International buyer

[krobert1964]

How are International buyers allowed to purchase items when you have No International Shipping allowed on your auction?

[momcqueen]

Unless you have them blocked specifically in your seller account preferences, they still can. Or they can do it with an alternate address.

Where is the buyer in question from? Not all international customers present the same risk. Also, you do have to consider what is exportable to that specific country. https://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/manual/pgIntDest-e.asp?letter=R%C2%A0

[ypdc_dennis]

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@krobert1964 wrote:

How are International buyers allowed to purchase items when you have No International Shipping allowed on your auction?

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International buyers can purchase if their ship to address is in one of your destination countries. It can also happen if the eBay the buyer first registered on is Canada (people do move about). And if you also ship to the USA, the rest of the world can leak through the cracks. Or eBay screwed up again.

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Out of curiousity, why do you exclude Post Office boxes?

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[krobert1964]

 I exclude PO Boxes now due to my last one being delivered to the US and not showing as "Delivered" on the Canada Post site, only showing "Tendered to agent". This was well over 60days ago and still does not show as Delivered. The buyer received it  and everything is OK, but the Ebay and Paypal status of the parcel are still not showing "Delivered".

[momcqueen]

I have never heard of 'tendered to agent' but if my parcel failed to be delivered after 60 days, I would open a trace on it to get Canada Post to look at their handling of it. (Or the USPS handling of it.) The postal systems won't care it was never marked 'delivered' unless you make them care. At some time around the 60-day mark, your ability to do that times-out so it may already be too late. 

[pjcdn2005]

Did you check the USPS site?  It's possible that CP didn't update but USPS did.  Isnt it a little extreme to block most small town/rural buyers because of one possible incident that really wasn't an incident?  I find p.o boxes very reliable....more reliable than a package being left on a door step. 

[zee-chan]

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@krobert1964 wrote:

 I exclude PO Boxes now due to my last one being delivered to the US and not showing as "Delivered" on the Canada Post site, only showing "Tendered to agent". This was well over 60days ago and still does not show as Delivered. The buyer received it  and everything is OK, but the Ebay and Paypal status of the parcel are still not showing "Delivered".

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One of my biggest buyer uses a PO Box in the states. And really, if you never had problem with the sale itself (buyer received it and everything is OK) I really don't see any valid reason for excluding PO Boxes to ship to. 

I mailed a birthday present to my brother a few days ago and all tracking says is that the parcel was handed to a receptionist, and my brother got it from the receptionist later that afternoon. To me that's perfectly fine. I have had tracked parcels sent to *me* (house address where the postie simply left the parcel in a community mailbox / by my front door) before where tracking never said "delivered" either... 

[krobert1964]

 To get back on track to my original question....

 It seems that this "international buyer" is a scam account, or an account that has been hacked. I just received an email stating:

"Dear Seller,
 

       This is to inform you that we have received the payment confirmation from PayPal regarding the eBay item bought from you by **********.

We hereby approve the payment and you are to send out the item as soon as possible to the provided buyer's shipping address in Nigeria, and then email the shipment reference number to PayPal for shipment verification process to take place.

eBay is officially guaranteeing you that on confirmation of the shipment reference number received from you by PayPal and confirmed,your money will be credited into your PayPal with no delay.

Note:- This is PayPal's new anti fraud payment policy which we are in conjunction with, to ensure safe and smooth transaction between buyers and sellers in the eBay community.

Do not forget to get back to PayPal with the shipment tracking number for verification and to verify the shipment details you have provided as proof of shipment so that your money could deposited into your PayPal account."

 So my question now is, how do I close this transaction as quickly as possible to re-sell the item and get my fees refunded?

[momcqueen]

Cancel Order and refund the buyer citing the reason, "There is a problem with the buyer's address". 

Assuming the item in question is the only one in your Sold list, it certainly does appear that you only offered shipping within Canada so I don't quite understand how a buyer with an address in Nigeria was able to purchase it from you although that is a question to answer on another day. 

