Wrong Shipping Address- 800 $ labtop

[fpdesignco]

Ill make this as short as possible, Our business sold a Dell D610 Labtop through Ebay, And it was payed for via paypal - by credit card, now, We have what is called a seocnd chance offer beacuse we didnt think the primary bidder was going to pay, but he did and we cancelled the second chance offer, however there was some confusion and it was accidently sent to the non paying secondary bidder, Now, we caught on to this the second day the package was out and filed for a return of mail and contacted there post office, at first we where told the package would be stopped and then sent back but it was not and was released to the bidder that didnt pay, Now we left messages and talked to this bidder but he says seeing he recived it and it was addressed for him its his? Is this the case? anything i can do?

 

[twocats]

Try billing this person for the item. You might want to read the information below as well. It is probably the premise that the receipient is standing on.

http://www.usps.com/postalinspectors/fraud/merch.htm

Receipt of Unsolicited Merchandise


A company sends you a gift in the mail--a ball point pen, a key chain, a tie. But you didn't order it. What do you do? If you are the type of person this company is looking for, you may feel guilty about accepting the item without paying for it. Don't feel guilty! It's yours, and you are under no obligation to pay anything.

You, the consumer, may only legally be sent two types of merchandise through the mail without your consent or agreement:

Free samples which are clearly and conspicuously marked as such.


Merchandise mailed by a charitable organization that is soliciting contributions.

And in these two cases, you can consider the merchandise a gift if you wish. In all other situations, it is illegal to send merchandise to someone, unless that person has previously ordered or requested it.

These rules are codified in Title 39, United States Code, Section 3009. That section of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 incorporates these protections for American consumers and makes the mailing of unordered merchandise unfair methods of competition and unfair trade practices under the law.

If you do not wish to pay for unsolicited merchandise or make a donation to a charity sending such an item, you may do one of three things (in each case, by law, you have no obligation to the sender):

If you have not opened the package, you may mark it "Return to Sender," and the Postal Service will return it with no additional postage charged to you.


If you open the package and don't like what you find, you may throw it away.


If you open the package and like what you find, you may keep it for free. In this instance, "finders-keepers" applies unconditionally.

Furthermore, it is illegal for a company that sends you unordered merchandise to follow the mailing with a bill or dunning communication.

If you are aware of violations of the federal law prohibiting the mailing of unordered merchandise, or if you have personally had difficulty with such items--especially if you are sent statements demanding payment for the merchandise--you should contact you local postmaster or the nearest Postal Inspector.

 

[twocats]

After reading the info more closely, it appears to be illegal to bill the receipient for the item. - FYI

 

[janedoe23]

I think there is more to the story!

You say you offered a second chance only to cancel it, so how could you have recieved the shipping address of the second chance offer user? If the user never accepted the second chance offer or didn't have time to complete it due to you cancelling then it is impossible to have the user's address therefore, it is impossible to have a shipping error.

 

[twocats]

That's a good observation, janedoe. Now you are making me have to think harder ~ ha! There could be a couple of scenarios that might have happened, maybe. Would really depend on how and when the SCO was canceled. The post did not make clear that the SCO was not accepted before cancelation but it does appear to imply that.

1.) Seller asks to mutually agree not to complete transaction soon after SCO is accepted. SCO bidder agrees. FVF's refunded for SCO transaction - and wouldn't that still leave ability to create the wrong shipping label? SCO's address accessable after SCO is accepted regardless of subsequent mutual agreement to cancel.

2.) Seller verbally cancels with SCO bidder (again, after SCO is accepted) - not formally through Ebay. But this still leaves seller with 2 FVF's, not smart, but this mistake has been made before by many others. SCO's address is available for mistake to be made.


Just thinking about scenario #2, if seller has proof of SCO accepted and the transaction was verbally canceled and not formally and mutually agreed through Ebay channels, the seller COULD bill the receipient as there would still be an active transaction on record.

Anyway, I learned something new when I looked up the law on unsolicited mail. Seems morally wrong to keep an item when you know how the mistake was made yet it appears legal to do so.