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.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@chicweb wrote:

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....

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@chicweb 

Unsure what the solution is? A filter to search by site only? Make Canada a default option on com vs N. America.

It does show a location on left (USA, Canada etc and sellers name on right. Not sure if that is an across the board result.   Just tested now doing an exact title search. Canadian seller showed up first with name along with additionall listings but no locations. There was no option to specify(filter) by location. Only pu's within a certain mile range, arrives in 2 to 4 days is greyed out and the always awesome provides free intl shipping. Ya right!!! (Certain results on dot com include filters for shipping services within USA (1 to 4 day or free shipping). That's never been a thing on ca.)  Features like that tend to be visible in one view and missing in another. And betting with a long list of search results most buyers will not be going listing to listing checking to confirm where a seller is. 

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@chicweb wrote:

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

We cannot mix Fixed price with Calculated shipping.

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@chicweb 

One other thing now more in play than ever....sending offers. We will need at bare minimum a way to know where we are sending offers to even if we can't see who they are. There will really be no point sending an offer to a US buyer if we can't in practice ship to them. Auto filter out of Zip Codes?

If a buyer sends a seller an offer you are able to confirm their location prior to choosing if you want to respond or not. Also get access to their past feedback left history. A major bonus.

[chicweb]

There's multiple solutions that can be implemented on .com

One would be: Hiding products based on address on file (or dropdown).

If a seller doesnt ship to USA and you are from USA = hide

That's all. No need for filters. At least, items will still show for others.

The only problem would be when browsing while not connected. Well, then, they could continue like they do currently or use IP geolocation, but that's less important, in my opinion. What matters the most are people connected to their account with address on file.

[chicweb]

Totally agree with you!

I think what would be the most important as a feature for offers is to be able to send offers only to where we ship. That would eliminate all other possible problems.

No sellers want to send offers to someone they can't even ship to. 😉

[john_koenig99]

I eliminated the US from my shipping whitelist, and I can still see my listings in .com. 

[chicweb]

I'm not sure I understand.

We cannot set a quantity available per country on eBay.

[chicweb]

I just checked.

You are still shipping to the United States

That is why you still appear.

Let's wait a bit, because this morning, after I did my changes, it took some time before my items disappeared. When did you set it?

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@chicweb wrote:

There's multiple solutions that can be implemented on .com

One would be: Hiding products based on address on file (or dropdown).

If a seller doesnt ship to USA and you are from USA = hide

That's all. No need for filters. At least, items will still show for others.

The only problem would be when browsing while not connected. Well, then, they could continue like they do currently or use IP geolocation, but that's less important, in my opinion. What matters the most are people connected to their account with address on file.

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@chicweb 

Would they be blocked if they purchased and tried to check out? According to the recent OPEN25 held in the USA verifying buyers was covered.

Verifying Buyers

• Verified bidding now requires a phone number for all bidders. And for high-value items, we're requiring government ID and selfie verification. 
• For categories like trading cards, we're testing holding funds during bidding or capturing partial payment immediately after close to ensure buyer intent. 
• For international buyers, we're applying the same strict verification — no exceptions.

Problem being oncenumber is included how is it being verified. Are they doing random checking to confirm it is actually valid? Recently have received numerous orders where in trying to contact the buyer eBay emails went unanswered and phone number was out of service. (When the account was opened was it a landline? Does anyone still have their landline? Well besides me?)

As I have mentioned at nauseum in the past when shipping by courier a valid phone and ACTUAL email are required fields. Also noted on the UK postal website as a requirement starting about 3 years ago. A requirement when there are issues with either customs or delivery. If it's not there shipments risk being returned at sellers expense after 10 days. 

[john_koenig99]

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@chicweb wrote

Let's wait a bit, because this morning, after I did my changes, it took some time before my items disappeared. When did you set it?

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Weird. I see in my listings in .com that the US is not even in the dropdown list of ship to countries.

Maybe I missed the change in one of the shipping policies. I will check them again. 

[chicweb]

No, I think it just take time for syncing.

I had the same impression earlier before I waited to make sure. Then I saw my items disappearing from my .com store and search results.

Go see your page on .com, you will see

https://www.ebay.com/usr/john_koenig99

Even if I say I'm from canada, only one item is showing on .com

[byto253]

Can you add a craxy handling fee to go on top of the calculated amount?  I really only use flat rate on .com to date so don't know. 

[nhl_automotive]

My items have always been exclusively listed on ebay.ca and they end up showing on ebay.com and in other countries. 

[john_koenig99]

Well, I see what you say.

The strange thing is that, if I search for an item I know am selling (in .ca, but logged in .com), it actually shows there. And if I click on my seller's link in the listing, it shows all the items I have for sale.

[chicweb]

No, we cannot add handling fees per country, only one fee for national and one fee for international.

[chicweb]

My items are only listed on ebay.ca too.

Are you specifically blocking the United States?

[chicweb]

Yes, you will appear on .ca no problem.

The problem is that they are not showing on .com. That's where the problem is.

[chicweb]

@john_koenig99 I just searched one of your item and it shows on .com... Did they fix it?

How did you configure the exclusion? Are you using Business Policies ? Maybe that's a problem specific to Business Policies?

I see one of your item in the search.

[chicweb]

I'm re-testing with one of my category with a specific business policy.

I will write here in a few hours to see how it goes. I want to let time pass to make sure it's working properly with cache and syncing.

If it works, it will mean they have fixed it during the day. It wasn't working this morning.

[john_koenig99]

I just excluded US from the North America countries and territories in my shipping policies. That's all I did. 

And yes, the listings are showing in .com. So I guess it should be good now,.

[chicweb · Accepted solution]

After an hour of having set United States as a blocked country in a Business Policy on ebay.ca, here's what I can say. 

(thanks to @john_koenig99 for his help).

1. My items using the business policy that blocks the United States still show on .com when connected to my account. That's very good news. Maybe it was fixed during the day? Who knows. 

2. When I use an Incognito browser and search a specific item, it shows. Good.

3. Note that I did not test browsing categories on .com. But my main issue was with the search results.

Here where I found some minor problems, still.

1. If I switch my country to United States (With the dropdown in search results), I disappear. Good, that's wanted. If I switch back to Canada, my item is not showing as expected. I have to close the browser and re-search. Then it is working. My guess would be some kind of session cookies problems. This happens on both (connected and incognito)

2. Items are removed from the .com store, even if I set manually my country to Canada in search results or if I don't change anything at all.

devon@ebay I don't know if it was fixed during the day or if the last two points was what threw me off. But I think I pinpointed the problem.

I will tag this post as the solution.