In the meantime, do the refund and submit a Cancel Order. Relist. Go into your Seller Account Site Preferences and Buyer Requirements and exclude buyers in countries you don't ship to.

This is from ebay on Cancelling Sales:

To cancel an order now and get a final value fee credit, click Cancel order and select the item you want to cancel. We'll verify if your item is eligible for cancellation.

You can cancel an order within 30 days if you can't complete the sale, or if the buyer contacts you to request a cancellation. You'll receive a final value fee credit when the cancellation is complete.

If the buyer already paid through PayPal the refund will be automatic. If the buyer used another payment method, refund their original payment method first. In cases where the buyer didn't use PayPal, they'll have to confirm they received the refund in order to close the cancel request.

I cannot seem to find you a better link to read about it since when I search for Cancel Sale it assumes I am trying to cancel one of my own right now. 

[krobert1964]

 There is no refund to give...the email states I have to send the purchase out first and get a Tracking Number to receive payment. The accounts actual address is in the UK, but they want it sent to Nigeria...so many red flags its just ludicrous that anyone would fall for this.

 Seems strange that a buyer with 30 good feedback would try to scam like this, which is why I think the account was most likely hacked and used. 

[momcqueen]

Whaaaat? That sounds like a pile of horse plop to me. I highly doubt that email is legit, and should be forwarded to spoof@ebay.com. 

Cancel Order, block buyer.

[thestuffofchris]

Just for clarification, who is the e-mail from? The buyer? Someone on behalf of the buyer? A fake PayPal e-mail?

Regardless, it's definitely a scam. They tried to word it carefully to seem legit, but it just comes off as very unnatural wording. Not to mention a lot of incorrect information.

"This is PayPal's new anti fraud payment policy..." Since when? (Rhetorical question. I know it's wrong information.)

[momcqueen]

Read: https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/Selling-on-eBay/Am-I-being-scammed/td-p/963159?profile.language=...

[momcqueen]

Also: https://www.paypal.com/ca/webapps/mpp/security/suspicious-activity-tips

[krobert1964]

 Here is the email 

[momcqueen]

Did you get this in your ebay Messages? Or to your email registered with ebay?

It might be best if you call Customer Service about it. They might not give you any useful direction but it probably could not hurt.

The reason I'm suggesting this is because there is a new ebay-sanctioned program that offers ebay service to Africa but I'm not certain this is that. http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y16/m10/i06/s02

Scratch that: this is bogus email that you have received. Forward to spoof@ebay.com

The 'Dear Seller' mismatched from field, address at the bottom.....

[thestuffofchris]

Thanks for the clarification. A lot of what I see matches up with the post mjwl linked to earlier with another user's similar experience. Definitely forward this to eBay so they can see it. Also, please make sure not to click on any of the links in the e-mail.

[momcqueen]

Yes! Don't click on anything in the message!!

[momcqueen]

There is an actual ebay-faciliated program for buyers in Africa now being run to ease seller's minds when it comes to really selling to buyers in Nigeria but it's not called SafeHarbour or whatever. For more information on the legitimate program, check the ecommerceytes link in my other post on this thread:

Shoppers in Africa now have access to eBay.com inventory: MallforAfrica (MFA), Africa's largest global platform which provides African consumers access to billions of items, announced today the eBay "powered by MallforAfrica" app in Africa is now available to its customers in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and South Africa. The official launch comes on the heels of the announcement of an exclusive partnership between the two companies, in which shoppers in specific African regions will have access to eBay.com (US) inventory.

Also at https://techcrunch.com/2016/06/27/expanding-in-africa-ebay-partners-with-mallforafrica-com/

 and 

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/070616/ebay-expands-africa-mallforafricacom-ebay.asp

[momcqueen]

There are similar programs facilitated by other ebay sites for other parts of the world where North American or Great Britons are often reluctant to ship-to. Along the same lines as a Global Shipping Program where a seller never assumes the risk of international shipping, you send the order to a place that is still domestic and the ebay program takes over from there. There is one in India and another in Asia, I believe, but the names of those programs escapes me at the moment.