Buyer wants me to send to different address AIBU?

[sassymuffin]

I had a buyer who purchased an item and when they paid they told me not to post as they would arrange a courier to collect. Normally I always try to accommodate all requests but I had not listed collection as an option and I am off on holiday on Monday. I messaged the buyer to tell them this would not be possible. They then sent a message telling me to send the item to another address that was not listed as the dispatch address.

I explained that I couldn't due this due to eBay/Paypal policies ie buyer could say they hadn't received item. Buyer then explained they where living abroad so I couldn't post to the address eBay had listed. The buyer said they had amended their address with eBay but this did not change my dispatch details and when I contacted eBay they said it is the buyer address at time of purchase that is the dispatch address and this cannot be changed retrospectively. Ebay suggested the order was cancelled and a refund should be given.

I informed the customer and told her the transaction should be cancelled and apologised for the situation but explained again why eBay put these policies in place. When they did not reply after a few hours I requested a cancellation with eBay that required the seller to confirm that that was a problem with the delivery address so she would receive a speedy refund.

I then received a message from the seller telling me I was disrespectful and "thanks for nothing".

I was going to suggest I relist the item as a buy it now to enable the buyer to repurchase with their updated new delivery address. However after the hassle and angry response I don't think i will bother.

Do sellers often take the risk and send to different delivery addresses?

You did absolutely the right thing in cancelling the sale!

The buyers payment would have bounced and eBay would have done nothing!

Heard it thousands of times where people have had similar cons, you did well to trust your instinct and stick to the rules.

Take a look at their feedback received and left for others and see if they look dodgy, just for the record, they might just have been inexperienced, however you did the right thing.

Block their id in case they try to buy from you again.

And next time add to the listing that you do not accept couriers or collection. In the little box for posting details state that you only post to the address that is registered with Ebay or add it to your listing.

Some people do not realise that sellers do not all use the same methods and might think they are the same as a local selling site or Gumtree and can do it the way they are used to.

You did exactly the right thing in my opinion. As a regular seller I find that all the rights seem to be with the buyers on eBay nowadays, and as sellers we have to take every care and judge each transaction individually.

I have posted to an unauthorised address in the past. I had been messaging with the person and they seemed very genuine, they'd been registered on eBay about 15 years and had spot on feedback. They also provided additional proof of ID. But generally I would not do this.

I would just ignore their rude message, they are looking to get a response and to be ignored will probably wind them up even more

Thanks for all of the advice.

I have blocked the buyer so they can no longer bid on any of my future listings and blocked them from being able to contact me.

The buyers feedback was sporadic but was 100% and they may have well been genuine but with eBay siding with the buyer 99% of the time if things go wrong I just didn't want to take the risk.

I stated that the item had to be signed for as the value was £50 so I have no idea why the buyer thought they could dictate a courier pick up or different address for postage. It was probably due to inexperience and not understanding the issues that sellers are faced with if there are subsequent problems.