Undeliverable address return

[rocketscollectibles]

I just received back a package i sent lettermail on november 6th. It is wrote ''no such adress'' so it was for whatever reason undeliverable. They highlighted the city and wrote ''not <the name of the city>'' meaning postal code or whatever does not fit with the city i don't know

Just wondering what would you do. Just refund and tell the buyer his adress is undelivrable? It cost me fees and my package/postage is ripped because of buyer mistake i'm not happy about it. It was a 0 feedback profil so a wrong adress entered i guess is possible. It's been almost one month i'm very surprised he never messaged me. I'm risking a negative because of this

[pjcdn2005]

I assume that you already double checked that the info on the address was the same as in the order details?   I always like to figure out exactly what the problem was before I do anything so I would also go to 'find postal code' and type in the first part of the address to see what city and postal code comes up.   

https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/info/mc/personal/postalcode/fpc.jsf  

If it was obviously the buyers mistake you can do a refund less postage and fees then send a message explaining that the address was wrong or just cancel (which refunds in full) the transaction as problem with address 

or

Send a message asking if they want you to correct the address and send it again.  It would be up to you whether or not you wanted to charge them postage again.  

or 

wait to hear from them. You may never hear from them but if they file an item not received claim you will have to refund in full since there is no tracking to show what happened.

or

?? I'm sure others have different ways to handle this

[recped]

1 - Confirm the address you used is the exact address provided by the buyer

2 - Check Canada Post to make sure it really is "no such address"

3 - Contact buyer to a) confirm the correct address, b) determine if the buyer still wants the item, c) acertain who made the error (buyer, seller, Canada Post)

4 - If the buyer still wants the item either resend to the correct addres, resend the the same address if it's actually valid and "discuss" who is paying for the reship (depends who is in error).

You could do a refund and deduct the original shipping costs but note that a partial refund means that you don't get any refund of eBay fees (fee refunds only on full refunds).

The best option for YOU is to try to complete the transaction rather than a simple cancellation/refund.

[rocketscollectibles]

I assume that you already double checked that the info on the address was the same as in the order details? I always like to figure out exactly what the problem was before I do anything so I would also go to 'find postal code' and type in the first part of the address to see what city and postal code comes up

I can't see if it was my own mistake on postal code since CP scratched it with a black marquer. They did a square around the city and wrote ''not <the name of the city>''

When i go on CP to find postal code i find it and it fits with the city. But the adress does not fit with them. From what i have on the package and researchs, it looks like postal code/city fits, but adress provided is wrong. I literally can't find the adress at all on CP and on google i needed deep researchs to find one website providing it, but city/postal code is different (but close to what is provided by buyer)

This is not the first that something similar happens to me... Postal code/city/adress not fitting but close to fit, but the first time it's undelivered/returned

If it was obviously the buyers mistake you can do a refund less postage and fees then send a message explaining that the address was wrong or just cancel (which refunds in full) the transaction as problem with address

Cancel for adress problem is a full refund? I checked quick and it's a full refund but it's written lower ''refund amount you owe'' with minus fees and shipping. Not clear if ebay covering fees and shipping

Send a message asking if they want you to correct the address and send it again. It would be up to you whether or not you wanted to charge them postage again.

How can we re charge shipping? Relisting?

[recped]

The "refund you owe" part means the amount eBay will take from you. They will add to that the amount of fees you paid because they will be refunded from eBay's pocket since they have already taken the fees from you. The total of the refund you owe and the fees eBay has will equal the total refund to the buyer.

[femmefan1946]

EBay does not require you to refund one red cent (if those still existed) for UNDELIVERABLE shipments.

If you Cancel as Problem with Address, you don't get a Defect and the buyer is refunded in full. He can leave feedback.

If you  wait for a Dispute (not received), you will win because the address was Undeliverable. No refund, you have the item for resale, and he can't leave FB when he loses a Dispute.

Or you can be a nice guy,  refund the selling price only and Block him, because he doesn't know where he lives.

Is there nothing at the address at all? Or is Google unable to show anything?

