Paypal Seller Protection On Unconfirmed Addresses?

[chrza]

Alright, so I sold an item today on eBay. It was a bit pricey, so I stipulated that I would only accept Paypal payments from confirmed addresses, so as to be covered by Paypal's seller protection policy.

Of course, the ding dong that bought my item pays with an unconfirmed address :rolleyes:

However, upon checking the transaction details page in my paypal account, I notice that I am eligible for seller protection.

Protection for items not received
When you ship to the address on this page and provide proof that the item was delivered, you're protected against claims for items not received. For complete requirements, see terms.

Protection for unauthorized payments
When you ship to the address on this page and provide proof that the item was shipped, you're protected against claims for unauthorized payments. For complete requirement, see terms.

So my Paypal account is telling me i'm covered, yet in the terms section I notice that is says:

Additional qualification requirement for unauthorized payments: The address on the "Transaction Details" page that you ship to must be a Confirmed Address. This requirement does not apply to Chargebacks due to non-receipt of merchandise.

Am I missing something or does this totally conflict with my Paypal account telling me i'm covered? Anybody know if I'm ACTUALLY covered? This is new to me, I remember always seeing "Seller Protection: Ineligible" when addresses were unconfirmed.

I'll also be kinda pissed if Paypal is decieving me into thinking that i'm covered so i'll ship the thing asap with no worries.

[TruE SkiLLS]

id say, dont do it, u dont get insured (iirc)

[chrza]

id say, dont do it, u dont get insured (iirc)

Well I already told the buyer that i'd have to wait before I ship the item. I'm more concerned about the conflicting info that Paypal is providing me. Just want to know if i'm actually covered or not.

[belowzeros]

If the addy they are requesting shipment to is unconfirmed but you have insurance offered the only possible way for this to happen is if the confirmed addy was changed.

So the buyer has previously had a confirmed addy on file that triggered that message. It's very rare I think some glitch does that when the shipping addy still shows unconfirmed. The account could be really old for example so it was created under a different system and just copied over to the current paypal administration.

And seller beware because that is one of the major tell tale signs that the account was hijacked or stolen.

Beware because regardless of what it says if you don't have a confirmed addy it kills your insurance and you are assuming total risk.

[chrza]

If the addy they are requesting shipment to is unconfirmed but you have insurance offered the only possible way for this to happen is if the confirmed addy was changed.

So the buyer has previously had a confirmed addy on file that triggered that message. It's very rare I think some glitch does that when the shipping addy still shows unconfirmed. The account could be really old for example so it was created under a different system and just copied over to the current paypal administration.

And seller beware because that is one of the major tell tale signs that the account was hijacked or stolen.

Beware because regardless of what it says if you don't have a confirmed addy it kills your insurance and you are assuming total risk.

Alright, fair enough. Thanks for the info. How long would you recommend waiting before sending it out? Can it take a long time before a payment is recognized as fraudulent? I'm wondering if I should bother with this transaction at all. It's a bit of a pain in the ass to have to relist and all that crap.

[belowzeros]

you mentioned that it was a pricey item, which makes a lot of sense as to why you attracted a possible stolen account.

Requests by an account holder to have funds reversed or chargedback is 45 days. So that is a heck of a long time to sweat it (or ship initially).

On the other hand getting your address confirmed takes 10 seconds if you use a credit card to do it with the shipping info on file with that card. If it's done by bank account it takes 10 days I believe because you have to wait for the info to post. It can also be mailed but I don't think they do that in Canada anymore but they were a year ago. I tried to do it again for my own account and they said they were no longer sending mailings to canada.

Ask the buyer if they update their shipping info and politely point to your add where you said confirmed addy only. If they are serious and not a scammer they can have it updated. Go by your gut from there :)

[chrza]

P.S. I did look the person up on yellowpages.ca and their name matches up with their address.

[chrza]

you mentioned that it was a pricey item, which makes a lot of sense as to why you attracted a possible stolen account.

Requests by an account holder to have funds reversed or chargedback is 45 days. So that is a heck of a long time to sweat it (or ship initially).

On the other hand getting your address confirmed takes 10 seconds if you use a credit card to do it with the shipping info on file with that card. If it's done by bank account it takes 10 days I believe because you have to wait for the info to post. It can also be mailed but I don't think they do that in Canada anymore but they were a year ago. I tried to do it again for my own account and they said they were no longer sending mailings to canada.

Ask the buyer if they update their shipping info and politely point to your add where you said confirmed addy only. If they are serious and not a scammer they can have it updated. Go by your gut from there :)

Oh I definitely want to cover my basis. Not going to get suckered in by money. I just thought that fraudulent purchases get picked up on rather quickly. I didn't think about the chargeback. I'll ask them to confirm their address, though. I didn't think of that. Thanks.

[belowzeros]

P.S. I did look the person up on yellowpages.ca and their name matches up with their address.


oh that's good news then, probably means the person is legit because those listings aren't changed quickly - maybe once per year afaik.

[chrza]

oh that's good news then, probably means the person is legit because those listings aren't changed quickly - maybe once per year afaik.

Ya, that doesn't change too often. My gut tells me that they're not actually out to rip me off. The person doesn't seem to be the brightest. They actually sent me an email after winning and paying for the item asking me why the listing was in US funds if i'm in Canada :rolleyes: I guess she didn't notice that it was in US funds when she won it, which makes sense cause she didn't notice the bold font at the very beggining of my description about the confirmed address thing. So it's probably just an eBay "n00b", but as always, I don't want to take any risks.

Thanks again for the info. Been selling on eBay for years, but never encountered this sort of situation before.

[loxx]

I think the preypal policy changed. Powersellers are now given seller protection to unconfirmed addresses in the U.S. and Canada. This might be why you are getting the conflicting info from paypoop. I'm not 100% on this, so you should double check.

How old is their account? For a long time, Canadians could not have confirmed addresses unless they used an American credit card to register their Canadian address. Lots of Canadians still do not have confirmed addresses, either because their accounts were registered long ago, or their Canadian credit card does not support AVS.