eBay postage label and incorrect address question

[iskybibble1975]

Hello,

Buyer bought and paid for item Friday night. I printed label and packed parcel ready to post either today (Sunday) or Monday. Buyer gets in touch last night to say the address on file with ebay and paypal is incorrect and have I posted yet. I ask for new address which they have messaged this morning. No reason to suspect anything - low cost item and literate messages.

I was going to print the address onto a piece of white paper and tape over the wrong address on label but now I'm thinking the system will be wanting to post to the wrong address and tracking might be incorrect as well.

So my question is: Is it better to cancel label and start again? Or can I put new address over top?

Any help or previous experience of this would be greatly appreciated. 🙂

[clarry100]

The problem I can see with mailing to an address that has not come from PayPal is that if it gets lost and the buyer opens an INR case you will lose becasue you have not used the shipping address obtained via PayPal.

It depends on if/not you are willing to take that risk on a low value item.

To maintain full seller protection you would have to ask the buyer to cancel the sale and then re-buy using their correct address. But doing this could upset them and you may lose the sale altogether.

We use large letter with no tracking and as such do not enjoy sellre protection anyway, so when a buyer rquests an address change via messaging we just comply and send it to them at the new address.

[*sparklz*]

The system does not deliver the items it is what is on the postage label that the delivery is gone by

BUT you need to tell the buyer to correct their details as sellers are suppose to post to the address they are given by ebay or paypal to retain seller protection.

Even a message with the address they want it posted to is NOT enough.

If they open a dispute for item not received even if they did get it you would lose as it was not posted to the address on the label you printed.

[curraone · Accepted solution]

I would cancel the label and do another one with the requested address.   It seems neater.

You will have to wait a while for ebay to refund you for the cancelled label.

But with the new label there will be no chance it will go to the original address.

As pointed out, you will forfeit your seller protection but most buyers are genuine when they are trying to change an address.

[iskybibble1975]

Thanks to everyone who replied. Extremely helpful as always. I will cancel the label and re-print. I know it takes ages for ebay to refund the label and that's one reson why I didn't want to do it, (I will probably forget to check if I am refunded and I certainly don't expect ebay to get it right). However it will be neater and I will retain Seller Protection. I agree with your points clarry100 and I often post large letters to a different address (gift, move house etc) But in this case it is a small box so will reprint and let buyer know they need to change address on file.

Thanks again! Problem solved yeah!

[clarry100]

---

@iskybibble1975 wrote:

Thanks to everyone who replied. Extremely helpful as always. I will cancel the label and re-print. I know it takes ages for ebay to refund the label and that's one reson why I didn't want to do it, (I will probably forget to check if I am refunded and I certainly don't expect ebay to get it right). However it will be neater and I will retain Seller Protection. I agree with your points clarry100 and I often post large letters to a different address (gift, move house etc) But in this case it is a small box so will reprint and let buyer know they need to change address on file.

Thanks again! Problem solved yeah!

---

If you just reprint the label with the new address the buyer has sent to you thru ebay messages you will not retain your seller protection because you are not using the shipping address provided via PayPal on the actual transaction.

It's a moot point tho probably, as if you feel your buyer has genuine intentions and the package does not get lost then all will very likely be OK anyway.

However, if the buyer is wise to the way the system works, and has dodgey intentions then if they raise an INR you will lose even if the tracking shows as delivered. In such as case you could try getting ebay to read the requested change in messages and they may take notice of this but I wouldn't be too confident of success.

[iskybibble1975]

Hi,

Thanks for pointing that out, it's a risk I know but mail from Tas to Vic is pretty quick so should be there by end of this week. Genuine reason for change and no dodgy behaviour. In fact, when I sent a message to buyer and urged them to change address on file with ebay and paypal and received message straight back to say they had and they hadn't used ebay since moving etc...

So label cancelled (wait with baited breath for refund from ebay) and new label printed.

Many thanks again!

[davewil1964]

The main practical reason not to manually change the address is that the bar and QR codes have the original address embedded in them. Every time it is scanned, it will be directed on a path to that address. The written address will only be used for the final leg of the journey, so if it is not in the same area, the parcel won't be anywhere near where it needs to be.

[outback_blends]

Im hopeless at remebering too ..I have a small white board near my desk and when something like this crops up I just make a note on the white board and make a point of checking it every couple of days. Saved my bacon a few times ! 

[iskybibble1975]

Thanks for the info. This is what I realised was probably the case after I told buyer I would just tape new address over. But of course once scanned it will go into the system. So it's all good now and parcel is on its way with nice new label and correct address.