Will you have to refund the buyer if they open a case with eBay?
- So long as you ship to the exact address provided by the buyer when they checked out (not the one provided later on in a message), you are covered by eBay's Seller Protection. If the buyer opens a case, you may have to provide the tracking number in the case.
In the future, if a buyer provides a different or updated address, should you ship to the new address?
- No. You should never ship to a different address. If you sell an item and a buyer provides a different address, you need to cancel due to problem with address. The buyer needs to re-buy the item and checkout with the new address.
- If you ship to anything other than what was provided at checkout, the buyer could open an item not received claim. It doesn't matter if the buyer asked you to do this. If you ship anywhere other than the address provided on the invoice at checkout, the buyer could be entitled to both a refund and keeping the item.
If the item I already sent is returned to sender, what do I have to do?
- Based on eBay policy, a refused package voids the buyer's protection. At this point, you're only required to do what you feel is right. That could be having the buyer Paypal/eTransfer you for the cost to re-ship the item. Or, a partial refund with you holding back money to cover any costs associated with the transaction.
- Keep in mind, you could technically keep the item without refunding because by either refusing the package or not providing a correct address, the buyer didn't fulfill their end of the transaction to remain eligible for Buyer Protection. This isn't me suggesting this is the right or wrong thing to do. I'm only pointing out that a buyer isn't entitled to anything per eBay policy when this happens.
What can I do if the buyer leaves me negative feedback?
- Negative feedback doesn't matter that much. eBay doesn't judge accounts based on feedback.
- You can use the reply to feedback feature to politely and factually state what happened. Keep in mind that public replies are more of a marketing tool. They aren't a communication tool with the buyer. The point of publicly replying to a feedback is to show future buyers that you're easy to work with and do your best to resolve any issues.
- eBay also has a tool where you can ask eBay to remove unfair feedback: https://www.ebay.com/sellerhelp/feedback
- They might remove it on the grounds that it was not your fault that the buyer provided the wrong address. You have tracking showing a delivery, and you have messages from the buyer stating that they did not provide a full address. Keep in mind, feedback removal is a toss up. eBay has gotten more strict on what they will or won't remove. Even know a random negative feedback isn't a big deal, it's worth the few minutes to fill out the form to see if it can be removed.
It sounds like this is either a PO Box, or a forwarding company. A forwarding company is a company that accepts deliveries for buyers, and ships them to a different country that you do not ship to.
I would instruct the buyer to contact the service that received the package for them because it was already marked as delivered. Most forwarding companies have some level of customer service that the buyer should be able to contact. If they already refused the package and it eventually arrives back to you, then as stated above, how you choose to resolve it is entirely up to you.
Of course, always double check any info with eBay's customer service as their policies always change, or I could be flat our misinformed. The above is my interpretation of eBay's current policies.
