Ineligible Seller Protection

[GuardianE]

I don't sell on eBay very often, but I'm trying to pay back some loans and stuff. I just sold one of my items and it was paid immediately through Paypal, but the buyer's address is unconfirmed. It says that I am ineligible for seller protection.

Exactly how bad of a position does this put me in? Is there anything I can do to protect myself and what exactly am I protecting myself from? Any help would be really appreciated. It's a more expensive item and I want to know what I'm getting myself into.

The buyer also has zero feedback.

[MajorSmeg]

It's like having sex with a crack whore and not using a condom. Best to just cancel the sale.

[tangytangerine]

Refund the money and tell him to confirm the address. If you send to that address before it's confirmed, he could say he never received it and essentially screw you out of the money.

That's why confirmed addresses offer seller protection.

[GuardianE]

He could do this even if I buy delivery confirmation and everything?

[tangytangerine]

He could do this even if I buy delivery confirmation and everything?

Yes, even with DC. If you ship to a unconfirmed address, it does not offer any protection.

[GuardianE]

Thanks for the help, guys. Is there a formal way to go about refunding and requesting a confirmed address? I don't know if Paypal has a process for refunds.

[tangytangerine]

Thanks for the help. Is there a formal way to go about refunding and requesting a confirmed address? I don't know if Paypal has a process for refunds.

All you have to do to refund is into the transaction & there's a option to refund.

As for confirmed address, send a message through ebay to the buyer that you don't send to unconfirmed addresses since it offers no protection. He'll have to go through the process on PP's site to confirm the address(easiest way would be to add a credit card).

Just curious, how much money is this sale exactly?

[GuardianE]

The sale was for $94 shipped, so nothing crazy, but substantial enough to make me be wary. I just don't want to get burned. I've had some bad experiences selling on eBay with deadbeat buyers.

Okay, I sent him a message through eBay and refunded the money. Am I in trouble (AKA can he leave negative feedback or report me to eBay) if he doesn't want to confirm his address?

[TheBlueWizard]

Sure, the guy could be a prick and neg you. That's the problem with eBay. Did eBay do away with the option for sellers to leave feedback? They were going to and that sucks, since you don't have recourse to neg the guy back if needed.

I hate eBay.

[GuardianE]

Yeah, they did do away with seller negative feedback. So, I'm pretty much boned if this isn't a stand up guy. Much sadness. I was hoping I wouldn't have to deal with this. I've sold maybe a maximum of 15 items in the seven year span on my eBay account.

[Kendro]

Did you mention in your auction that you would only ship to a confirmed address? I do that with all my listings and have my PayPal set up so I can only receive payments from confirmed addresses. This of course sucks when they win the auction but find they can't pay if they don't have an unconfirmed address so you have to go through the hassle of getting your eBay fees back since the auction is over (and hope they don't leave negative feedback when they are the ones who can't read properly).

Listing BIN auctions with immediate payment required generally solves this problem 99.9% of the time because when they go to pay for it with an unconfirmed address, the transaction doesn't go through so your listing is still up.

[tangytangerine]

Easy way to avoid getting payments from unconfirmed addresses in the future is to block them. Go into your PP account, click on profile, then on payment receiving preferences in the 3rd column. The first option in that is to block all payments from unconfirmed addresses.

This way you don't have to refund transactions in the future cause some lazy ass can't go through the trouble to confirm his address.

[GuardianE]

Yeah, I listed in my auction "Your address must be confirmed" but that may have been a bit too vague. I didn't know that you could use Paypal to block third party payments, so I'm going to do that now, hope that the guy is legitimate and ends up making another payment after confirming his address.

[SaraAB]

I have my account set to block unconfirmed payments (and you can do this too, if you don't know how a quick search on google should work), with the way ebay is now I would be better off refunding the money and selling to someone else. Buyers knowingly take advantage of those sellers who don't follow policy (shipping to unconfirmed addresses without DC etc..) so as soon as a buyer sees that they will immediately file dispute and try to get their money back. To get seller protection you must ship to a confirmed address.

[doughazelwood]

You can also tell someone with an unconfirmed address that they have to buy shipping insurance. It would be $2.15 for a $94 item (for USPS).

[GuardianE]

Okay, so I refunded the money and he emailed me saying that he confirmed his address with Paypal. I don't know how to give him a second offer (please let me know if there's an easy way to do this) so I simply relisted the item and sent him a message with the new link.

[Kendro]

Okay, so I refunded the money and he emailed me saying that he confirmed his address with Paypal. I don't know how to give him a second offer (please let me know if there's an easy way to do this) so I simply relisted the item and sent him a message with the new link.

All he needed to do was resend the payment. After you refunded him, eBay considers the listing unpaid so all he had to do was send the payment again with his newly confirmed account. By relisting the item, you now have to pay double the eBay fees. If it isn't too late, I'd cancel the listing so you don't have to pay a FVF for the second item and just eat the cost of relisting it a second time. Then have him repay the original listing. You are probably going to give him a headache with all these emails, heh.

[GuardianE]

Man, I hope I don't screw him up. He doesn't seem all that eBay savvy (kinda like me, heh). I hope you're right. I just ended the relisted item. It wasn't much, as I only had it as a Buy It Now item (it was a quarter loss). You're sure he can just click to make another payment?

[Kendro]

Yes he just has to go through the steps that he normally would to pay for the item. After you gave him a refund, eBay marks the listing as unpaid so all he has to do is go through the payment process again.

[GuardianE]

You can also tell someone with an unconfirmed address that they have to buy shipping insurance. It would be $2.15 for a $94 item (for USPS).

How does insurance work and how would it protect me in this case? Would USPS refund my money if the package was not delivered?

[GuardianE]

Anyone know to what level I would be protected by Shipping Insurance if the item were claimed as lost? I've never done it before. Would it help if I coupled that with Signature Confirmation?

[tangytangerine]

Anyone know to what level I would be protected by Shipping Insurance if the item were claimed as lost? I've never done it before. Would it help if I coupled that with Signature Confirmation?

Basically, you would have to take it up with the post office getting back the amount of the item. No matter if you get signature confirmation & insurance, shipping to an unconfirmed address through PP offers no protection w/ money you get through PP. That's exactly why so many people are tired of putting up with their crap.

[Vinny]

Insurance really isn't as simple as it sounds. If you report a lost or damaged item, they'll have to investigate the case. If it's a damaged package, they'll request the package itself and the item within the package. If it's lost, they'll track down the delivery person and investigate with them.

[GuardianE]

Thanks for the help, everyone. I managed to talk him into working things out with Paypal and getting his address confirmed. Looks like he was just an eBay newbie. :)