Stealth packages being sent out from home address

[RosieTosie]

Just about to despatch quite a heavy 2kg+ item by courier, using local corner shop which is a collection point for the courier company.

First time needed to do this on an eBay Stealth account where the name is a good variation of my own, but the address is the exact same, the courier company address label will only display the buyers details, but the receipt they give me has my postcode at the very least.

So there is a possible link there isn't there, if the buyer receives their purchase with a label on showing my stealth name but real address which is at the other end of the country from where it is supposed to be, and most importantly the other end of the country from where ebay tells the buyer I am living and sending out there parcel from. I mean the buyer could inform ebay the parcel was sent from a lot further away than they were expecting it to come from.

[xShevaa7x]

I think usually people only care if the location is from another country, rather than another county.

[RosieTosie]

Hi xsheva7x, hope you are right about that, suppose if there was a query from this could always say was up here staying with a friend or relative for few days so that was why item despatched from up here. It is one of those situations where we just need to get creative with a reason if anything potentially tricky shoukd come from this.

Obviously forum members will be faced with sending out items every day that they have to send from their real locality rather than where their stealth account details say they live, more so for those who buy ready made accounts that tend to have addresses at other end of the country.

[GreenBean]

Why can you not have a depot that dispatches your items?

Nudge nudge wink wink

[RosieTosie]

Originally Posted by GreenBean

Why can you not have a depot that dispatches your items?

Nudge nudge wink wink

Nice one Greenie!, yes a depot can be absolutely wherever we SAY it is of course, and no one from the buyer to eBay, will have any reason to be any the wiser, all in all, the whole point of Stealth!

[oompaloompa]

some couriers have the return address you have one file on the same label as the buyer address...but some do not, they are seperate. I know myhermes and collectplus are seperate so you can choose to stick it on or not. They are on 2 panels and you can cut in between them.

if the packet is not deliverable to buyer, then the courier would send back to their HQ depot and they would look you up and contact you about sending it back to you or just send it back to your acc address - for all they know the sender/returns label fell off....

[tannedweekend]

Originally Posted by RosieTosie

Just about to despatch quite a heavy 2kg+ item by courier, using local corner shop which is a collection point for the courier company.

First time needed to do this on an eBay Stealth account where the name is a good variation of my own, but the address is the exact same, the courier company address label will only display the buyers details, but the receipt they give me has my postcode at the very least.

So there is a possible link there isn't there, if the buyer receives their purchase with a label on showing my stealth name but real address which is at the other end of the country from where it is supposed to be, and most importantly the other end of the country from where ebay tells the buyer I am living and sending out there parcel from. I mean the buyer could inform ebay the parcel was sent from a lot further away than they were expecting it to come from.

County should not be a big issue to be honest.
I sent from different country, not county and 99 percent buyers dont mind it as i ADD some Freebbies to them
For sure i always offer to sent item back for full refund and so far have like 1 out of 5 000 buyers wanting to return the item because of item been sent from different country.

[rsot]

Buyers should never have access to your home address...whether as a label or on eb

[RosieTosie]

Originally Posted by oompaloompa

some couriers have the return address you have one file on the same label as the buyer address...but some do not, they are seperate. I know myhermes and collectplus are seperate so you can choose to stick it on or not. They are on 2 panels and you can cut in between them.

if the packet is not deliverable to buyer, then the courier would send back to their HQ depot and they would look you up and contact you about sending it back to you or just send it back to your acc address - for all they know the sender/returns label fell off....

A point on this oompa, once a myhermes/parcel2go parcel is handed in to our local corner shop I don't get chance to remove any identifying info from where I am located such as my postcode because the shop assistant scanning it in immediately adds it to the rest of the parcels waiting to be collected and gives me the receipt for postage, which again has both postcodes on it mine and the buyers.

I looked up the postcode of the corner shop and of course it is almost the same as ours, so using their would not be an option.

[RosieTosie]

Originally Posted by rsot

Buyers should never have access to your home address...whether as a label or on eb

Buyers don't have my real postcode rsot, but they do have the county eg Kent, showing on the bottom of my listings. How many of the buyers that actually notice the county where I am supposed to be located is a complete unknown of course, but especially in the early weeks of a new account this is something we would never want them to be aware off in case 1 or more of them picked up on it and decided to create an issue.

[RosieTosie]

Originally Posted by tannedweekend

County should not be a big issue to be honest.
I sent from different country, not county and 99 percent buyers dont mind it as i ADD some Freebbies to them
For sure i always offer to sent item back for full refund and so far have like 1 out of 5 000 buyers wanting to return the item because of item been sent from different country.

Yes tannedweekend I have done that actually, I bought a quantity of cheap but eyecatching items that tied in with the items that sold perfectly, and put a freebie in with sales and a handwritten note on a plain postcode so it was less likely to be ignored or lost, thanking them for the sale, telling them about the freebie, and suggesting they might want to leave me feedback, about 40% did that.

