eBay

incr · ‎04-14-2020

Hi all.
(I did post this earlier, and it's been deleted for some unknown reason for spam - it's a genuine enquiry/problem)

Something I have noticed in items we sell on our business account, and have seen others say the same, without any sight of answer whatsoever, and it's now a fairly big issue.

We ship to *anywhere* in the world, absolutely no restrictions. However, even without doing anything, items that previously sold (and run continuously) to, for example, Taiwan, are now excluded in the shipping on every single item.

To repeat, we do NOT have ANY restrictions set and have sold to these now-excluded locations in the past, for years and years. Buyers from these countries are now sending us messages asking why we don't ship to their country, and our items now show the following text in the postage area:

------

Postage to: Worldwide

Excludes: (about 40 countries.. Taiwan, Africa, Sri Lanka etc)

-----

Has anyone experienced this and know a workaround? There is clearly an eBay code error somewhere or some form of glitch. We've tried creating new listings, changing international shipping methods (economy, standard, tracked, etc), editing existing auctions and rules, changing from GSP to non-GSP and everything else yields the same results - excluded locations despite having Worldwide shipping set and no exclusions configured in any of our auctions.

Thanks - hoping someone else can help before I entirely lose all my business to these regions for seemingly absolutely no reason whatsoever! I have reported this to eBay via Live Chat too but unsure how far it will get in terms of reaching a developer or someone who might have a better understanding of the issue.

Anonymous · ‎04-14-2020

This isn't an error @incr. Read the announcement about current shipping changes - a lot of countries have delayed or restricted shipments due to the global health situation so eBay made the necessary adjustments to all listings.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/Advising-you-about-shipments-during-COVID-19/ba-p/308179...

incr · ‎04-14-2020

Thank you, although that does answer it there's still queries, for example Taiwan seems to still be fully operational yet now on an exclusion list. I guess it's updated regularly so I'll speak to the customer again.

Incidentally, eBay tech support just told me there is a known error/bug with the exclusions list and things being added to it without user input. Surprised they did not mention the above link that you sent.

Thanks again.

Anonymous · ‎04-14-2020

I see Taiwan on the delay list in the announcement, not the suspended link. Buyers in Taiwan should be seeing an extended estimated delivery date, but they shouldn't be excluded from purchasing entirely. That could be a technical error? @Anonymous

Anonymous · ‎04-14-2020

@incr wrote:

Hi all.
(I did post this earlier, and it's been deleted for some unknown reason for spam - it's a genuine enquiry/problem)

Something I have noticed in items we sell on our business account, and have seen others say the same, without any sight of answer whatsoever, and it's now a fairly big issue.

We ship to *anywhere* in the world, absolutely no restrictions. However, even without doing anything, items that previously sold (and run continuously) to, for example, Taiwan, are now excluded in the shipping on every single item.

To repeat, we do NOT have ANY restrictions set and have sold to these now-excluded locations in the past, for years and years. Buyers from these countries are now sending us messages asking why we don't ship to their country, and our items now show the following text in the postage area:

------

Postage to: Worldwide

Excludes: (about 40 countries.. Taiwan, Africa, Sri Lanka etc)

-----

Has anyone experienced this and know a workaround? There is clearly an eBay code error somewhere or some form of glitch. We've tried creating new listings, changing international shipping methods (economy, standard, tracked, etc), editing existing auctions and rules, changing from GSP to non-GSP and everything else yields the same results - excluded locations despite having Worldwide shipping set and no exclusions configured in any of our auctions.

Thanks - hoping someone else can help before I entirely lose all my business to these regions for seemingly absolutely no reason whatsoever! I have reported this to eBay via Live Chat too but unsure how far it will get in terms of reaching a developer or someone who might have a better understanding of the issue.

Hi @incr, can you provide me with an item number so I can take a closer look? Happy to help dig into this with a little more detail.

geoinformation · ‎04-26-2020

I am having this same problem as a seller. Excluded locations have been changed for all 2,100 of my listings. Normally I don't ship to Belarus and India, but now there are many other countries that have been added to the exclusion list. I have been contacted by a buyer who is unable to make a purchase because of the new exclusions. Help please!

