Buyer in Southern Ireland adding Belfast postcode to address

[lozster]

I sold a cheap item of clothing this weekend, received a PayPal payment and checked the address. I was surprised to find it combined a Dublin street name with a Belfast postcode. It seemed a bit odd so I checked on google map to find the postcode was city centre Belfast and the rest if the address city centre Dublin. I mailed to confirm the address and got a response saying that it is ok to use the Belfast sorting office postcode on the bottom of a Southern Ireland address and pay uk postage rather than international as the mail is driven not flown airmail. (??)

I have replied saying that it sounds like he is actually an international buyer and I will only send to his actual address with no additional postcodes if he pays an international postage charge. If not i have suggested I will refund without leaving feedback.

Have I been reasonable here? The postage was only Royal Mail second not signed for so I don't want the parcel lost due to odd addressing.

They are using a service called ParcelMotel

It will get delivered to the Belfast address & forwarded by them to the Dublin address

How do ParcelMotel get paid then?

I did google parcel motel but the postcode isn't that - its the actual sorting office in Belfast. I guess he is just relying on them forwarding it?

Also as he is international wont I be charged more by Pay Pal for the transaction?

You have to set up an account linked to a bank account, it costs about 4 euro

I was wrong though they dont deliver it to the actual address, you have to pick it up from the local ParcelMotel, which is a bit like a giant vending machine

x post

sounds dodgy then, I wouldn't post it

paypal won't charge you extra for the transaction. And if you do refund you can't tell them not to leave feedback.

I only said I wouldn't leave feedback Lavender. I looked at his previous feedback and someone had said 'poor communication' which I guess is an oblique reference to this!

a seller isn't allowed to leave bad feedback for a buyer anyway so that is kind of irrelevant really.

I've googled a bit more and found some Irish discussions from 2009 where it is said that RM will forward from Belfast 'most of the time' to the republic. Fine I guess if you are ordering from play.com but not so fine for me as an e-Bayer! What an odd thing for RM to do at all given that if you post a birthday card in the uk as a normal letter and it is a bit wide, the recipient will be hit with a surcharge.

Lavender, I'm only a light user of ebay and it had gone over my head that the seller can't leave bad feedback. Would that explain why I see positive ratings then cutting comments? I thought this was just people being a bit passive aggressive!

yes neg statements on a positive rating for a buyer are not permitted and ebay will remove and rap the knuckles of the seller too.

Sellers haven't been able to neg buyers for some time now.

Sigh - offered buyer the chance to either cancel transcation by mutual agreement or pay the difference for international postage. It's 2.35 extra but the item was only 3.11. Annoyingly another buyer bid 3.

Have heard nothing back and am now worried this one will run and run and end up in him leave negative feedback for me. Wondering if I should just inform ebay about his 'double' address? Surely it's not acceptable to use two locations on an address?

Buyer is refusing to mutually agree to cancel or to pay the international postage rate. I going to report her to ebay for not supplying a correct address. Please tell me ebay won't back them ?!

have you sent the cancellation request yet?

And you can report them for false contact details.

pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/identity-false.html

Thanks Lavender - am struggling a bit with my 9 month old who is in to everything but am trying to get on my lap top right now. Link is therefore appreciated as he is currently climbing in to the cats bowl. Argh.
As she has already said via email that she will not cancel I may just go straight to ebay. She really needs to be taken off the uk ebay site. I thought she would agree to mutually cancel to avoid me escalating this. If I don't escalate I think she will leave negative feedback. I will also make the pay pal refund right now as I am not comfortable with waiting until ebay get on to this.

if you send a cancellation request and she ignores it then you do get your fees back. But she can still neg either way.

Thanks Lavender - have refunded and reported her. Your link got me to the right place really quickly and saved me tonnes of time.

This buyer has been asked by e-bay to cancel and she has agreed. As you say though Lavender, she will still be able to leave feedback and, I dm guessing, will still cont

... I am guessing, she will still be able to continue using an address that is not hers. If this is the case, ebay are sanctioning underpayment of Royal Mail.

I should say that ebay sent the cancellation, they didn't ask me to do it, though I did get a mail from the buyer saying that she was agreeing as 'You don't want to take the risk'

if her contact details are wrong ebay will ask her to update them.

Thank you Maybe. :)