Why can I not buy these items? What does this error message mean?

[cloverthefox88]

I want to buy items from a seller in Belgium, despite the listings being visible through a search, not being marked as out of stock, and having multiple watchers / multiple "in carts", I get this message before the pay screen. Why? Searching the error code, I found another person posting on the forum with the same issue, but they never got an answer.

[cloverthefox88]

This is actually quite upsetting. I attempted to purchase another item and got the same result. I really hope this seller has not blocked me, I don't know what I did wrong, there is nothing I hate more than being punished without knowing why. I hope it is just a glitch, but given that I contacted the seller and they never responded, it seems that they do not want my custom, which is actually very upsetting and has made me quite sad if true. 😞

[mudshark61369]

@cloverthefox88 ,

"The seller is in Belgium, not Norway, as far as I can tell"

I tried an advanced search By Seller earlier using the seller info from your screen shot to see the seller's listings. and received results showing

I didn't notice at the time that the "be" was missing from the results even though in the seller box it showed 

I missed this earlier reply;

" I also use an ebay search website called picclick which has sites for every version of eBay all around the world". 

Just another guess but, Did you add the item to your cart using that interface?  Maybe that's what caused the glitch. 

[cloverthefox88]

I have not bought anything from them in the past, I checked my purchase history. Unless I bought from them under another name or account, I don't understand why they would have blocked me. 

[wastingtime101]

How long ago did you contact them? You've gotta give sellers at least a full business day to respond. I typically allow 24-48 hours (or until Tuesday if I contact them during off-hours over a weekend) before either giving them a gentle reminder I'm still interested, or moving on to a different seller.

[wastingtime101]

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@cloverthefox88 wrote:

I have not bought anything from them in the past, I checked my purchase history. Unless I bought from them under another name or account, I don't understand why they would have blocked me. 

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As I said above, that is not the message buyers see when they are on a seller's blocked list. If you're on the seller's blocked list, the message says something like, "the seller is not accepting bids or offers from you at this time."

Edit: and I don't think you can add to cart when you are on a seller's blocked list.

I suggest moving off that line of thinking. This is some other kind of error. Possibly with the seller's account, not yours, and possibly with the eBay checkout process in general.

[cloverthefox88]

No, I did not. If it does have such a feature, I have never used it. It is just a method to search ebay faster and see more items at once with better filters than what ebay provides. Clicking on any of the items on that site will only take you to the ebay page for that item, also see my previous post where the same thing happens on another item from the seller, but I didn't use that site to find this listing, no.

[cloverthefox88]

I waited more than one day, as indicated by the text "today" above my most recent message. 

[cloverthefox88]

Here is a screenshot sent to me just now by my family member. He uses the app, the formatting is different, but the message is the same.

[wastingtime101]

OK so that screenshot from your family confirms this is either an issue on the seller's end, or it's a problem with eBay checkout. Possibly there's some kind of issue with the different countries.

You can contact customer service and report it as a tech issue. Note, customer service will most likely not be able to do anything to help you resolve the issue or complete the purchase, but they can file a report for the tech bug queue.

Did you try logging out and using Guest checkout as I suggested earlier?

Edit: You know what? I've seen that message before. That took a while to register - I didn't sleep at all last night so I'm operating on fumes. I saw that message somewhat recently when the seller's account was restricted.

Give me a couple hours and I'll see if I can dig up that thread. I remember we reported it to one of the eBay reps because it was a poor experience on the buyer's end, showing the item was available for purchase, but then blocking them with an error at checkout.

[cloverthefox88]

I don't know how to do that. Can you link instructions?

[wastingtime101 · Accepted solution]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

You know what? I've seen that message before. That took a while to register - I didn't sleep at all last night so I'm operating on fumes. I saw that message somewhat recently when the seller's account was restricted.

Give me a couple hours and I'll see if I can dig up that thread. I remember we reported it to one of the eBay reps because it was a poor experience on the buyer's end, showing the item was available for purchase, but then blocking them with an error at checkout.

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Here it is:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/New-to-selling-on-eBay/Buyers-are-unable-to-purchase-my-products/m-p/3...

Hey devon@ebay - I think this current thread is another example of what was happening in the linked discussion. As you can see, it's created a lot of frustration for this buyer.

[mudshark61369]

@cloverthefox88 ,

So many replies I keep finding things I did not read before. In answer to the one below;

" I don't quite know what "logging in the classic way" 

The classic way is, logging in with your username and password, not using the app. 

[cloverthefox88]

Oh. No, actually I sign in on the site using my linked Google account.

[wastingtime101]

@cloverthefox88 @mudshark61369 

See my edit to post #26 above with the linked thread. I believe this is an issue on the seller's account and, unfortunately, the way eBay has this set up it's creating a very poor experience for the buyer.

Unless new info surfaces, and unless Guest checkout works, my suggestion is to abandon this seller and find a different one. I know you really want the item because it's such a low price, but maybe this is one of those "if the price is too good to be true it usually is" situations.

[cloverthefox88]

I did think that, to be honest, but to me, nothing indicated anything was suspicious. They seem to have a decent rating, but I never actually checked the feedback (I probably should) Somebody brings up exactly what I am thinking in the linked thread; Why allow people to find listings that they can't buy, and why be so vague about why they can't buy it? All that does is (until you shared this with me) make me feel like I am the one being punished and restricted (and made me feel genuinely upset, as I mentioned, not even because I couldn't get the item, but because I truly did believe I was being punished and didn't know why) Imagine a shop that had items on a shelf, and when you go to buy it, you are told you are not allowed to buy it and not because of anything you have done, with no further explanation. It seems like whoever designed that system did a good job at achieving maximum annoyance from everyone instead of being clear. Either not allowing listings from restricted sellers THAT CANNOT BE BOUGHT to come up, or giving a clear "This seller has been restricted" would relieve so much hassle instead of allowing me to get as far as the payment method screen before I am given the vague red error message that tells me nothing.