To sellers with ebay plus listings: don's use post office related address as your return address.

[fr2243]

Not sure if any one already brought it up so I'll just share my experience here.

At the moment, if you are a seller with ebay plus items, and your return address is "post office related" such as a po box, a parcel locker or a parcel collection number. You are facing the risk of losing money and the item at the same time. The problem is related to the Parcel Point labels which recently got involved in the return process. Let me explain:

(all the statements below are direct quotes from live chat/phone calls with ebay including a few old policies which you might have already been aware)

-There is no restriction for setting up the return address. But " the sellers should be aware about delivery issues" IF they "choose to provide PO Box address etc.".

-For a ebay plus transaction(bought by a ebay plus member from a ebay plus listing), the return request will be AUTOMATICALLY approved. And the multiple courier option(Auspost and Parcel Point), if applicable, will be selected by the BUYER. Again, the seller is NOT involved in the return approval and the courier selection. The only button which will be available on the seller's side is the "refund" button.

-If your return address is post office related and the buyer chooses to print a parcel point label(AKA courier please label). Well, the item will NOT be delivered to your return address because according to Courier Please which is the de facto courier who does the delivery, they "will not deliver items to 'post office related adresses'". Dont ask me why.

-Once the parcel point label is scanned, the buyer will be eligable for a refund REGARDLESS tracking status/the return item's final destination. As soon as the buyer is no longer willing to wait and decides to ask ebay to step in, the refund will be processed even if the item is still "in transit".

(99.9% chance it will be sent back to the buyer after a few weeks, so the buyer will get both the item and the money) 

-When RTS happens, ebay's current advice is "try to communicate with the buyer and provide the buyer a second return label".

-If the buyer doesnt respond, what ebay can do is NOTHING.

To summarize the worst case scenario at the moment, the return of an ebay plus transaction may cause you both the item and the money when the following scenarios are combined:

The buyer is a ebay plus member and your listing is ebay plus too;
Your return address is a po box / a parcel locker / a parcel collection number;
The buyer can see the parcel point label from the courier options and decides to use that service instead of Auspost;(and you cannot stop that)
When the item cannot be delivered successfully(which will be a foregone conclusion), the buyer asks ebay to step in and get the refund(also a foregone conclusion according to the ebay return protocol);
When the item is sent back to the buyer, he/she decides to keep it and ignore your messages;

Possible solutions:
1-change your return address to a residential address such as your home.
2-revise the ebay plus listings so as to get rid of the ebay plus feature, such as remove "free shipping".
3-if you are "CLOSE" to the post office's staff/owner, remove the "po box XXX"/"parcel locker xxx"/"parcel collect xxx" part, which will make your return address become "the post office".

[eol-products]

This is also happens with normal returns. I had a customer purchase the incorrect size so returned it. I was unaware of the return method which was couriers please and was not home when they attempted delivered. A card was left and I received an email from ebay saying it was delivered. Refund then had to be processed.

So far I have had no luck with getting the item other than contact the sender. They have no phone number to ring and email takes a few days for response.

[tazzieterror]

It's no different with an item returned via Australia Post to a residential address, though.

I recently purchased something that arrived damaged, but the seller decided to be a PITA about accepting the return, making the entire process take a while.  

eBay ended up providing me an Aus. Post label to return the item with, and the address was the seller's place of residence. 

Seller wasn't home the day AP tried to deliver it, and I could see from AP's tracking app that the seller would need to pick it up fom the PO later on.

Rather than wait for that, I contacted eBay CS and they processed the refund immedaitely, as they also checked the tracking info and said an attempted delivery by AP was enough for them to consider the item delivered.

[11dustyattic]

You do realise most carded 'attempted deliveries' are lazy posties, the people are actually home. Some posties card ALL deliveries. Regardless, this loophole is shocking. Sellers deserve the right to inspect, ever had a brick in a box returned to you? It happens. I'm sorry but I just blocked you, to ensure you never buy from me. The 'all about buyers' selfish attitude just winds me up. I'm over bowing to buyers. You didn't think your seller had a right to inspect their item before refunding you? You saw a loophole and used it. Well congratulations. You're one of them now

[fr2243]

The scenario you mentioned is not as serious as it sounds. Because your address is residential and it does exist in real life, and most importantly, it is deliverable for Couriers Please. So you can always do parcel collection from their depot or even arrange a second delivery.
The problem that I described is much more serious because it involves the loss of both money and the product.

[fr2243]

Actually I think ebay can help you with the "wrong item received" situation. If you did receive a brick upon inpsection, you can get a "affidavit" of some sort from the police station(basically just swear to the cops on the record that you received a brick) and provide such form as evidence to ebay. And ebay will refund you from their own pocket.

[11dustyattic]

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@fr2243 wrote:
Actually I think ebay can help you with the "wrong item received" situation. If you did receive a brick upon inpsection, you can get a "affidavit" of some sort from the police station(basically just swear to the cops on the record that you received a brick) and provide such form as evidence to ebay. And ebay will refund you from their own pocket.

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Yeah we all have time to be doing that lol

[lyndal1838]

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@fr2243

-If your return address is post office related and the buyer chooses to print a parcel point label(AKA courier please label). Well, the item will NOT be delivered to your return address because according to Courier Please which is the de facto courier who does the delivery, they "will not deliver items to 'post office related adresses'". Dont ask me why.

Most sellers know that the only courier which can deliver to a PO Box is StarTrack which is owned by Australia Post.

If Couriers Please want to do so they will be charged a premium (last I heard it was $16 per parcel).  How many buyers are going to pay that amount?   As far as I know there are no courier companies willing to pay that simply to deliver to a PO Box.

[fr2243]

I got your point and Im sure that if the buyer tries to book a delivery to a po box from Courier Please, it's very likely that the booking cant be finished. But thats no the issue here.

The problem in this scenario is that: for a ebay plus member to return an ebay plus item, the return label is FREE to the buyer regardless the return reason. All the buyer needs to do is "start the return", then "select the return reason", then "select the courier". Whether the courier option on the buyer's screen is "auspost" only or "auspost  / parcel point" will be purely based on the buyer's delivery address. And whether the selected courier is capable of delivering the item to the return address is NOT the buyer's concern.  The return system will also not pop up a error message on the buyer's screen saying "the seller's return address is a po box so pls dont select parcel point even if it's applicable".

So the crux of the issue is:

When you setup your return address as a po box / a parcel locker / a parcel collection number. Ebay will tell you that it is totally allowed to do so.

But when a ebay plus buyer tries to return an ebay plus item, then selects parcel point as the courier which cannot be stopped on your side, then contacts ebay and gets the refund(regardless the delivery status as long as the parcel is scanned), then waits for the return item to be circled back and keeps it. Not saying it will definitely happen(maybe the buyer is kind enough the re-post the item to your residential address), but if it does happen, it means you will lose both the product and the money. And ebay will do nothing about it and they will tell you that it's your own fault to setup the po box/parcel locker/parcel collect as the return address because you didnt "take into account all the potential delivery issues".

[lyndal1838]

The solution is simple.....set your return address as your home or work address.

No matter what the buyer selects the seller will get the returned item.