Buyer can't find my item (even with a link to it)

[sin-n-dex]

I'm wondering if someone can give some technical information on this (to prove or disprove my theory on what's going on here).

Buyer wants three items, combined into one lot for him with one postage charge (the postage charges to UK are the reason they had to be combined, it's getting to be a nuisance to keep refunding postage).

I sent buyer link to the item, which is listed on eBay.com. Buyer claims that link "bounces him back to the main page" and doesn't "go to my item".

My theory is that it might be because he's using a phone and the phone is defaulting him to the UK site when he tries to follow the link. Is that a thing? Or is he just trying to take it off site by creating all sorts of problems to frustrate me into giving up on trying to sell the item on the site? (that's my second theory).

The title is unique, and mine is the only one that comes up with the title. I've provided the title to the buyer for search, but that's kind of when I stopped hearing from the buyer. The minute a provided a solution that would keep the sale on the site.

You know, it's really irritating to have been trying to do my listings on the weekend to have this guy message me a dozen times to get this custom listing made for him, only to stop talking to me the minute I find a solution to his problem. I mean, why waste my time with this?

Fortunately most custom listing buyers buy what I put up for them (because they actually want it). The reason I'm even asking instead of going with theory A or B on what's going on, is because the last time I gave a link to someone for an item they kept responding back that they couldn't find it, and then kept reminding me they'd be at a local coin show on the weekend and maybe we can just "meet up there" and "bring the tokens".

So I'm a little suspicious when people are having technical problems, especially when they go from answering me 12 times in 2 hours to answer once every 24 hours, to not answering at all (once I've given a solution). Seems like when this listing went up, the buyer had a whole lot less to say to me all of a sudden.

C.

[dbfolks166mt]

     A bit more information would help the same link you are sending the potential buyer would be a good starting point. 

[ittybitnot]

@sin-n-dex 

Sending a "link" in an eBay message may be problematic.  eBay strips them out, even if they are to an eBay page.  Try sending the item number?  Hopefully, the bots won't think it is a phone number. 

If your buyer has already paid for the others, combining will be an issue. 

[ulfesharpe]

Is the item visible in the UK? I mean, did you allow shipping to the UK in that listing? 

[sin-n-dex]

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@dbfolks166mt wrote:

     A bit more information would help the same link you are sending the potential buyer would be a good starting point. 

---

That's a good point... I actually went back to the message I sent to him to see what appeared (in the event it was "modified" or "removed" in the message). This is what it shows for the link in the message I sent:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/186283896186

He says he did try the link and it sent him back to the main eBay site. I tried following the link myself and it appears to go my Lundy token/coin listing. (And I can see the link in the sent message I sent to him).

He hasn't responded, so I was going to take the listing down and relist the three tokens, but since you've asked for it to trouble shoot, I'll leave it up today (and maybe tomorrow) in the hopes that this can be figured out. If I learn something new I'll message the buyer, but he's gone silent, so I think he's lost interest.

C.

[lacemaker3]

@sin-n-dex,

I had no trouble finding the listing from your list of items for sale. I don't know why he would have had trouble using your link, but I don't use the phone app so I can't comment on that.

If you still want to deal with this guy, you could try sending him this link. It's for your same listing, but viewed on eBay UK. And it does have shipping specified to the UK, so that's not an issue.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/186283896186

[sin-n-dex]

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@ittybitnot wrote:

@sin-n-dex 

Sending a "link" in an eBay message may be problematic.  eBay strips them out, even if they are to an eBay page.  Try sending the item number?  Hopefully, the bots won't think it is a phone number. 

If your buyer has already paid for the others, combining will be an issue. 

---

The search terms are "custom listing sin-n-dex" to find any custom listing I have up. Usually that's all I put, but an eBay search of my ID should find it. I don't generally put the buyer's ID in the listing title because it identifies them, and they'd prefer to be anonymous.

If you see my solds, there's probably about 12-15 that I can think of, similar listings that went up in the past month that were links emailed to buyers. (There was three different buyers who bought them all, this UK buyer is the fourth buyer to contact me about doing a custom listing).

The buyer who got the banknotes had no problems with the link, the Scotland token buyer told me he didn't get it twice, but my email box has a thread of 50 messages with him and sometimes they were getting missed in my inbox (because my email does thread for the whole message). I've been going to eBay messages to see what he sends me because he's sending me screen caps of his phone looking at things he wants me to combine. He is using a phone for all his eBay stuff, and aside from telling me twice he didn't get a link, no problems. The third buyer was getting stamps. He didn't respond to one of my messages with a link and when I followed up he didn't know what I was talking about because he thought he bought everything I listed for him. Then he said too many messages, sorry I missed that, so I don't know if he didn't get the link or just got confused.

