EBay – have I lost my money and forks?

I’ve not sold on eBay for a good while and sold some forks a few weeks ago.

Turns out the delivery address was a package collection point, not the buyers home address – and the gobbledegook text in the address where a pick-up code!

I sent to the address and have proof of delivery – but I deleted the gobbledegook in the address as I thought it was just random generated order code crap. My error I know, but it’s only noted in the small text that looks like T&Cs from eBay, and I missed it. It really isn’t very clear.

Buyer says he now can’t collect as collection point won’t hand over package. I’ve since sent over screenshots of the address with the code in. Can he still collect or have I lost my forks and money. Only £70 so not the end of the world, but ruddy annoying.

Don’t think I’ll be selling on eBay any longer – it just seems so ruddy complicated now.

Check your ebay messages for a copy, not just email. There may be a code there

Who did you send it with? Recorded?

All correspondence is being done through eBay messages. I can’t see any code or QR code in there that relates to the sale.

Buyer hasn’t raised it as a not delivered issue yet with eBay – he’s just been messaging.

Did you buy the postage through ebay?

Did you buy the postage through ebay?

No – sent using the courier the company next door to me uses, they send hundreds of parcels out.

They send stuff for me free, I do bits of work for them in return.

But delivery info on eBay advert was listed as ‘Other 48hr Courier’.

You sent it to the given address. They have confirmed they have it. Not your problem if the buyer can’t collect…

Not your problem if the buyer can’t collect…

But they can’t collect as there isn’t the necessary information on the label (the OPs error) and the collection point won’t hand it over.

But, do you still have the original delivery information provided by ebay? With the code?

The code won’t be on the parcel, but they may accept the code for collection.

Surely if it’s not collected it’ll be returned to sender (ALL couriers I’ve used do this, even EVRI!)?? so how will you have lost the forks?

You sent it to the given address. They have confirmed they have it. Not your problem if the buyer can’t collect…

Totally wrong. If the address and delivery information provided by the buyer and ebay were correct and you modified that to such an extent that it cannot be delivered/collected, that’s 100% your problem.

The collection point say they have it but won’t actually hand it over?
Tell the buyer to go in on a different day when there’s not a **** behind the counter.

IME things like this depend very much on the staff member attitude.

…Also make sure to bring ID and maybe copy of ebay order/messages, just in case.

Tell the buyer to go in on a different day when there’s not a **** behind the counter.

^ This

Surely if it’s not collected it’ll be returned to sender (ALL couriers I’ve used do this, even EVRI!)?? so how will you have lost the forks?

Because I didn’t buy postage through eBay’s system? As far as my courier is concerned it will be job done – delivered, signed for. So they’ll sit at the back of a newsagent forever and a day!

My error – I just didn’t notice the text about the code in the Your Item has Sold email from eBay.

Surely if it’s not collected it’ll be returned to sender (ALL couriers I’ve used do this, even EVRI!)?? so how will you have lost the forks?

Because it’s not a normal courier company’s collection point.
It’s eBay’s own system where as far as the courier is concerned it’s a normal delivery, just to a local shop instead of the buyer’s address. Then the buyer picks it up using the code.

Edit: wot muffin said ^

the collection code which the buyer needs to give the collection point isn’t the code on the address label, it’s a code which the buyer will have in their purchase history/order details which the collection point will need to tap into their handheld device widget and enable them to complete the transaction.

If the buyer goes into their purhcase history in the app, go to the purhcase, then scroll down to ‘collection address’, there is a ‘pick up code’ at the end of the address – if will likely start “FM”. they need to tell the collection point that code.

EDIT – you as a seller will not be able to see the collection code anywhere. It’s only visible to the buyer.

Daffy
Full Member
“You sent it to the given address. They have confirmed they have it. Not your problem if the buyer can’t collect…

Totally wrong. If the address and delivery information provided by the buyer and ebay were correct and you modified that to such an extent that it cannot be delivered/collected, that’s 100% your problem.”

