Seller provides wrong address and Ebay gives them a refund. Not Fair!

[teriosullivan]

I had a buyer open a case that they did not receive their item. When I contacted them and asked them to confirm that their address was correct they got back to me saying that the postcode was incorrect. I then contacted Ebay asking if I owed them a refund and they said no  and that the case would be closed in my favour. Today I contacted Ebay as the case was still open and I wanted to know why. I just received a message that the case was closed in the case of the buyer and that Ebay refunded them and the money would be dedeucted from my paypal account. How is this fair when I contacted Ebay in the first place to see where I stood on this issue!? They also said that they had made a note on this case that I had contacted them and that the case would definatly be closed in my favour. How do they get to change their mind without even contacting me. I was just trying to do the right hting in the first place by contacting them to see where I stood with the issue.

[harley_babes_hoard]

If you sent it to the paypal address including said postcode then ring ebay, ring (not email) and explain that buyer had wrong address or postcode listed. They should not refund for that. If the first person doen't help ask to speak to a supervisor.

If you sent it to another address or postcode not on the paypal payment notice then I'm afraid you will have to wear it.

Oh and did you google to see what the correct postcode was/is?

[1688store]

The buyer must have the correct address details before purchasing and if they don't update it then it's not your problem. I don't think it's fair, but ther might be a miscommunication between the parties.

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@teriosullivan wrote:

I had a buyer open a case that they did not receive their item. When I contacted them and asked them to confirm that their address was correct they got back to me saying that the postcode was incorrect. I then contacted Ebay asking if I owed them a refund and they said no  and that the case would be closed in my favour. Today I contacted Ebay as the case was still open and I wanted to know why. I just received a message that the case was closed in the case of the buyer and that Ebay refunded them and the money would be dedeucted from my paypal account. How is this fair when I contacted Ebay in the first place to see where I stood on this issue!? They also said that they had made a note on this case that I had contacted them and that the case would definatly be closed in my favour. How do they get to change their mind without even contacting me. I was just trying to do the right hting in the first place by contacting them to see where I stood with the issue.

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[teriosullivan]

I asked the buyer if the address was correct (I typed it out to them what they had listed on Ebay) and they said that the postcode was wrong and told me what it should be. I did call Ebay and told them what happened and they looked into the messages between me and my buyer and said that the case would be closed in my favour. Then when I questioned it today because the case was still open over 2 weeks later and they closed it in favour of the buyer. I don't understand.

[digital*ghost]

The only thing you can really do now is push the point, by calling them and explaining (as many times as necessary) that they incorrectly closed the case in the buyer's favour (I personally wouldn't approach it as a change of mind on eBay's behalf, I'd be appraching it as though eBay are unaware they pushed the wrong button when the case was resolved). 

A buyer should be responsible for address errors, not the seller, no if or buts, IMO.

In saying that, I noticed something very strange recently. I generally use PayPal emails to address packages, and received a payment notification last week with a normal delivery address noted on it. About 20 minutes after that, the buyer messaged me and said the state on their address was incorrect - the state and postcode actually matched, so I was a bit confused at first, but then I checked the order details on eBay, lo and behold the state was completely different, though all other info matched.   

Even if I had been using eBay for the addresses I would have picked up on the error and used the correct state, but the order details on eBay are updated with the address the buyer uses during checkout, so it should match the PayPal address 100%, and that kind of anomaly could potentially be a huge issue in terms of MBG cases. 

[dylan11235813]

I had a similar thing happen about 4 months ago. I contacted the buyer (through the case) to confirm address and they confirmed they used an old address. I thought it may turn ugly and decided to contact ebay about it and they said it would be decided in my favour also.There was no tracking at all.

Luckily though the buyer went to the old address and they had sent the item back, surprisingly it arrived back to me and I resent to the new address, case closed plus a nice defect. I can't remember if it was removed but I am over talking to ebay as they esentually do nothing and twist policies. I don't even think they people in the call centres even understand the policies.

I had to pay the extra post as well (which I didn't really care about) and the buyer didn't need to say it was the wrong address to begin with. I actually thought about taking a photo of the returned unopened postmarked letter (that I had sent and was returned by "return to sender" to me) so I had proof of postage, but I am not that evil, or fraudulent.

They shouldn't have refunded (as I understand it) and I would definately be putting a complaint in with the consumer protection agencies, I think ebay are registered with the Department of Fair Trading in NSW.

[ambridgebuckskins]

Refunds are issued automatically. It's a program, not a person.
To get the case reviewed by a person, you will need to ring eBay CS and ask them to read the messages. Pain in the you-know-what but that's what I had to do (and what a CS rep told me).

[dylan11235813]

Like an insurance company denying claims staight up? Not that ebay are in insurance.

[clarry100]

If you mailed to the adress given by PayPal and you used a tracked service then I can't see how they can find against you.

Even tho the address given by the buyer was incorrect you (the seller) should be covered.

Does the tracking say "delivered" (albeit somewhere)?

If not, then you will need a lodgement receipt to prove you actually mailed the item even tho it has tracking.

Was there a return address on the package?

If so, then you should get it back as AP will not be able to deliver it due to the incorrect address.

[1688store]

I just rang the eBay Customer Service (CS) and the CS rep said it's the buyer's fault for specifying the wrong address and if the buyer files a claim against the seller for item not being received the buyer is more than likely to loose the case.

My advice to you is:

In your listings create a bold heading "Terms and Conditions" and under that clearly state something similar to "We are not responsible if buyers didn't received their item due to incorrect address specified".

Always send the item with tracking code as this provides lifetime of proof which can be tracked anytime.