Buyer has changed address after the sale

[pado_2577]

I just sold a $3,000 gold coin (my funds are being held until May 20th). I received an email from the buyer requesting that I send the coin to a different address (due to a family situation, he would be in a different State where he requested I send the coin).  Is that ok for me to do?

[terrycece62]

DO NOT DO THIS IF THE BUYER REALLY CHANGED THEIR ADDRESS  you must cancel  the transaction to keep your seller protection  YOU MUST send the coin to the address thar appeared on file any changes MUST  be done at time of purchase

Good Luck

This smells like a possible scam  hope i am wrong but it is   a common scam

[terrycece62]

If buyer is on not running a scam they will be willing to repurchase coin under new address 

personally i would be tempted to block this buyer but thats me

[nobody*s_perfect]

No that is not OK. As noted in the other posts, this could be the start of a scam, by a buyer who knows that if you ship to any address other than the one that was attached to the payment, you lose your protection against fake "Item not received" claims.

If you didn't already know that, then you might also not know that your seller protection requires Signature Confirmation, not just basic tracking, for any transaction over $750. You should read eBay's help pages for sellers, as well as eBay's buyer protection  policy, which they call the "Money Back Guarantee":

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy...

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/selling/start-selling-ebay?id=4081 

[ckimodog]

@pado_2577 

No. Ship only to the address that ebay provides for you to ship.  Make sure you provide shipping insurance for that item as well. 

[soh.maryl]

First you need to assure yourself that the email you received is indeed from your buyer and you would do that by contacting the buyer.  While you're there, tell the buyer he needs to file a change of address notice with his post office.

Next, you need to tell the buyer that you will have to cancel, citing problem with buyer's address and then he will need to buy again, making sure he has the correct address.

Furthermore, as others have cautioned you, due to the amount of payment involved, you have to use signature confirmation.  This may be a surprise to the buyer also, but tell him that the PO will not just drop this into his mailbox, so he will need to be around to sign.  

[1tuna]

things that are talked about in messages do not change the money back guarantee

you need to follow the MBG rules and that means shipping to the address that goes with the payment

no matter what happens or what anyone ever says in a message you need to ship to the address in seller hub that accompanies the payment....its really very simple

@pado_2577 

[toomuchstuffagain35]

The moving to a different state to help a sick relative is one of the frequently used verbiage from scammers (not the actual buyer) who try to get sellers to send high value items to another address (usually a freight forwarder - especially in Delaware), so tread VERY cautiously.

First make sure the message is actually FROM your buyer. If indeed it IS, then tell the buyer you will have to cancel and have them rebuy it with the correct address.

In this case, given the value and the 30 day hold, unless you have a spare $3k laying around doing nothing, I would let the buyer know you can't cancel & refund until their initial payment finishes processing, as ebay WILL take the funds from your payment source if you don't have enough available funds to cover it.

[dolcetreasures]

It’s a SCAM cancel the sale and block that buyer. Then report them. 

[12345jamesstamps]

NO.

[ms.rodriguez*]

Scammer alert.   You will void your seller protection.  Buyer will get a full refund, keep your coin and you still pay seller fees.  Immediately cancel with problem with buyer's address. Block the buyer and frankly, I would sell that coin locally.     If you indeed sell it and need to ship , remember that YOU MUST SHIP everything over $750.oo with SIGNATURE CONFIRMATION.  You , the seller pays for this. You can't ask the buyer for it unless you automatically add it to the price of the coin or the shipping fee.

[soh.maryl]

Just curious -- how do you know that for sure?

[krazzykats]

Just cancel the sale.  Unless you can afford to lose it.

[buyselljack2016]

99.9% chance it is a scam

00.1% chance that it is on the up, and up. (and the .1% is optimistic) 

[southern*sweet*tea]

@pado_2577 

NEVER ever change the shipping address eBay gives you. You lose any seller protection when you do this and you will instantly lose any case a buyer makes against you.

Check the ID of the person who sent the message. It may not even be the actual buyer.

There are scammers that send messages to sellers pretending to be the actual buyer of an item. They want to try to get the seller to change the address after the sale, hoping the seller never verifies that their ID is the not actual buyer. When a seller does this three things happen: the scammer gets free stuff, the actual buyer gets a refund and the seller gets robbed.

Check the ID that sent the message. If it is NOT your buyer, block them here: https://www.ebay.com/bmgt/BuyerBlock

If it really is the buyer, politely inform them that you cannot change the address after the purchase. You would need to cancel the sale. The buyer can then repurchase the relisted item using the correct address.