Invoice system: Customer provides Wrong Shipping Address?

[NoPunIn10Did]

I frequently use the PayPal invoice system for my (very) small business. I create the invoice, the customer pays it, and I ship products to the address they had on file when they pay it.  All well and good.

Except, and this has happened frequently, customers don't always realize that their registered Paypal shipping addresses are incorrect. So far I've been lucky in that I haven't actually shipped anything with an outdated address, but in order for them to update to the correct address, I have to fully refund the invoice and make a new one.  And because that refund is treated like an actual refund, Paypal still charges me a net of 0.49.

Am I missing something? Is there a way for customers to initiate the shipping address change? Even if it has to be a new transaction, is there a way I can get my fees completely back, especially since I'm clearly not at fault here?

[sharpiemarker · Accepted solution]

@NoPunIn10Did 

Not with Invoices.

I suggest using Authorization and Capture method via PayPal Buy Now/Pay Now buttons exported as email links.

Enter exactly paymentaction=authorization in the advanced variables field in step 3 of the PayPal button maker.

The payment comes in as a Pending authorization in your account activity and the capturing of the funds is a separate step. This can help reduce prematurely paying fees in case shipping address is wrong. It allows you flexibility in confirming customer address info before capturing funds. If the address is wrong, you void the authorization and ask customer to use the same email link to pay again with correct address.

I have to warn you that you’ll have to contact customer service to void the authorization for you because lately, the “void the authorization” link in the transaction details is not working if you have a personal account. It keeps taking you to the dashboard page. 😞

I’m told by tech support that the void the authorization link don’t work for personal accounts (it used to), only business accounts. 🤬

On the other hand, customer service tells me it’s a glitch and that I’ll have to clear browser cache/cookies (we’ll see) but they voided it for me.

I’ve resigned myself to just message PayPal to void the authorization for me which is tricky trying to navigate the PayPal chat assistance/message thingy until they ever fix the link.

[NoPunIn10Did]

Thanks, that definitely looks like a workaround.

Though the bug that comes with it doesn't sound terribly great to deal with.