Anonymous · ‎04-27-2020

@geoinformation wrote:

I am having this same problem as a seller. Excluded locations have been changed for all 2,100 of my listings. Normally I don't ship to Belarus and India, but now there are many other countries that have been added to the exclusion list. I have been contacted by a buyer who is unable to make a purchase because of the new exclusions. Help please!

Hi @geoinformation, can you give me an item number as an example and the list of countries/regions that you set up to exclude?

slippinjimmy · ‎04-27-2020

@Anonymous wrote:
@incr wrote:
Hi all.
(I did post this earlier, and it's been deleted for some unknown reason for spam - it's a genuine enquiry/problem)

Something I have noticed in items we sell on our business account, and have seen others say the same, without any sight of answer whatsoever, and it's now a fairly big issue.

We ship to *anywhere* in the world, absolutely no restrictions. However, even without doing anything, items that previously sold (and run continuously) to, for example, Taiwan, are now excluded in the shipping on every single item.

To repeat, we do NOT have ANY restrictions set and have sold to these now-excluded locations in the past, for years and years. Buyers from these countries are now sending us messages asking why we don't ship to their country, and our items now show the following text in the postage area:

------
Postage to: Worldwide

Excludes: (about 40 countries.. Taiwan, Africa, Sri Lanka etc)
-----

Has anyone experienced this and know a workaround? There is clearly an eBay code error somewhere or some form of glitch. We've tried creating new listings, changing international shipping methods (economy, standard, tracked, etc), editing existing auctions and rules, changing from GSP to non-GSP and everything else yields the same results - excluded locations despite having Worldwide shipping set and no exclusions configured in any of our auctions.

Thanks - hoping someone else can help before I entirely lose all my business to these regions for seemingly absolutely no reason whatsoever! I have reported this to eBay via Live Chat too but unsure how far it will get in terms of reaching a developer or someone who might have a better understanding of the issue.
Hi @incr, can you provide me with an item number so I can take a closer look? Happy to help dig into this with a little more detail.

Trinton.....

Sounds like you are not aware of this recent "thing" it affects EVERY eBay seller, some brainiac in San Jose created a list of countries and added this block to every .com listing.

The problem is that the list does not match any of the lists that USPS have issued. It also doesn't take into account that thousands of sellers DO NOT use USPS for International shipping.

I realize this policy was put in place to "protect" sellers but it is so badly executed as to be downright silly.

The details of this program are buried in the April 3rd announcement:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/Advising-you-about-shipments-during-COVID-19/ba-p/30817957

slippinjimmy · ‎04-27-2020

@incr wrote:
Hi all.
(I did post this earlier, and it's been deleted for some unknown reason for spam - it's a genuine enquiry/problem)

Something I have noticed in items we sell on our business account, and have seen others say the same, without any sight of answer whatsoever, and it's now a fairly big issue.

We ship to *anywhere* in the world, absolutely no restrictions. However, even without doing anything, items that previously sold (and run continuously) to, for example, Taiwan, are now excluded in the shipping on every single item.

To repeat, we do NOT have ANY restrictions set and have sold to these now-excluded locations in the past, for years and years. Buyers from these countries are now sending us messages asking why we don't ship to their country, and our items now show the following text in the postage area:

------
Postage to: Worldwide

Excludes: (about 40 countries.. Taiwan, Africa, Sri Lanka etc)
-----

Has anyone experienced this and know a workaround? There is clearly an eBay code error somewhere or some form of glitch. We've tried creating new listings, changing international shipping methods (economy, standard, tracked, etc), editing existing auctions and rules, changing from GSP to non-GSP and everything else yields the same results - excluded locations despite having Worldwide shipping set and no exclusions configured in any of our auctions.

Thanks - hoping someone else can help before I entirely lose all my business to these regions for seemingly absolutely no reason whatsoever! I have reported this to eBay via Live Chat too but unsure how far it will get in terms of reaching a developer or someone who might have a better understanding of the issue.

The only workaround that I've been able to use is to have the buyer change their eBay ship to address to a different country, make the purchase and then when in checkout change the address back to the original one.

The one buyer who did this with me just changed the Country, they didn't need to change any other part of their address since eBay doesn't verify any addresses as valid so having an address which has a street, city and postal code that doesn't exist in the country doesn't cause a problem.

