Item bought by someone outside of North America - How??

[craigerbombs14]

Hi all, 

Apologies if I am posting this in the wrong area. I recently sold an item to a seller with no prior feedback, who also happened to be located in South Korea. When I created the listing for my item I only had Canada and USA as shipping options. I did not think it would be possible to have someone from outside North America even purchase the item, so I'm not sure if I made an error when creating the listing or this is just how things are when selling eBay (I am pretty new to eBay).

I would love any insights/advice/comments! Thanks so much!

[esclyons]

it's been a while, but when you set your shipping preferences,, click that you ship to USA and Canada,then  i believe there is another spot where you have to click to exclude shipping to Italy , Russia, China..Korea  etc...

[cumos55]

Under Seller Hub  ... Shortcuts

Start with Site Preferences... and then   >   Seller Preferences   >   Shipping Preferences > Exclude shipping locations from your listings.

This is the only way that a seller can state which countries they will not ship to.

It is not enough just to say ship to.... Canada and the United States.

[momcqueen · Accepted solution]

As the others have said, if you want to sell to buyers located only within Canada and the USA, you have to specifically block all other countries so those people won't see it.

Account Settings -> Site Preferences -> Shipping Preferences and Exclude shipping locations from your listings --> Edit --> Show All Countries and that's where you pick and choose. This is what that screen looks like and you'll find it if you follow my map. 

Exclude Shipping LocationsPick your Countries to Serve

[momcqueen]

Also, you may now add whatever Shipping cost you like to your item because you will have to specify a postage cost now for your buyer so they can pay. If your item is of value, choose something tracked from the first link and you might also want to check for export restrictions here on the second link. 

https://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/far/business/findARate?execution=e1s1 

https://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/manual/pgIntDest-e.asp?letter=R%C2%A0

What country are we talking about? Someplace high-risk? What was the item?

[momcqueen]

Is it World of Warcraft: Cataclysm -- Collector's Edition (Windows/Mac: Mac and... for $125? Put tracking on it. Tracked Packet Airmail or Air Parcel. You want tracking. My tolerance for 'lost' is lower than many others who sell here. 

[momcqueen]

You're a new seller, so you want to protect yourself. If your buyer sees it will cost $40 tracked and backs out, Cancel Order citing Buyer Changed Mind. Unless losing this isn't of concern to you. As I said earlier, I tend to play it safe with tracking now. I had 177 feedback count when I first sold here and still found a disproportionate number of items went 'missing' before I switched to tracking for all parcels. And I sell toys which appeal to a different demographic than gamers who tend to be a slightly higher-risk for sellers.

[femmefan1946]

How much did the buyer pay for shipping?

If you have a shipping price for North America, only, ask for a North American address.

THey may use a reshipper.

If not choose an international shippiing service like Priority Post and bill them

https://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/far/business/findARate?execution=e1s1

You can also cancel for Problem With Address,

[hlmacdon]

What was the buyer's listed shipping address? Any buyer regardless of location in the world can change their primary shipping address to whatever they want and use a forwarding company. South Koreans frequently do that as there are a great deal of forwarders that operate in that market and USPS for example does not offer tracking to South Korea so many sellers/retailers restrict shipping to there.

[pjcdn2005]

@craigerbombs14

Because you don’t actually specify that you ship to South Korea you don’t have to agree to ship there.  If you decide that you are willing to ship there you will gave to figure out a shipping cost and then add that amount to an invoice to send to your buyer.  If you do use a service with tracking which is what I would also recommend in this case, chances are that the buyer won’t pay because of the high shipping cost.  If they don’t pay with 96 hours from purchase you can file an unpaid item case to get your fees back.  You will gave to wait another 96 hours after that though to close the case.

OR you can cancel the transaction.  When choosing the reason, use problem with address.  You will receive credit for your ebay final value fees using this method too.

[pjcdn2005]

As hlmcadon said, the buyer might have US address in which case they will be able to pay and then you would ship to the US.

As others mentioned you do have to block countries that you don’t ship to on your listings however, it isn’t necessary to check off each country that you don’t ship to as they’ve suggested.

The best way to do this imo is to go to:  my eBay - accounts - site preferences - buyer requirements.   On the right side click on ‘edit’ and check off block buyers with a primary shipping address in a country that I don’t ship to.   At the same time you might want to check off to block buyers with 2 or more unpaid item strikes in the last month.

Near the bottom of that page click on apply above settings........

Once you check off that shipping requirement you can specify that you ship to Canada and the US and the only people that can purchase will have a shipping address in those countries.  Later on if you want to ship some of your items to other countries, you can add those countries on.

I do use the exclude specific countries in some circumstances.  For example, I might want to ship to most of Europe.  I would set up shipping for Europe and then block specific countries in Europe. 

[marnotom!]

And even if you do all this blocking bizness, you can still get buyers located outside of your stated "ships to" locations if they've got a shipping address set up that *is* inside your "ships-to territory".

Since we don't know if you've done all this, the best way to approach this would be first to check with the buyer on their intended shipping address.

Remember, the blocks and restrictions are for shipping locations only, not buyer locations.

[pjcdn2005]

In this case they didn't have any blocks set up and according to another thread they have now cancelled the transaction.

[pjcdn2005]

In other thread you asked:

I recently had an item sell to a user that is located outside of North America, even though I did not have that shipping option available. I cancelled the item and indicated there was something wrong with the buyer's address...is there anything else I should do beyond that? I see the item is still listed as 'sold' and I do not have the option to relist as I've reached my maximum number of items. 

It would have been best if you had tried to contact the buyer first to see if they had a North American address.  I hope that it was the item was purchased a few days ago versus the one that was purchased today. If it was a few days ago chances are that they didn't have an address that you would ship to.

Filing an cancellation or unpaid item does not change your selling limits. The item will still show as sold but you will get the fvf credited on your account but you will have to wait until next month to relist. That's why it is important to set up your blocks so that there is less chance of your listings being wasted.

[craigerbombs14]

Thanks for all the responses everyone! Yep, that was the item. Everything I sell I plan on selling with tracking just to be on the safe side.

In this situation the buyer had zero feedback and had created their account the day they made the purchase and opted not to send payment right away. All of this, coupled with the fact the shipping address was in S. Korea made me a bit skittish and I cancelled the transaction. I guess my fear of being scammed took quite a hold, but perusing the discussion forums I think I acted rather hastily, after all it's pretty hypocritical that I would be wary of zero feedback buyers when I am a zero feedback seller. 

[femmefan1946]

@craigerbombs14

Given that you are selling in a high fraud category you should consider doing some buying to increase your feedback.

Low feedback is scammer bait.

Usually we suggest packaging materials but anything small and inexpensive will do.

Another reason for this is that you can learn the customer experience.

Best wishes.