Ebay and foreign bidders

[Etched Pixels]

I block non UK sales on personal stuff because ebay won't let me block by country that I can find. I'd happily accept bids from bits of the EU which don't seem fraud ridden but you don't get the option of specifying which. For business sales I don't get a choice - like a lot of small businesses my insurance policy conditions forbid shipping goods to the USA..

 

Alan

[Colin_McLeod]

 

Perhaps experience has taught some sellers that this more likely to happen with overseas sales and also a greater chance of it happening if the buyer is in a specific country, hence their unwillingness to sell outside their home country. It is their choice as the seller.

 

I have been using E bay for years, and never had anyone claim that the parcel I sent them did not arrive until recently when I had TWO such claims within a week. Both in the UK.

 

I'll still sell to the UK of course, but now thanks to Pay Pal's automatic refund policy, everything must now go by Registered Post which makes selling from Ireland to UK less attractive to buyers. In addition I still get buyers who complain about my postal charges even thought I always charge exactly the postage and make no charge for packing materials nor my time.

[DDolfelin]

"I get the impression that the majority of problems which might exist with overseas postage and sales are only really there if you make them."

 

That is wrong.

 

I've had two unpleasant experiences with buyers from Norway and Estonia.

The first left me a Negative because he had to pay customs duty and the second didn't pay at all.

I have informed Bomber Command.

[Ohmisterporter]

I have sold to customers in France, Spain and Czech Republic with no problems. Only fly in the ointment was that I paid for International Signed For through the post office, and found out there is one that I couldn't actually see that the package had been signed for. If buyers leave feedback you know they have received the goods, unfortunately the one who has not left feedback is the one whose signature is not available to view. As two months have now passed I assume everything is OK.

 

That will not stop me selling abroad again.

 

Geoff.

 

I have just found out that "International Signed For" only applies until the goods leave the UK. What a rip off! What's the point of paying extra for Signed For if you can't get to see the signature?

 

Geoff.

[pH]

I just got burned by this. I'd E-mailed a seller and asked if it was OK to bid on his 'UK bidders' only item (I live in Canada) and, if I won, to pay with Paypal and give him a UK address to send it to. He said that would be fine. With a couple of minutes to go in the auction, I tried to submit a bid and had it refused by Ebay. I'd forgotten to ask the seller to remove the geographic restriction on bidders . Oh well - I'll remember next time!

[hayfield]

I have sent many items abroad, buyers accept that the cost of post and packing is higher than inland and that it might take up to a week to arrive. Thankfully to date I have had no problems.

 

As for lost in post items, the chances of this happenning may only be slightly higher than the chances of loosing an item through inland post, and Ebay treats both the same. And its allways up to the seller to obtain a refund from the Royal Mail.

 

Opening the bidding up to overseas bidders may result in higher bids.

[John_Hughes]

I have sent many items abroad, buyers accept that the cost of post and packing is higher than inland and that it might take up to a week to arrive. Thankfully to date I have had no problems.

 

As for lost in post items, the chances of this happenning may only be slightly higher than the chances of loosing an item through inland post, and Ebay treats both the same. And its allways up to the seller to obtain a refund from the Royal Mail.

 

Opening the bidding up to overseas bidders may result in higher bids.

 

My experience has been exactly the same; people who model UK prototype but who happen to live abroad often find it very tricky to get their hands on various bits and pieces (been there, done that!) and so they'll often bid well over the odds when something that interests them comes up.

 

And, frankly, some UK shops that advertise international mail-order are a sight less careful about actually sending the stuff promptly than a lot of eBay sellers. After all, eBay sellers have easy-to-access buyer feedback to think of, shops don't!

[M Graff]

I don´t know how many times I have contacted sellers about accepting foreign bids, but mostly being turned down with the explanation: -It´s so difficult to ship abroad?!?

I don´t get it, do they have to swim over the Channel themselves or what?

Many times the items I have been wanting to bid on, but hasn´t been allowed to do, has been won at very low bids, so I would say that allowing international bidders will result in getting more for your stuff.

[David_S.]

As an Englishman living in Finland for the last 15 years, I have to say I have never had a problem buying model-related or other goods on E Bay. I'll be sad if the rules have changed, though I bid for and won a few books last week with no problems.

