International Shipping - no services available - is it a problem with the buyer's address?

[eclipsevintage]

Hi, 

I only started selling on ebay in the last year and this is the first time I ran into this issue. I only ever wanted to ship within Canada and to the US (I'm in Canada) so I set my shipping policy to show shipping to Canada and the US. However, I didn't realize you also have to EXCLUDE all other countries. I got an order to Netherlands Antilles and the buyer selected USA UPS shipping. I admit, I didn't know they had to be excluded, so I was willing to ship it anyways and potentially eat the extra cost, however now that I go to print my label, it's saying there is no service available. Why is that? Is it because there's an issue with the buyer's address? It's not like I can ship using USA UPS but why are no other options coming up? Is there any way I can get around shipping this item and risk losing a lot of money without getting a defect?

Thanks in advance!

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@eclipsevintage wrote:

Hi, 

I only started selling on ebay in the last year and this is the first time I ran into this issue. I only ever wanted to ship within Canada and to the US (I'm in Canada) so I set my shipping policy to show shipping to Canada and the US. However, I didn't realize you also have to EXCLUDE all other countries. I got an order to Netherlands Antilles and the buyer selected USA UPS shipping. I admit, I didn't know they had to be excluded, so I was willing to ship it anyways and potentially eat the extra cost, however now that I go to print my label, it's saying there is no service available. Why is that? Is it because there's an issue with the buyer's address? It's not like I can ship using USA UPS but why are no other options coming up? Is there any way I can get around shipping this item and risk losing a lot of money without getting a defect?

Thanks in advance!

---

@eclipsevintage 

@msau4301 

UPS services to foreign countries is a defect in eBay's selection set up. The same thing happens when choosing shipping to foreign countries using tracked. The default is to USA. You have to update Intl Tracked. It's been passed on but never has been fixed on ca. When the list of services was created that we could choose from they chose to list by speed vs by service. Conjumbled vs CP/UPS/Fedex. The op would just have to go into each current listing and modify to update. 

Choose this one:  Canada Post Tracked Packet - USA - Found under standard services

vs

Canada Post Tracked Packet - International (Non-US) which defaults to Worldwide.

Then modify countries you will and won't ship to. - Found under expedited services. 

As a heads up from personal testing listing setup over rides seller settings.

To exclude countries:

https://www.ebay.ca/ship/prf/excludeRegions

To update show discounted rate to buyer (calculated shipping)

https://www.ebay.ca/ship/prf/carrier

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

For clarification or anyone that does not use calculated:

Automatic view when you choose USA tracked:

You have to manually update to USA or it allows an international buyer to choose that service with US rating attached....incorrectly. 

[flipistics]

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@eclipsevintage wrote:

Hi, 

I only started selling on ebay in the last year and this is the first time I ran into this issue. I only ever wanted to ship within Canada and to the US (I'm in Canada) so I set my shipping policy to show shipping to Canada and the US. However, I didn't realize you also have to EXCLUDE all other countries. I got an order to Netherlands Antilles and the buyer selected USA UPS shipping. I admit, I didn't know they had to be excluded, so I was willing to ship it anyways and potentially eat the extra cost, however now that I go to print my label, it's saying there is no service available. Why is that? Is it because there's an issue with the buyer's address? It's not like I can ship using USA UPS but why are no other options coming up? Is there any way I can get around shipping this item and risk losing a lot of money without getting a defect?

Thanks in advance!

---

Apparently Netherlands Antilles no longer exists. They are now Curacao, Sint Maarten, and Dutch Caribbean. If the buyer has Netherlands Antilles as their country, that's probably why you can't see any options. If that's the case it does give you a nice out though, since there really DOES appear to be a problem with their address.

When I look at your listings and set my location to another country (like Mexico), it's giving USA shipping options like Tracked Packet USA.  You need to offer non-USA shipping options for non-USA countries.

Note that there IS an issue with some USA territories. For example, a buyer in PR is kind of damned if they do, damned if they don't. If they set their country to USA, you can send things using Tracked Packet USA but other couriers expect to see PR. If they set their country to PR, you can't buy the label using eBay's Tracked Packet USA but the other couriers are happy. The best part is, the country is the one thing eBay doesn't let you edit.

[msau4301]

Hi, I used to ship internationally frequently but stopped over the last couple of years. Even if you have not "excluded" all other countries, you can not sell to them unless there is a shipping service set up in the listing also. I know this because I have a long time buyer from Italy and she is one of the few people I will still ship to and she can not buy from me unless I set up my listing to included either Small Package International or Tracked Package International (along with associated shipping cost).

I'm not sure how your buyer was able to buy and chose USA UPS unless they have a delivery address in the US. I've sold often to people who show they are in another country but the shipping address is in the US (a forwarder or friend/family in US will allow them to do it this way.) 

If you are trying to do the label and it is still showing Netherlands with US shipping service it would not work.

You can cancel the sale using "Buyer lives in location I don't ship to" if this is the case. You can also reach out to them and ask if they have a US address since they chose a US shipping option, and if so they would have to change the address to ship to, you can't within the system here.

[reallynicestamps]

There is an option to cancel the sale using "Problem with buyer's address." that carries no penalty.

It would be polite of course to let the buyer know what the problem was and why you cancelled.

Part of the problem may be that according to Wikipedia, the Nederland Antilles no longer exists. It was a colonized group of islands (including Sint Maarten) in the Caribbean.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_Antilles

Do you have the name of the actual island?

[eclipsevintage]

Thank you for letting me know. The end of the address is 'Kralendijk Bonaire 0000BQ Netherlands Antilles' so I'm not sure what the name of the actual island is.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Kralendijk is the Capital of Bonaire and is on the main island. To be super helpful just ask them if they want delivered in person....at their expense. Hey, it never hurts to ask. 

[eclipsevintage]

Here is a screenshot of what I'm seeing on my end. 

[msau4301]

You only have 1 gram as weight. That is way too low, did you mean 1 kilogram? or did you miss some zeros. That could be the reason for your error message!

[eclipsevintage]

Thanks for pointing that out, but I did try putting in the actual weight and size and there were still no options.