Bad feeling about a buyer

[Trinpy]

An ebayer asked me if I would put a BIN price on an item I was listing;I agreed. The ebayer had plenty of feedback, all 100% positive. Sent them a message to let them know BIN price was on.

Item was then bought by a different ebayer, new account, 0 feedback. I assumed they had beaten the first ebayer to it, but the buyer then sent me a message as though in reply to the message I'd sent the first ebayer (sorry this is all a bit confusing).

Buyer paid by PayPal but the name and address of the PayPal account holder was completely different from the name and address of the ebayer - different gender, very different parts of the country.

Within 3 days of the item being dispatched (2nd class post) the buyer contacted me complaining it hadn't come yet.

Obviously happy to refund, that's not an issue, but I'm getting a bit suspicious. Does it sound dodgy to you? And if it does, is there anything I can do about it? I don't mean about my item, but can eBay investigate if I say I'm concerned?

I'm experienced at buying but fairly new to selling, so don't really know what to do in this situation.

Sounds a bit dodgy to me, I wouldn't refund, they have to wait longer than 3 days anyway ( I think it's 2 weeks ). In future send things recorded and always keep proof of postage, if you have proof that you posted then if it goes to a dispute you will win.

no you need proof of delivery, not proof of postage. Ebay will refund and you will need to claim for the loss with royal mail. How much was the item?

Update - turns out buyer wanted it sent to name and address on PayPal account. I sent it to the eBay shipping address. I've still got the message with this address on it but when I click on the username now it comes up with the same name and address as the PayPal account.

the address should have been on the paypal email that you had when they paid.

Damn. I assumed I was supposed to send to the address eBay told me to send to.

You are meant to send to the address e-bay give you unless the buyer states other wise.

I had someone say they hadn't received a item (someone from Spain), I knew they were lying, I let it go to a dispute through paypal, I was asked to provide proof of postage, I scanned the receipt from the post office and paypal would not refund the buyer (I won), this was a few years ago so maybe different now.

I never send to the address on the paypal account because quite often people will use someone elses paypal (a relatives, a friends).

If the item was not worth much then just refund and draw a line under it, if it was worth a bit then let it go to a dispute and see who wins.

you always send to the address given on the order details page, so if someone wants an item sending to another address they will have given that info at checkout - and you need proof of delivery, not proof of postage.

Thanks. It's good to know that worked out for you. At least I know now to always double check conflicting addresses before sending.

I've asked buyer twice now whether they are able to get the item forwarded to them from the address I sent it to, so I know what action to take, but not had any response yet.

x post.

I know I won't get anything from eBay with a proof of postage. But I don't want to give a full refund until I know that the buyer definitely can't get the item.