eBay

dhew3913 · ‎11-20-2023

A Customer bought a couple of items and I offer free shipping.

Address on file was incomplete (missing lot number in trailer park) and package was returned to me by usps.

Customer sent message telling me to ship to new address with lot # and is assuming I will pay for shipping again. I will, however I have requested she update her shipping address so that I can print label.

No response for 3 days...Ive sent 3 messages

Any ideas on how to handle this would be greatly appreciated. Id rather not loose the sale

mam98031 · ‎11-21-2023

I agree with the others. Cancel the sale for a problem with the address. That will not count against your selling stats. Then email the buyer and let them know you cancelled for the bad address and fully refunded them.

If this ever comes up again, DO NOT offer to ship it to ANY other address that what appears on the Payment notification. If you do that, even if the buyer emails you in Ebay, you will LOOSE your seller protection. So don't do that.

Once you cancel it, you are free to relist it. You can even tell your buyer they can repurchase it and remind them to correct their ship to address or you will have the same issue.

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

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hartungcards · ‎11-20-2023

Cancel the sale due to "Problem with Address." Relist the item. Tell the buyer to buy it again. Don't make their problem your problem. No response? Move on to the next buyer.

toomuchstuffagain35 · ‎11-20-2023

Why are you paying to reship it to her when she was the one who left the lot # off?

"If a product doesn't sell, raise the price" - Reese Palley
"If it sold FAST, it was priced too low" - also Reese Palley

soh.maryl · ‎11-20-2023

You don't need to pay for shipping it again. The error was not yours, but the buyer's.

Evidently not all that eager to get it.

You can do what hartung advises; however, how do we know this person who's not responded to three messages really wants to buy this item?

dbfolks166mt · ‎11-20-2023

You are under no obligation to refund the buyer anything for a returned package but the ethical thing to do would be to refund the buyer for what they paid - shipping cost and fees. Let them know you are doing so and will relist the item and they can purchase again once they have corrected their shipping address information. There is no way through eBay, that I know of, to charge the seller to re-ship the item and you should not have to pay the postage twice.

inhawaii · ‎11-20-2023

Refund the buyer less shipping.

If the buyer wants, they can but the item again, this time with the correct address.

They're going to end up paying twice for shipping, but why shouldn't they?

M*A*S*H theme - Johnny Mandel

44012 · ‎11-20-2023

If it were me I would refund the customer for the order in full.

Then I would message customer that you are happy to sell again. If have relisted you can give them the new listing number at that time. You could also wait to list the item again after they get back to you but you have been waiting 3 days.

dbfolks166mt · ‎11-20-2023

Cancel the sale due to "Problem with Address." Relist the item. Tell the buyer to buy it again. Don't make their problem your problem. No response? Move on to the next buyer.

That will result in the buyer being fully refunded and seller will be out the cost of the shipping.

dbfolks166mt · ‎11-20-2023

You don't need to pay for shipping it again. The error was not yours, but the buyer's.

Evidently not all that eager to get it.

You can do what hartung advises; Will this not result in the buyer being refunded in full? If seller does not mind eating the cost of the postage, which I do not know what that was, this is of course an option .

however, how do we know this person who's not responded to three messages really wants to buy this item?

44012 · ‎11-20-2023

Wasn't the OP already out the cost of shipping since it was "free" ?

The buyer wasn't charged so why not just refund for the merchandise and close the order?

4pawsup* · ‎11-20-2023

Sometimes it is ok to call your buyer. I have had to do it twice and everything worked out.

dhbookds · ‎11-20-2023

I just did one.........refunded less shipping cost........ have had to do it at least 3x and no one has ever complained. Only 1 rebought........

dbfolks166mt · ‎11-20-2023

Wasn't the OP already out the cost of shipping since it was "free" ?

The buyer wasn't charged so why not just refund for the merchandise and close the order?

There is no such thing as "free shipping" the seller simply baked the price of the shipping into the cost of the item, if the seller was smart. The buyer paid the shipping just not directly.

44012 · ‎11-20-2023

Right, I do understand that, free was in quotes.

Just when refunding, there wouldn't be a line item for the shipping charge, just merchandise.

But I'm getting our internal billing/crediting confused with eBay's billing/crediting.

I forget you can just basically refund whatever you want from the pull down tab on ebay, whether it be for merchandise or shipping or both. 🙂 sorry if this was confusing.

wastingtime101 · ‎11-20-2023

@dhew3913

This is my standard advice for RTS (returned to sender) packages. Take the parts that are relevant to your situation.

You have a few options. You should decide which route you'll be taking and communicate with the buyer, but wait until the item is returned (and delivered) to you before you take any of the following actions.

You can refund the buyer the item cost minus original shipping and minus a portion of your eBay fees (fee credits are prorated on a partial refund so you won't get back fees on the shipping amount you withhold). Go to your orders page, find the transaction and select "send refund." On the next page enter the amount. After that, relist the item and if you still want to work with this buyer you can tell them to repurchase it with the correct name/address.
Have the buyer sort out their address issue then pay for re-shipping. Send them an invoice through PayPal or give them your PayPal e-mail. This is post-sale so it's OK to exchange e-mail addresses. It's also OK to ship to a different address because it's technically not tied to the original transaction. You would not purchase the shipping label through eBay or upload tracking to the transaction. You would purchase it from an alternate site like pirateship.com or paypal.com/shipnow and you can send the buyer the new tracking # through e-mail or eBay messages.
A different way to accomplish buyer payment for re-shipping is to create an eBay listing for the shipping cost (bumping it up to factor in eBay fees) and having the buyer purchase it, entering their correct address at checkout. You could purchase a shipping label through eBay for that transaction.
You can cancel the transaction "problem with address" which will trigger a full refund to the buyer and your FVF would be credited.
You can do nothing. The buyer's MBG protection is voided when there's a package delivery attempt. I don't recommend this because even though you'll win an INR (item not received) claim on eBay, there's nothing stopping that buyer from going to their credit card to file a dispute and why deal with all that? I also think handling it before it gets to this stage with a partial refund is the "right" thing to do if you're not going to make reshipping arrangements.
You might also want to direct the buyer to this page so their address is updated for future purchases: Account Settings: Addresses

GLORIOUS!