My Item Description Says I will Only Ship to U.S., So Bidder From Australia Bids AND Wins My Auction

JackWESQ

All my item descriptions clearly state ...

"Auction is restricted to United States bidders only. I will only ship to the continental United States, Hawaii and Alaska." Simple and to the point.

So what happens? A bidder from Australia bids and wins one of my auctions. Grrr.

/s/ JackWESQ

Bosox1976

Might be Mick Dundee on walkabout in the big apple.

metalmike

No offense but why didn't you block overseas bidders from bidding in the first place? I used to sell on the bay and never had a problem...............

mosaic

Had that happen to me a few years back... yeah, I checked the box real quick where you can make eBay's system exclude international bidders for you.

JackWESQ

Dear MetalMike,

A number of reasons. I've had a number of international bidders not send payment (even via Paypal). Ultimately, I'll just relist the card (and so it's not that big of a deal). But it's still my time and effort. Also, I've had communication difficulties due to language barriers. There's more documentation to fill out at the post office. I'm sure there's more, but these are the ones that come to mind immediately.

Dear Mosaic,


<< <i>yeah, I checked the box real quick where you can make eBay's system exclude international bidders for you. >>


Whoa! You learn something new everday. Where is this box? I guess I have been overlooking it all this time.

/s/ JackWESQ

Robb

<< <i>No offense but why didn't you block overseas bidders from bidding in the first place? I used to sell on the bay and never had a problem............... >>




Reread the question, Jack.

lawnmowerman

Maybe the buyer is really Oscar De La Hoya wanting to leave you your first neg because of that drive thru incident

JackWESQ

Dear MetalMike,

My sincere apologies. The correct answer to your question is that I didn't know I could block international/overseas bidders. I'll look for that "box" in my future auctions. Thank you.

/s/ JackWESQ

storm888

It is on the SYI Form. Page 1

....................

Buyer requirements
Use Buyer Requirements to block certain buyers from bidding on or purchasing your items.

Block buyers who:
Don't have a PayPal account
Have received 2 Unpaid item Strike(s) within 12 month(s)
Are registered in countries to which I don't ship
Have 4 Policy violation report(s) within 6 month(s)
Have a feedback score equal to or lower than -1
Have bid on or bought my items in the last 10 days and have met my limit of 10 who have a feedback score of 5 or lower
Change buyer requirements

storm888

The challenge NOW is to get the "unwelcome bidder" to go away quietly,
AND without leaving a NEG.

.......

The buyer can be reported as an "unwelcome bidder."

About 50% of the time, EBAY T&S considers the TOS printed in the listing as prevailing.

The other half of the time, they require the box to have been properly checked in the SYIF.

In the meantime, block "international payments" in your PayPal account.

rube26105

prob half of my biz is overseas,maybe less, id half to look at the mystoremaps thing on my pages,but breaking the language barrier is sometimes difficult though ill admit,

otwcards

<< <i>prob half of my biz is overseas,maybe less, id half to look at the mystoremaps thing on my pages,but breaking the language barrier is sometimes difficult though ill admit, >>



Why Rube? Do they speak English?

rube26105

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ive gotten used to dealing with germans & asian countries, so i can interpret when they are trying to get across pretty good, russia is kinda tricky though and italy

BobaFett72

um. block overseas bidders.

PROMETHIUS88

Any time I sell, I state only U.S. bidders, but from time to time I'll still get from bids from elsewhere. To be honest, I/ve had no hassle shipping to Australia in the past. As a matter of fact, the shipping was much less than what I expected and the last item was delivered within 5 days. I was only like a buck to ship the item and it was only valued at $40.

mosaic

JackWESQ--I don't know where the box shows up anymore, since I haven't sold on eBay in a long while... but it was either on the item sell form or in one of the selling subheads in My eBay. If I recall, it gives you choices for US only or US & Canada...

For sure, a lot of eBay buyers don't even bother reading the item description anymore... they just look at the bid and MAYBE the shipping cost in the little box...

cardbender

Same thing happened to me as JackWESQ. I didn't have any of the ebay blocks in place either then:

My auctions clearly state USA and Canadian buyers only. A dude from down under (Australia) hits a BIN on a $290 item. He emails and wants to know how much shipping is to his country. I tell him, I don't ship internationally except to Canada. He wants to pay with paypal. Of course he's unconfirmed. I tell him to send me a postal money order instead and I'll hold the item for three weeks while his check is in the mail. I'm trying to work with the buyer and be reasonable. He says he cannot buy a money order but doesn't explain why.

He just goes ahead and sends me paypal. I refund his payment. Then we go back and forth via email and finally we agree to mutually not complete the deal. Our email exchanges were very cordial. Everything is great, right?

Wrong. Six weeks later, out of the blue he drills me with my first neutral in 9+ years of ebay selling.

I complained to ebay about it saying that the buyer had no right to buy my item in the first place since he's from a country I don't ship to and he's unconfirmed therefore I have no seller protection by shipping to him. My complaints just fall on deaf ears. Ebay won't help me out, but they do tell me I can block unwarranted bidders. Thanks ebay! I didn't know this at the time or this never would've happened. According to ebay, once a transaction takes place the buyer can leave whatever feedback they desire. Nice.

Blocks are now in place. Also paypal payments have to be confirmed now or they get automatically rejected.

I did nothing wrong and get a neutral. Welcome to the 'new' ebay.

Hope this doesn't happen to you too JackWESQ.

At least one good thing, neutrals soon won't count against your number rating.

storm888

"At least one good thing, neutrals soon won't count against your number rating. "

///////////////////////////////

NEUTs no longer count as NEGs.

Changed a couple of weeks ago.

hill33

I'll fly the Aussie flag here (being from that little country down under).

It really is pretty difficult to get money orders from us - the only option we have is Western Union and that can be pretty expensive. I guess we are also leave ourselves out to dry if we send someone a money order and they cash it and dont send the goods. Not saying you would, but buyers as well as sellers have to protect themselves.

Australian PayPal buyers CANNOT have a confirmed address at this stage. It is impossible. I am a confirmed buyer, but my address is not confirmed. PayPal simply haven't introduced a function for us Aussies to confirm our PayPal addresses.

I run an Aussie trading card site, and we do have some guys who are US members who act as go betweens for us. ie either we or the member bids on an auction for us. We get it sent to that US member and they forward it to us. Of course on a small $$ item it is a stupid way to do it and not worth it, but for bigger ticket items, you cover yourselves to the US address and we take the risk coming from the US to Australia. I know there are also trackable methods of postage (international courier services) which are expensive compared to regular post but you will find most Aussies who are bidding do not mind paying the cost of shipping to ensure the card is insured and both buyer and seller are covered.

If you ever have a problem with an Aussie, feel free to contact me and if they are members of the site I can see what I can do.

Leiascards

I would just go ahead and take the chance this time and set the blocks up for future listings. If you use TL its in the bidder requirements section and once you set it it will be the same on all your listings.

PoppaJ

We've never had a problem with an Australian buyer, ever. The only set back is that they're 13 hours ahead of us, which makes communication awkward sometimes. Right now it's Sept.1, 11:11 am, here, while it's Sept. 2, 1:11 am, over there. Other than that, the postage is modest as previously mentioned, and the Aussies are wonderful customers.

I would certainly complete this transaction and adjust your preferences afterwards.

Good luck,

PoppaJ

rise2it

"PayPal simply haven't introduced a function for us Aussies to confirm our PayPal addresses."

I think this is a problem with credit card processors in general...until about a year ago, you couldn't even do AVS (address verification) on Canadian addresses - I've been told that can now be done.