Paypal - Confirmed Address Question

frankhardy

I have been burned by shipping to an unconfirmed address before. Now, I am very suspicious every time I get an unconfirmed address. If it's only a few dollars, I don't worry about it. I have my Paypal set up to where I have to accept a payment from an unconfirmed address. This one, in particular is for $35. Kind of borderline. I am not sure whether or not to accept it or to deny it. I do say in my Ebay auctions that I accept only Paypal with confirmed address so I do have the right to deny.

Here is my question - is there a way to sort of confirm the address my self by using the Ebay "contact member" button. I could contact the buyer just to verify that this is a legitimate payment. I know it would not protect me in a chargeback situation, but it would at least verify that the Ebay buyer did indeed pay with that address. Am I on the right track or do I have it all wrong?

EagleEyeKid

The Ebay member contact will only provide the person's name, city, state, and zip. It will NOT show his street address. Even if it did, I don't think Paypal will care that you retrieved the info somewhere else. To save you from headaches, you should just set your preferences to "confirmed addresses" only. I just sold an item and this one person was "unconfirmed" and he was sent a message that he needs to get verified with either a CC or bank acct # number. My auctions are Paypal Only. Of course he emails me and says he refuses to do that. I told him to then sent payment thru the mail which I have yet to hear back from him. His FB was also a whopping 92%.....I don't think he'll pay....just another scammer.

storm888

"Am I on the right track or do I have it all wrong? "

/////////////////////////////////////

There is no right/wrong track, except for your own comfort
level with transactions that leave you with no protection.

PayPal offers preference settings that allow sellers to block
unconfirmed-address payments.The consensus among many
experienced sellers is that there is almost never a good reason
to ship to an unconfirmed address.

If a customer known to a seller wants an item shipped to a
third-party as a gift, a smart seller will comply with the request.
If a high-FB buyer makes a special request - and you can confirm
that the account has not been jacked - that is not a problem.

All that said, every listing should state the following:

"Ships Only To PayPal Confirmed Address."

As Frank knows, if that language is not in the listing, EBAY views
denied payments as justification for a buyer to prevail in a NPS
claim, and the seller will receive a strike.

Buyers who do not pay according to the terms of the listing,
cannot prevail in a UID filed by a seller. EBAY views an improperly
rendered PayPal payment as non-payment by the buyer.

Because profit margins are generally low on EBAY - especially
with card sales - it is important to minimize the extra efforts
required to deal with buyers who do not comply with the
terms of the listing. Extra work equals lost money.

In Frank's example, I would email the buyer and ask him/her if
everything is OK. If I did not hear a satisfactory response, I
would refund the payment.

storm

storm888

"To save you from headaches, you should just set your
preferences to "confirmed addresses" only."

/////////////////////////////////////

That is correct.

However, as of this morning, that setting may still be defeated
when a buyer selects the "Pay All Sellers" option in MyEBAY.
That option disregards the seller's settings, and accepts all
payments; confirmed/unconfirmed. PayPal has been working
on this frequent gltch for more than one-year. The only way for
the seller to fix it is to do a manual refund.

frankhardy

What I meant by "Contact Member" is just asking the buyer a question, not getting his personal info from Ebay. All I would do is email the buyer through Ebay and say, "Hey, is this payment legit?" He could then verify with his response. I know Paypal would not back that, but do you guys see any problems verifying it that way?

storm888

"I know Paypal would not back that, but do you guys
see any problems verifying it that way? "

///////////////////////////////////////

That is fine, to give you some peace of mind. As you said,
it does not fly with PayPal.

Another thing, I forgot to mention: Many sellers try to
help buyers get their address confirmed and/or their
account verified. Some buyers do not know how to do it.

When buyers refuse to be helped in setting their PayPal
account up properly, their is often a reason.

Onlypsahockey

"Hey, is this payment legit?"



I'm sorry but that was hilarious!

If they say yes will you feel better?

Post of the year!

Thanks, Bob C.

grote15

Check his feedback. If he has a good FB history, I wouldn't sweat it. I've shipped dozens of items to unconfirmed addresses and never had a problem. For $35, I doubt he'd try to scam you. If it were $350, then I may be more cautious.

frankhardy

<< <i> "Hey, is this payment legit?"



I'm sorry but that was hilarious!

If they say yes will you feel better?

Post of the year!

Thanks, Bob C. >>




Apparently you don't understand what I meant by that statement. If someone had used his Paypal account without the buyer knowing it, I could then use the Ebay email to actually get in contact with the buyer instead of just replying to the Paypal email where the potential scammer could see it. Then the actual Ebay user could say, "Yes, I did use Paypal to purchase this auction. Please ship it to the unconfirmed address."

I will feel better once someone confirms that I am on the right track of understanding all of this.