Preventing foreign buyers on Ebay - good luck

[Old-N-Feeble]

I took one quick look at eBay's Global Shipping Program and didn't sign up for it. The fees (then anyway) were astronomically high. Any overseas buyer who sees the GSP fee simply won't bid as high which means less money in my pocket and more in eBay's cash drawer. No thanks!!

[Lou Baleur]

Wow. I am reading this and am shocked by the stuff people have to go through. And the "well known scams" that--let's face it--there's no way a person like me would even know about this kind of thing.

I thought that ebay was a safe place for people to sell. I have not sold anything, but I thought that I would. Now I see that it may be more hassle than it's worth. I do like that there are forums like this where people can sell, but they are limited. Oh well, I guess that's why the novice always will pay the price. This is only a hobby for me, so it will cost me money. I see that others make money at their hobbies also. I hoped this would be true for me, but I think that the time involved to make money would simply not make sense.

[onnect17]

Faced a similar issue with foreign buyers having forwarding shipping address in the US, so ebay restrictions by country are useless. They are aware of the issue and can fix it in two secs but there is good money on the line so they look the other way.

Then "a little bird" mentioned PayPal's option to accept (or not) foreign transactions. It sure does the job!

[Old-N-Feeble]

Wow. I am reading this and am shocked by the stuff people have to go through. And the "well known scams" that--let's face it--there's no way a person like me would even know about this kind of thing.

I thought that ebay was a safe place for people to sell. I have not sold anything, but I thought that I would. Now I see that it may be more hassle than it's worth. I do like that there are forums like this where people can sell, but they are limited. Oh well, I guess that's why the novice always will pay the price. This is only a hobby for me, so it will cost me money. I see that others make money at their hobbies also. I hoped this would be true for me, but I think that the time involved to make money would simply not make sense.

I almost never have "serious" issues with eBay either buying or selling... things usually get resolved without much fuss.

Faced a similar issue with foreign buyers having forwarding shipping address in the US, so ebay restrictions by country are useless. They are aware of the issue and can fix it in two secs but there is good money on the line so they look the other way.

Then "a little bird" mentioned PayPal's option to accept (or not) foreign transactions. It sure does the job!

Right... I had one buyer from overseas want to return an item two full months after it was delivered to his US shipping address. He said he didn't have it his hands until much later. Since I had no way of knowing what that third party may have done to the shutter I declined and eBay backed my decision.

[Daniel Stone]

I've sold a good bit of high-ticket items(cameras, lenses, etc) over the past few years to buyers in China. Knock on wood, none have ever been returned, or quality per my description questioned.
As someone else said earlier, use "easy to translate" wording, and for pretty much anything I ship of any real value, I INSIST on using USPS (EXPRESS) Mail. MUCH better tracking, waaaaay faster, and less chance of some nonsense happening. It's also necessary for someone to sign for it.

-Dan

[pierre506]

Dear Garrett,
Hopefully, I'd passed thru the crazy purchasing overseas, most of them on ebay and LFF.
The experience is, so called- so far so good.
Sorry to hear your bad news.

[DonJ]

Faced a similar issue with foreign buyers having forwarding shipping address in the US, so ebay restrictions by country are useless. They are aware of the issue and can fix it in two secs but there is good money on the line so they look the other way.

If they have a forwarding address, why would you care? Per eBay policy, once the item reaches its USA destination, you're done. If it's re-shipped, buyer protection is null and void.

But if it still bothers you, all you have to do is set your PayPal account so it won't accept payments in currencies other than U.S. dollars. So they may be able to buy, but they can't pay, and you can file the unpaid item case to get your fees back.

BTW, for those concerned about feedback, the window is 60 days, not 90.

[koh303]

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.

I do not see a problem here.
Buyer did not pay, cannot leave feedback, and you are free to relist in 4-5 days after case opened.

But - all of this is easy to know if you read the rules, which are being simplified all the time, if you still dont get it ask in the Ebay forums and someone will direct you to the correct policy page.

So - its everyone elses fault that you do not know the rules, have no inclination to learn and follow them? You should not sell on Ebay at all.

[koh303]

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.

The risk is the same or higher for selling in the US.

[koh303]

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.

Import taxes aside, most people in the US behave the same way, maybe because some can only read the pictures you post on your listings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literac..._United_States