eBay shipping Question. What do you think?

[mtxbass1]

I have sold an item on eBay and the buyer wants me to ship it to another address. He paid with paypal from a confirmed address. The reason for shipping to another address is because he is in the military. The item is Steel Battalion, so as you can imagine it is huge. Do you think I should ship it to the alternate address? His feedback on eBay is 100%, however I hear of a lot of people doing chargebacks. This is a pretty big ticket item, so I'm kinda weary of that. I'm shipping it via UPS ground, so that I have a tracking number. Any advice?

[MightySlacker]

I have sold an item on eBay and the buyer wants me to ship it to another address. He paid with paypal from a confirmed address. The reason for shipping to another address is because he is in the military. The item is Steel Battalion, so as you can imagine it is huge. Do you think I should ship it to the alternate address? His feedback on eBay is 100%, however I hear of a lot of people doing chargebacks. This is a pretty big ticket item, so I'm kinda weary of that. I'm shipping it via UPS ground, so that I have a tracking number. Any advice?

NO. You forfeit SPP if you do that.

Dave

[wubb]

I have sold an item on eBay and the buyer wants me to ship it to another address. He paid with paypal from a confirmed address. The reason for shipping to another address is because he is in the military. The item is Steel Battalion, so as you can imagine it is huge. Do you think I should ship it to the alternate address? His feedback on eBay is 100%, however I hear of a lot of people doing chargebacks. This is a pretty big ticket item, so I'm kinda weary of that. I'm shipping it via UPS ground, so that I have a tracking number. Any advice?

For a small value item I'd just ship it (I've done this in the past.) But for something that went for a good chunk of change (like this did) I'd seriously think about having him pay again and use the real address he wants it shipped to.

I'd contact him and say something like "Sorry, but I only ship to the shipping address listed on the PayPal payment. We have two options. I can ship to the address from the payment you just made, or I can refund this payment and you can pay again, but type in the address you really want me to send it to as the shipping address. Please let me know which route you'd like to go." You could add that this is a big ticket item for you to be selling and you just do not feel comfortable shipping to an address other than the one on the payment. He really can't complain to PayPal or eBay on this, I'm pretty sure they would back you up. If your auction said you ship only to confirmed addresses and you want to stick to that, you should add that he must confirm any other address he wants to use before he pays you.

I could see him replying a bit POed with something like "I told you I'm in the military on base, so I can't confirm this address. I'm fighting in a war you prick!" At that point you need to just tell him sorry, but if he can't stick to the requirements of the listing you won't be able to sell this to him. Just keep in mind you'll probably get hit with a neg, but that's better than potentially being out a high value item, plus losing sleep worrying about it. Just as likely he'll be understanding and work with you. Or he'll let you refund his money and then 'forget' to pay you the 2nd time with the real address. I could easily see that happening.

Your other option would be to just ship it to the address on his payment w/o checking with him and dick him. I'd advise against doing that, as you'll end up with a pissed off buyer, possible negative feedback, and possibly have to defend yourself to a chargeback.

PayPal lets you put in any address you want when you pay as the ship to address, it doesn't have to be your confirmed address. He may not realize that... It's also possible he was banned from PayPal with his real address and therefore had to create an account with this new address in order to work with it. I don't know if that's very likely or not.

You could also contact PayPal support for their advice/suggestion on how to handle this situation.

Here's the nightmare scenario. You ship it to this 2nd address he wants. He files a claim that he never received the item at the address on the payment. You show PayPal the e-mail where he requested a diff. ship to address and the tracking # from UPS showing delivery to this 2nd address. They say, 'Sorry but that's not the address on the payment. Chargeback granted.'

[mtxbass1]

These are all great suggestions. I emailed the buyer and told him that I could either ship the item out to the original address, refund his money and have him repay with the correct shipping address, or he could send me a postal money order and I could then send it to whatever address he wants it to go to. I hope this works.