Sold and shipped an item mid July, and today it was returned to me by the mailman....now what?

[chaldo2010]

Sold and mailed an item to a buyer mid July, and today the mailman knocked on my door telling me if I wanted the item back, I have to pay $5.81 return to sender fee. 

The sticker on the package says:

RETURN TO SENDER

VACANT

UNABLE TO FORWARD

RETURN TO SENDER

This is the first time this has ever happened to me while selling on eBay. So I ended up paying the $5.81 (plus initial shipping postage to this buyer's shipping address which was on PayPal). The buyer did not leave any messages in their PayPal checkout/payment, nor did I receive a message on eBay about the address issue.

Now, I am looking at that buyer's feedback and it appears they are still buying from other sellers and receiving feedback. Why was my item returned? Did they buyer move?? What do I do from here? 

[femmefan1946]

Well, it's been less than 45 days so your buyer may suddenly open a Dispute for Item Not Received.

First, contact the buyer through the listing and tell him you have the item back because you were given an 'out of date' address.

Let him respond.

If he decides that he does not want it, you could refund only the purchase price or even refund the purchase price less the $5.81. However, he can leave feedback and the more important DSRs for 60 days.

I'd refund his entire original payment, and put him on the Blocked Bidder List as a scatterbrain and timewaster.

If he decides he does want it, explain about the cost of resending (with Confirmation of Delivery this time) and the cost of retrieving the package from Canada Post. Tell him the new shipping and handling cost which allows for these.

Keep in mind that members are supposed to keep eBay and Paypal apprised of changed addresses.

Hmm.

Did you ship to his eBay address or to his PP address? They don't always match (usually but not always). ONLY ship to the PP address. This could be a problem.

If they don't match, politely let him know that they should be synced.

Again, he may decide that he does not want the item with the additional costs. Smile sweetly and refund the original payment. Then go punch a wall or take a nice walk in the summer twilight.

Not every transaction is going to be successful. There is no actual fraud here, just some irresponsibility.

[chaldo2010]

Thanks for the comments. I just took another look at her PP shipping address and it is exactly the same on the PP shipping label I had initially created to ship her item.

Now, when I contact him/her and let him/her know it was undeliverable, s/he may open a case against me for one, and two, she will most likely affect my feedback score for something I didn't do wrong at all. How is this fair to me? I've already lost out in this transaction since I paid to ship it and paid to receive it, plus the PayPal and eBay fees. So by the time I refund the purchase price minus the return fee I paid, I am pretty much taking out of my own pocket to compensate for this buyer's irresponsibility.

[femmefan1946 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the comments. I just took another look at her PP shipping address and it is exactly the same on the PP shipping label I had initially created to ship her item.

Okay so the problem is not the buyer or you, it's the USPS.  Do a little creative writing and blame USPS, sound politely exasperated.

Now, when I contact him/her and let him/her know it was undeliverable, s/he may open a case against me for one, and two, she will most likely affect my feedback score for something I didn't do wrong at all.

The important word there is 'may'.

She can't win an 'undeliverable' case since you shipped to her address and the item was returned. You may even have proof of this that would be acceptable to PP.

Accept that this is going to be a failed transaction and that you will be out money. It happens.

If you get to the point where you are making enough money at this to pay taxes, this would be a tax deduction. I realize that is not at all helpful or comforting.

What you are doing at this point is schmoozing to get the buyer on your side, to cover at least part of the costs you have incurred and to complete the transaction with positive (or no) feedback.  Like I said, creative writing.

God grant me the Serenity... that's all, just the Serenity -- every Browncoat, ever.

[aubreyclay56]

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@chaldo2010 wrote:

Sold and mailed an item to a buyer mid July, and today the mailman knocked on my door telling me if I wanted the item back, I have to pay $5.81 return to sender fee. 

The sticker on the package says:

RETURN TO SENDER

VACANT

UNABLE TO FORWARD

RETURN TO SENDER

This is the first time this has ever happened to me while selling on eBay. So I ended up paying the $5.81 (plus initial shipping postage to this buyer's shipping address which was on PayPal). The buyer did not leave any messages in their PayPal checkout/payment, nor did I receive a message on eBay about the address issue.

Now, I am looking at that buyer's feedback and it appears they are still buying from other sellers and receiving feedback. Why was my item returned? Did they buyer move?? What do I do from here? 

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i had a similar thing happen,i shipped to the address i was supposed to and it came back,i contacted the buyer and the address was right but it was her mothers house and the buyer lived in another state,so i dont know why the postal worker wouldnt deliver but the customer had to pay twice to finally get her item,ended up costing 32.00 for postage i felt bad for her,but she gave me excellant feedback for customer service too bad all customers wernt like her,i also had one package come back to me because canda post didnt charge enough for shipping,that was nice went all the way to vancouver and back to vernon it was .53 cents short so i had to pay the total shipping all over again,glad it was ony a 3 dollar mistake made by canada post,sad when you have to pay for someone elses mistake

[chaldo2010]

That's a sincere buyer you had there. I decided to just pay the $4.28 postage fee plus and extra $1.50 signature confirmation fee, all over again. I had a feeling the buyer will leave negative feedback although it was her mistake. Anyways, I took photos of the returned packaging as well as the new shipping label incase anything goes wrong again. I ended up paying out of my pocket but good thing it's not a lot.

In these cases, Canada Post shouldn't be charging thr sender to RECEIVE an item which was undeliverable because we already paid for postage. Either I pay again to receive it or it gets tossed. How fair huh.