Ebay forcing me to post internationally?

[sidesaddlegirl]

On the advice of everyone here about not sending my close contact saddle internationally, I made my auction UK only. However, everyone single person who has bid, is international!!!!

I had one lady bid from the Czech Republic and another from New Zealand. I wrote to the CR lady and told her that although I didn't mind her bidding, to please note that shipping would be £93.00, now the NZ lady has outbid her and to send the saddle by Parcelforce, is going to be £150!! The NZ lady is a newbie with low feedback but I wrote to her anyways just letting her know what shipping would be so that she had a chance to cancel her bid before the end.

Whenever I've had UK only auctions before, international bidders haven't been able to bid (I know this for a fact as I used to get emails asking if I would make an exception for them as Ebay was blocking their bid) but this time around, it's a free for all!!

Anyone else run into this lately?

 

[welshied]

I had this problem with something and i always write on the advert overseas bidders contact first before bidding and it hasn't happened since

 

[sidesaddlegirl]

I wrote in the auction "UK only bidders please" in large bold print so it makes you wonder what else they are not taking any notice of? I stated that my saddle needs a horse with high withers and watch them buy it for a round native pony and then blame me when it doesn't fit!

 

[Spyda]

Hi, if your listing is still running you're able to go in and cancel the bids placed by your international bidders. EBay do permit a Seller to do this. Can't remember how now, but know I have in the past when 'undesirable' people have bid. Mind you, there's no stopping new ones from bidding again.

Failing that, if you're really concerned (and providing you've more than 12 hours still to go before the end of your auction) you could cancel your listing altogether. Make up some reason such as 'error in listing' or something, and process the listing cancellation that way.

Then, if you want, you can look into why international bidders were not blocked from bidding on your listing and relist.

 

[welshied]

I would just tell them that you won't be sending it thats what i did and it puts them off paying for it

 

[Equus Leather]

You can alter your settings to not allow international bidders.

 

[lexiedhb]

I think it is actually YOU who has to block international bidders from bidding, in your settings, thats what i did anyhoo....

 

[Spyda]

[ QUOTE ]
I would just tell them that you won't be sending it thats what i did and it puts them off paying for it

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, but then the Seller is going to end up with negative feedback from the pee'ed off buyer. Plus, end up having to pay for listing and final valuation fees to eBay into the bargain. No, better to cancel the entire listing and then relist again - making sure International bidders are BLOCKED from bidding on the auction. If OP is not sure how to do this, cancel the listing first because once the listing ends in under 12 hours she will not be able to cancel anything. Then call eBay and ask them how to block international bidders from certain listings. They should help.

 

[PapaFrita]

As an international bidder myself, if it doesn't specifically say that the seller will post to S.Am, I check before bidding. I'm pretty sure that you can alter your settings so international bidders can't pay by paypal (this happened to me once, but there was a mistake in the listing) but I'm not sure you can stop them bidding.

 

[welshied]

Yeah but if you complain to ebay about the fact they bidded when you stated no international bidders ebay take action against the buyers and the issue is sorted out i have 100% positive feedback

 

[jojo23]

Be very careful, make sure you get the money before sending. We had a nightmare trying to sell a phone on ebay, sold it three times all to bogus buyers trying to get us to send abroad despite saying will not send abroad, and sent us bogus emails from paypal saying they had the money and would release it when we provided them with a shipping number, even threatened to give us bad feedback, notified ebay and paypal who cancelled the sale.

 

[sidesaddlegirl]

The thing is, I DO have it in my account settings not to allow bidders from countries I don't ship to which is why in previous auctions, international bidders always emailed me as they were blocked.

The only thing I can think of is that because I used Ebay's Turbo Lister and made one auction in the bunch for the US Ebay (it was for a pair of breeches which would appeal to the US hunter/jumper market), that it somehow cocked up the rest of my other UK only listings.

The crap thing is if I cancel the two bids, I'll be back down to having no bids on my saddle!!!

If the bidder is willing to pay £150 to have it shipped to her, I don't mind but it irks me that they didn't ask first and it makes me wonder what else they neglected to read. I'll see what their response is and if I don't hear from them say tomorrow, then I'll cancel their bid.

 

[Spyda]

Here's the link to removing your listing if you need it: Cancel my listing

And here's the instructions to set your listing so International bidders cannot bid on it:

Add buyer requirements, to your listing:

In "My eBay", under the "My Account" column, click the "Preferences" link.

In the "Site Preferences" section, click the “Edit” link.
(The "Buyer Requirements" page opens.)

Select the buyers you wish to block:

"Are Registered in Countries to which you Do Not Post To"

Click the "Submit" button to save your requirements.

Then, make sure you carefully set your listing settings to
"Will only post to UK".

That should work

 

[Spyda]

Re: your above post. Have you checked the section of your listing where you specify postage costs and to which countries you post to? Unless you've specified postage to UK only, that may be your problem. If that's not it, then the above instructions to block buyers must not be complete.


I honestly would cancel the listing. Sending a saddle Internationally is going to be a no no. Too much can go wrong, not to mention the fact that PayPal will not release your payment to you UNTIL AFTER THE BUYER HAS LEFT POSITIVE FEEDBACK. It's bad enough waiting for the money to be released from PayPal when sending a saddle within the UK but should your International Buyer not leave you feedback or choose to complain or anything else, you will be left minus your saddle, minus your eBay fees and minus the postage & packing costs - with nothing to show but the prospect of a long and drawn out battle with PayPal. Believe me, no fun. I started an International complaint with PayPal in November 2008 and did everything they asked of me and provided all the documentation they requested but only got my refund 10 days ago! And it took months of protracted effort to get there.

