How can I block Italy buyers? Thanks

[zakkawholesale]

Normally listed via turbo lister. want block Italy buyers, as the high chargeback rate.

Thanks

[recped]

You can't specifically block Italy without blocking all of Europe.

The only way is to state clearly in your listings that you don't ship to Italy and then be prepared to have a few bid anyway.
"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915
- answering Trolls is voluntary, my policy is not to participate.

[tea_past_times]

Just this morning I sent 2 of these messages:

"Dear Sir, I must apologize, but you have an unconfirmed address for Paypal shipping. Canada Post does not provide tracking to Italy for small packets. Therefore I regret I must issue a refund. Please confirm your address with Paypal today."


I'm not mailing 200 dollars worth of merchandise to an unconfirmed address in Italy, with no tracking. Especially in light of recent scams going around. It only takes a couple of minutes to fire their money back to them, block their particular user ID and carry on. Second chance offers are useful in reselling the merchandise after.

One of my Italian "bidders" was registerd in Spain, but his unconfirmed Paypal address is in Italy. HMMMM....

[coxengines]

Tea,

You have been selling on ebay for how long...LOL?

Surely, you must realize that there are countries where there is no paypal mechanism to confirm addresses.

I believe that Italy is one of them. At least I have never received payment from Italy where the address was confirmed.

Actually, many countries I sell to are like that. Good people, awesome customers, many repeat buyers.

I actually have customers who have an ebay account registered in one country and the paypal payment is made from another country, some of which have bought from me multiple times over the months.

Mind you, I am not selling cameras and laptops either...

You see, the distance across Canada is about the same as from Finland to Libya - lots of countries in between.

I have had my share of problems sending to Italy but I am confident that the buyers were not the problem - a look at their history usually suffices to confirm that.

Posteitaliane and their customs are another story, however.

Xena

[whoscloset]

Tea sees evil-doers everywhere. LOL

[tea_past_times]

I don't ship to unconfirmed addresses, no matter what the country. And I don't ever post complaints in this forum about getting ripped off either. Doesn't seem to affect my business much. Except for a notable lack of aggravation.

[tea_past_times]

Monique, your insecurities are showing again....

[tea_past_times]

Didn't mommy love you?? Or pay attention to you?? Too bad. You can never regain a troubled youth I suppose. You can pick on me though, if you want. I understand where you are coming from. But there is help available if you want it.

[tea_past_times]

T-H-E-R-A-P-Y

[coxengines]

Oh well,

Aprx. 30% of my business is to unconfirmed addresses.

Although I am surely not immune, I have never, ever had a problem because an address was unconfirmed. Luck?

I can see that the "pro" board is behest with the same issues as the ones non-PS post on... personal, non-constructive comments galore. I guess a water-cooler in cyberspace is still a water-cooler...LOL!

Xena

[whoscloset]

Xena,

I ship to unconfirmed addresses too. I've made a ton of money off shipping to everyone who's willing to pay me and I've only been burned once. A much better record than my sister has with theft at her B & M. 😉

[duujogl]

We've been in mail order since the mid-sixties, starting with a mailed fixed pricelist and finally progressing(?) to eBay - in all those years we've been burned 3 times! Confirmed, verified addresses only came into being with PayPal and eBay! We still accept personal cheques and don't have any problems with them.

Obviously, it depends what you sell - if you're in collectibles your customers don't want to burn any bridges and get on any supplier's blacklist! Over the years, we've learned to insist on bank transfers or cash from Italy - in most cases it's not the buyer - it seems to be theft in the postal system!

[tea_past_times]

Over the years, we've learned to insist on bank transfers or cash from Italy - in most cases it's not the buyer - it seems to be theft in the postal system!....


So we all agree, there IS a problem with Italy

[tea_past_times]

Which is why I won't ship there.

[tea_past_times]

That policy reduces my risk factor to zero. Interestingly enough I have customers in Japan, Finland, United Kingdom, France, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, South Korea, Germany, Iceland, Hawaii, Alaska, South Africa, New Zealand & Australia. All of those customers HAVE a confirmed residential address, and all of those shipments WERE protected by Paypals seller protection policy. So why can't ITALY have confirmed addresses for shipment? It seems every other country I've shipped to does.

G'night All

[jakeeangel]

I'm afraid I must disagree with you there Tea. There's a big difference between Verified and Confirmed. The only addresses PayPal confirms and are eligible for the PayPal SPP are Canada, the US and the UK. None of the other ones you mentioned have confirmed addresses and those countries are not covered by the PP SPP.

---

When you find doing what's right hard to do - you've got a problem.

[tea_past_times]

I'm not mailing 200 dollars worth of merchandise to an unconfirmed address in Italy, with no tracking.....

And now I don't have to. My buyer, registered in Spain has changed his shipping address from an unconfirmed address in Italy to a verified address in Spain. He has also added a credit card to his Paypal account and is now a verified member. A nice ending for both of us.

[tea_past_times]

You are correct Jakeeangel, I should have been saying verified. I don't as a rule, ship to unverified addresses. Thanks for the correction.

[purse_of_the_legionary]

FOR YOUR INFORMATION, I HAVE BEEN VICTIM OF AN ITALIAN SCAMMER RECENTLY, I STARTED THE DISCUSSION BOARD THREAD REGARDING THE ISSUE. I WORKED VERY HARD RECENTLY TO FIND A DEFINITIVE WAY TO AVOID BUYERS FROM ITALY. HERE IS THE VERY SIMPLE SOLUTION I FOUND TO VIRTUALLY BLOCK THEM, WITHOUT BLOCKING OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES :

As I am selling authentic roman coins, it is very risky to ship to Italy, as Italy (Rome!) has strict laws about archaeological artifacts importations. I had more than one reason to block Italian buyers from purchasing my ancient coins! But, of course, as I have many great repeat buyers from other countries in Europe, I didn't want to block them all.

Before that scammer, I had 3 subsections for pricing & services in my SHIPPING section, in my items descriptions: CANADA, USA, INTERNATIONAL. Now I changed for 4 subsections: CANADA, USA, ITALY, OTHER COUNTRIES.

In the ITALY subsection, I only offer Canada Post XpressPost, at $47.50 for a small insignificant 100 grams, 6 x 9 inches bubble mailer! And price is not exaggerated, it is how much it will cost to ship to Italy with Xpresspost, and in case an Italian resident purchase one of your item, you have your tracking number to avoid scammer using PayPal claims (requires a tracking number to avoid charge back). And if it is not enough, like if you sell very expensive items, why not only propose PUROLATOR instead of Xpresspost, which is way too expensive and not reasonable at all for the everyday eBay buyer...

Of course, you cannot provide automated pricing using eBay tools. Your items will show "see description" in the search results under the "SHIPPING COST" column.

Also, it is a good idea to quickly send invoice, showing Xpresspost or Purolator cost, so the buyer cannot send payment using OTHER COUNTRIES pricing. It requires a little more work, but I am done now with buyers from Italy!

Visit my store and see one of my items description for an example, scroll down and read my SHIPPING section, you'll see how I did it.

Hope it helps!

[coxengines]

Purse,

I see how you have done it. With the limited English of many Italian buyers, have you not run into issues here?

Also, by not being responsible for uninsured items, you are setting yourself up for problems. 100% will Paypal side with the buyer if you cannot prove delivery.

Why not claim that everything you sell is fully insured? Out of a negative you make a positive - a good rule taken from marketing experts. In the end, the result is the same for the buyer but you might benefit from the increased "optics".

Xena