Buyer from American Samoa (AS) can't pay invoice - eBay sees address as "international" - Help?

[bangordiscount]

Good morning,

I accepted a Best Offer on an item and afterwards submitted an invoice to the buyer whom lives in American Samoa. 

The buyer contacted me claming he is not able to pay the invoice and is getting an error stating he needs to contact the seller (me).

The buyer's address is in the following format:

[Name Removed]

PO Box XXXX

Pago Pago, AS 96799-1415

American Samoa

I am thinking the problem is that eBay and/or PayPal is recognizing the address as international although it should not be (address has American zip-code). The listing is set up for free domestic shipping with no blocks (It would be going USPS Priority Mail). When I look at the invoice the only shipping options for the buyer to choose from are international methods (i.e. Priority Mail International,  First Class International, etc.) [See attached].

I am trying to help the buyer but I am not sure how to proceed. Any suggestions? The buyer has been in contact with me and is eager to pay. 

[thenobletuckylife]

Morning Bangor...ah the WONDERFUL State Of Maine!

I want to be very clear that I am not advocating you take the sale off ebay but I do have an idea.

Is it possible for you to go and try to create an invoice through PP to see what options you have there as in does PP allow you to complete an invoice with the proper shipping?

If so then it would isolate it back to Ebay...just a thought.

I know in the past when I had problems like this I was able to acces the proper shipping choice through a PP invoice.

The other thing I am wondering is if for some reason the buyer is being blocked is because maybe you have only US Dollars selected and behind the scenes they are using a foreign currency.

Mr C

[penguins_dont_fly]

@bangordiscount

It's the country on the buyer's address causing the issue.

I've had eBay call an order international on Puerto Rico sales, because the buyer used "Puerto Rico" as the country instead of "United States" 😞

Ask your buyer to change the country on his address.

For items shipping via USPS, The AS is the State Code, the Country is United States.

The address should look like it is going to any other domestic address

Joe Smith

123 Main Street

Page Pago, AS 96799

United States

[bangordiscount]

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@thenobletuckylife wrote:

Morning Bangor...ah the WONDERFUL State Of Maine!

I want to be very clear that I am not advocating you take the sale off ebay but I do have an idea.

Is it possible for you to go and try to create an invoice through PP to see what options you have there as in does PP allow you to complete an invoice with the proper shipping?

If so then it would isolate it back to Ebay...just a thought.

I know in the past when I had problems like this I was able to acces the proper shipping choice through a PP invoice.

The other thing I am wondering is if for some reason the buyer is being blocked is because maybe you have only US Dollars selected and behind the scenes they are using a foreign currency.

Mr C

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Good morning Mr C!

I have been on a selling hiatus and I'm not sure how I would even go about getting the buyer's PP e-mail address. That was the first idea that popped into my head, but I know eBay has gotten even stricter in blocking communication through eBay messaging that contains any hint of an outside transaction (i.e. email address).

I don't have any currency or shipping blocks. When I was selling regularly the bulk of my sales were to buyers outside the U.S.

I think this is more of an instance of either eBay and/or PayPal as seeing the address as an international address and only offering the buyer international shipping options.

[bangordiscount]

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@penguins_dont_fly wrote:

@bangordiscount

It's the country on the buyer's address causing the issue.

I've had eBay call an order international on Puerto Rico sales, because the buyer used "Puerto Rico" as the country instead of "United States" 😞

Ask your buyer to change the country on his address.

For items shipping via USPS, The AS is the State Code, the Country is United States.

The address should look like it is going to any other domestic address

Joe Smith

123 Main Street

Page Pago, AS 96799

United States

---

Okay. I will ask the buyer if it is possible to edit his address and see if that helps.

[thenobletuckylife]

Mornin,

I think Penguins nailed it...still curious though if it would go through a PP shipping label rather than an Ebay one.

Mr C

[penguins_dont_fly]

Mornin' Mr C.

If the country is anything but US, eBay and PayPal are both going to see it as an international address, requiring a customs form 😞

I've also had this issue with things going to Guam and the USVI

##edit, I ship internationally, so nothing gets blocked, but the label program wants to print a customs form and the order gets marked as "international" 😞

[turquoisetulips]

I haven't been able to create shipping labels at all since last night .It keeps saying that USPS doesn't take payments in U.S dollars. I've called E bay but they're swamped with calls right now at 7 am . I'm thinking there's a gliche somewhere in the system . 

