Shipping to An Unconfirmed Paypal Address????

[Sean Dugan]

I just sold a racquet on the monopolistic auction site and was paid via paypal.

A college student bought the frame and is requesting that I send it to a building on campus instead of his confirmed home address (an apartment) in the same college town (USA). Of course, he didn't clear this little detail with me before he bought the racquet. Idiot! I'm not so keen on doing this. I'd rather send it to his confirmed address.

The terms in my auctions are pretty thoroughly worded. All sales final...if you don't purchase the optional shipping insurance you are responsible for loss damage theft, I have no responsibilty, etc.

Of course he didn''t buy the optional insurance, so I'm shipping uninsured Parcel Post with delivery confirmation. My response to his shipping requests were worded that I'll ship to the unconfirmed address if he agrees to accept full responsibility if he doesn't receive the package for any reason. Not sure if that really covers me with paypal though if something goes awry.

My question is.......Have any of you shipped to an unconfirmed Paypal address and been burned? Did paypal back you up or did they dock your account? Paypal leaves these matters up to the credit card company's discretion in credit funded purchases. Paypal decides the matter in the case of cash funded transactions.

My concern is a chargeback. I'm not even sure if he paid via credit card or cash since it is difficult to discern that info. ...Plus this guy only has only a few feedback points, no negs, but not enough make me comfortable that he isn't going to scam me.

I am definitely waiting for his paypal payment to transfer fully into my checking account before I ship. My paypal balance is zero so they would have a hard time docking me in any event.

Recommendations?

 

[Court_Jester]

Just tell him that you can't since PayPal may not cover you in the event that the item shipped to an unconfirmed address gets lost.

End of discussion. It's not like he's demanding it.

 

[Richie Rich]

i only ship to confirmed addresses. tell him he can pick it up when he gets home. you're taking a chance sending it to his school. anything happens and paypal has an easy out - and you are screwed $$

 

[flamekid992000]

Insurance protects you not the buyer, the law requires you to send the item in stated condition. Just send to his home then you don't have to worry about anything unless it breaks during transit and he files a Significantly Not As Describe against you. But if you had insurance you can get your money back from the post office.

 

[Sean Dugan]

After sleeping on it........and remembering that no good deed goes unpunished, I shipped the racquet to his confirmed address.

Shipping to an unconfirmed address just doesn't make any sense for a seller especially in the absence of substantial positive feedback. By doing so, one is surrendering any fraud protection paypal offers......which is one of the main reasons to use paypal in the first place.

I blamed my refusal to ship to an unconfirmed address on paypal, their master.......the evil monopolistic auction site....and our society as a whole. ;o)

 

[ej]

I frequently ask people to send stuff to my unconfirmed work address because someone is always there to receive it. In fact, I clarify this before bidding because I would never dump this request in their lap after winning the auction. Because of my feedback, they always agree to help me out and send the stuff to place that's easiest for me -- and, in turn, they have another bidder.

You should ask this dude to assume all the risks that come with this request. Get him to sign something in front of notary public and make him supply redundant forms of identity proof. Act like he's buying a house and the payment is in the 100s of thousands. Put up as many obstacles as you can. Do everything possible not to help him. Be suspicious and mistrustful and assume that his shipping request is part of some deep plot to de-fraud you.

But seriously, there's nothing wrong with trying to help someone by sending them stuff where they actually want it sent. Maybe you should just trust him.... unless the transaction is over 500$ or he has bad feedback.

FYI: for future reference... you don't get "docked" for shipping to an unconfirmed address. This is merely a layer of fraud protection -- a layer of protection that was made irrelevant by two things: a) his money cleared and b) your disclaimer says that you are not responsible for unreceived items if no insurance is purchased. What if this was merely a good kid who just wanted his stuff to be sent to a more convenient place? Granted, he was dumb for not asking in advance. But...you could have merely said to him: "if you don't receive this because of your request to have it sent to an unconfirmed address, I cannot be held accountable". If he agrees to this in an email, than I'm not sure, given that he didn't purchase insurance, where your exposure is.

 

[flamekid992000]

Question about insurance has been asked many times and all the answers have been the same.

4. "My Buyer says the item was damaged, but he did not buy Insurance.
As a Seller, I'm not responsible for items lost or damaged during shipping."

Yes, you are.
Under Federal Trade Commission Laws, and **** and PayPal rules,
The Seller is responsible for getting the item to the customer
in the condition in which it was advertised.
Insurance is for the protection of the Seller.

The buyer has a 100% chance of winning if he files with paypal, he will get his money back and you will get back your broken item.