Hello eBay experts!!
I've been buying and selling on eBay since 1998 mostly without issue, but this one has me stumped. Here's the timeline:
Wed 5/25: A Coach wallet I had listed ended with one bid. Winning bidder has zero feedback. Invoice sent.
Fri 5/27: I send payment reminder message, buyer responds that they are traveling and will pay within 24H.
Sat 5/28: Payment received. The address in the PayPal account is a Holiday Inn in Chicago. Buyer confirms via message that she wants it shipped there, asks me to wait until 6/3 to ship as that's when she will be at the hotel. I explain that eBay rules don't allow me to wait that long to ship. Buyer says that's fine. I ship the package that day and write "Hold for guest arriving 6/3" on the package. I've worked in hotels for 25+ years and this is standard practice.
Today, 6/1: I check tracking, and see that the package arrived at the hotel and was refused, and is currently on it's way back to me. I call the hotel and they say they have no one by that name with a reservation this week, which is why they refused the package. The reservation is probably under a travel companion's name.
I followed eBay's "rules" and sent to the address in PayPal. Zero feedback buyer, so she's inexperienced. The package likely won't get back to me in time to re-send it to her while she's still at that hotel. She's "traveling back to her home country" from there. I'm not shipping this wallet to Vietnam.
So now what do I do?
I've been buying and selling on eBay since 1998 mostly without issue, but this one has me stumped. Here's the timeline:
Wed 5/25: A Coach wallet I had listed ended with one bid. Winning bidder has zero feedback. Invoice sent.
Fri 5/27: I send payment reminder message, buyer responds that they are traveling and will pay within 24H.
Sat 5/28: Payment received. The address in the PayPal account is a Holiday Inn in Chicago. Buyer confirms via message that she wants it shipped there, asks me to wait until 6/3 to ship as that's when she will be at the hotel. I explain that eBay rules don't allow me to wait that long to ship. Buyer says that's fine. I ship the package that day and write "Hold for guest arriving 6/3" on the package. I've worked in hotels for 25+ years and this is standard practice.
Today, 6/1: I check tracking, and see that the package arrived at the hotel and was refused, and is currently on it's way back to me. I call the hotel and they say they have no one by that name with a reservation this week, which is why they refused the package. The reservation is probably under a travel companion's name.
I followed eBay's "rules" and sent to the address in PayPal. Zero feedback buyer, so she's inexperienced. The package likely won't get back to me in time to re-send it to her while she's still at that hotel. She's "traveling back to her home country" from there. I'm not shipping this wallet to Vietnam.
So now what do I do?