Non-US buyer used a forwarding company shipping address.

[goodmorninbeautiful]

Prior to purchasing, buyer contacted me to see if I would ship to a country in Europe. I said I would only ship to addresses in the US. Buyer says they would ask a friend in America and were waiting to hear back, otherwise they would use a forwarding company if it was okay with me. Before I saw their message they bought and paid for the listing and used an address for a company in California. I looked up the address and I'm seeing all kinds of posts about how people think it's a scam/they've been scammed with this address. I've spent the last few hours looking up posts on the eBay community about sellers shipping to forwarding companies and the consensus seems to be at either extreme ("I use them all the time, no problem" to "SCAM SCAM SCAM"). 

On my eBay selling page it says "ship to (buyer's name)" but the address is this company with a different name. The ship to address on both eBay and Paypal are the same. My concerns are that something could happen getting the item to the buyer that would cause me to lose out on both the money and the item I ship. From the posts I've read, as long as I have delivery confirmation to the forwarding company place in California it looks like I should be okay? However, I've also read one post saying they never received a delivery confirmation to one of these forwarding companies (they contacted USPS who told them that because they deliver so many to that particular address, all the packages don't get scanned as delivered). So would it be beneficial to me to purchase signature confirmation (the item was $54)?

Also, how should I package the item to send to a forwarding company? Some posters have said they double box, putting the item number of the sold item on the outside of the box on the inside, as well as an invoice in the inside box. What else would need to be included?

I'm sorry if this is a stupid question/concern or doesn't make any sense. I've never heard of forwarding companies before this and the bad reviews that pop up when I googled the address concerns me. I just want to make sure to have all my bases covered (with both eBay and Paypal) before I ship (I don't have to ship until Tuesday July 16). Any help would be appreciated. 

[a_c_green]

The only reason you're reading bad reviews about a reshipping company is because no sellers have any reason to take time out to post an announcement that nothing went wrong. The vast (vast) percentage of sales and shipments to resellers go just fine, like those to any other address. 

You need only prove Delivery Confirmation to the reshipper's (domestic) address. Signature Confirmation gets you no further seller protection on a $54 sale (eBay/PayPal require SC only on sales of $750 or higher), and in the highly unlikely event that the deliveries never get a Delivered scan that day, a Signature Confirmation package wouldn't fare any better. 

In the event that the buyer wants to return the item, he will have to return it at his own expense to the reshipper stateside first, because the reshipper's address is where your return label would be sent. 

[pjcdn2005]

A forwarding company may have had 10,000 transactions shipped without a problem but those aren’t the people that are going to post about it so you aren’t seeing an accurate picture of the company.  I wouldn’t have a problem sending to a forwarding company and wouldn’t package any differently. The info that the company needs should be on the label itself and once it is scanned as delivered there, the buyer can’t file for  an inr.

[jklfindings]

Buyers who use freight forwarders are awesome!  They lose all MBG protection once the item reaches the forwarder.  So no returns, no complaints, no scams.  If they do open a case for ANY reason, just call eBay and tell them the buyer used a freight forwarding company, and they will close the case in your favor.  All you need is tracking to show delivered to the address you sent it to.

[lightlily_arts]

I only sell and ship to US addresses.  I do get a fair number of international buyers who use freight forwarders, and I haven't really had any problems with them.  The problem for these buyers is if they are unhappy and want to return an item they are responsible for shipping it back to the United States.  I shipped a brand new expensive  heavy jacket to a buyer in France via freight forwarder.  Although I didn't know that  at the time of purchase. They wanted to return it for a size issue and told me how much I needed to give them for the postage.    I explained very politely that I could only issue a return shipping label to the original shipping address.  They would need to send it back to the freight forwarder,  and the freight company could then send it back with my return  shipping label.  Otherwise it would have cost me $71.75 to have it shipped back as it weighed  three pounds.  They kept the jacket partly because the listed size was correct but mostly because they would have to pay the US shipping.  FYI the jacket was listed with no returns, but if someone really wants to return something they can claim a SNAD.  So it's easier to say yes to returns.

[impalajohnny]

A freight forwarder is at least as safe as any other US address. That doesn't mean you are totally safe, it just means if you compared problems with a freight forwarder to problems with shipping to USA addresses you are equal or less likely to have a problem with the forwarder. Nothing is completely safe and guaranteed to be problem free.

So while you should trust no one completely,  you should not trust someone overseas using a forwarder less than you would trust a stranger who lives in Brooklyn.