eBay

triber · ‎06-12-2015

I have a few auctions listed at the moment, and I have a bid on some china and the buyer is in a country I have blocked. I am wondering how that can happen? I have sent them a message a couple of days ago saying that I don't ship to South Korea, but I have had no reply. I thought that when you have a country blocked, someone from that country can't bid.

vintagenorth · ‎06-12-2015

Hi triber, I'm sure you already know this, but cancel their bid and possibly block them and then check your shipping info to make sure your blocks are still in place. The only other way they could have bid is if the are using a forwarder in the U.S. or a place you do ship to. Trouble is, you dont see the actual ship-to address until they pay.

cumos55 · ‎06-12-2015

The keywords are.....Primary Shipping Address

Someone can live in a blocked country.... but have a Primary Shipping Address in Canada or the US.

Once a potential buyer has made an address as a Primary Shipping address.... it can not be changed once a purchase is made...

It cannot be changed on eBay. and it cannot be changed on Paypal.

For each purchase and payment, the address on Paypal is linked to the address on eBay

Someone may live in a blocked country, but can purchase if the Primary Shipping Address is in a country that is not blocked.

The buyer cannot buy and then ask you the seller to ship to the country in which they live...the registered address..

In the months before last Christmas I had two buyers, one from the UK and the second from Germany that had me ship to Canadian addresses.... Christmas presents

I have all countries worldwide blocked and ship only to Canada and the US...

Use of a Primary Shipping Address, and the link for that address between Paypal and eBay works well, preventing anyone from bypassing a country block with a purchase and then asking (or telling) a seller to ship to a blocked country... or else....

cumos55 · ‎06-12-2015

The buyers from the UK and Germany communicated with me before they bought and had me ship to a Canadian address for both purchases. Both purchases were fixed price listings

In OP's situation The bid can be cancelled .... the bidder can be blocked, without question, and the auction can continue without any problem.

Many Canadian buyers have two addresses..... a Canadian address for items bought from Canadian sellers and US sellers that ship to Canada..... and .... a second address, a US address, is for purchases from US sellers that do not ship outside the US. This was when I learned about the Primary Shipping Address. and how it should be applied and be used by Canadian sellers.... with a Canadian and a US address for purchases.

73rhc · ‎06-12-2015

Another possibility is that the foreign bidder registered with eBay using a North American address. This happened to me. A buyer from Turkey, with no primary shipping address other than Turkey, bought an item from me. I called eBay, because I had blocked Turkey, and with a little probing the CS was able to determine what I mentioned above.

triber · ‎06-12-2015

Thank you for all the advise, I appreciate it. I think I will contact eBay before the option of canceling, bids are so few and far between these days. I can't actually find an address, just that the buyer is registered in South Korea. It is possible that they want the china shipped to a US address, I have had that happen before on a BIN. I have checked my blocked countries, and it is correct.

I was hoping that the buyer would respond to my message, I told them that I could mail to Canada or the US.

tobyshitzu · ‎06-12-2015

I just had one in Georgia (the country) put in a fake ottawa address so he could get around the block of my Canada only listing. After he hears shipping would be $250 he comes up with an American forwarder address. The buyer had no problem buying with canada address and changing after

Anonymous · ‎06-12-2015

When I see new buyers bidding or make offers, I always use "contact information" to get the information and sometimes I see 2 different countries and then I questioned him and when no response, I just simply remove his bidding or reject his offers and put him on the block list right away.

It is tough if they bought the items but it didn't happen. Knock on wood 3 times!! LOL.

reallynicestamps · ‎06-13-2015

Forwarders are very useful for overseas buyers.

I first heard of them being used by Japanese buyers of American blue jeans.

I wonder if a message to an overseas bidder asking if he will be using a forwarding service in North America, and stating the cost of shipping to his overseas address Air Mail and Delivery Confirmed would solve the problem one way or another?

But it costs you nothing to cancel a bid, and a great deal of time to deal with a buyer you don't want to service, especially if he has paid the (wrong) shipping already.

sylviebee · ‎12-21-2015

The problem of buyers with multiple addresses is annoying.

