Preventing foreign buyers on Ebay - good luck

[goamules]

Rant time. I seldom sell on ebay anymore. It's too risky to sell globally to countries that cannot read my auction requirements, understand shipping delays, import taxes, etc. They want the item, but don't want to pay for it.

But this week I decided to open up my chances for profit, and sell globally. But NOT to CHINA! I eliminated that country for this sale (other times I will sell to China, just not always). Just as last time, and the time before, all I got were questions (mostly in Chinese that I don't read) from Chinese bidders demanding to know why. I got bids from Brazil, Israel, and several other high-risk shipping locations. Near the end, I got a bidder war from a new bidder....get this....in CHINA! I don't know how he got in and was able to bid. Again, I turned off that country. I looked him up, 10 or so buys, since July. But they were photography related, and he left others good feedback. So I let him remain. I did write him two days before the end, asking if he understood my terms, and that the shipping would be USPS Express, and expensive. No answer for 2 days. I let him ride, my finger on the "cancel bid" button several times.

Sure as $#it, he won! I got a ping asking "how much will shipping be to china?" I told him the cost, explained it was a good, fast service, and wished him luck on the lens. Just got this back:

"Dear friend, that is too expensive for me,and I heard that customs of chinese will take a terrorist taxes from me.
So,i am sorry,please cancel my bid.

best wish

Rocky from china

- 0-71920"

Of course now, I can't "cancel his bid" and have to talk Ebay into it, and hope he doesn't give me some wacko, chinese version of feedback revenge for my impertinence of having expensive shipping. And I wasted a week and a sale.

[toyotadesigner]

01: Because he cancelled the bid, he can't give you any feedback. But you are allowed to offer your item to the next highest bidder, no problem at all.

02: Next time make a PDF from your offer, with the clearly marked 'Not to China'. Send it to ebay customer service and insist on a statement.

03: I learned the hard way to never again offer anything outside of Europe. Items with a value higher than Euro 980 will be offered for sale only in Germany due to the high costs for the export certificates (around Euro 100 per item). The German tax department is a PITA.

04. Welcome to the absurd 'global village'...

[Old-N-Feeble]

I guess I've been lucky because I haven't had a single problem with Chinese buyers. As is the case with everything, I'm sure I eventually will. Hey... at least he/she asked to cancel the deal rather than having you ship the item to them and they file a claim in which case... you'd have to pay shipping BOTH ways.

[vinny]

Yup!
It takes all kinds.
I listed a large safe a couple years ago with a very clear LOCAL PICKUP ONLY in the shipping terms. Of course, a guy in Oregon buys it and says he won't pay unless I ship it. I don't think he liked the $1000 price I quoted him. I had to list in on Craigslist.

[Jac@stafford.net]

If you blocked China bids and someone got through, then take issue with eBay. Perhaps it will at least mitigate fees and complaints.

Some of my best sales have been to Chinese citizens, however through a broker or friend of theirs in the USA. My gosh, some pay crazy high prices for collectible cameras such as consecutive serial numbered early Leica M bodies with 'lucky' numbers. Bidder wars can be fun - for me.

[DonJ]

Rant time. I seldom sell on ebay anymore. It's too risky to sell globally to countries that cannot read my auction requirements, understand shipping delays, import taxes, etc. They want the item, but don't want to pay for it.

But this week I decided to open up my chances for profit, and sell globally. But NOT to CHINA! I eliminated that country for this sale (other times I will sell to China, just not always). Just as last time, and the time before, all I got were questions (mostly in Chinese that I don't read) from Chinese bidders demanding to know why. I got bids from Brazil, Israel, and several other high-risk shipping locations. Near the end, I got a bidder war from a new bidder....get this....in CHINA! I don't know how he got in and was able to bid. Again, I turned off that country. I looked him up, 10 or so buys, since July. But they were photography related, and he left others good feedback. So I let him remain. I did write him two days before the end, asking if he understood my terms, and that the shipping would be USPS Express, and expensive. No answer for 2 days. I let him ride, my finger on the "cancel bid" button several times. Sure as $#it, he won! I got a ping asking "how much will shipping be to china?" I told him the cost, explained it was a good, fast service, and wished him luck on the lens. Just got this back:

"Dear friend, that is too expensive for me,and I heard that customs of chinese will take a terrorist taxes from me.
So,i am sorry,please cancel my bid.

best wish

Rocky from china

- 0-71920"

Of course now, I can't "cancel his bid" and have to talk Ebay into it, and hope he doesn't give me some wacko, chinese version of feedback revenge for my impertinence of having expensive shipping. And I wasted a week and a sale.

A few thoughts:

1) There are two required settings for blocking international bidders. You must identify the countries you won't ship to, AND you must set the option to block bidders from countries you don't ship to. Have you done both? And a bidder can still get through if they provide a USA address as their primary address.

2) Instead of opening things up as you've done, you could include a note in the listing telling international bidders to contact you. If you're willing to let them bid, you can add them to your bidder exemption list.

3) You could also consider the Global Shipping Program, if your items are expensive enough for buyers to be willing to pay extra for that service. With the GSP, you have no responsibility beyond shipping the item to the eBay/Pitney Bowes shipping center in Kentucky.

4) You can send your winner a transaction cancellation request. If they agree, you get your fees back. If they do nothing, you close the request after 7 days and get your fees back. Just make sure you indicate that the reason for the request is "buyer changed mind".

5) You could switch to fixed price listings, with the "Immediate Payment Required" option, so you're guaranteed to get paid before the listing is considered officially ended. That also blocks people who don't have a PayPal account.

[goamules]

Just off the phone with Ebay. That was 45 min of my life I'll never get back.

They tried to get out of doing anything, telling me to "go to the resolution center and cancel it...blah". I said I tried, it failed with a warning "you must go to http://www.ebay.com.hk/ (hong kong) to cancel." She asked if I was willing to do that. I said heck no, I tried, it's ALL IN CHINESE!
So no, ebay, YOURE going to fix it.
She replied "I can't, there must be some glitch....how did he get in to your auction, did you state in your ad "not to China?"
No, I did as your rules state, I changed the SETTINGS NOT to allow any of asia.
Um...uh....well, I would just relist it.
What about getting bad feedback from this yahoo?
Well, I don't think that will happen
Can you guarantee that won't happen 5 months from now?
They can't leave feedback except for 90 days...
So I get to wait 90 days to see if my 16 year run of 100% feedback is ruined by some dork?

and so on and so on....for 45 min. I gave up.

[Andrew O'Neill]

You should see some of the yahoos I get on craigslist! At any rate, I've never sold anything to China, but have purchased items from there, with no problems... the only thing I noticed is they are rabid about leaving them feedback...

[Shootar401]

Ive given up on eBay for selling. And when I do I only sell and ship to the US, Canada, Germany and Croatia. Last year I stated in one of my auctions that I will not accept bids from or sell to people in muslim countries, Israel, Mexico, etc.. due to the high risk of scamming and personal reasons. A few times I sold an item to sometime who is/was registered on eBay in the US, but the shipping address on the PayPal was outside of the US. I refused to ship the item, refunded the $ and took the negative feedback. Keeping my 100% feedback is less important than getting taken by some shyster.

Now I'd rather sell on the Forums, here and other places then deal with ebay.

[HMG]

What you have is a non-paying buyer. What I would do is open a "case", close it as non-paying in the minimum time. Then you can relist it or offer it to the 2nd highest bidder. I believe that also protects you from negative feedback unless he actually goes through with the transaction.