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".

[tazzieterror]

My goodness - how difficult would it have been for your original wall of text to instead have been:

If you sell eBay Plus qualified items and have a return address that is a PO Box, beware that for a return eBay's system erroneously allows the buyer to select 'Couriers Please' as a carrier, who are unable to deliver to a PO Box.

Such a situation could result in the parcel being sent back to the already-refunded buyer.

Update you return address accordingly, or talk to eBay.

Much easier to comprehend your point that way.

[eol-products]

The issue I had was that it was to a locked address and by the time I got the card I could no longer get a re delivery and all I got from couriers please was to contact the sender. So I did not get the item but had to issue a refund due to attempted delivery is classed as delivery. After many emails to them every answer is contact the sender but the sender tells me tracking shows delivered.

I am only out for a $65 item but I will need to think of how to change the return policy so a courier is not used.

[brerrabbit585]

So why are you so intent on educating buyers on how to defraud sellers with this loophole?

[fr2243]

just a quick update for my situation. After a long winded discussion with ebay/parcel point/courier please. Ebay finally decided to issue me the full original transaction amount as credit as the final resolution.

So basically what I can suggest is: you can keep your return address as po box. In case the buyer is able to generate a parcel point label without your concent(after their recent system update, not only ebay plus members can do this, but all the other non ebay plus buyer's can generate labels(at the buyer's own cost) under "buyer remorse" from now on), both you and the buyer will be able to keep the transaction amount because the system failed to notify the buyer that "parcel post cannot deliver items to addresses like a po box". But when you need to approve a return request under a SNAD reason, use your own return label or buy a label from auspost, DO NOT "buy a label from parcel point"(which is the option by default) in which case ebay will hold you responsible for the delivery failure and you will lose both your return item and you money. In case you are wondering why you will lose your product permanently, this is because for any RTS parcel point return article due to "wrong address", it will be sent to the parcel point hub in sydney and it will be "donate to charity" later. And there is NO WAY for ebay(or you) to redirect it to your residential address.