@collectocopia wrote:
Hasn't even occurred to me to,check her paypal address. I'm so dumb. There's a THIRD. Address there....in portland oregon. i tried talkimg to someone at ebay on chat, but they couldnt comprehend my most basic sentence.
Ok, that's quite strange - while not damning proof, it doesn't make the buyer look entirely on the level. The best case scenario I can think of, is that they used random US addresses to get around your block on addersses in China, just to be able to make the purchase, and then ask to send to them since it's obviously harder to refuse at that stage, but even that requires someone who is more concerned about themselves (that is, a considerate buyer would have messaged and asked, not just bought and demanded). The worst case is that they knew what they were doing from the start, right down to claiming INR. In either case, for whatever it's worth, I'm always sorry to hear of these kinds of cases, and wish I could offer more / better assistance. Usually, I try to call a buyer's bluff when I think something's off, so you could try that.
eg -Do they know tracking isn't showing delivery, or anything like that? I advise buyers that I'll initiate a full investigation with Australia Post, since international packages will have a unique customs number and barcode, which makes them traceable (to a point) regardless of whether they have tracking. It's 100% true, but the info can take quite a while to get because it's done manually, and often won't provide the same details as full tracking, but my intention for saying that to buyers is to do one of two things - if they are genuine, reassure them I'll help, and buy a little time for the package to arrive. If they are not genuine, it implies that if they're lying and have received the package, I'll find out (surprisingly, that is often enough for people to re-think what they are doing. Not everyone, as you'll still get the odd out-and-out scammer who is hell-bent on getting what they wanted, whether the seller knows they're lying or not ๐ ).
I had a somewhat similar experience earlier in the year - not on eBay, but a similar site, and the buyer paid by PayPal - the address on the site's order details and the one on the PayPal receipt were completely different (one was in the US, the other was in Russia). This was immediately cause for concern for me, if for no reason other than I needed to know which was the correct address to post to. The buyer wanted me to post to the address not on the PayPal receipt, which compromises my protection, so I told them I would need to cancel the sale so that they could purchase again.
They seemed fine with this, but then their story kept changing, and so did their location, so I washed my hands of it and refused the sale all together.
If you encounter a buyer that tries to refuse a cancellation and re-payment, so that you are both covered, I would always recommend walking away. I understand that address mistakes can happen (I've made them myself), and that the whole cancellation / re-purchase & repayment process can be a little annoying for the buyer, especially if they paid by credit card (because then the funds take a while to be credited back to them), but safety trumps convenience in my book, and any buyer who won't understand that (even begrudgingly), can buy from someone else, as far as I am concerned.
