Buyer has admitted to wrong address - how to deal with it?

kalsha

Sold 2 items listed during the offer period.  Buyer both items.  Before packing I checked address on Royal mail website.  Noticed it is wrong - wrong postcode.  It is like student halls so I am worried about that as well.   Messaged buyer about the address and he just said "yes it is the wrong address!"
Do I send it to the correct address (which he hasn't given yet)?   Do I cancel the sales?
I will lose 30p x2 won't I?  
If he still wants to buy (I am not even sure if I want him to buy if he is like this!) will my listings be out of the offer period?
Talking about £10 each.  The items would have been large letter size - I would have posted them without tracking.
What do I do?

soolin

It’s a difficult one, I never check addresses so wouldn’t have noticed unless eBay did that ‘oops that address doesn’t seem right shall we change it  ‘ message when I click to buy a label.  When that has happened to me before and it was a minor issue  I have been able to change it within eBay postage and still post.

If the  postcode is completely wrong I personally would cancel the sales , if it’s just a digit then I’d change it and post .  I dislike halls of residence though , although I know I’m stuck if someone buys and has one for their address, post is often just left and easily gets mislaid and I might be tempted to package the 2 together and pay extra for a parcel with delivery confirmation. Although a large letter often has delivery confirmation it isn’t quite as guaranteed as a parcel. 

If you cancel then yes you lose the 2x30p and will have to wait until the next FVF offer to relist. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

kalsha said:

Talking about £10 each.  The items would have been large letter size - I would have posted them without tracking.

If you do post, for the peace of mind I'd send Tracked 48. 

How much feedback does the buyer have recently, or perhaps more useful would be how much have they left for others recently?

Can you find the correct postcode on the address finder? 

km1500

not an expert on this but I believe you have to post to the exact eBay address in order to get seller protection?

soolin

km1500 said:

not an expert on this but I believe you have to post to the exact eBay address in order to get seller protection?

Technically yes but sensible amendments can be made , INR claims rarely go as far as to demand physical proof of the actual address on the POP slip. I’d change a single digit where the original is obviously wrong or I’d add an extra line, as  so many people give you a house name or number and forget the street name, so I’d add that. 

kalsha

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

kalsha said:

Talking about £10 each.  The items would have been large letter size - I would have posted them without tracking.

How much feedback does the buyer have recently, or perhaps more useful would be how much have they left for others recently?

She is a newbie.   Less than 5.   Joined recently.

kalsha

Thank you all for your input.  Thinking about what to do. Will decide by the end of the day.

soolin

I will be careful how I phrase this comment as I don’t wish to suggest all students are dodgy! It has been my direct experience over 25+ years of selling, and also having 3 children at uni, that student addresses are a nightmare. It is easier now that so much post is tracked, but in earlier years stuff seemed to go into a dark hole of a student post room and was rarely seen by the recipient , I never sent anything of any value to my children for this very reason.

Then add to that the ease of making a false claim and get something for nothing as ‘everyone does it’. 

Incidentally many years ago I had an item lost, going to an Oxford college , tuned out the college and RM both had different ideas of what the post code was ! 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

kalsha said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

kalsha said:

Talking about £10 each.  The items would have been large letter size - I would have posted them without tracking.

How much feedback does the buyer have recently, or perhaps more useful would be how much have they left for others recently?

She is a newbie.   Less than 5.   Joined recently.

Oh dear, I'd be tempted to cancel with an apology that eBay recommended you cancel due to the address discrepancy.

I also echo Soolin's comments above! 

Jerry_Cornelius

km1500 said:

not an expert on this but I believe you have to post to the exact eBay address in order to get seller protection?

Yeah, I wasn't sure about this. Nothing to worry about yet, but I did sell an item last week, and almost immediately received an email from the buyer saying they had noticed the address on the invoice was her old student address, and asked me to send it to a diff address. What I did do is ask her to send me a pic of an official document with her name and current address shown, and she sent me a snip of her driving licence, which checked out. So I sent it. Should find out soon one way or the other. But I don't know whether having such a thing like a "pic" of an official document with the name and current address on would be anything ebay would consider in a case if it were lost or went missing ...

soolin

Jerry_Cornelius said:

km1500 said:

not an expert on this but I believe you have to post to the exact eBay address in order to get seller protection?

Yeah, I wasn't sure about this. Nothing to worry about yet, but I did sell an item last week, and almost immediately received an email from the buyer saying they had noticed the address on the invoice was her old student address, and asked me to send it to a diff address. What I did do is ask her to send me a pic of an official document with her name and current address shown, and she sent me a snip of her driving licence, which checked out. So I sent it. Should find out soon one way or the other. But I don't know whether having such a thing like a "pic" of an official document with the name and current address on would be anything ebay would consider in a case if it were lost or went missing ...

No it won’t help on the rare chance this turns out to be a scammer . EBay are quite clear that you only get seller protection if you send to the address they give you on the payment advice .