EBAY transaction help. Automated Delivery Status Notification?? Was I "Spam Canned?"?

I've been unsuccessfuly trying to contact an ebayer about their item ("Insufficient Address" as per Post Office). I was able to email with them fine last week, but I just got an automated email which is partly pasted below.

How can I contact them? I've tried to contact them twice thru EBAY MESSAGES but haven't gotten a reply about the correct address (and my emails were polite). They won't answer their ebay registered phone number!

PERM_FAILURE: Gmail tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 550 550 SC-004 Mail rejected by Windows Live Hotmail for policy reasons. A block has been placed against your IP address because we have received complaints concerning mail coming from that IP address. If you are not an email/network admin please contact your E-mail/Internet Service Provider for help.

Betty B-- Thanks for your helpful reply. And actually I am the seller and I can't contact my buyer about their item. They provided an "insufficient" address and I can't get a hold of them for the correct address to send their item to and I've been trying to reach them since Saturday...

I agree with Betty with the point on the Gmail block. Also depending on your internet provider, you may share the same one with other people that use the same provider and that could be causing the block. However it sounds like you are in a spot as you are the seller.

Does the post office give a reason on why the address is insufficient? Is the buyer's address and contact info verified by PayPal? Or wasn't it paid for by PayPal?

Some addresses do come up as insufficient even though they are accurate. That is a quirk with the USPS unfortunately.

You are limited in what you can do, especially with the new policies in place. If you have been paid, you can take the chance and mail it to the specified address (although I would go ahead and do it certified or something so that you have proof it was delivered.) Or you can wait for the buyer to contact you which is an iffy situation again due to the new policies.

Whatever you do, keep copies of all the email messages you have sent (and received) and keep a written record of the time, date, and result of each call that you have made to the buyer. In the event of a complaint, dispute or charge back from PayPal; you will need that proof so that you can show that you have made a good faith effort to resolve the issue.

Good luck!

~M

That's why selling/buying online is not worth it.

From the notification it seems that Hotmail (the recipient) currently blocks Google Mail, cause Google Mail is spamming. Even though they mention a block "against your IP address" it most likely Google's IP address (i.e. the IP of one of their mail servers).

Either do as suggested by Hotmail ("please contact your E-mail/Internet Service Provider for help") so Google can fix their spam problem, or get a Hotmail account yourself, as Hotmail won't block itself.

Apart from that: If the seller doesn't answer via eBay's internal message system nor by phone, forget him. If it's that bad now, what will it be like if you have bought the item and are not happy with it?