eBay

sin-n-dex · ‎09-05-2021

So I get a message yesterday from a buyer in Malaysia that says something like "I bought a bunch of coins from you in 2014, I don't know if you remember me. You didn't ship to Malaysia but you used to give me an exception and I can't seem to buy anything today."

I go and look at the exception list (because I did clean it up to remove anyone I didn't remember that hadn't bought for a long time). Sure enough, I left his name on the list in case he came back.

But he can't buy... why not? I gave him an exception. US Post doesn't do tracking to Malaysia anymore so I added it to my excluded countries list, but for this buyer (who I used to use Canada Post and no tracking to ship to), I am willing to make an exception, but eBay's buyer exception list isn't working.

I have coin auctions in a few weeks where I want the Russian buyer to bid (and he couldn't last time, about a year ago, told me it wouldn't let him because he lived in Russia), but he is also on the list. So what now? I have to allow shipping to Russia because the exception list isn't working?

Can you tell me of anything on this site that IS working?

C.

sin-n-dex · ‎09-05-2021

@fab_finds4u wrote:
Is it possible eBay won't let you exempt buyers who got a strike? I'm thinking maybe he racked up some unpaids under the new unpaid system.

The exemption (used to) work on strikes. Years ago I was contacted buy a buyer with strikes who wanted to know if he could buy. I gave him an exemption and he purchased.

Something has changed in the past year and a bit... I had semi-annual auctions for world coins that the Russian guy bid on every time and the last time (in 2020) he couldn't bid. I figured the issue would be fixed and I changed it so Russia could bid, but now I'm seeing this again with the Malaysian bidder.

C.

sin-n-dex · ‎09-05-2021

@a_c_green wrote:
@fab_finds4u wrote:
Is it possible eBay won't let you exempt buyers who got a strike? I'm thinking maybe he racked up some unpaids under the new unpaid system.
TTBOMK, the exemption list overrides the Unpaid limit. The OP can see whether that's the issue by looking at his Buyer Requirements Activity Log (here), where he can see whether anyone's bounced off it attempting to bid or buy the listing of interest. (The IDs are disguised, but their feedback count is visible.)

However, I cannot see why the exemption list would override a block on the buyer's country, as that could result in a purchase that's impossible to ship.

I checked your link - the unpaid issue is not the case. Only two buyers couldn't buy for unpaid strikes (and I think one of them is my regular token buyer who created another account to get around that restriction... that's another story, I just didn't want to out him since he's one of my best customers).

As for the country restriction, you could be right that since Covid they changed it because eBay was blocking countries due to impossible shipping issues and it includes countries I block as well. So perhaps the solution is to allow these countries to bid on those listings (I will update the coin listings so the Russian buyer can buy, and just live with it if someone else from Russia bids, these coins are not worth much money). I told the Malaysian buyer if he could tell me what he wants, I'll add Malaysia to the list of shipping destinations (which I can do in Sixbit), just for those listings though. The Malaysian bidder told me he'd reply with his list later.

C.

a_c_green · ‎09-05-2021

@sin-n-dex wrote:
@a_c_green wrote:
@fab_finds4u wrote:
Is it possible eBay won't let you exempt buyers who got a strike? I'm thinking maybe he racked up some unpaids under the new unpaid system.
TTBOMK, the exemption list overrides the Unpaid limit. The OP can see whether that's the issue by looking at his Buyer Requirements Activity Log (here), where he can see whether anyone's bounced off it attempting to bid or buy the listing of interest. (The IDs are disguised, but their feedback count is visible.)

However, I cannot see why the exemption list would override a block on the buyer's country, as that could result in a purchase that's impossible to ship.
[...]
As for the country restriction, you could be right that since Covid they changed it because eBay was blocking countries due to impossible shipping issues and it includes countries I block as well.

Actually I'm having second thoughts about what I wrote above, at least for countries to which USPS is not currently shipping, because eBay has said that it's still possible to ship via eBay's own Global Shipping program, which uses DHL. eBay's block announcement was based on what USPS was announcing, in other words. Their own international system might not be as affected. Might be something to look into further...