Hi all. I recently had a case where a buyer opened a case on an item they had bought 2 months ago, claiming it was not complete. I told the buyer I would rectify this, that I would order and send the missing parts on as even though I may not be oblidged to it felt the right thing for me to do. Follwoing this agreement I then closed the case (as advised by eBay customer services). Now in hindsight maybe I should have left the case open (lesson learned), since the buyer saw this as me backing out and started sending me messages through eBay . The basic tone of the messages was "I know where you live and I am coming round in the week to resolve this". Now there is always more than one way to read a message but I saw this as fairly threatening behaviour. It turns out that as soon as a buyer opens a return request the sellers address is shared with the buyer, meaning that potentially a disgruntled buyer can come round to your address. I am not trying to establish the rights an wrongs of the buyers/seller relationship, but my question is simply is eBay allowed to share the sellers address before any return has been agreed, or is this a breach of Data Protection? Obviously if the buyer and seller agree to a return then they need to know your address, but in a case like this where a return request has just been opened (and even though the buyer only wanted a partial refund) my address was shared. The address that was shared was an old one, and I no longer live there, but that is not my point as potentially a disgruntled buyer will be at someone elses doorstep expecting to "resolve" the issue.
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