One buyer messaged me saying the handwritten personal note was a super touch as was the freebie. She was actually messaging new to let me know an item had a bit come off it as well, but she got a bit of glue and stuck it back on and left me great feedback, she had wanted to let me know about the loose bit 'cos as she said forewarned is forearmed, so all in all a great transaction.

[RosieTosie]

Update on this, I have just had a delivery from myhermes and the sellers postcode IS on the label when it is opened up, not sure at this stage where M3 1HX is, but it is on there. Of course that tells anyone who is a bit inquisitive exactly where it has been posted from!

[RosieTosie]

Even worse than this, I took some packages to our nearest main Post Office, only to find the counter assistant asking me what my postcode and house number are, could hardly refuse to tell her when she put me on the spot like that, ending up wishing I had taken them to our small nearest Post Office where they never ask what my postcode is. I could hardly say at the main Post Office that my postcode was down in Kent either, that would have sounded really unbelievable considering how far away from Kent we actually are.

[GreenBean]

This is WHY it is always suggested to never use info linked to a banned account

[oompaloompa]

I may be misunderstanding you but the shop only scans the addressee barcode, they do not make you put a returns/senders label on and do not check for it......not in my experience. I then sign an electronic tablet thing - maybe change shop, you may have a stickler....also the receipt I get just has a number and barcode on it.....

are you mixing stealth with non-stealth packages in drop-offs?

you are worried about the postcode of the shop? I do not see any real issues with it but if worried go out of your area...you are in UK - each county is about 15 min drive away from the other!!! I can drive to 2 other counties from where I live!!!!

[PayPalBusted]

Originally Posted by oompaloompa

some couriers have the return address you have one file on the same label as the buyer address...but some do not, they are seperate. I know myhermes and collectplus are seperate so you can choose to stick it on or not. They are on 2 panels and you can cut in between them.

if the packet is not deliverable to buyer, then the courier would send back to their HQ depot and they would look you up and contact you about sending it back to you or just send it back to your acc address - for all they know the sender/returns label fell off....

Anyone know if something like this is available to US folks? A shipping depot where you can have packages sent and from there sent onto the buyer without revealing your actual address?

[oompaloompa]

Originally Posted by PayPalBusted

Anyone know if something like this is available to US folks? A shipping depot where you can have packages sent and from there sent onto the buyer without revealing your actual address?

well apart from couriers that you drop off too, there is just any regular post office, sure it is the same in US.

[RosieTosie]

Originally Posted by oompaloompa

I may be misunderstanding you but the shop only scans the addressee barcode, they do not make you put a returns/senders label on and do not check for it......not in my experience. I then sign an electronic tablet thing - maybe change shop, you may have a stickler....also the receipt I get just has a number and barcode on it.....

are you mixing stealth with non-stealth packages in drop-offs?

you are worried about the postcode of the shop? I do not see any real issues with it but if worried go out of your area...you are in UK - each county is about 15 min drive away from the other!!! I can drive to 2 other counties from where I live!!!!

Think you missed the point a bit here oompa, the counter assistant that served was a bit older and was a stickler I think, when I use my local smaller post office they never ask what my postcode is, but because I went to the main post office the women did ask just that, and she wrote it on every package, and my house number. The point I was making here was that living where I do, almost the other end of the country from Kent where my stealth alias is supposed to live.

[PayPalBusted]

Originally Posted by RosieTosie

almost the other end of the country from Kent where my stealth alias is supposed to live.

And to my question, how could one ship a package from location A, like where you really live, and make it look like it was shipped from location Z, where your stealth address is listed.

Is there some shipping company that would be capable of doing this? Filling in as the middle man? For example. You ship the package to the shipping company. From there they re-ship using your stealth address as the return address and ship onto the buyer.

The guy above tried to answer, but I don't think he understood what I was meaning.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by PayPalBusted

Anyone know if something like this is available to US folks? A shipping depot where you can have packages sent and from there sent onto the buyer without revealing your actual address?

You can arrange to have mail forwarded from a po box - for a FEE

[RosieTosie]

Yes I did activate a PO box number, that I was going to add to ebay for use as a returns address, but I haven't actually gone ahead with that 'cos the PO box address when it arrived just basically did not look like a normal house address. It had a building number along the lines of 20300 and then the road name, which to me rings alarm bells as looking to much like exactly what it is a PO box number!, which of course defeats the entire object of the thing, to convince ebay/PayPal that the address I was attaching to ebay was a normal house address, as we all know how ebay dislikes box numbers.

I did think at one point that I might be able to disguise it somehow to look a bit more 'normal and everyday', but was advised that this was not exactly going to be a workable option. The thing about box numbers is that they are more likely to be accepted if they can be disguised somehow. The idea of saying that this is a depot used only for sending packages out from or for people to return unwanted, damaged, or faulty items to woukd seem to be the most useful option really.

[oompaloompa]

missing the point? the first post refers to local shop for courier point, so would be all pre-labelled, then now you are talking about local post office so are we refering to royal mail?...anyway I avoid sticklers, I know the type.....