Big problem when blocking the United States

[chicweb]

When I block the United States, my items disappears entirely from ebay.com, even if my address is in Canada.

devon@ebay this is an enormous problem for canadian sellers. A LOT of people around the world uses ebay.com (canadian, european, etc) to buy. If our items are entirely removed from the .com, even for people in other parts of the world, this will kill any possibilities to continue doing business.

[chicweb]

The only temporary solution I've found is to not block the United States, but disable every shipping methods to be used in the United States.

Then they have to contact us for shipping prices. That causes other problems... with offers and automatic offers, as examples. Not counting the time lost and all the cancellations ahead.

Thinking about the fact that a lot of countries doesn't have their own portal and uses .com as their main hub... This is a critical issue for me. This temporary solution is the only current way I've found to be able to offer our products everywhere in the world for sure.

[mrdutch1001]

Not sure why you think you are entitled to "block" shipping to the USA when listing on the USA .COM site...that would be like Canadian sellers trying to block Canada when listing on the eBay.CA site! 

[chicweb]

Because .com is the only portal used everywhere in the world, not only the USA.

Why would the USA be entitled to block our items everywhere else in the world, because we don't ship to them?

People in Poland will not go to ebay.ca to buy. They will go to ebay.com

The .com must be treated differently since it is used everywhere in the world (compared to ebay.ca).

[phc64]

This issue will not just affect those of us who list on ebay.com.

I list exclusively on ebay.ca. Because of my rural location, shipping services other than Canada Post are simply not a viable option. Like many of us, I will be forced to add the United States to the list of countries to which I do not ship. As I understand it, this means that a German will still be able to see my items on ebay.de but not on ebay.com.

[chicweb]

Yes. I think the items will appears on ebay.uk, ebay.be, etc.

This post is also to notify other sellers. By blocking USA entirely, you are removing your items from the .com portal.

My temporary solution will create other problems, but will still shows my items on .com for smaller countries around the world who don't have their own portals or for customers who uses the .com.

I prepared a message to send to those american customers and also I updated my payment delay to a month. So if someone still want to wait for the situation to settle... They can wait until we offer shipping to the USA again (soon, let's hope)

[marnotom!]

@chicweb, how were you searching for your items on .com? Were you searching by keyword and using “best match”?

[apmtrade]

As a Canadian seller, yes I agree, this is an enormous problem for international sellers listing on com.. I have used Inkfrog for + 22 years for my  listings, and  as I remember, when I signed up, only com was available, 

If international sellers are not given the option to change from com, continuing to do business will be almost impossible.

Additionally, the loss of selling fees for eBay can be expected to be noticeable in the upcoming statements.

[byto253]

.com is the US home site and  I don't see it changing to allow blocking of US buyers. 

To deal with it you can raise shipping prices to the US to a crazy level that rules out sales to the US, or if you do get them takes care of any possible customs related charges.  You see US based sellers do something similar on Amazon where things are "available" to Canada but at 5 times the price.

To completely eliminate the US you will need to move items to .ca.   

[shawnspeller]

You could always just set your American Only shipping options to a ridiculously high flat rate price so the listing still shows on .com but nobody in their right mind (as if there is any right minds left there) in the US would buy your items, everyone elses shipping should show the same. I have recently blocked the dummies too but never thought about my items no longer showing up, I have since the block was put on got orders from Europe and Australia so they must still be seeing my items somehow.

[chicweb]

I was searching best match, prices and also directly on my store on .com. They disappeared on my entire .com store and from the search engine.

I tried Incognito and also with my current account which is based in Canada.

Items disappeared entirely, unless I unblock USA.

[chicweb]

eBay is using it for USA only but it is used everywhere in the world, like I said.

This is a main hub, not only for USA. Citizens from around the world uses it to buy. eBay might want to use it for USA only, but that's not the reality of what is happening worldwide.

Basically = You ship to the United States or you don't use ebay at all. 

That's what I understand from this. Not a lot of people goes to their country specific ebay (if they even have one). They all use ebay.com.

By the way, my items are on ebay.ca. That is why I also write on the ebay.ca forum. That's my main portal.

They are automatically published on .com, .fr, .be, .uk, etc.

If I block the USA, it's removed from the .com... which removes a LOT of potential customers from around the world who are not even in the USA. Because .com is the default portal everyone is using.

[chicweb]

I can't. I use Calculated shipping for the rest of the world.

We cannot mix Fixed price with Calculated shipping.

[shawnspeller]

Yeah, you're right. You can't, **bleep**. I'm glad I came across this post, I've been meaning to take some time to sit down and work this out myself. I'll keep up on this thread hopefully we can come up with a good workaround, as I said I'm still getting international orders since I've blocked but from reading this thread I assume they found it through their own country's domain (.au, .de, ect.) I'm working my way through a tutorial now to see where my items are visible I'll check back if I get any good info.

[chicweb]

The only solution I've found, is to not block USA, but to remove all shipping to USA. I use the Business policies to help.

Here is an example, if others wants to try.

Then, only FedEx should be shown to the americans.

I configure it to remove United States from showing.

This will show your items and "Contact the seller for shipping options".

I will then deal with those case by case. Time consuming, but special times needs special solutions.

[shawnspeller]

Sorry about this dumb question but when checking on .com for your items what was your "ship to" country set to? I just tested a few of my items on an incognito browser on ebay.com, when I had ship to set to USA my items didn't appear, when I had ship to set to say Botswana or Uruguay or another country I'm pretty sure doesn't have their own ebay domain it the items re-appeared. I don't have a vpn right now but have you tried a vpn set to a random country on .com yet?

[38e_avenue]

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@shawnspeller wrote:

You could always just set your American Only shipping options to a ridiculously high flat rate price so the listing still shows on .com but nobody in their right mind (as if there is any right minds left there) in the US would buy your items, everyone elses shipping should show the same. 

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Not a bad solution at all! 

If I change free shipping to $250, all international buyers, Canada included, will still see the $10 charge!  

Problem resolved! 

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@chicweb wrote:

Yes. I think the items will appears on ebay.uk, ebay.be, etc.

This post is also to notify other sellers. By blocking USA entirely, you are removing your items from the .com portal.

My temporary solution will create other problems, but will still shows my items on .com for smaller countries around the world who don't have their own portals or for customers who uses the .com.

I prepared a message to send to those american customers and also I updated my payment delay to a month. So if someone still want to wait for the situation to settle... They can wait until we offer shipping to the USA again (soon, let's hope)

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@chicweb 

devon@ebay 

As a test I checked a seller that has pre-emptively turned off USA shipping (listing on ca). This is what you see on their listings.

If you update to specify a ship to (Canadian) postal code you get this message:

[chicweb]

yes, but the items shows on the search result? And on their .com store?

You might be able to see the product page, but if the product cannot be found....

A good test (that I did this morning), is to search for the items.

I did a search incognito. Before I blocked USA = Items shows. Either if I say I'm from Canada or USA. I have promoted listing. Easy to see.

I did the same search after blocking USA. After 15 minutes, the item disappeared from my .com store and no search results at all. I switched the dropdown to Canada. Still no items. No items in store either.

I tried with my own account (address based in Canada). On .com, product not in my .com store. Product not in search result. As soon I unblock USA, I appear everywhere as normal. Both Incognito and with my account.

The products listed on .com really seem to be the products that ships to the United States. Period.

[neotrendsstampco]

Why not set quantity available for purchase to zero?