Item Being Returned Undelivered due to "No Such Number"

[tryubik-useonlyasdirected]

Just prior to the big de minimis cutoff/DDU requirements we sold one last item to the US. It was a mid-priced antique. The buyers feedback given and recieved is excellent. As soon as the funds showed cleared we rushed to pack, purchase and post - all out safely packed and in record time.

Today it shows "No Such Number" & "Recipient not located at address provided. Item being returned to sender." - What does this mean? If it is returned, is it covered under eBay Seller Protection? 

We just checked the address and it shows a Pick N'Send re-shipper to the Dominican Republic with the world's worse reviews and plenty of scam reports from the company and users of the company. From now all we'll be checking addresses and denying reshippers even though in decades we've never had any issues.

Meanwhile, it appears the USPS didn't deliver the item and are simply sending it back to us rather than letting these criminals attempt a scam (thank goodness for quality public services!). Will eBay honor their policy in this case and make sure we are not on the hook for any return shipping costs or further refund scam attempts? Has anyone experienced something similar and, if so, what did you do?

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

The only way that this would be a scam is if the buyer asked you to ship it to a different address and you agreed. That is a common scam. 

Otherwise, I highly doubt it was a scam. It was most likely a freight forwarding address. Which means, if it was a scam, it wouldn't be a very good one. Freight forwarding addresses invalidate buyer protection because eBay isn't going to cover an item that is forwarded by a third party shipping service.

These are reasonably common. I have customers overseas who use these all the time, I have never been "scammed" by one. It's most likely someone in a different country who wants to order item. Saying a person using a freight forwarding address is a scammer would be like saying everybody who sells on eBay is a scammer, because you can find examples of people being scammed on eBay's platform.

If you printed the label directly from eBay or can otherwise prove that you sent to the full address exactly as it was on the invoice, and there was a delivery attempt, you should be covered. It means that either the buyer did not provide their full address, USPS made a delivery error and was unable to get in contact with the buyer to rectify it, or USPS made a delivery error completely unrelated to negligence on the part of the buyer.

If you did not ship to the exact address on the invoice, you might have to refund the buyer if they open an INR. Even know it was a freight forwarder, as far as I understand it they still have item not received protection until it is delivered. It is the process of having a third party who was not involved with the transaction deliver it afterwards that invalidates their ability to open an item not as described request. 

The short of it is that this was almost certainly not a scammer, it's a foreign buyer using a freight forwarding address. Either the customer screwed up, you screwed up, or USPS screwed up. If there is a delivery attempt and you shipped to the exact address on the invoice, you are most likely covered in the event the buyer opens an item not received case. USPS will most likely return the item to sender. I won't comment on how I think you should handle the customer service aspect after the fact (refund, don't refund, partial refund, offer to re-send, etc). It's not my place to impose my ethics on you. The point is, you're most likely covered against an INR.

[marnotom!]

Buyers using freight forwarders or reshippers generally forfeit their ability to use the Money Back Guarantee in the event of an issue involving the forwarder, so you've got that bit of policy in addition to the bit about items being undeliverable.

I think giving up on reshippers after one problem is a bit of an extreme reaction given that, as you say, you've had no problems with them otherwise, so I suggest giving this a bit of a rethink.  What sort of scam do you think was being pulled here, anyway?

Once you receive the item back, get in touch with the buyer and inform them of what you've learned about the item's transit and give them a refund for the item minus the shipping price.  Hopefully you won't have incurred further charges for the return.

[tryubik-useonlyasdirected]

That is our plan going forward. We're hoping it comes back without issue and should anything arise that it is covered through eBay's policy. Just trying to be proactive and see what other's around the forums have encountered and the steps they have taken in this unfortunate situation.

Reading between the lines on the reviews there are a couple of scams consistently coming out of this particular re-shipper/freight forwarder. There are a surprising number of them when you search the company and not perpetuating that environment and instead trying to find safe and secure methods to ship to customers is preferred.

So, less of a give up on them (in 20 years this is really the first issue) so much as check closer and modify accordingly as technically we already have a no re-shipper policy and have for some time.

[femmefan1946]

Reading between the lines on the reviews there are a couple of scams consistently coming out of this particular re-shipper/freight forwarder. There are a surprising number of them when you search the company

These companies have hundreds if not thousands of customers.

If the number of scammers who use them is less than one percent of  transactions/shipments, it's not the forwarder that is at fault.

EBay protects sellers against reshipping problems (not all of which are scams)

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy...

https://www.ebay.ca/help/policies/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy?...