One buyer - Ebay displays two different addresses?

[surprise_dreams123]

So I am fairly new to selling on Ebay. The background of this story - 

I got a confirmed sale (buyer had paid for it) and hence received the normal email from Ebay. This email states that the buyer has paid and it is time to ship the product to the customer. So, I ship the product to the customer based on the address on the email sent to me. Two weeks later, the customer stated he didn't receive the product and having shipped off the product via stampage post, I don't have a tracking number. I manage to get in contact with the post man and he clearly remembers the post being sent to the address (due to the address being particularly hard to find). I check the Ebay platform and discovered there was a different address. I contacted the customer and he stated that the address in my email was in fact, his old address. 

Now I contact Ebay directly to ask why there are inconsistences in postage address. I normally use my email as I find it to be more efficient than the platform itself. My help person from Ebay assumed that the email they sent me was only an indication of the buyer's interest in the product and that they had not yet paid. However, upon checking the email, the very title states "Congratulations, Garry! Your item sold and has been paid for." Only after I screenshotted this email and sent it to my Ebay helps person, they believed my situation. However, the only response I got was "No worries, we will take this as your feedback with our process." 

Honestly, I find this really unfair as I have to ship out the product again, meaning costs for product and shipping. This incident had really occurred due to Ebay sending me incorrect shipping details and they had taken no action to even attempt to reimburse me, or to correct their mistakes. 

My question - Is there something I could do to take this further? Am ombudsman perhaps? 

[kopenhagen5]

Unfortunately you didn't know the rules.

ALWAYS send to the address in the PayPal notification.

That is the address buyer selects in checkout and they can change it from their regular eBay address for any purchase.

ALWAYS.

If it was buyers old address in PayPal also then buyer should repay as it was their error to not update in checkout for this purchase.

And there was nothing you could have done to change the outcome, except if some of us see 2 different addresses in notifications, one in PP and one in eBay we will often confirm with the buyer before we send it.

[surprise_dreams123]

The thing is Ebay sent me the wrong shipping address. Surely there is some degree of fault on their behalf? 

[curraone]

Just to be perfectly clear - did you also get an email from paypal?   A "notification of payment" email.   

And did you keep that email, and does that email have in fact a different address?

[kopenhagen5]

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@surprise_dreams123 wrote:

The thing is Ebay sent me the wrong shipping address. Surely there is some degree of fault on their behalf? 

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No, eBay doesn't send anything.

eBay is an automated system that emails a notification of a sale in which includes the buyer's shipping address, put in by the buyer.

Now if the buyer has neglected to update their shipping details then once again it has nothing to do with eBay.

Check your PayPal notification of payment to see if the shipping address is the same or different. 

A seller is always to send the item to the PP shipping address as that will be the address nominated by the buyer in checkout.

[surprise_dreams123]

No - I didn’t get anything from Paypal

[surprise_dreams123]

Yes Ebay sends an automated email, but shouldn’t that email actually contain the address nominated by the buyer during checkout? It is only logical to do so. As the seller, I shouldn’t be having to check another platform to find the shipping address.

[curraone]

But if you are not signed up for the new managed payments, you will always get an email direct from paypal, if your buyer pays by payal.

[wide-world-of-stamps]

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@curraone wrote:

But if you are not signed up for the new managed payments, you will always get an email direct from paypal, if your buyer pays by payal.

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Usually.  But occasionally either the eBay or Paypal emails go missing. 

[digital*ghost]

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@surprise_dreams123 wrote:
Yes Ebay sends an automated email, but shouldn’t that email actually contain the address nominated by the buyer during checkout? It is only logical to do so. As the seller, I shouldn’t be having to check another platform to find the shipping address.

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The issue is that there are now multiple ways for a buyer to confirm a purchase, checkout and pay. If the buyer uses "buy it now" they confirm purchase without paying and ebay pulls whatever address they have on file - they need to stop doing this. I long for the day ebay gets rid of "buy it now", or at least relegates it to a minor aside option, in favour of "add to cart", and buying / paying from the buyer's side is a single function. Almost every other retail site in the world works this way, and the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages of not doing it like this.*

Well, in truth the real issue is that eBay say it's ok to post to an address before the buyer checks out and pays, and they were made aware of this problem weeks ago. The fact they have done (apparently) nothing to fix the problem, or at least make sellers aware of it, is frustratingly typical.

Since switching to managed payments, I've taken to printing out invoices first (for paid orders, anyway), and working from those as I also used to use the PayPal eamils to go through orders and process shipping labels etc. and opening up each order via eBay is not appealing. If they would get the buying and checkout process right, they'd be able to send a single email post-payment, containing the order in its entirety and the correct shipping address.

Spoiler

*I know there are sellers that rely on buy now in order to quote postage rates based on the specific items the buyer is purchasing. "Request quote" via the cart could still work as is where the seller's combined postage rates don't apply automatically, even if eBay nicked off the "buy now" button.