Posted 3 minutes ago

I shall have to watchit!

I send stuff sold on ebay several times a week to the given address minus all the confusing crap that ebay add. It always gets there…

@cp

Thanks – I’m going to copy that text and send to buyer!

I had the exact same issue.

I deleted the gobbledegook when addressing the parcel. It was delivered but the recipient (a shop) wouldn’t hand over the parcel as it was minus the gobbledegook.

I used Royal Mail. The parcel was returned to sender after X number of days as it wasn’t/couldn’t be collected.

I re-addressed, with gobbledegook, and re-sent. Buyer collected and all was well. It just cost me twice the postage but ‘hey-ho’ my error so I just soaked up the cost.

Ebay add various different things into the address, they all look like random codes.

Examples:
– This pickup code 🙂
– Ebay’s internal code to check seller’s on time delivery rates
– Prepaid tax codes, eg the EU’s IOSS or AU’s GST
– maybe others I forgot

Some can be left out, others shouldn’t be, moral of the story is best leave it all as-is even if it looks stupid.

Christ, I had something delivered to a shop the other week by UPS. UPS didn’t even try to deliver it to my house or let me know they’ve delivered it somewhere else, I only knew it was at a shop because I checked the tracking info.

The guy at the shop couldn’t find it, so just let me rumage through the packages until I found the right one……I didn’t even have any ID just my phone with the confirmation email and tracking info!!

So definitely this

Tell the buyer to go in on a different day when there’s not a **** behind the counter.

I always wondered what the gobbledygook was for and have never written it on my parcels.

So they’ll sit at the back of a newsagent forever and a day

That really isn’t how it works

I always wondered what the gobbledygook was for and have never written it on my parcels.

Glad it’s not just me! It’s always been a thing with eBay – ‘you must only post to address given by eBay’.

Now it seem you’ve got to post to address and also include any random info that doesn’t look like it belongs in address.

You live and learn.

That really isn’t how it works

Not sure how I get them back though – I’m outside the system. It’s down to the newsagents discretion if they can be arsed to contact the courier I used and get them to picked up and returned.

I had an issue with some car seats that I’d sold already on FB but forgot to take the eBay listing down & someone bought them there and I couldn’t work out the refund for them despite going through all the processes.

Anyway, the point is I called eBay customer service (they’re in Ireland) and they were easy to get hold of and super helpful. So worth a try if you get stuck.

Whereabouts is it OP? Maybe a STWer can pop in?

I’m outside the system. It’s down to the newsagents discretion if they can be arsed to contact the courier I used and get them to picked up and returned

You think newsagents just leave all uncollected parcels gathering dust in their back rooms? I pretty sure my (3) local Evri shops haven’t got the space for that. Once the courier has collected it, they mark/stamp the parcel with their reference – even if they are doing it as freebee, surely they have to know who the sender was?
If not, well *shrugs*

Why do eBay add the “gobbledygook” to every address, even when it’s peoples home address? I’ve sold £10k of my friends stuff this year, only ever posting within UK but even to forwarding companies, always deleted the garbage in the address & had zero issues. Always used royal mail or parcel force.

I always use ebay delivery and it works perfectly. I drop off at the local garage using the QR code ebay send me and by the time i get home ive been messaged that ebay now have my item (so its now their problem) and that i have been paid. Plus ebay delievry always seems a fair bit cheaper.

Why do eBay add the “gobbledygook” to every address, even when it’s peoples home address? I’ve sold £10k of my friends stuff this year, only ever posting within UK but even to forwarding companies, always deleted the garbage in the address & had zero issues. Always used royal mail or parcel force.

That’s this one:
https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Announcements/Royal-Mail-tracking-and-delivery-events-on-eBay-from-1st-Sep/ba-p/6727290

Basically it gets sucked into Royal Mail’s system and the info fed back to ebay. Like behind the scenes tracking.
It’s part of their “late delivery rate” metric, ostensibly to improve seller experience blah blah blah but really to catch sellers who mark orders as shipped and then actually post them a few days later.