DH had an interesting experience recently when he did an appraisal on the local Reserve. The Google map to the collector's house had nothing to do with the actual layout of the Reserve. Apparently the Band had refused entry to the Google car and the company dropped in something generic.

[rocketscollectibles]

Okay thank you. So full refund and shipping back at my cost is basically the same since i'm losing once my shipping cost i guess

Is it legit from a buyer perspective to just receive a partial refund i'm not sure about it. At the same time it does not seems legit that i'm the one taking the lost too. What reason we could use? I just don't wanna have a useless defect

[pjcdn2005]

If you wait for a Dispute (not received), you will win because the address was Undeliverable.

Only if there was tracking proving that. In this case there was no tracking. 

[rocketscollectibles]

If you wait for a Dispute (not received), you will win because the address was Undeliverable. No refund, you have the item for resale, and he can't leave FB when he loses a Dispute

It's lettermail i have no tracking

[pjcdn2005]

There are always some buyer's who are going to think they should be refunded in full.     Although I know sellers who do deduct their fees from the refund as well, I usually don't. 

Have you figured out exactly why the address wasn't deliverable? Sometimes on the surface it may seem to be the buyer's fault when really it isn't.   On Friday we got a letter back with 'insufficient postage'  The letter weighted 20 grams and had a few stamps on it totalling 92 cents.  Either the postal worker couldn't add or they are under the mistake impression that $1.07 was needed.  So...the post office does make mistakes.

If you are doing a cancellation you can use problem with address...no defect. I've never heard of a defect for a partial refund.  The buyer could still choose to file a claim though and then you would have to refund the rest of the money.

If you are doing a partial refund, you use the 'send refund' link and then choose which reason you want to use.

[rocketscollectibles]

Have you figured out exactly why the address wasn't deliverable?

From what i see and could understand city/postal code provided does not match with the adress. Adress exist but it's a different city/postal code, city/postal code exist but it's a different adress

I'm actually thinking about messaging the buyer about the problem and the fact i obviously won't re ship to the same adress. And just tell him to open an INR for a full refund. Relist my item and if he claim he claim, if he don't he don't. There's like no option that really will satisfy both of us anyway... It seems to be buyer fault and clearly not mine, so i think this way might be the middle way between being honest and not forcing a money lost at the same time

If i receive an INR and refund it, there's no defect right? And are we credited ebay fees?

[dinomitesales]

The last time this happened to me I did a bit more sleuthing and realized the address provided was to a large apartment complex in Toronto, but the buyer had failed to provide a suite number.

I messaged the guy and was just like "Hey, I got the shipment returned back to me because of insufficient address - by any chance do you live in a multi-unit complex? In which case, did you forget to put your unit number?".

He writes back: "Oh, I've never put my unit number. Haven't had any issues before."    (?????)

Note that this guy has dozens of feedback and the apartment complex in question has several hundred units.

Anyway, long story short he gives me the correct unit number, I send it out again for free (I mean, I'm only out the cost of a stamp - cost of doing business, or good customer service, or whatever), I never hear from him again so I assume he got it.

In your scenario I'd probably at least reach out to the buyer, explain what happened, and offer a few options (resend, cancel, etc.). Just cancelling out of the blue might be shocking to the buyer, especially since they're brand new to eBay.

[rocketscollectibles]

So i decided to reach buyer and explain the situation. I told him to verify adress if he still want the item or request a refund. That i'm giving 7 days before relisting. He answered that he have issues with CP finding his adress but receiving mail from other carriers (i can't find a match with his adress, city/postal code, anywhere), he provided me his friend adress where he could pick up the package (this one can be found)

This seems legit? If he knew he had problems with receiving packages, why not reaching me in a whole month after shipment. At the same time it does not look like a scam at all, i received my package back with not even a INR. Would you ship it back? My lost would be higher to refund, relist, resell and additionnal fees than just pay to reship

Actually i think that waiting an INR claim and just refund may be the best option to deal with a similar situation if INR does not gives defects. I did put myself in an uncomfortable situation and it will cost me money, that's bad. I probably will not even receive a positive for it since barely no one leaving any for me

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

Don't wait for the INR. You can still get a negative feedback. Either you:

1. ship to the new friend's address, and in this case I would write a new envelope with the new address, send the buyer a photo to have the buyer verify that everything is correct before shipping (offers you no extra protection whatsoever other than a peace of mind).

