problem with the address. And if there is ever any issue with something being sold on eBay illegally or fraudulently, by an account using my address, then my contacts with eBay Help will serve as evidence that I was not the one doing the selling and I had reported the misuse of my address. So it will get sorted out without repercussions to me. Seriously? I mean, what the heck?

So in theory an eBay seller can just set up a shipping account with whatever address they want and there is nothing proactive the actual occupant at that address can do? Is there really nothing that can be done via eBay? 

I have never met the person I bought my house from, he sent his agent to the closing, but I suppose I could track him down, maybe find him on social media or ask for help from the listing realtor, who probably has, or can get, his current address. But I don't even know for sure if he, or one of his adult kids, is the one using my address, so it just seems weird to do that.

Is this a common issue? Any suggestions?

[you-will-love-it]

Same.

the post office told me to contact

 Pitney bowe 

[punkkow]

Same issue here.

Contacting Pitney Bowes fell flat at least for me.  There was nothing they could do in my case.  My info (including address) couldn't not be found in their system(s).  So that ends that.

[dhbookds]

I don't know anything about informed delivery........but when you get the notice, is there a tracking #?   or a way to "see" the label? (I presume not).  Would the PO give the delivery address to you?  Contacting the recipient, explaining the situation, asking from whom they bought the item.....might get you the info.....  I just wonder if you could intercept the package....

Agree with Green that's it may be to avoid international return shipping costs......but that could be done by just telling the buyer to keep an item if a buyer wants to return it.....

[ebooksdiva]

@dhbookds 

Informed delivery gives you the tracking number of incoming and outgoing packages as well as any incoming mail. 
Informed Delivery is a free service offered by USPS. 
How the OP or others think is an eBay seller using their address as a return address or sending address? It could be a seller on another site.

If your address is on the label as a return address I would assume you can do a package intercept, if it was my address being used I would. 

[dhbookds]

devon@ebay 

kyle@ebay 

Could you let the shipping team know this is going on?  Perhaps they can figure out why, etc.  

[a_c_green]

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@ebooksdiva wrote:

@dhbookds 

How the OP or others think is an eBay seller using their address as a return address or sending address? It could be a seller on another site. 

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Certainly, but generally speaking, the most likely seller to be doing that would be an international seller that doesn't want to have to pay for international returns. Regardless of which platform they might be selling on, I think the most likely reason for picking the OP's address for returns is because they purchased from that seller at some point in the past.

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@ebooksdiva wrote:

If your address is on the label as a return address I would assume you can do a package intercept, if it was my address being used I would. 

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Har! 😂 That should work, but I don't think I would want to pay the $17 intercept fee plus Priority Mail postage, only to wind up with some cheap, fake or counterfeit product. Excerpt from USPS:

3. After submitting your request, you’ll be provided an estimated total (intercept fee plus estimated Priority Mail® postage, if applicable). We will then attempt to intercept and redirect the shipment.

4. If the shipment is intercepted, your credit card will be charged the $17.00 Package Intercept fee plus any applicable postage. If the actual postage is greater than estimated, any additional postage will be charged accordingly.

Ref: https://www.usps.com/manage/package-intercept.htm 

[a_c_green]

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@dhbookds wrote:

I don't know anything about informed delivery........but when you get the notice, is there a tracking #?   or a way to "see" the label? (I presume not).  Would the PO give the delivery address to you?

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Probably not, but they can retrieve full shipping details from their in-house intranet system, including the ID of whoever sent it. The identity of the recipient probably doesn't matter, since they're just the buyer of whatever the item was. Although your return address was used, you would not have any actual involvement with the shipment (at least not in any negative way) and the USPS has its internal data to show that.

[chares1962]

This has been happening to me for the past year and again today!  I also have informed delivery and at least once a month there is a tracking number in my “outbound mail” for a package that I DID NOT mail.  I have contacted eBay and the USPS Fraud Dept.  several times. Also, the seller doesn’t have our email addresses, just our physical address, USPS notifies us by email of all outbound mail related to our physical addresses through the tracking number.  What I have been told is that when buyers make a purchase out of the country, an unscrupulous seller will save and use our addresses to avoid certain international costs, tariffs, …etc., maybe also avoiding some legal requirements as well.   I was able to get an eBay rep. to track down the seller once and all they were able to do was cancel their eBay account.  They will just open another account.  But, my major concern is having someone knock on my door one day for trying to mail illegal and/or dangerous material.  The best recourse I believe is to file a claim with USPS so if something ever does happen they have something on file.  Our eBay accounts will also not show a sale or listing of the item.  It’s very frustrating but it must be rampant because I don’t believe very many people know and use informed delivery.  Maybe AI will figure something out for us one day 🤷🏼‍♀️.

[trashpanda.15]

That’s actually not true. I use informed delivery. The mailing address gets tied to the email account, not the other way around. When I mail any USPS package, the tracking number gets added to the outbound section of the daily message. 

eBay has a dozen different spots where you can put a return address, mainly because of business accounts. If you don’t update the right one, the tracking number may still be tied to an old address. USPS has backend interfaces for businesses which eBay provides users access to through their site. 

I dealt with this when my roommate moved out. They updated their return address through the app on their phone, not realizing there is another section that needed to be updated through the browser. So on their end it looked updated but I still got the notifications. 

If you know the persons username, you can contact eBay regarding the situation. Since there are tax implications with using eBay they might help.

[angchgo]

I'm having this same issue currently. I'm wondering if you ever figured it out.

[trashpanda.15]

I did figure it out! I spoke with customer service to report the issue through the chat function. They also provided this link to report the seller. 
https://www.ebay.com/help/action?topicId=4850

It takes a couple days after reporting through the link to get a response, so I suggest doing both the chat and link. 

[kh-vince]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.