[bangordiscount]

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@turquoisetulips wrote:

I haven't been able to create shipping labels at all since last night .It keeps saying that USPS doesn't take payments in U.S dollars. I've called E bay but they're swamped with calls right now at 7 am . I'm thinking there's a gliche somewhere in the system . 

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That's possible. Although they first contacted me on Tuesday evening about the issue; I'm going to call eBay soon but I'm wondering if maybe I should cancel this sale (it was a Best Offer) and create a new fixed price, immediate payment required listing and see if they can purchase it that way, as it wouldn't require an invoice.

Thoughts?

[penguins_dont_fly]

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@bangordiscount wrote:

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@turquoisetulips wrote:

I haven't been able to create shipping labels at all since last night .It keeps saying that USPS doesn't take payments in U.S dollars. I've called E bay but they're swamped with calls right now at 7 am . I'm thinking there's a gliche somewhere in the system . 

---

That's possible. Although they first contacted me on Tuesday evening about the issue; I'm going to call eBay soon but I'm wondering if maybe I should cancel this sale (it was a Best Offer) and create a new fixed price, immediate payment required listing and see if they can purchase it that way, as it wouldn't require an invoice.

Thoughts?

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@bangordiscount

Bangor, you are on Eastern Time and American Samoa is in the Samoan Time Zone

2:30 PM (1430) for you 07:30 AM (0730)  for your buyer.

Let your buyer wake up, have his coffee (good Kona yum) and check his messages before cancelling 🙂

Your shipping clock doesn't start until they pay, so there's no rush, really 🙂

[bangordiscount]

^ LOL. I didn't realize they are that many hours behind. You're right, no rush on my end, although the buyer has been patiently messaging me in an attempt to complete the sale, even to the point suggesting he could look for other sellers (I explained it was a problem with eBay and/or PayPal; not me).

Anyways he did respond saying that regardless of what he did, he wasn't able to proceed through checkout. I still need to call eBay. I will report back

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[penguins_dont_fly]

@bangordiscount

Just a quick thought ...

Have you put the buyer on your exemption list?

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?BidderPermitLogin

And have you cleared any of your PayPal blocks? (You can always put them back, after)

[bangordiscount]

Quick update:

Thanks for the replies. I don't have any blocks on PayPal what-so-ever; only a few problem countries blocked on eBay (Algeria, Tunisia, Nigeria, Indonesia).

I called eBay customer support. The lady I was transferred to thinks it is a problem with the listing, a glitch of some sort. She tried to complete checkout, acting as the buyer and wasn't able to check out using his address regardless of how she edited it (US vs American Samoa) and even ran into an error when she tried using her California address.

She suggested I should cancel the listing and relist with fixed price, immediate payment required and see if that solves the issue for the buyer

At one point though, before testing different addresses, she suggested I have the buyer enter any continental U.S. address (even my own) to get through checkout (this was assuming their was a problem with the American Samoa address) and after receiving payment have him message me with his correct shipping address.

She said as long as his request to change his shipping address back was documented in eBay messages we'd both be covered.

This is obviously contrary to everything I have known in 10+ years of selling on eBay. Did they recently change or relax their protections for sellers? She seemed really confident

[fern*wood]

That's one of ebay's little "We've got your back" rules but they don't bother telling you that it doesn't fly with paypal.

[thenobletuckylife]

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@bangordiscount wrote:
Quick update:

Thanks for the replies. I don't have any blocks on PayPal what-so-ever; only a few problem countries blocked on eBay (Algeria, Tunisia, Nigeria, Indonesia).

I called eBay customer support. The lady I was transferred to thinks it is a problem with the listing, a glitch of some sort. She tried to complete checkout, acting as the buyer and wasn't able to check out using his address regardless of how she edited it (US vs American Samoa) and even ran into an error when she tried using her California address.

She suggested I should cancel the listing and relist with fixed price, immediate payment required and see if that solves the issue for the buyer

At one point though, before testing different addresses, she suggested I have the buyer enter any continental U.S. address (even my own) to get through checkout (this was assuming their was a problem with the American Samoa address) and after receiving payment have him message me with his correct shipping address.

She said as long as his request to change his shipping address back was documented in eBay messages we'd both be covered.

This is obviously contrary to everything I have known in 10+ years of selling on eBay. Did they recently change or relax their protections for sellers? She seemed really confident

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Afternoon Bangor,

Don't you just get tired of the absolutely WRONG and potentially damaging answers from CS?

Who's on First...What's on Second...arrrgh

Mr C