shipping

[dorchestermachine]

 Recently eBay informed me that a seller could NOT ship to a P. O. Box BEFORE eBay would allow me to finalize a purchase, so I temporarily removed my P. O. Box # from my shipping address only to find out the seller WAS going to ship my item by U.S.P.S., it was too late!! The item was shipped WITHOUT my P. O. Box # on the shipping label. It got all the way to MY local post office and was returned for not having a P. O. Box # on the shipping label. Also, I made a second purchase (from a different seller) without remembering to put my P. O. Box # back into my shipping address. This item has also been returned to the seller. I sent my P. O. Box # to both sellers requesting to please re-ship the items. 

I have BOTH my P. O. Box # AND my street address listed in my shipping address on eBay because some items do come by postal service and others by U.P.S. or FedEx, depending on size and weight.

 I've had eBay cause this problem before, usually not a big deal, but this time I needed special wrenches to complete a hydraulic repair for a customer. If my shipping address had been left alone, the seller would have seen my P. O. Box # and my street address, choosing whichever they needed, and the wrenches would have been here on time the first time.

 IT COST ME THE REPAIR JOB. MY CUSTOMER HAD TO TAKE HIS JOB TO ANOTHER HYDRAULIC SHOP AND I'VE PROBABLY LOST THIS CUSTOMER FOR GOOD!!

 Why would eBay tell me that a seller could not ship to a P. O. Box when they did want to ship using USPS??

   Now the wrenches are being shipped a second time thanks to an understanding seller, but now I'll have two specialty wrenches that I don't need.    Frustrated in Maryland

[albertabrightalberta]

My guess is that it wasn't ebay who told you to change the address (for the first purchase). It was the seller and you should have just told the seller that your shipping address is correct and to ship as shown. 

The second purchase (being RTS) was your error for not remembering to correct the shipping address. 

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@dorchestermachine wrote:

 Recently eBay informed me that a seller could NOT ship to a P. O. Box BEFORE eBay would allow me to finalize a purchase, so I temporarily removed my P. O. Box # from my shipping address only to find out the seller WAS going to ship my item by U.S.P.S., it was too late!!...Why would eBay tell me that a seller could not ship to a P. O. Box when they did want to ship using USPS??...

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This happened because either (1) the seller wasn't shipping via USPS; or (2)  the seller had set up their site preferences to block PO Boxes, but the shipping tab of the listing should have mentioned this before you attempted to purchase.  

To avoid this problem in the future, most Post Offices will allow you to set up the "Street addressing" option, which is a format in which you use the PO's street address as your mailing address and add your PO box without using the term "PO Box" which  alarms some sellers, who object to mailing to PO Boxes even though they are shipping via USPS. This will also accommodate shipping via UPS or FedEx.

https://www.usps.com/pobox/customer-agreement-for-premium-po-box-service-enhancements.pdf

[janet9988]

My guess is that the seller did not have USPS shipping set up on the listing (probably used FedEx)  but sounded like they would have accommodated you and changed shipping to USPS but you asked too late.

[wastingtime101]

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@dorchestermachine wrote:

Why would eBay tell me that a seller could not ship to a P. O. Box when they did want to ship using USPS??

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Some sellers block PO Boxes even though they use USPS. I suggest following nobodys-perfect's advice above.