Advice about a non-responsive eBay buyer

[Alipes]

This is an issue I really haven't had to deal with before, so hopefully I can get some advice.  I recently had two auctions purchased by the same person, who has already sent me payment.  Unfortunately, she also sent me two different messages that said her address had changed and provided me with a new address -- that was slightly different in each message.  Looking at the addresses provided it seemed pretty clear that one was a slight typo of the other, but there was no easy way for me to tell which was which.

I sent her a message back immediately through eBay and mentioned that the items were ready to ship but I needed the address confirmed because of this issue, and didn't hear a response back.  This was on Sunday, so I sent her another message on Wednesday mentioning again that I could not ship her items until I had received a fixed address.

It's Monday now and I still haven't received a response.  I've gotten payment, and I've got the items packed up and ready to go, but I just can't send them until I hear back from her and she hasn't responded.  Is there anything else I can do in this situation?  How long do I wait, and what do I do once I give up on hearing from her?

[ponylady]

Have you double checked her address on Paypal? I know I have had buyers contact me to make sure it was going to the right one. And when I double checked their info when I was ready to print their label it was correct. They sometimes panic thinking it was not updated.

But on another note it is not a good idea to ship to another address other than the one provided in her account. If you do you will not be covered by eBay's seller protection.  It is her responsibility whether she moved or whatever to make sure her info is accurate and up to date.

[Alipes]

Yeah, just today I double checked and both her eBay and Paypal addresses do not match the updated address that she attempted to provide me.  I haven't sold very much stuff on eBay so I am still learning a lot of these little things and did not realize that would nullify my seller protection. 

At this point it took her a week to get payment to me and it's been another week now since then and I'm rather tired of dealing with this and worrying about it.  So what's my next course of action?  Mail it to the address that eBay and Paypal have listed anyway?  Refund her money and cancel the whole thing? (which I'm not sure how to do but is sounding more and more logical).  I am not a fan of being in "limbo" like this and would rather get it resolved one way or another.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

You need to file a non-paying bidder report if it's been more than a week.  It's the BUYER'S responsibility to make sure their account is enabled and ready-to-go.  Don't be nice and make it your problem, too! 

[Galactica]

Well that is awkward as she has already paid- 

I think though that to be protected by paypal you are required to mail to their confirmed address?  Is the one on ebay and/or paypal the "corrected address?

You might refund her through paypal until she gets the address fixed and open a non-paying bidder on her-  this is a tough question I hope you get it sorted.

[Alipes]

The one on eBay and Paypal match, but they are both the "old" address from my understanding.  I agree, it's just a very awkward situation all around which is why I felt the need to ask about it. :/

I am thinking at this point my best course of action is simply to refund the money and try to do a non-paying bidder.  I don't feel comfortable trying to send a package to her "old" address and increasingly it sounds like even if I had the right address it would be a bad idea if it's not the one listed through eBay and Paypal.

Thanks so much for your help guys!

[ponylady]

I would probably do the exact same thing Alipes. It's not worth the aggravation that this can cause you in the end.

[bluerose9978]

I agree with the refund. It should get her attention if nothing else.

[Alipes]

Well, I refunded the money, and marked as payment un-received in eBay.  eBay would not let me submit a non-paying buyer request, but they did let me request a cancellation for the specific reason of the buyer requesting shipment to an unconfirmed address!  Now just to wait to see what happens from here, but I feel better already that I'm taking steps to try to get this cleaned up.

Thanks so much for the advice all!

[ponylady]

Good Luck and you did the right thing