Buyer asking me to send item to another address

[frank-weimann]

Hi all.

A buyer already sent me payments using PayPal for an item he bought from me on eBay.

The problem is that he is kindly asking me to post the item to his friend at another address(in another country) since he wants to give his friend a gift...This method will help him save money and time, instead of me posting the item directly to him and then, him posting it to his friend.

I know that to be protected as a seller, I need to send to the exact address of the buyer as shown in PayPal, and not to his friend's address.

But, as a seller, I want to please my customers and I am thinking of actually posting the item to his friend's address, instead of his address.

Do you people think that I am doing the correct move?

The buyer's account seems to be in good order (he is also a seller and he has no negative feedback). Also,  in his message, I can sense he is sincere person.

From your experience, what would you have done? Please let me know, since I do not have great selling experience on eBay.

Regards

[chrysylys]

What type of item?  What did it sell for?  What countries are involved?

[myangelandmyprincess]

I woould not.  If they are a seller they should know they could have paid with the correct address checkout.  Along with that they are asking it be sent to another country this could change the cost of shipping they paid for and leave you paying more.   A request to ship to another address isn't always unreasonable although I would almost never do it but asking to ship to a different country IMO is unreasonable.   How much money are we talking about here ?

[jklfindings]

It all boils down to $$$.  I did this last week for a buyer who was at their winter home, but had forgotten to change their address.  It was for a $12 item, she was also a seller, and had glowing feedback.  For $12, I took the risk of making my customer happy, but I would most likely not lose seller protection for anything more than that.  All you really need to ask yourself is "can I afford to lose this item because I broke the rules?"  If you can afford the loss, make your customer happy.  If you can't, don't.

[orangehound]

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@frank-weimann wrote:

From your experience, what would you have done? Please let me know, since I do not have great selling experience on eBay.

Regards

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If it is an expensive item (e.g., iPhone, computer, PlayStation), I would tell the buyer that I cannot ship the item to an unverified address ... this is a typical scam played on inexperienced sellers (you already know about the PayPal thing).  Sometimes eBay accounts are stolen.

If it is a cheap, say under $40 item, I would go ahead and ship it to the address provided by the buyer.  Even if scammed, I can absorb a cheap loss.

In between ... well, it is one of those things where I would have to do risk assessment.  I might even call eBay Customer Service to see if they see anything suspicious about the account that might seem like it has been stolen.

[missjen831]

Are you sure the “buyer” that is asking you to ship to another address is the same “buyer” that won the item? It’s the same user ID? This has scam written all over it. I bet it’s a different user ID contacting you. I wouldn’t honor the buyers request, especially because he wants you to ship to another country. It’s a scam.

[frank-weimann]

Thank you guys for taking the time to read and reply! I really appreciate it!!!

Well, based on what you said in this post, I have decided to send it to the other address since the item is only USD13.00 anyway. I am willing to take the risk since the loss will not be a very big one, if ever the buyer is a dishonest.

Thanks again.

🙂