About to get burned - anything I can to protect myself?

[gino22]

Sold a bunch of items last week, including a $70 pair of sunglasses. Printed labels and sent them out all at once. All arrived at their intended destination except for the sunglasses - "Undeliverable as addressed." Prior to that notification, there is "Notice Left - No secure location available."

I also notice the buyer has 0 feedback and created the account the day he purchased the glasses... crap.

I Googled the address, which does not exist as spelled on the eBay label, but seems to be associated with a daycare center... crap.

They paid with PayPal... don't eBay/PayPal have to verify the shipping address at least exists (in this case, it does not, as it was misspelled)? It seems like the package is now at a post office near the destination awaiting pickup. My plan is to wait it out until I am contacted by the buyer or the package is returned to me. If returned by the Post Office, I'll just refund him and relist. Something tells me to anticipate weirdness on this one.

Anyone have this happen to them? What was the outcome?

 

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[AuSomeness]

Does the address in eBay and/or PayPal say "confirmed" or "verified"? I would check both as it could make or break your case. I have never had that specific situation, but I always tell people the same thing... give eBay and or PayPal a call and get their advice. If you're not comfortable with that or think they may somehow fault you, waiting it out is probably not a bad idea either. I hope that helps.

 

[gino22]

The address has a green "Confirmed" notation under it in PayPal. So everything seems to be in my favor if there is an issue. It bothers me that eBay would let a nonexistent address slip through like that, especially for a brand new account.

I'm just going to ride this out -- I don't consider money sent by a zero feedback buyer safe for sixty days anyway.

There has been an onslaught of single digit feedbacks scooping up my pricier BIN's lately. Wish there was a way around this. Call me paranoid, but 100% of my bad experiences have come from single-digit feedbacks, so I'd rather just block them and wait for an established buyer to come around.

Oh well. We'll see where this one goes.

 

[NJcigarman]

I get them all the time. Usually this is a bad neighborhood, or where they have experienced thefts. The mail people leave them a message. I welcome it, because some customer can't lay the blame on me that package was not delivered when it got stolen.

 

[OWK]

This happened to me once, but I didn't even know it was going on.

Sold a somewhat obscure 70's Pioneer supertuner underdash casette stereo on Ebay. I had no idea it would, but it sold for $900. (apparently they were offered as a factory option a a particular muscle car, and are needed for a full restoration).

Anyhow, I got paid. Shipped it. And that was that.

Until almost 2 and a half months later. When I got the package back. Exactly as I had shipped it.

Tried in vain to contact the buyer for weeks. Tried to send back the money but there was no such PayPal account.

Didn't know what to do... so I waited 6 months, and sold it again.

For $1200.

 

[mugsisme]

This happened to me once, but I didn't even know it was going on.

Sold a somewhat obscure 70's Pioneer supertuner underdash casette stereo on Ebay. I had no idea it would, but it sold for $900. (apparently they were offered as a factory option a a particular muscle car, and are needed for a full restoration).

Anyhow, I got paid. Shipped it. And that was that.

Until almost 2 and a half months later. When I got the package back. Exactly as I had shipped it.

Tried in vain to contact the buyer for weeks. Tried to send back the money but there was no such PayPal account.

Didn't know what to do... so I waited 6 months, and sold it again.

For $1200.

ONE WORD --
WOW!

 

[meanpc]

I have one like this right now myself, except the package got returned to me as undeliverable. I sent the customer several messages, with no reply. It's been about a week now. At some point, I'll just refund the money (I'm keeping the shipping) and relist. Over 1,000 sales and it's happened exactly once.

 

[gino22]

It is now marked as having been delivered, in spite of having been both "undeliverable as addressed" and without a safe drop location. Hoping this is the last I have to think about it.

P.S.

That car stereo story is incredible. Wonder what happened to the original buyer?

 

[cyberdan]

call the daycare center and ask for this guy. see what they say.