Sending the link to anyone who claimed they didn't get it a second time seemed to have done the trick. I also sometimes send links for tracking information and so far no complaints that it was stripped out. (I do that on Chit Chats packages when I have an anxious buyer who can't wait for it to origin scan in Niagara, I send the chit chats link to show it's in their care on the way to Niagara). So far no issues with doing that.

C.

[slippinjimmy]

@sin-n-dex 

Try sending this link.....

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/186283896186

[sin-n-dex]

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@ulfesharpe wrote:

Is the item visible in the UK? I mean, did you allow shipping to the UK in that listing? 

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Yes, when I did custom listings, it has USA shipping enabled (because I have to), and then I enable shipping to where ever it's going (limited to that one choice to reduce the chances of another buyer snagging it). On the Lundy tokens I put $13.50 (I think) shipping to UK. UK also isn't excluded in my preferences, it's one of the few international places I do ship (but I do not ship to the EU any longer... too many customs hassles).

C.

[slippinjimmy]

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@ittybitnot wrote:

@sin-n-dex 

Sending a "link" in an eBay message may be problematic.  eBay strips them out, even if they are to an eBay page.  Try sending the item number?  Hopefully, the bots won't think it is a phone number. 

If your buyer has already paid for the others, combining will be an issue. 

---

I send links to eBay listings in messages fairly often and they are never stripped out.

[sin-n-dex]

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

@sin-n-dex 

Try sending this link.....

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/186283896186

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Thanks @slippinjimmy for the link. I just messaged to to the buyer (and asked if he's given up on getting these because it's become too much hassle to please just let me know). If I knew forsure he'd given up I wouldn't bother to trouble shoot this anymore...

I guess I'm trying to figure out if there's technical things I should know for future (or to have someone confirm for me there's no reason why a UK buyer can't see a dot com listing).

C.

[toysaver]

Did you check and see that you have international shipping set up for the items?  This one of yours does not.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/185792155347?hash=item2b42134ed3:g:Ck0AAOSwDEZj-tS-

Also is it something that is not restricted to be shipped to the UK?

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland | Postal Explorer (usps.com)

[sin-n-dex]

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@lacemaker3 wrote:

@sin-n-dex,

I had no trouble finding the listing from your list of items for sale. I don't know why he would have had trouble using your link, but I don't use the phone app so I can't comment on that.

If you still want to deal with this guy, you could try sending him this link. It's for your same listing, but viewed on eBay UK. And it does have shipping specified to the UK, so that's not an issue.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/186283896186

---

Thanks for the link, I already replied to another post with the UK link (I hadn't seen yours yet).

OK, if other people have no problem with the link, then the link isn't the problem... but it doesn't narrow down the choices by very much.

I'm a little skeptical of people who can't follow eBay links because all the other buyers have been able to purchase (and Custom Sin-n-dex in my solds will show exactly how many of those there are, each one got a link).

And the last time I got a lot of pushback on a listing link he wanted me to come to the coin show and meet him there. FWIW, I'm really glad I didn't go meet him... he went to the show, went to the table my business partner had, annoyed him for an hour to get a deal, and then left without buying anything when he got push back that the discount he was getting was fair. It does make a really funny story though.

C.

[dbfolks166mt]

@dbfolks166mt wrote:

     A bit more information would help the same link you are sending the potential buyer would be a good starting point. 

That's a good point... I actually went back to the message I sent to him to see what appeared (in the event it was "modified" or "removed" in the message). This is what it shows for the link in the message I sent:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/186283896186

He says he did try the link and it sent him back to the main eBay site. I tried following the link myself and it appears to go my Lundy token/coin listing. (And I can see the link in the sent message I sent to him).

He hasn't responded, so I was going to take the listing down and relist the three tokens, but since you've asked for it to trouble shoot, I'll leave it up today (and maybe tomorrow) in the hopes that this can be figured out. If I learn something new I'll message the buyer, but he's gone silent, so I think he's lost interest.

     I set myself up as a UK buyer and had no problem getting to the item with the link you provided. As others have noted it may be the app, I am working from a laptop. 

[sin-n-dex]

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

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@ittybitnot wrote:

@sin-n-dex 

Sending a "link" in an eBay message may be problematic.  eBay strips them out, even if they are to an eBay page.  Try sending the item number?  Hopefully, the bots won't think it is a phone number. 

If your buyer has already paid for the others, combining will be an issue. 

---

I send links to eBay listings in messages fairly often and they are never stripped out.

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I suspect it depends on the site. They don't seem to strip out my links with tracking info for the shipment. I don't usually send links to Numista (with coin info), I just say "As per Numista (a coin reference site)" and let them google it themselves.

A buyer sent me a link to a video once... he was going on and on about what a great video was, but there was no link. He asked in the next message if I watched the video and I told him eBay must have removed the link. (Not like I was going to click on it anyway...)

C.