Buyer wants me to use her fedex account?

[galwaygirl007]

Ladies,

Can you advise? I recently sold a herve leger dress (€650) to a buyer in Switzerland. I live in Ireland. She has asked me to use her fedex account to ship the dress to her at no cost to me and to refund her what I charged her for shipping.

I do not want to do this as I think I would have no protection if the buyer states the dress didn't arrive. What do you guys think? The buyer seems nice and has an excellent feedback score.

I normally ship with Irish postal service so I am not very familar with fedex. Could I also insure the package my self with fedex? Would they allow us both to insure it? (she states she is also insuring the package).

I will be away from the computer for several hours and will check back tonight (its 12.41am here now and I'm off into town!) to see what you guys think! Its saturday here and monday is a bank holiday so I won't be shipping the dress until Tuesday so I have a bit of time to figure this one out!

Would really appreciate your advice on this one!

[noshoepolish]

I would not do it. How do you prove you shipped it?

[luvtami]

I don't see what the problem is (using her FedEx account number).

You are still the sender, she's just electronically paying for the shipping herself directly to FedEx.

As long as the address associated with her FedEx account number matches the address shown on your PayPal payment, I think everything will be just fine.

Once you've obtained the FedEx tracking number, just enter that information into the details of the PayPal payment page. No biggie. I've never used FedEx originating in Europe (since I'm in the US), but I assume it works the same that the tracking will show the origination country as Ireland and when it gets delivered it will show Switzerland.

[Twilight78]

I agree with luvtami, I don't see a problem, you are the one who will fill out the shipping label, making sure the address you are sending the package to is the confirmed Paypal address and you can insure it for the full amount. The only difference is that instead of paying for it you will just put in her account number.

[gidramom]

I think you could call FedEx to verify if the account matches to the buyer's name and her confirmed PayPal address.

Also I would call PayPal for just being on safe side.

[noshoepolish]

Most of the people that do this are using their employer's account without their employer knowing it. JMHO of course.

[handbagcrzy]

I used a company's ups account once but I was reviewing a product for them. When I was done I received tracking. Though ups charged me a fee $2.00 for handling.

totally different situation though. my point is I got tracking

[fantastic_3]

I have done it before and I think it is pretty safe. It provides a tracking no. & signature as if you were paying it from your end. You can see the paypal address in the payment if it is confirmed and if it is the same address it is going to.

[kristie]

Originally Posted by noshoepolish

Most of the people that do this are using their employer's account without their employer knowing it. JMHO of course.

This is not necessarily true......I have people that I purchase from ship from my personal FedEx account number. A lot of people (individuals, not companies) have FedEx accounts because if you sell items even infrequently you save money when you have a FedEx account. Plus, it is free to sign up so why wouldn't someone get one??

[mmmsc]

This question has come up before, but how could YOU (the seller) be in charge of getting the proof (signature, etc) if it was sent from THEIR (the buyer's) account? I am saying worse case scenario - that the package was lost or the seller was a scammer and claimed they didn't get it? I would want to have my own proof that it was sent since PP requires that you have that proof to make a claim. If both buyer and seller have a FedEx account and you just put in their account number instead of yours, you could still track it. And you would have the "right" to access that info. If you don't have an account, I wonder if FedEx would release those details except to the actual owner of the account?

[Barlow]

This seems very sketchy, if she has a FedEx account it's probably not supposed to be used for *bay purchases...

[Apricot Summers]

Originally Posted by luvtami

I don't see what the problem is (using her FedEx account number). You are still the sender, she's just electronically paying for the shipping herself directly to FedEx. As long as the address associated with her FedEx account number matches the address shown on your PayPal payment, I think everything will be just fine. Once you've obtained the FedEx tracking number, just enter that information into the details of the PayPal payment page. No biggie. I've never used FedEx originating in Europe (since I'm in the US), but I assume it works the same that the tracking will show the origination country as Ireland and when it gets delivered it will show Switzerland.

DONT DO IT!!! NO!!

You have no control over the shipment. There is nothing that can prevent the account owner (or the person who has control of the account) from diverting the shipment - changing the address it's delivered to. It could be a scammer in Romania, for instance, who is unlawfully using another's fed ex account and after the pickup tells fed ex to send the item to them in Romania.

You then have no proof it arrived at the address on file with Pay Pal.

Then the owner reports to fed ex that they didn't authorize the shipment. Fed Ex then comes after YOU for the payment of the shipment.

Absolutely NOT. You are the seller, you determine how to ship, how to package and by what means. You are responsible for getting the item to the buyer and if you give the buyer that control but you retain legal responsibilty you're trusting that the buyer will not scru you.

The risk is NOT worth it. Do it the right way. The easy way. YOU ship. Get signature confirmation to cover yourself too.

[mmmsc]

Originally Posted by mmmsc

This question has come up before, but how could YOU (the seller) be in charge of getting the proof (signature, etc) if it was sent from THEIR (the buyer's) account? I am saying worse case scenario - that the package was lost or the seller was a scammer and claimed they didn't get it? I would want to have my own proof that it was sent since PP requires that you have that proof to make a claim. If both buyer and seller have a FedEx account and you just put in their account number instead of yours, you could still track it. And you might have the "right" to access that info. If you don't have an account, I wonder if FedEx would release those details except to the actual owner of the account?

After reading the post below mine, I would say, I would be very reluctant to ship this way. Things have changed on ebay (way too many scammers) and you may get scammed out of your item AND your shipping costs. I would say you charge her for your shipping and then you have all the info. I mean how much is she going to save and why does she want you to ship this way??

[karmenzsofia]

Just had a thread about this a couple of weeks ago. I can't remember the seller did, but if you search for it you should be able to find it.

[galwaygirl007]

Wow,

Thank you all so much for all the input!

I think I will pay fedex myself to ship it. Better to be safe than sorry. She sent me the details she wanted on the shipping from and I was not impressed with one peice - "herve leger dress used for 6 months" ???!!! The dress is spring summer 2009 season, but it is new with tags!

After reading what you all have said I will use fedex but I will not use her account. I will e-mail her to tell her this over the weekend. If she is genuine (I kinda think she is) she should have no problem with me controlling the shipping, right?