Buyer bids on item then wants me to ship to address not on paypal

[quinty1010]

A buyer recently made an offer on a item of mine and the shipping address during those counteroffers came from Long Island, New York. Once we came to an agreement on price, the buyer paid and the shipping address was then China and the buyer wanted me to send it to China and only put down a value of $50 even though the selling price was $4800.00. I immediately phoned Ebay and told them about this problem. On the auction I stated I only ship to the US and Canada. I sent an email to buyer and told him shipment to China was not going to happen and unless he gives me a verified Paypal address in the US or Canada this item is going nowhere and he will be refunded his money.
He then sent me an address to Nevada which is not verified either and he tells me he is unable to change his Paypal and Ebay address. The guy looks like he has a good feedback rating and I want to help, but their is no way I am shipping this to an unverified address as I would presume I then have no seller protection. I also told him I will not undervalue the customs declaration to the US either. Anyone got any suggestions other than refund the money or phone E bay and pAypal about getting this Nevada address verified. Your input is appreciated as I don't want to be out $4800.00 and my item when this is all said and done?

[pjcdn2005]

Only the buyer can get his address verified by Paypal so you can't help with that and I don't know if it is possible for someone in Asia to be verified. But it isn't necessary to ship to verified addresses to be covered by seller protection. Of course I've never sent anything that was worth that much money so perhaps the rules are a bit different.

Do paypal or ebay have a maximum that they will cover for seller protection?  $5000 comes to mind but that is just a guess so if you are not certain, it would be a good idea to check.

Regarding the address....If the buyer has already paid, you would have to refund them and when they paid again, they would have to change their ship to address on ebay so that the email verifying payment shows that address and shows if you are eligible for seller protection for that transaction.  You must ship to that address with signature confirmation.

I seem to be having a mind block and can't remember if you can invoice them again or if the sale has to be cancelled and the purchase made again.  Someone else should know.

If they haven't paid yet, they should be able to change their ebay shipping address when they pay.

With that being said, I would hesitate to deal with this buyer just because it doesn't sound as if they were upfront with you until after a price had been decided on. Your listing did not state that you shipped to China so they should have asked about that before the purchase.

One more thing....The way that I understand it...if the item arrives at the seller protection address and is signed for, you are not responsible for it once the package is sent on to another location. Because of the $ amount involved, you might want to double-check on that.

[amethyst1415]

How were they able to bid if you blocked selling to China?

[femmefan1946]

spendmoney:  The bidder was registered with eBaydotCOM and has an address in the USA.

You are not required to ship to an address that is not on the Paypal account. Politely tell the customer that you cannot print a shipping label to an address that is not on the Paypal account. (It's almost true.)

Politely tell him to have his friends at that address to item the book on to him.

I am unclear whether the customer has paid with the US shipping rate.

Ask the customer if he would like to have the sale cancelled. If he does you have the option of a Mutual Cancellation request or an Unpaid Item Dispute.

With a MC, you refund his money, he agrees or ignores the MC, both of you are released from the transaction and you get your fees back. However, both of you can leave feedback, so if the customer is at all agressive, this can be a bad choice.

With the UID, if the customer does not pay you get your fees back, he gets a  Strike, and he cannot leave feedback. Safer if he is a questionable sort.

If he does pay, you are only required to ship to the US address. Use Confirmed Delivery, even if he did not pay for it. It is worth the cost. Both of you can leave feedback.

[mr.elmwood]

Buyer's story is complete horse hockey. I do believe there is an option to cancel, something like "buyer is in a country I do not ship to".

Flipping addresses? No. Undervaluing active currency? No.

[luminites]

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spendmoneyhere2014 wrote: How were they able to bid if you blocked selling to China?

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The block is based on the buyer's primary shipping address – not their registration address. OP ships to the US and the buyer has a US address.

[luminites]

The address does not literally have to be added on PayPal. You just have to ship to the address submitted with the payment (i.e. the address entered at the eBay checkout page – this will appear on the PayPal Transaction Details page as the Seller Protection address).

You can find the requirements for Seller Protection in the PayPal UA:

https://www.paypal.com/ca/webapps/mpp/ua/useragreement-full#11

You only ship to Canada and the US (there's no shipping offered for China in the listing), so the only way the buyer could've paid with an address is in China is if  you sent an invoice. He'd be blocked from paying at the checkout page otherwise. He'd see something like this and the Continue button to PayPal would be greyed out (that's not my address, by the way):

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@quinty1010 wrote:
On the auction I stated I only ship to the US and Canada. I sent an email to buyer and told him shipment to China was not going to happen and unless he gives me a verified Paypal address in the US or Canada this item is going nowhere and he will be refunded his money.

