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Ebay sale advice
slingshot2000 - 1/7/13 at 12:29 AM

Hi,
I sold some concert tickets on ebay earlier this evening and I have just had a message from one of the buyers asking me to post to an alternative address. He paid my BIN price, so had to pay straight away via Pay Pal.
Here is his message, with the name and address altered;

""Hi

Please forward tickets via royal mail next day special delivery to the below address
William Blake,
17 (a street name St)
London London
(post code) United Kingdom

please place tickets in a plain envelope with no ebay markings as tickets are a gift most important i need the postal tracking number forwarded to me asap.

thanks
Michael""


Now this is NOT the address his Pay Pal account uses or the address I received from ebay, one of which is in Northern Ireland.

I cannot afford to loose this money, so I have told him that I will only post to the address Advised by Pay Pal.
Also, from his ebay ID, I suspect he is re-selling these tickets / touting them.

What would the wisdom of locosters advise ?

Thanks in advance
Jon

Ben_Copeland - 1/7/13 at 03:34 AM

Use the PayPal address for maximum safety. Unverified addresses can be a problem if he reports them as not arriving.

mark chandler - 1/7/13 at 04:52 AM

PP address, he can always post on himself.

joneh - 1/7/13 at 06:04 AM

I used to manage a small online shop. Never sell anything to someone from London or Liverpool with a very English sounding name!

I bet he gives you a mobile phone number and a yahoo/hotmail email address...

AndyW - 1/7/13 at 07:01 AM

Has all the signs of a scam. I would message him back and say you will only ship to his paypal address, and explain that it's as per ebay rules. If genuine buyer he will accept, if a scammer you will son find out. Make sure your do ship them by a track and trace service with the value insured.

Hope it all goes well

slingshot2000 - 1/7/13 at 08:08 AM

Thanks for all the advice. Below is the reply I sent last night at about the same time I posted my question on here. So far there has been no response. The tickets are for the Rolling Stones concert this Saturday, so if I post today he should have plenty of time to send on.

Thanks for the advice, I let you know if there is any problem.
Regards
Jon

The response I sent;
"I am very reluctant to send to an address that is not on pay pal order, hearing too many horror stories.
Please advise me on next step.
Kind regards
Jon"


[Edited on 1/7/13 by slingshot2000]

nick205 - 1/7/13 at 09:26 AM

Why not query it with eBay and PayPal before sending. They'll no doubt tell you to send recorded delivery to the PayPal address. By raising the issue before sending, you then should have eBay and PayPal's support in the event of any problems.

Scuzzle - 1/7/13 at 10:48 AM

I agree with the others, don't be sending to an address other than the Paypal one, chances are he is going to sell on the tickets and then claim he never received them from you to try and get double bubble. He will raise a dispute with Paypal and you have a postage receipt to somewhere he will deny all knowledge of so Paypal will refund him.

He may be on the level but you can't afford to take the chance.

Aaron_n_Sim - 1/7/13 at 11:12 AM

I agree with all the advice, but eBay now keep copies of all messages sent incase of a dispute so if he did send the request to post elsewhere through the bay they'll have a copy & record of it being sent from his account!, iron maiden refused to do paper tickets to thwart the touts, must take photo I.D. And the card they were bought on! Hopefully all gigs will be like this soon.

Skirrow - 1/7/13 at 12:37 PM

If he insists then you can tell him that you'll refund his payment and he can make payment again but with the correct address this time. Or for even more safety tell him you'll refund and he can do a bank transfer. Ship using special delivery

I own an eBay/ecommcerce business and have shipped 100s of thousands of orders and been stung a few times with stuff like this. Double check you are fully covered on Paypal or walk away.

The other option is to just ship to the Paypal address by special delivery. He might leave bad feedback but if everything else is in order you are covered if he opens a case.

Skirrow - 1/7/13 at 12:45 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Aaron_n_Sim
I agree with all the advice, but eBay now keep copies of all messages sent incase of a dispute so if he did send the request to post elsewhere through the bay they'll have a copy & record of it being sent from his account!


You might get lucky if he opens an ebay dispute and someone at ebay actually reads the messages they might refund him and not charge you for it. That said, they can't prove that the person who ordered them even owns the ebay account so don't hold your breath.

However, if he opens a Paypal dispute or if he goes directly to his card issuer you'll lose your money. You'll basically be given the option to refund or enter a tracking number. If you enter a valid tracking number which proves it was delivered to the correct address then you get to keep your money. Anything else, in my experience, and you lose your money. Sob stories and logical arguments all fall on deaf ears, if you can even find someone's ears to hear them...

Not Anumber - 1/7/13 at 01:13 PM

How much did you sell the tickets for by the way ?

scootz - 1/7/13 at 01:40 PM

If he sent the request via the eBay messaging service, then I'd post them to wherever he wants them to go, but only via Recorded or Special Deilvery.

If he's going to screw you over, then he can screw you over just the same by having them sent to the 'normal' addres and then complain that they never arrived.

Skirrow - 1/7/13 at 01:56 PM

quote:
Originally posted by scootz
If he sent the request via the eBay messaging service, then I'd post them to wherever he wants them to go, but only via Recorded or Special Deilvery.

If he's going to screw you over, then he can screw you over just the same by having them sent to the 'normal' addres and then complain that they never arrived.



No, he can't. If you send tracked to the Paypal address and he says they didn't arrive then Paypal will ask for the tracking number. If you provide a valid tracking number showing it's been delivered then you are safe (most of the time)

Anything else, and you lose your money. (I guess there may be exceptions like if you have a court order or something but the above holds true in virtually every case)

- Check the paypal payment page to ensure you have seller protection
- Ship via special delivery (don't use recorded for anything of value)
- Ship to the address in Paypal

Do the above and you'll be fine in the cast majority of cases. There are always oddball one-offs but the above is fine 99% of the time.

slingshot2000 - 1/7/13 at 02:47 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Not Anumber
How much did you sell the tickets for by the way ?
£260.00 for the pair.

scootz - 1/7/13 at 04:07 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Skirrow
No, he can't. If you send tracked to the Paypal address and he says they didn't arrive then Paypal will ask for the tracking number. If you provide a valid tracking number showing it's been delivered then you are safe (most of the time).


Been there twice and both times the buyer denied ever having signed for the items.. and both times eBay found in their favour. I've heard from others who have met the same fate.