I use BIN with B.O. a lot.

My cost of shipping is set low and when an offer comes in I calculate my cost of shipping based on the buyer's location and accept or decline the offer based on that location.

Two days ago I had an offer from someone whose eBay id is based in the States and accepted.

When the payment was made it was made from the Chinese eBay site. The buyer's eBay address is China.

I just tried to ship the item and the paypal address is Columbia. Paypal won't even sell shipping labels for Columbia.

The buyer's FB warns that the buyer files claims stating the item was shipped to the wrong address.

I've contacted the buyer twice and asked to confirm her shipping address. No response.

If I refund and cancel I get a defect.

If I ship I get ripped off.

Damned if I do and damned if I don't.

ricarmic · ‎12-21-2015

Hi Sylvie, if depends on what you use for the reason. If you send a cancellation request through as "buyer changed mind" you don't get a defect.

If the buyer declines then you have to do something else, I would suggest calling the CSRs and explain the situation, I suspect they would help you in this case although one never knows.

sylviebee · ‎12-21-2015

What happens if the buyer declines? Does that change anything?

Calling CS with this gives me a headache just thinking about the call. Those calls always ruin my day.

Have to wonder if this is one result of the eBay/Paypal divorce.

ricarmic · ‎12-21-2015

If buyer declines then theoretically you have to ship.

I had a sort of similar situation in the past and I called CSR and they looked after it for me.

It really isn't a problem with the ebay paypal separation, it is a problem that you made the assumption the buyer was from the US since that is where they were registered from.

I too have had buyers in a different country than their registered one. In my case, the buyer travels a lot and wherever he happens to be is where he gets stuff shipped to (one example was a guy from Britain who was in Nepal for a while).

ricarmic · ‎12-21-2015

Another hit send too soon. The CSR looked after zapping the defect from it.

sylviebee · ‎12-21-2015

@ricarmic wrote:

It really isn't a problem with the ebay paypal separation, it is a problem that you made the assumption the buyer was from the US since that is where they were registered from.

I regularly have Chinese buyers with US addresses, and that's just fine with me as I'd rather ship to the US.

This buyer has a US id, a Chinese account with a Chinese address, and a Paypal address in Columbia.

Didn't the eBay and Paypal addresses have to match in the past?

I'm pretty sure that was the case. I used to have a US address and had to be sure that my eBay and paypal accounts had the same address set up before bidding. They had to match.

In this case:

If I use paypal as the source for the shipping address I'd ship to Columbia.

If I ship directly from the PO I wouldn't even be aware of the Columbian address and ship to China.

That's quite the glitch!

sylviebee · ‎12-21-2015

The reason I posted to this thread If the eBay and Paypal addresses are not the same, then there is no way to block a country....... Nigeria for example.

In addition, it means that buyers can pay shipping costs to one country and then have a shipping address in an entirely different location and actual shipping costs may be very different.

sylviebee · ‎12-21-2015

@cumos55 wrote:

Use of a Primary Shipping Address, and the link for that address between Paypal and eBay works well, preventing anyone from bypassing a country block with a purchase and then asking (or telling) a seller to ship to a blocked country... or else....

That's what I'm talking about.

My buyer has Primary Shipping Address on eBay (China), and a completely different shipping address on Paypal (Columbia).

That disconnect shouldn't be possible.

ricarmic · ‎12-21-2015

Hi Sylvie! Hmmm ok I may have gotten off track a bit here.... now I understand what you were asking...

sylviebee · ‎12-21-2015

I know. It was confusing because it shouldn't happen.

A few weeks ago I had a similar situation with eBay and Paypal addresses not matching.

A new glitch resulting from the eBay - Paypal divorce I think.

dreamturtle.ty · ‎12-21-2015

Hi,

I would also like to add that even though you have set the excluded countries list under your site preferences, those excluded countries can be individually tailored for each and every auction! If you are working with several templates that have individual shipping settings you may want to check that. This happened to me recently, i was surprised to find that my site preferences could be overridden.