One parcel, two addresses and a dispute for Christmas. Help!

[Caulibean]

I sold some items on ebay a few weeks ago to earn a little extra money towards Christmas. I've used ebay to sell before plenty of times but not recently (within the last year).

One of the items was a bundle of 10 DVD's. I had several bids and they sold for £12. All good, payment received and I posted off to the buyer. No problems and heard nothing from them until yesterday. The buyer informed me that the DVD'S hadn't arrived (11 days after postage). Luckily I had paid for a service that includes a tracking number. I checked the tracking and it confirmed that they were delivered to a neighbouring address 2 days after postage. I informed the buyer of this (including giving them the tracking number) and expected them to collect the parcel from the neighbours and hear nothing more about it.

Unfortunately it then transpired that the address I'd been sent by eBay (on two separate emails) was infact an old address. Luckily the buyer still lives in the same town, and was able to go to the house where it was supposedly delivered. The people there claim to know nothing about it. Nor do the people at the house it was addressed to.

She's opened a dispute with eBay but AIBU to refuse a refund at the moment? I'm still hoping they will turn up (at either end, the box had sender's details on) and it wasn't my fault! I did what I was asked/contracted to do by posting the DVD's off and including a tracking number. Why should I be out of pocket for someone else's mistake?

Upload the tracking number on to the dispute.
It is the buyers fault they didn't update their address details.
You have rightly sent the item to the address supplied and have tracking confirmation it was delivered.
I would leave the case to run it's course and would not be refunding at this stage.

EBay will side with the buyer and force a refund. If you sent with Royal Mail tracked you should be able to claim the money back from them, as they are ultimately responsible for it until it reaches the correct address.

Did you even read the post?

Yes I read the post. The buyer put the wrong address, but it wasn't delivered to that address it was delivered to the neighbouring address of the address on the parcel. As it didn't arrive at the address on the parcel (right or wrong address for the buyer), Op can still put in a claim to Royal Mail. Maybe you should have read the post.

I don't think you are at fault here if the buyer gave you the wrong address. Whether eBay will see it that way is a different matter. Email them and explain.

You posed to the address provided by eBay. You have proof of this. Make sure you relay this to eBay. They won’t side with the buyer on this.

I did exactly this once - put an old address and the new owners said they hadn't seen it. It never occurred to me to try and get a refund - it was my fault!

eBay and PayPal pretty much always side with the buyer. I’ve never heard of them siding with the seller, ever. This is why I’ve stopped selling on eBay.

The final straw for me was selling a silk dress, posted recorded delivery, dress was signed for at the address given, but the buyer claimed not to have received it.

Despite the parcel being signed for, at her address, by someone who signed using her surname, PayPal refunded the buyer and I lost both the dress and the money for it.