Weird quandary: Receiving returned goods from exchanges I had not part in.

[vassifer]

I have a weird issue. Over the last couple of weeks, I have received five or six packages from eBay sellers returning items they didn't order. The thing is, I have no part in the transactions. I am receiving returned items I did not send out. How they got my address as the "return" destination is a complete mystery. Has this happened to anyone else? 

[vassifer]

Okay, here's some more info: They appear to be these elastic sneaker laces (or something). Nothing especially valuable. And many of the notes accompanying them say they are not the item that was ordered. 

Any tips as to how to proceed are truly welcome. As of right now, I'm just adding each new package to a box in my closet. 

[downunder-61]

See my reply at # 11 - I do know what I am talking about, as I dealt with them for years

[downunder-61]

China Mail to US is cheap as chips, but US to China costs them probably more than they refunded the buyer. At the same time, as stated earlier, they do not want a reputation as a seller who lets buyers keep the product and get a refund – so local labels for delivery to another address in the same State makes sense.

I only now this because I dealt with Chinese sellers importing and they used this practice a lot getting items returned to our warehouse address and we could sell as damaged/seconds stock

[a_c_green]

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@vassifer wrote:

Any tips as to how to proceed are truly welcome. As of right now, I'm just adding each new package to a box in my closet. 

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There's no need to return them anywhere. They arrived as unsolicited packages addressed to you (i.e. not misdelivered or intended for someone else), so do with them as you see fit. If they looked useful to someone but not myself, I would probably just throw them in my next box going to Goodwill. You will receive them as long as the Chinese distributor decides to use you as their return address. 

As for how they'd pick you, I'm thinking that they had your mailing address from some prior purchase. That's not to say that you ever ordered elastic laces in the past, but that you ordered something from some account connected to the one sending those return labels. It's easier to grab a functional mailing address from a prior sale than to assemble the name, address and ZIP code for a totally random person plucked off the Internet. (I know we're all listed in a zillion places, but not necessarily as a full one-piece mailing address in public view.)

[lacemaker3]

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@kensgiftshop wrote:

@vassifer 

A couple years ago a member started receiving returns from Ebay, and they were only a buyer.

Found out it was a seller from China.

Instead of paying to have the items sent back to China, they would pick one of their buyers and use their address for the returns.

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Yes, this is probably what's going on here.

Trying to think this through and make some sense of it, I suspect that the foreign sellers are sending a "free gift" instead of the item that was ordered. Probably they can't fulfill the order for some (any) reason, and instead of cancelling and taking the hit to their account, they ship a (worthless) "free gift". It doesn't really cost them anything, and the shipping is virtually free from a third-world country, so maybe they figure this is more cost-effective than taking a defect for cancelling an order.

When the buyers open a NAD case, it would make more sense to just refund at that point, and then they get out of the transaction without a defect. But, maybe they don't understand that; or maybe they didn't get around to issuing the refund in time, so eBay sends the return shipping label instead.

These foreign sellers would have to pay a lot more for return shipping, or maybe the item was listed as being in the USA, in which case they have to provide a USA return address for it. So, they pick a USA address at random (quite possibly a former buyer, as suggested earlier) for their return address. 

There's a lot of assumptions in there, but it makes sense and I think it explains everything pretty well, so it's probably close to being correct, even if there might be some minor differences.

@vassifer, as far as what to do with them, there's good advice here: Message 15 from @loveyourimagination49 .

[wrong66]

Doesn't sound like a scam to me. We have to stop calling everything a "Scam", especially without any explanation whatsoever.  It's getting old.

[jayjaspersgarage]

I would try to help ebay identify the seller.  Depending on which state you live in the items might be considered a gift if you did not order them.  Of course a good neighbor wouldn't keep something misdelivered on the same street or a close by street they recognize.  I have a neighbor on the next street over with the same house number as mine.  24 years of getting each others' mail shows that it will never change down at the sorting desk at the post office.