Anonymous · ‎04-27-2020

@slippinjimmy wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

@incr wrote:

Hi all.
(I did post this earlier, and it's been deleted for some unknown reason for spam - it's a genuine enquiry/problem)

Something I have noticed in items we sell on our business account, and have seen others say the same, without any sight of answer whatsoever, and it's now a fairly big issue.

We ship to *anywhere* in the world, absolutely no restrictions. However, even without doing anything, items that previously sold (and run continuously) to, for example, Taiwan, are now excluded in the shipping on every single item.

To repeat, we do NOT have ANY restrictions set and have sold to these now-excluded locations in the past, for years and years. Buyers from these countries are now sending us messages asking why we don't ship to their country, and our items now show the following text in the postage area:

------

Postage to: Worldwide

Excludes: (about 40 countries.. Taiwan, Africa, Sri Lanka etc)

-----

Has anyone experienced this and know a workaround? There is clearly an eBay code error somewhere or some form of glitch. We've tried creating new listings, changing international shipping methods (economy, standard, tracked, etc), editing existing auctions and rules, changing from GSP to non-GSP and everything else yields the same results - excluded locations despite having Worldwide shipping set and no exclusions configured in any of our auctions.

Thanks - hoping someone else can help before I entirely lose all my business to these regions for seemingly absolutely no reason whatsoever! I have reported this to eBay via Live Chat too but unsure how far it will get in terms of reaching a developer or someone who might have a better understanding of the issue.

Hi @incr, can you provide me with an item number so I can take a closer look? Happy to help dig into this with a little more detail.

Trinton.....

Sounds like you are not aware of this recent "thing" it affects EVERY eBay seller, some brainiac in San Jose created a list of countries and added this block to every .com listing.

The problem is that the list does not match any of the lists that USPS have issued. It also doesn't take into account that thousands of sellers DO NOT use USPS for International shipping.

I realize this policy was put in place to "protect" sellers but it is so badly executed as to be downright silly.

The details of this program are buried in the April 3rd announcement:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/Advising-you-about-shipments-during-COVID-19/ba-p/30817957

Hi @slippinjimmy I'm not seeing anything in the announcement you linked to that states we intentionally placed exclusions on seller's listings. I would still need an item number to review further, looking forward to receiving that from anyone who has one available.

slippinjimmy · ‎04-27-2020

@Anonymous

It's about halfway down the linked page. (see relevant portion quoted below)

Although it states that "label printing will be suspended" the truth is that the block was also added to all .com listings as a stand alone list of exclusions in addition to whatever exclusions a seller may have set.

A similar situation has been going on in Canada (ask tyler@ebay) although the list there is different and much smaller. It contains countries that are NOT on the Canada Post service interruption list. In both sites countries are included that according to the websites of the local postal providors for the countries on the list there are many which only have problems with outgoing mail, packages transported to the destination country by independent carriers using Direct Entry are unaffected

I get that somebody thought they were helping sellers but making decisions about seller listings without any notice, consultation or recognition that this one-size fits all meddling indicates very little thought went into this decision.

Things are moving very fast these days, the Status of the Countries listed in the announcement 3 weeks ago is completely dated, some of the then OK list are no longer ok, some on the not ok list are now accepting and delivering mail.

What you need to know about shipping packages outside of the US.

There are service disruptions around the world as local shipping carriers decide to suspend in-country deliveries. Below we are listing the countries that are impacted.

If buyers from one of these countries have already purchased an item from you but it has not yet been shipped, you will not be able to print a shipping label. As of March 20, we will suspend label printing services for the listed countries.

To deter future purchases, while they are not able to be delivered, buyers may be able to view listings in search, but if they select the listing they will see a message that ‘this seller’ (you) does not ship to their country. Buyers will not be able to checkout and will be warned throughout the experience the product will not ship to their location.

If you recently shipped a package to one of the countries that have since suspended their postal operations, the status of that package depends on the service you used to ship it.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/Advising-you-about-shipments-during-COVID-19/ba-p/30817957

Anonymous · ‎04-27-2020

@slippinjimmy wrote:

@Anonymous

It's about halfway down the linked page. (see relevant portion quoted below)

Although it states that "label printing will be suspended" the truth is that the block was also added to all .com listings as a stand alone list of exclusions in addition to whatever exclusions a seller may have set.