[Colin_McLeod]

My local post office will send mail worldwide. I assume all post offices everywhere are the same. Only the cost changes, and if the buyer is prepared to pay the cost, I see no reason at all for refusing to send abroad.

 

I live in Cork in the Republic of Ireland, but if anyone refuses to send to Ireland, I change my E Bay address to my Mother's address in Northern Ireland and bid anyway. It only takes a couple of minutes and always works and I'll collect the item the next time I visit my Mum.

[Jenny Emily]

I think the biggest problem is difficulty in getting proof of receipt for items sent abroad. Given the rise of fraud where a user buys something, receives it then claims it never arrives to get a refund (and keep the goods) a vendor cannot protect themselves from this if mailing abroad. What you will find is that those who have got burnt a couple of times this way stop offering overseas posting. It isn't because they can't get the goods out there, but that they cannot get proof that it got there.

[Bill]

I live in Canada and judging by the results I get when I ask GB sellers to allow me to bid I might as well live in Jakarta or Singapore!

Goods sent by "International Signed For" from GB are traceable all the way to any Canadian front door, providing the trace is continued on the website of Canada Post. So it is totally safe to sell to someone in Canada. ( What is not safe is some of the junk that has turned up on my front door from British sellers - but that is altogether another matter! )

[nebnoswal]

I've noticed of late, the past 12 months, that more and more sellers in the UK are restricting/banner overseas bidders. Living downunder and modelling UK has been all the more easier with eBay, but I've had more rejections this year than I can count. When I make a bid, and no where in the listing does it mention no overseas bidders, and it comes up with no overseas bidders, I make contact with the seller and request, politely, for them to allow it. If they do, I kind of feel obliged to bid enough to win, as they have gone out of their way to modifiy the auction for me. I can't understand when they say it is too difficult. I know when I've visited the UK, if I buy too much at the shops and have no room in my luggage I just pop into the nearest post office and send a parcel home, addressed to myself.

What is the difference when going to the post office and posting an item within the UK and overseas?

I know when I'm selling stuff, I always check the feedback on the bidders.

[andyman7]

This has become more of an issue with the more sophisticated software that ebay now employs. At one time if you were registered you could bid on auctions in any country, regardless of what the listing said (of course that didn't mean that the seller would ship to you!). However, in the last few years the options for sellers now let you block bidders for countries you don't ship to, and the 'cookies' the site uses will ensure that you can't bid. If this is the case, you can try signing in on that country's site, it still won't work!

I have always shipped abroad and have had very few problems with 000s of transactions. But the PayPal rules do now mean International Signed For for all but the cheapest items, and that does make it expensive. The whole P&P thing is a nightmare really, even if you just charge actual postage, you can't get a perfect rating for P&P charges, it seems people don't like the cost of shipping and some take it out on the seller. It doesn't help sometimes that people will say 'oh, but Hattons will send this to me for £4, you're ripping me off', when of course Hattons are primarily a mail order business with huge turnover and can subsidise their postage costs. I'm increasingly using free p&p and factoring the cost into the listing price these days, psychologically it seems to work better, despite being a zero-sum game!

[37pits]

I used to say on my description I would post to the EU countries only, but if a bidder from elsewhere queried if I would post to them outside the EU, I would work out the cost of p&p to their country & advise them it would be up to them if they wanted to bid & pay that cost if successful. Worked well with a few international bidders until I posted a parcel to Australia told the buyer it would take 5 - 6 weeks. He put a claim into paypal after 4 weeks, took the refund from paypal without a comment after 6 weeks & for all I know he has received the parcel. Now I only post to UK - once bitten twice shy!!!!

[darren01]

HI All

Even made it on to Radio 4 today ,about this.

Darren

[Horsetan]

i normally just put international postage on my listings which attracts bidders from all over the world without problems, however i've just listed an item which i want to get maximum exposure, when it came to the listing fee page it said "show item on ebay usa and canada" for 5p extra, first time i've seen that on any listing i've done so it may well have changed (certainly within the last week), probably another way for ebay to get more fees off you!!

 

I've started liquidating that massive Swiss outline collection, and saw the extra-cost listing option as well. I ignored it, and just stated where I was happy to post to. I have had enquiries from Italy, Japan and Canada without having to pay extra for it!

