Sketchy Buyer bought both of my items to different addresses and names, should I be concerned?

[yinyan_9]

Hello all,

A buyer whose ebay account was made 4 months ago recently bought 2 of the same item that I was selling. He bought the items with 2 diffferent names and 2 different addresses(one in Virginia and one in Georgia). The account has 1 positive feedback, which seems to have come from a cheap item he bought from another seller. Should I be concerned? I am a new seller and want to be as cautious as possible.

[ohnojoey]

When you log into your paypal account, what does it show?  edit If they paid.

[coffeebean832]

@yinyan_9

The expensive video game systems?

As another poster said, log in directly to PayPal and check to see if you were paid before you do anything else.

[goodluckselling]

I do not know what kind of concern you would be thinking about?  If the buyer paid I would simply ship the items. 

It is very common for buyers to buy gifts and have them sent to the recipients instead of the buyer directly and then having to send them to the recipient.

I would go ahead and ship as promised and not let anything about the transaction bother you.

If you want to contact the buyer and let them know you noticed two purchases to different addresses and ask them if they would like you to include a gift card for the recipient of the gifted item and do they want a packing slip included or not?

Good Luck Selling!

[doortek]

If you have been paid and do check, you are oblgated to ship to any PayPal verified address. If expensive items, even if not, it is good practice somehow identify your item in case of return and take a picture of it. We use a blacklight marker with our logo on it to stamp the items in case some nefarious buyer wants to swap a return.

[castlemagicmemories]

Sending them to different names and addresses could be because they are sending the same gift to two different people.

[annasunicorns]

Possibly gifts. I buy on ebay for gift exchanges this time of year. One year I bought 7 of the same thing from someone. All different addresses.

[nowthatsjustducky]

It is also possible he had 2 out of stock scares on a multi Q item and is having them "emergency drop shipped" to his customers, using you as his emergency supplier.

[missjen831]

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@doortek wrote:

If you have been paid and do check, you are oblgated to ship to any PayPal verified address. If expensive items, even if not, it is good practice somehow identify your item in case of return and take a picture of it. We use a blacklight marker with our logo on it to stamp the items in case some nefarious buyer wants to swap a return.

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He's obligated to ship to whatever address is on the transaction, whether its verified or not.

[fashunu4eeuh]

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@yinyan_9 wrote:

Hello all,

A buyer whose ebay account was made 4 months ago recently bought 2 of the same item that I was selling. He bought the items with 2 diffferent names and 2 different addresses(one in Virginia and one in Georgia). The account has 1 positive feedback, which seems to have come from a cheap item he bought from another seller. Should I be concerned? I am a new seller and want to be as cautious as possible.

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Well first, congratulations on your sales. It looks like you are doing great here.

It is good to be cautious as a new seller with expensive listings. New sellers of such items are sometimes targeted by the dishonest in hopes the seller will not know enough to protect their interests on eBay. The optimum time to assess one’s risk tolerance is before listing the item. Once it is sold, the seller must ship if the buyer pays, or risk receiving a defect for “seller-initiated transaction cancellation.”  Ebay has cracked down on sellers who fail to ship and therefore disappoint buyers.

My experience here has been that the overwhelming majority of buyers are honest. In 9 years of selling no one has tried to scam me (knock on wood). I did not sell high dollar items until my feedback score was over 300, to make me less a target. But i found the more expensive items i listed sold well and the buyers were stellar. Never a problem.

I did not sell in the smartphone, electronics or gaming categories. Those are more prone to scams. My advice is to know the policies governing eBay, and to some extent PayPal too. Especially the eBay Money Back Guarantee and PayPal Buyer Protection policy. Also if you haven’t done so, setup your Buyer Requirement blocks to help limit some problem buyers.

Selling online has risks and all sellers are vulnerable to it. There is no way to eliminate all liability. The best one can do is sell “smart.” Good luck to you moving forward.