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If you check the Seller Protection requirements, the address does not need to be confirmed and the account doesn't have to be Verified.

"He then sent me an address to Nevada which is not verified either and he tells me he is unable to change his Paypal and Ebay address... Anyone got any suggestions other than refund the money or phone E bay and pAypal about getting this Nevada address verified. Your input is appreciated as I don't want to be out $4800.00 and my item when this is all said and done?"

Which address appeared on the PayPal Transaction Details page?

As mentioned, the address doesn't need to be verified; and the buyer is probably confused when you tell him to change his PayPal address. You can't add foreign addresses to your PayPal account; so if the buyer has a Chinese PayPal account, he can't add a US address.

Also, if the buyer already paid, the only way to change the address on the PayPal Transaction Details page (which is not necessarily an address the buyer has on PayPal) is if you refund him so that he can complete checkout again with the right address. After refunding him, he can click on Pay Now in his Purchase History, click on the "Change Shipping Address" link under "Ship to" on the checkout page and then pay with the right address.

[atxpoint1]

Verified addresses on Paypal shouldn't be a requirement for seller protection. Not all addresses on Paypal are verified - it isn't a mandatory step. As long as you have the proof that he asked you to send it to a certain address, ebay has that address in their system on the order details or invoice, and you have proof of shipment to that address, I can't see how it would be an issue.

From firsthand experience, I can tell you changing addresses on Paypal is a pain. And they make you start a whole new account with a foreign bank account if you change addresses to another country. If the buyer is a US expat located in China, he shouldn't be suspicious at all. If he's a Chinese national, I'm not sure.

[quinty1010]

When we were in the offer counter offer phase a Long Island New York address showed up so I figured everything was legit. When we agreed to price and he paid he a China Address came up and he asked me to ship to that address and only declare$50 on the customs form. Once I got into contact with ebay via phone, told them everything , they supposedly emailed him, cause I then get this Nevada address sent to me. I told him I need it verified but he says can't change it as he tried. I'm phoning ebay again tomorrow to try to put this all to rest as it has dragged on long enough. I will let u know what I find out. Thanks to all for all your input and help!

[quinty1010]

He paid immediately once we finalized price and dumped the address on me then and paid US rate which was the same as Canadian in this auction.

[quinty1010]

The address to China is currently on the paypal transaction page when I bring it up.

[quinty1010]

This is an $4800 item, in my opinion no room for error cause once it's gone I'm not getting it back if something goes wrong, only to be told by ebay or paypal I should have done it this or that way.

[pjcdn2005 · Accepted solution]

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@quinty1010 wrote:
The address to China is currently on the paypal transaction page when I bring it up.

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As mentioned earlier, the only way change that, is to refund the buyer so that they can checkout and pay again with their U.S.  address. (see post 7 for more info)  There is no way for the buyer to change the address otherwise.

[mr.elmwood]

Pardon my ignorance, but, how does one "mail" money? My understanding is it is not insurable.

[pierrelebel]

How does one mail money?

Put bills in envelope, address it and put appropriate stamp(s) on it!

Folks keep sending money in the mail all the time.  I still have customers sending cash (both Cdn$ and US$) in the mail regularly. 

Many still send cash in the mail to family members for their birthday and other occasion.

"cannot be insured"?  Who cares?  Most of what we send by mail is not insured in any case.

[ricarmic]

MrE I believe you are right that CP will not insure money, however 3rd party vendors will. If this is the lot I think it is, it really isn't "money" because they are specimen bills aka collector items, although one would have to be careful what they called it. For a $4800 item it would be way cheaper to insure something like that via 3rd party - even if they would, to insure that much from the PO I think would be something like $90 - this is almost double my annual premium for my 3rd party insurance for in transit coverage!

[quinty1010]

Who sells 3rd party transit insurance coverage like that if your able to mention? Your right CP won't even provide insurance for that, USPS will and some other courier companies, but your right again the fees are lofty.

[ricarmic]

Quinty: Hugh Wood Canada - they provide insurance for dealers of collectibles, stamps, coins fine art etc. (I believe it is Llyods of London and Dominion Life that are the underwriters). Note about my comment above, the in-transit aspect is a small part of the much larger dealer insurance program that covers stock, liability etc. One couldn't just buy the in-transit on its own....my point really was just that the PO insurance is very expensive.