Strange occurrence: expensive item came back RTS, address buyer gave was to a Post Office?

[seng_bl]

I sold a camera lens for a little over $500. The buyer paid a day later. I packaged and shipped the item as usual using Priority Mail. A few days later the package came back to my doorstop with the message "return to sender insufficient address". I messaged the buyer with the address and asked them to confirm if it was correct. I then checked Google Maps to see if the address existed. It turns out it's a Post Office station. I sent another message stating this fact.

It has now been two days and there has been no response from the buyer. You would think for an expensive and important item such as this the buyer would be trying to get on top of it.

One possible reason for no response could be embarrassment.

So my question is what is going on here? How will this play out? I reached out and contacted the buyer. Is the burden now on the buyer to respond? What happens if they never respond? If sometime later they do respond, it looks like this transaction will result in a refund and hopefully I can deduct the cost of shipping from that refund. Is this a fair assessment?

[postingid7659]

You did your job, up to the buyer now, otherwise let sleeping dogs lay.  

If they do respond you are within your rights to require them to pay the shipping costs associated with re-mailing the item.  I would send it signature required.   

[dentalsales4u]

You can also cancel and refund due to bad address since it was returned back to you because of insufficient address.

This will also help protect you from back feedback.

[jscar59]

It might be a new scam that is yet to be figured out.

[femmefan1946]

EBay does not require a refund on items that are Undeliverable, like this camera.

My concern is that the payment was made with a stolen credit card.

The holder of the card can take up to six months to make a chargeback, so put the money aside and don't spend it yet.

Although eBay only requires Signature Confirmation on shipments over $750, there is nothing to prevent the seller from using it "for the buyer's protection".  I don't know how much this costs from US carriers, but here in Canada it's only a buck fifty.

You can sell it to the customer as protection against porch pirates.