eBay automatic blocking some countries

[busybeas_books]

I just had a person from Saudi Arabia try to buy an item and it came up that I don't sent to that country. I checked a few listing and it says: 

Ships to: 

Worldwide

Excludes: 

Belarus, China, Kuwait, Macedonia, Morocco, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Ukraine

 or

Ships to: 

Worldwide

Excludes: 

Afghanistan, Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan Republic, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Republic of, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan

My site preferences are set to China, France, Germany, Spain, Russia, and the Russian satellite counties, nothing Middle East or Africa. I'm sure eBay is blocking Ukraine, for obvious reasons, but why Morocco and the Middle East ones?

[ricarmic]

@busybeas_books 

At least for me (I use sell similar) the excluded countries are a variety of different selections, and almost always NOT the current ones I have set up. (I have a ticket opened for this but that was about a month ago)

An easy way to fix this (for me at least) is to click the "Also apply to current listings" box (in the screen you pictured) and save it. 

This reapplies yours to all your existing listings. Some like Ukraine (and Russia) will be automagically universally applied but it should fix the others.

The only caveat is that I at least have to reapply this every time after I list because of the ones that are mis selected.

[kawartha-ephemera]

Do you use business policies ie: shipping policies?

I often listen to ebay for business podcasts, usually the content is shall I say ... not very interesting, but sometimes the answers to listeners' questions are enlightening.

One recent question was from a seller that complained of similar excluded countries list problems. Anyway the podcast host (Griff?) answered he had asked the shipping team about this seller's situation. Their response was along these lines.

 When a seller has multiple shipping policies setup, it is possible, probable even, that they are not using the same shipping policy in all of their listings.

What does this have to do with shipping preferences and excluded countries you ask?

Well, if you are opted-in to business policies and have multiple shipping policies setup, EACH shipping policy has it's own excluded countries list attached to it that is applied to listings using that policy. Therefore in order to make excluded country changes it is necessary to edit EACH Shipping Policy directly within Business Policies.

My personal interpretation of Griff's explanation was that Shipping Policies and exclusion lists attached to them over-ride the Global exclusions set in Shipping Preferences.

I'm opted-out of business policies so I've not been having this particular problem. All I have to worry about is to remember that each site has it's own preferences setup, meaning I have to setup shipping preferences for each site I list on.

[ricarmic]

@kawartha-ephemera I can proudly say I've totally avoided business policies, I have never set them up at all.

I am confused a bit about the shipping preferences set up, as far as I know I only set them up one time, probably from the .COM site.

Both sites have the same ones in them and I don't remember doing them twice, although I've only got medium old memory recollection skills anymore.....

[ricarmic]

Another Hmmm I had, I usually reset the preferences from the .COM site and about half and half newly listed items are on .CA and .COM

As far as I can see, resetting preferences from one site affects them all irregardless what site they are on (WHEW).

[busybeas_books]

I wasn't set up for business policies. All my listings are made using templates, or 'sell similar'. I just checked the templates, none have the Middle East or Africa exclusions. I just checked out the business policies bit and unthinkingly clicked on the 'get started' button thinking it would tell me more about it. Nope, it is setting it up for me. A  note says "We're working on cleaning up and consolidating your business policies. This can take several hours. When we're done, you'll be automatically opted in. Please check back in 8 hours."  I'll check it out, maybe opt out too.

[ibccshop]

The countries you cannot sell to are defaulted due to restrictions by the Canadian government due to sanctions that Canada has imposed for various reasons.

[ricarmic]

@ibccshop I'm sorry but I don't think that is correct, at least not for ALL the countries on either list one or two in the original post.

Spain would be a good example, that's not a naturally excluded country and it is on both lists above. (It is NOT on any of mine as an exclusion for example on .CA).

[kawartha-ephemera]

That's nice to know. Thanks.

[reallynicestamps]

Russia is also blocked because they are the aggressors in Ukraine. Ukraine is blocked because that aggression has made shipping to and from there a nightmare.

You do know that Morocco is in Africa, I assume?

There are US embargos on a number of countries including Syria (war zone), Cuba, North Korea, and Iran. As a US company, eBay enforces those embargos even for nations that do not embargo them. Which is why Cuba is such a popular winter destination for Canadians.

[busybeas_books]

I've blocked China, France, Germany,  & Spain. eBay sems to be adding in the others.  The Saudi Arabia potential purchaser wants me to sell it to him via Paypal. No way to 'honestly' (safely? ie eBay strike) do that.

[reallynicestamps]

The Saudi one is a scam if you mean he wants to take the sale off-eBay.

You can remove the Block for him and he can pay you through eBay.

Sellers receive payments through Managed Payments but buyers can still use PP to pay, along with Visa Mastercard Apple Pay and  Google Pay. In some cases US buyers can also use Discover. Sellers don't know how their customers paid.

[pjcdn2005]

The Saudi Arabia block appears to have been added by eBay so it can't be removed. 

[biglittleape]

Thats not the case for all of those.  I ship to Kuwait/Saudi Arabia/Qatar using UPS without issues, thats from my own website not eBay since eBay blocks those for some unknown reason.

[rosscd57]

Did you look at where the item is going to be shipped to? I have a couple of customers in Saudi Arabia and they pay from Saudi Arabia, but the shipping is to the address of a Distributor in Florida. Also that is the adress that comes up on eBay and PayPal as the home adress. Then the Distributer in Florida then sends  my  package and likely a lot of other stuff,to the buyer in Saudi Arbia. Never had a problem.

Chris

[dhslk]

Has anyone heard from ebay when they are going to fix this? I ship worldwide with no exclusions.  The only exclusions that should appear on my listings are the ones imposed by Canada Post /Canadian government (eg. Russia). However, Saudi Arabia is currently showing, even though CanadaPost is shipping there (no restrictions). I have a Saudi Arabian customer who is unable to complete their purchase because of this arbitrary block.  (I 'revised' the listing with no changes, but this didn't help, and double checked my shipping preferences---zero exclusions from me.) Anyone already get a response from ebay about this?

[dhslk]

Well. I just lost a $250 sale. Thanks ebay😡. We tried multiple work arounds, but the buyer eventually gave up.