If you've UK bidders on your saddle, note their eBay ID and send them an eBay message explaining why you're having to relist it. They'll simply rebid once their original bids have been cancelled when the first listing is closed early.

 

[lexiedhb]

Paypal never "held" onto my money when I sold my 2 saddles----- never heard of that before, if its an instant payment then its instant... paypal dont "hold" it!!

 

[Spyda]

[ QUOTE ]
Paypal never "held" onto my money when I sold my 2 saddles----- never heard of that before, if its an instant payment then its instant... paypal dont "hold" it!!

[/ QUOTE ]

Um, yes they do. For saddles they do. It's a new policy. Check it out for yourself. It's causing a lot of aggro.

 

[jojo23]

Yes they do now, because of all of the foreign scammers bidding on items then sending out bogus emails from paypal asking you to ship item before payment is made.

 

[lexiedhb]

Ahhhhh I sold mine last year so maybe thats why......... but then I didnt have any foreign bidders on mine as my settings worked unlike the OP's!

 

[Spyda]

Here's just one link to the eBay forum page, where members are discussing this new PayPal policy:

PayPal holding funds post

I actually received a Wintec saddle yesterday, bought on eBay, and I know the seller is waiting for me to leave + feedback so my PayPal payment will be released to her.

I've just logged in and created a dummy saddle for sale listing, just to see if anything would pop up to inform me that I'd have my PayPal payment with-held until + feedback had been left (or 21 days had elapsed) but right up until the end, nothing appeared to warn me. Think I'd be pretty annoyed if I listed a saddle, sold it, got a PayPal payment and then discovered my payment was being with-held until after I'd posted it and had feedback left. I don't remember being personally informed of this new policy. I'm only aware of it because of other people moaning about it. Wonder what other 'policy changes' await us, that we don't know about??

PayPal explanation about withholding payments

 

[Quarrybank]

This happened to me when I sold a saddle & I was completley unaware until I couldn't get my hands on my money (almost £1000

)
My feedback is 90 & I've got 100% & no disputes but because I didn't have 100 feedback it was held.

I phoned both Ebay & Paypal & each blamed the other.

Thankfully my buyer left feedback the day the saddle arrived & I got my money, but I wont sell anything of high value on there again until I have 100 in my feedback score.

 

[sidesaddlegirl]

Flippin' heck!!! I just checked my preferences like Syda says and all my buyer preferences are there:
"Have received 2 Unpaid Item strike(s) within 1 Month(s).
Have 4 Breach of Policy report(s) within 1 Month(s).
Have a feedback score of -1 or lower"

EXCEPT the block international bidder one!!!!!!!!!

I've ALWAYS had that one ticked too!!! Grr, flippin' Ebay.

Well, the buyer still hasn't written back yet but I will give them until tomorrow BUT I just checked their bidding history and they have bought 3 dressage saddles from 3 different UK sellers during the past week so I'm not hopeful. I can only imagine how much shipping they'll have to pay for those!

I will wait and see until tomorrow and then relist the saddle on a UK only buy it now. I'm so annoyed as my saddler is bringing me a nice Jeffries dressage saddle to try (an Elite MK2!)( and wanted to have the money to buy that if it fits.

I sold my Olney saddle last night on a BIN and Paypal didn't hold my payment for that. If I remember correctly, Paypal only holds the funds for new sellers or those under a certain number of feedback (is it 100)? I have 165 on this ID (this is my personal non biz one) and then nearly 3000 on another (that is my business one) and haven't had any funds held on either.

 

[lexiedhb]

[ QUOTE ]
Here's just one link to the eBay forum page, where members are discussing this new PayPal policy:

PayPal holding funds post

I actually received a Wintec saddle yesterday, bought on eBay, and I know the seller is waiting for me to leave + feedback so my PayPal payment will be released to her.

I've just logged in and created a dummy saddle for sale listing, just to see if anything would pop up to inform me that I'd have my PayPal payment with-held until + feedback had been left (or 21 days had elapsed) but right up until the end, nothing appeared to warn me. Think I'd be pretty annoyed if I listed a saddle, sold it, got a PayPal payment and then discovered my payment was being with-held until after I'd posted it and had feedback left. I don't remember being personally informed of this new policy. I'm only aware of it because of other people moaning about it. Wonder what other 'policy changes' await us, that we don't know about??

PayPal explanation about withholding payments

[/ QUOTE ]

Blimey you have WAY too much time on your hands LOL

 

[Erehwemos]

PayPal can hold the payment for anything a dispute is opened for. I sold a set of tendon boots a couple of years ago and the woman I sold them too got arsey about it - I had sold them as used,but she was quibbling over the scratches on them. She opened a dispute with Paypal for it, and immediately the money she had paid me was 'held' - I was also informed that if I had already withdrawn the funds, they would have put a hold on the required amount from my bank account. Luckily I was in the right all along, and the dispute was settled in my favour, so the money was released to me

But yes, even though payment may go through, it can still be 'held'.

Hope it all sorts itself out for you!

 

[Spyda]

[ QUOTE ]
Blimey you have WAY too much time on your hands LOL

[/ QUOTE ]

Nah, sadly not. Just buy and sell a lot online and need to keep up to date with what's what so I don't get caught out. I've 4300+ feedbacks on eBay @ 100% positive, and would like to keep it that way LOL. Mind you, it's getting harder and harder.