 

I used to say on my description I would post to the EU countries only, but if a bidder from elsewhere queried if I would post to them outside the EU, I would work out the cost of p&p to their country & advise them it would be up to them if they wanted to bid & pay that cost if successful. Worked well with a few international bidders until I posted a parcel to Australia told the buyer it would take 5 - 6 weeks. He put a claim into paypal after 4 weeks, took the refund from paypal without a comment after 6 weeks & for all I know he has received the parcel. Now I only post to UK - once bitten twice shy!!!!

 

 

I only post to selected EU countries, not all of them.

 

The Aussie bidder who effectively stole from you is one of the risks of posting anywhere, not just outside the UK.

[John B]

The "I won't post abroad" attitude really p**ses me off, frankly. eBay is my local model shop for UK outline stuff - Hattons / Kernow apart, but they only provide things I can get out of a box. I've got perfect feedback, so why the hell shouldn't I be allowed to bid on something a UK buyer is selling?

 

There's been more than a few occasions when I've found that an item I've been barred from bidding on has gone for less than I was prepared to pay for it. Who's the loser now?

[Jenny Emily]

The "I won't post abroad" attitude really p**ses me off, frankly. eBay is my local model shop for UK outline stuff - Hattons / Kernow apart, but they only provide things I can get out of a box. I've got perfect feedback, so why the hell shouldn't I be allowed to bid on something a UK buyer is selling?

 

There's been more than a few occasions when I've found that an item I've been barred from bidding on has gone for less than I was prepared to pay for it. Who's the loser now?

 

Unfortunately there have been a few people on Ebay abusing the system when items are posted abroad that mean that many sellers have exercised their right to not post abroad. I think it's a little hard on sellers to expect them to take risks that they don't feel comfortable with. Usually contacting the seller beforehand can illicite a solution - it just takes a little more planning.

 

Until Ebay sorts out its system so that their isn't a loophole that allows sellers to have their goods potentially received and refunded on at the same time, then sellers are always going to weigh up the alternatives and if they've been burnt once I can completely understand why they wouldn't want to get potentially burnt again. Remember: in most cases the seller doesn't know any of us from Adam and regardless of how honest you are, the seller doesn't have any way of verifying that in advance.

[hayfield]

To date I have had no problems selling to foeign buyers, in fact in they are in general most gratefull that you have sold to them. But I rarely buy from foreigh sellers (cost of postage puts me off)

 

I can see the other side where there have been problems with goods not arriving, but thats the risk when sending anything via the postal system. Asking foreign bidders to email first or only those with a certain rating is another solution, but that discriminates against new bidders. Recorded / registered postage is another solution.

 

I always post Airmal, buyers pay the extra and if I have overestimated the price I give a refund. High value Items are insured.

 

I personally think excluding foreign bidders is a bit harsh, and I will still welcome them. Lets be honest there are enough chancers in the UK.

[trisonic]

There's nothing to stop a UK buyer from receiving goods via mail (from a seller in the UK) but claiming he didn't or am I missing something?

 

Being crooked does not begin at the English Channel.

 

Best, Pete.

[Neil]

I don't use e-bay that much but a good proportion of my purchases have been from overseas sellers. I'm afraid that being a lazy chap I just go with the default settings when I advertise however as I benefit from the overseas trade I'd always be happy to go back and change the settings. If someone is interested enough to ask for a specific item then I'm happy to consider that they're a serious potential buyer.

[jamie92208]

I've sold quite a few things to foreign buyers and have only had one problem with a pakage going astray which is about the same ratio as sending stuff in the UK. I've had more problems with some UK based bidders acting irresponsibly then not paying up when they ahve won. There were 3 members of one family doing this and Ebay ended up barring them when I reported it. Mind you after the conversation I had with the parent when I tried to sort it out myself i don't think that the combined IQ of the whole family got into 3 figures.

 

Jamie

[Horsetan]

.....Mind you after the conversation I had with the parent when I tried to sort it out myself i don't think that the combined IQ of the whole family got into 3 figures.

 

Probably struggling to make it into double figures

[Lady_Ava_Hay]

Methinks there has been a biggish rule change just recently which has precluded using certain countries that seemingly don't use or can't cope with Paypal. I seem to recall both Germany and Denmark being mentioned.

 

There goes that faulty memory again!!!