i'm writing this guide in the wake of what just happened to me.  i'm doing this in the hopes of keeping you from going thru the same thing.  this isn't sugar coated, and i havn't left any facts out.  it could have been worse but it still cost me time and money.  if you dont already know the rules in paypal, then here is a basic cover.  if you sell an item on paypal, when you ship this item.  you must use the address on the payment no matter what.  if you do not use this address.  you will not be covered under seller protection.  what this buyer did was he had two addresses on file.  supposedly one for ups, and one for usps.  he had taken the zip code and reversed the last two numbers on the zip code.  so it looked like a simple clerical error.  so when you went in to print a label.  it would not let you due to an incorrect zip code.  right there at that point you should stop.  its time to evaluate things.  do not alter that address.  if you do you run the risk of one of two things.  either the item doesn't make it to its destination. and your forced to reship at your expense.  or the buyer could pull there payment from paypal.  and there is nothing you can do about it.  why?  because you altered the address.  its a catch 22.  only salution right then and there is to refund the buyer, and request him to resend the payment with a repaired address. 

i've been hit with this in the past, but never realised what was going on.  now i know.   NEVER NO MATTER WHAT.  CHANGE AN ADDRESS FOR ANY REASON AT ALL.  if you do you open yourself up to a number of problems. 

here is the transaction that got me.  i am getting my item back, but doing so at the expense of the shipping cost.  whats funny is i did alter the shipping address, but the buyer had screwed up by using usps instead of ups.  because of this error, he opened himself up to federal mail fraud charges.  and believe me.  i would have gone to the end of the world to make sure he got convicted.  two days after i shipped the item.  he withdrew his payment.  and blamed paypal for screwing up as the reason.  then stood right there and told me it wasn't his problem.  so he was trying to keep the money and my item both at the same time.  instead he got scared, and refused the item when it arived.

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