Only relevant if you use ebay shipping or RM online’s services such as Click & Drop. Ignore if you write the address on the envelope or use stamps.

Right, the OP has already said that they haven’t used eBay postage so all the crap on the label is irrelevant.

Tell me if I have this right:

You used your own 3rd party courier.
They delivered to a place specified in the address details that later turned out to be a shop.

That being so, why would you expect there to be a pickup code if it was never on a pickup service you bought?
And why would you expect an eBay pickup code to work for a third party service?

It sounds to me like the courier has done exactly as was asked but the shop just aren’t realising the error and refusing to hand it over without a code that never existed in the first place.

Don’t the extra characters only show if you buy postage via eBay? Sure the clean address is still shown on the order. Most of the time I just use packlink as it quicker but some items it’s cheaper elsewhere. Unsurprisingly postcode/address finders don’t have the extra chars so the packages don’t get them!

Don’t the extra characters only show if you buy postage via eBay?

Nope

without a code that never existed in the first place.

Also nope

I’ve removed the code from addresses when I’ve used parcelforce for delivery. I can’t be certain it’s generated for every sale, but I’ve definitely seen it on sales I’ve made when I’ve used my own courier.

speak to ebay, explain the issue and they will resolve it, they have a team who deal with this exact issue.
i sent an old bike lock about 6 months ago, and it turned out parcelforce had covered up the address label with their own, no pickup code,

resolution ebay rang the shop and told them the pickup code, they then allow the buyer to collect.

Thanks for all your help.

At the minute the buyer hasn’t raised it with eBay as a non-delivery. If and when he does then I’ll contact eBay.

He’s now got the code (sent screenshot) and all the info that cp wrote above. I await his reply.

Odd that he’s just messaging though and not raised it as an issue. Maybe hoping I’ll just refund?

Some info from eBay on the random code they sometimes add to an address;

eBay is adding a unique eBay code to orders to improve buyers post-transaction experience by making it easier for them to see any available tracking and delivery confirmation* for the parcel’s journey.

This code doesn’t impact the delivery of your parcels. The code will only be added to items posted using eligible Royal Mail UK services and where there is sufficient room on the order address to do so. In the future, this may extend to services provided by other carriers.

The unique eBay code will be included at the end of address line 2 in the eBay order and through a matching process, eBay will use this code to obtain available tracking numbers from Royal Mail.

This of course is different to codes that may get added by mail forwarding / drop off points which are more important for delivery / collection. It doesn’t help that you now need to be able to determine which codes you can safely remove! We’ve had staff remove mail forwarding codes when address was too big, it caused delay but as long as it’s got the recipients name and a return address if it all goes wrong hopefully you’re ok. It’s unfortunate your buyer didn’t get assistance from the drop off point, I would suggest they go back with ID and try again but can understand they may not want to, fact is your parcel is there but if the person at the desk isn’t helpful (or informed) this is a problem for buyer too so I can understand them filing non delivery.

Also nope

You misunderstand. The code never existed in my scenario as I presume the OP sent the package as regular post rather than click and collect. That being the case, the shop has received the package but won’t let it go without a code that doesn’t exist (though whoever received it should realise its not right as they check them in electronically and that one shouldn’t be registered for click and collect).

Although I’m still none the wiser as to whether that was the case and if it is how ebay have a click and collect code for something that wasn’t sent on their service!

I think it’s you that misunderstands – If the buyers listed address is a parcelshop, it will ALWAYS have a code on the ebay delivery address that’s provided to the seller. Regardless of whether you use ebay’s service or your own, you must use the full address provided by ebay.

@Daffy +1

Oh, okay I get you now. I always assumed click and collect was only if you used ebays own postage service, I didn’t realise it was universal. It’s been a while since I sold anything.

Carry on, nothing to see here!

(cheers for explaining that though)