A similar situation has been going on in Canada (ask tyler@ebay) although the list there is different and much smaller. It contains countries that are NOT on the Canada Post service interruption list. In both sites countries are included that according to the websites of the local postal providors for the countries on the list there are many which only have problems with outgoing mail, packages transported to the destination country by independent carriers using Direct Entry are unaffected

I get that somebody thought they were helping sellers but making decisions about seller listings without any notice, consultation or recognition that this one-size fits all meddling indicates very little thought went into this decision.

Things are moving very fast these days, the Status of the Countries listed in the announcement 3 weeks ago is completely dated, some of the then OK list are no longer ok, some on the not ok list are now accepting and delivering mail.

What you need to know about shipping packages outside of the US.

There are service disruptions around the world as local shipping carriers decide to suspend in-country deliveries. Below we are listing the countries that are impacted.

If buyers from one of these countries have already purchased an item from you but it has not yet been shipped, you will not be able to print a shipping label. As of March 20, we will suspend label printing services for the listed countries.

To deter future purchases, while they are not able to be delivered, buyers may be able to view listings in search, but if they select the listing they will see a message that ‘this seller’ (you) does not ship to their country. Buyers will not be able to checkout and will be warned throughout the experience the product will not ship to their location.

If you recently shipped a package to one of the countries that have since suspended their postal operations, the status of that package depends on the service you used to ship it.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/Advising-you-about-shipments-during-COVID-19/ba-p/30817957

Hi @slippinjimmy, it sounds like there is no confirmation or announcement that what you are seeing was intentional, so I would still need an item number example to look into this further. Let me know when you are able to provide that.

slippinjimmy · ‎04-27-2020

@Anonymous

A couple of things.......

You are one of the best thing to come to this board in years!

I think you might have been away or just back when this announcement came out

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"it sounds like there is no confirmation or announcement that what you are seeing was intentional"

Seriously?

how about this that is in the announcement and was in the part I quoted in the previous post.

To deter future purchases, while they are not able to be delivered, buyers may be able to view listings in search, but if they select the listing they will see a message that ‘this seller’ (you) does not ship to their country. Buyers will not be able to checkout and will be warned throughout the experience the product will not ship to their location.

Here is an example listing (not mine), this seller normally ships worldwide without exclusions.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SWEETHEARTS-My-Heart-Just-Got-The-Feeling-45-Oldies/311391404329#shpCntId

The exclusions have all been added by eBay not by the seller.

Anonymous · ‎04-28-2020

@slippinjimmy wrote:

@Anonymous

A couple of things.......

You are one of the best thing to come to this board in years!

I think you might have been away or just back when this announcement came out

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"it sounds like there is no confirmation or announcement that what you are seeing was intentional"

Seriously?

how about this that is in the announcement and was in the part I quoted in the previous post.

To deter future purchases, while they are not able to be delivered, buyers may be able to view listings in search, but if they select the listing they will see a message that ‘this seller’ (you) does not ship to their country. Buyers will not be able to checkout and will be warned throughout the experience the product will not ship to their location.

Here is an example listing (not mine), this seller normally ships worldwide without exclusions.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SWEETHEARTS-My-Heart-Just-Got-The-Feeling-45-Oldies/311391404329#shpCntId

The exclusions have all been added by eBay not by the seller.

Hi @slippinjimmy, a couple of responses: first, thanks! I really appreciate that 🙂 Second, I may have misunderstood, but I believe you were saying earlier in this thread that some of the exclusions that were being included did not match the USPS list. While we have blocked certain countries where shipping is not possible at this time, the problem I believe you described is that some of the countries listed are eligible for shipments. This is the issue I want to investigate. I appreciate you sharing a link to an active listing that I can review, and I'm happy to look into anything else if I missed your primary concern.

Anonymous · ‎04-28-2020

The issue as far as I understood it was that some countries not on eBay's announced list were being blocked. For the OP it was Taiwan. Since the country is not on eBay's list of blocked countries, Trinton would need an item number to check into it.