2. cancel the listing with "problem with address", so that buyer gets full refund, and you eat the shipping cost. 

I would personally do #1 since you already communicated with the buyer and buyer provided a new address. It's up to you whether you want to charge the buyer shipping cost again, or eat the shipping cost as cost of doing business and reship. 

The safest way though, would be do #2, and ask buyer to buy the item again with the friend's new address. Doing this you'd risk the buyer losing interest and not buying the item again. 

[pjcdn2005]

Just curious, why would #2 be safer? Without tracking there is no seller protection with #1 or #2.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

You are right, there is no tracking anyway so there is no seller protection regardless. I suppose with #2 then you can get the ebay invoice with the buyer's "new" address, really just for peace of mind. 

[rocketscollectibles]

My point about considering waiting the INR in those cases is to avoid to waste energy/time and to bother ourself for a loss. What i mean is that i spent time and energy to write a message, doing researchs, package again, ship again, etc, what i gained, a $1 and 1 hour loss. Even if it's clearly the honest way to deal those cases, it seems to be an highly counter productive approach. Also reaching the buyer does not protect from a negative, we're one month after shipment and the item just got back to me, already no one is happy here

Waiting INR claim you can just relist the item. Refund in one minute if it's claimed. Once in a while i guess it's forgotten and the lost money cover everything around those cases, like the shipping cost loss and time to relist/refund. Might not be the most honest way to deal those case, but sadly it's no brainer the most productive

Not saying this is the approach i will use but it's highly to be considered. Right now i'm a small eBay i can spend time with buyers but i could not imagine having like 2000+ items and losing one hour to lose $1. Especially if it's cheap items and it was micro profit, you could just end paying to lose time, money, energy

[femmefan1946]

Yes. Sometimes we have to refund an obvious scammer because it is too expensive to do otherwise.

We use the higher sales and our lower costs to justify the occasional loss of untracked shipments, even though most of those "losses" are really delays , especially in these times.  And a very few will be fraudulent.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

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@rocketscollectibles wrote:

Right now i'm a small eBay i can spend time with buyers

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And this is precisely why you would want to avoid the INR and potential negative feedback, which can knock your feedback score to 90-something percent.  Worry about the 2000+ items part when you actually get there. While it's true that feedback score is less relevant nowadays, some buyers still check them (I do) and would be more inclined to buy from someone with 100% rather than 95%. 

You reached out to the buyer, and the buyer responded with a new address to ship. Not following through with shipping to the new address, and instead resorting to waiting for INR, is poor communication and poor customer service.  If I'm the buyer, I gave you a new address to ship, and you chose to not ship and instead told me to file an INR, I'll likely leave you a negative feedback. 

[rocketscollectibles]

You reached out to the buyer, and the buyer responded with a new address to ship. Not following through with shipping to the new address, and instead resorting to waiting for INR, is poor communication and poor customer service. If I'm the buyer, I gave you a new address to ship, and you chose to not ship and instead told me to file an INR, I'll likely leave you a negative feedback.

Buyer did not reached me to gave me a new adress and then i decide to keep the item and don't ship... Wow. You totally miss understood what i said in my previous posts. Buyer gave me a new adress because i reached him myself first and already decided to go foward on re shipping. That's a very huge nuance there!

What i meant by waiting the INR is when a buyer ghost and do not claim that he did not received his item with at least a message at all. Just not step in first. There's a lot of places where when you lost something, the policy is that you're the one who need to claim it... People won't start running after you losing time and money for your mistakes

Plus reaching the buyer and re shipping free, do not guarantee to protect us from a negative feedback, and do not guarantee to protect us from still an INR and have to full refund