Ebay USPS nightmare

[markosjal]

Here is my USPS/eBay issue right now:

Shipped a restored antique Phone over a month ago from Portland, OR to NY, NY.  Buyer's eBay address was identified by Post Office as "No Such Number" Tracking information later disappeared, and post office never did "origin Scan" resulting in the Post office not honoring the Investigation claiming they had no proof it was ever delivered to Post office. After multiple inquiries tracking info just re-appeared, or at least the "no such number" part.

Package then went to florida and sat there for over a week, but eventually was returned to me (almost a month later) .

Meanwhile I was convincing buyer that his address was invalid. About 10 emails later on ebay system I pointed out that his address did not show 78th St (like he sent to me in correspondence)  Rather 5th Ave. He gave me 2 other address in different states (suspicious) , but I can not ship to those addresses without risking losing the phone and the money. Despite my 100% ebay feedback and his own admission of his error in his street address he accused me of being a scammer , a liar, etc.

I informed him that I can only ship to his official address on ebay and ebay will not give me his official "corrected" address, and that it MUST come from ebay. He can not simply inform me of a different address to ship to. 

Well I have the phone here checked and re-packaged and still nothing moving from Buyer / ebay after 1 1/2 months now

Buyer seems unmotivated to deal with ebay and has not ever even acknowledged things I have told him. At what point can I ship to an unofficial address. When does his ebay refund time run out? Is it up already?

[MMikeJBenN27]

I have shipped to "unofficial" addresses with no problem.

Mike

[tubaman]

I would never ship anything of any value to a different address to that supplied by eBay, as I think you'd then struggle if they then claimed they didn't receive it.

[RDPipes]

Sounds like he's the scammer here, I'd contact eBay and see what they have to say about the refund. But, being that he's never received the phone and you have it back I think its best to just refund him and call it even, minus the shipping of course.

[poplar1]

Tracking information later disappeared, and post office never did "origin Scan" resulting in the Post office not honoring the Investigation claiming they had no proof it was ever delivered to Post office.

I usually hand my outgoing ebay packages (with prepaid ebay labels) to the employee at the post office counter, and get a receipt that shows the tracking numbers.

If I don't want to wait in line, there are bins at the other end of the counter for dropping off packages. However, these packages are not scanned until they arrive at the main post office.

So, I can see how there may have been no immediate "origin scan", if you did not hand the package to the counter agent. But it should have been scanned soon afterward.

[allnumbedup]

I agree with popular1 about waiting in line for that receipt.  We have a drawer full of them and needed one on only two occasions like yours.  All our mail goes through Greensboro NC which is a notorious USPS temporary black hole. Despite scans at the local Postal Office and the piece of paper, sometimes tracking shows up only when nearly delivered. Also, I find it pretty common that folks on ebay and etsy purchase with the wrong address. Beware of the address for the buyer who shops as a 'guest' BTW.  I have had a few who have had to track down their own packages or get them rerouted by USPS but I feel (and have been told by ebay) that the mistake to be corrected is always theirs.

[markosjal]

Turns out this buyer was honest . Apparently he lives in apt or condo at the corner of 5th Ave and 78th street (I believe it was) in Manhattan. Unfortunately his condo is on 78th st not 5th ave, like it was in  ebay. It took me many emails to convince him his address was incorrect and asked me to ship to Connecticut and North Carolina as well. I had pount out the specific error in his address after he wrote it to me(correctly) inn one of the many emails. ebay had no resolution for changing his official ship to address. 

Meanwhile the package sat in Florida for a few weeks.

He says he is happy with the phone and apologized for the drama. It was the most stressful ebay sale I ever made and makes me want to think twice about doing any more.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/265157397534

[5415551212]

Yeah that sounds frustrating and a real bummer. Might put a disclaimer right in your description that you only ship to ebay verified addresses.

[markosjal]

Started doing that in new listings

[RDPipes]

That's great that everything work its way out.
I've had some rough dealings on eBay nothing like this, knock on wood, LOL!