Ebay glitch w/new Int'l Shipping? Buyer unable to purchase anything from my store...

[tefka]

I'm a U.S. seller and have always offered GSP on the majority of my listings, which are mostly books (some car parts, misc.). Received a message about a vintage math textbook from a buyer in China. He tried to purchase book and got this message:

"We are sorry, but the item you selected may not be purchased due to seller shipping restrictions or due to country-specific import/export or other relevant restrictions." 

All of my listings use business policies and were recently transferred (by ebay, not me) to their new international shipping program. After several text messages with buyer and calls to ebay I learned that buyer could not buy any book from my store; but had no problem buying from any other U.S. seller (buyer is also not blocked); and that ebay's technical team is "working" on it, and finding a solution will "take time." 

I last sold a car part to Japan on 1/23 and a book to the UK on 1/24, but nothing since. I normally have slow but steady international sales and now I'm worried that books are restricted in some or all countries outside of U.S. If there is any seller from Europe or Canada or China or Australia (places I usually sell to), can you let me know if you can add any of my items to your cart? 

Is anyone else having this problem?
Thank you to any int'l buyer for your help!

[ittybitnot]

@tefka 

This may be helpful to you: 

https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/china-prohibited-and-restricted-imports#:~:text=The%...

[monica-sells]

I am too....I have used GSP succesfully....one of my accounts was transferred to the new EIS

Half of the items that had GSP offer no international shipping at all.

Some "nearly identical" items do, and some don't (same category)

Just hoping they straighten it out....in the interim, I put everything on the "old" ebay system of International Shipping...I don't think it is as good as GSP or the 'new' EIS, but at least its available

[tefka]

@ittybitnot 
Thank you. I see "printed matter" is on that list. Buyer did tell me he didn't have a problem buying books from other sellers though.  Also, another reason I'm hoping to hear from another int'l buyer is to see if my items are restricted across the world or just in China or just with this particular buyer. Ebay rep did tell me they think it is an issue with the conversion to international shipping program. 

[tefka]

@monica-sells 
If you watch the video about EIS they tell you that "no international shipping" has to be selected in order for it to be part of the new EIS program and how that is counter-intuitive...

The way you can tell if your item offers int'l shipping is to open your item, click on "Shipping, Returns, & Payments" tab. My book that Chinese buyer wants to buy (and most of my items) list China and a long list of other countries. I have some items that are heavy sets and were set to ship USA only in my business policies, and those items only list "United States."  Thankfully, ebay did not change those listings to offer int'l shipping. 

[monica-sells]

@tefka 

thanks for the reply.....In my case, I was enrolled in GSP across the board...

The communication from ebay said I would be 'automatically' enrolled into EIS when it was rolled out...I had to do nothing...

When a regular customer from the U.K. messaged me asking why I stopped shipping to the U.K., I had no response...I checked and my setting/policies were unchanged (No International Shipping was selected) and all my former Global Shipping listings should have migrated to the "new" EIS....

but they did not.....some did, some didn't

so, as a quick fix, I bulk edited and added the old Ebay International Standard Delivery in the interim so they could order......I will probably remove next week and try again

[tefka]

@monica-sells If you haven't already, can you report this to ebay? This is exactly what happened to me with this buyer from China! We are probably losing sales as some buyers will just move on when they can't purchase an item.

If you read my posting about the ebay video, it was the case that my items that were in GSP were changed by ebay to "No international Shipping" if I viewed the policy, yet if I went to the shipping tab, all countries were listed. This was two days ago. I just checked now, and all of my items have "Ebay international shipping' with international returns accepted. I'm hoping this change has corrected my items being blocked. Hoping someone abroad can confirm this. Will ask my buyer as well when it's daylight there.

[clamdip1]

I'm trying to buy a part from GB from here in the United States and just been getting the same exact message. Ebay having issues?

[monica-sells]

"...and all of my items have "Ebay international shipping' with international returns accepted..."

If you see this, then I think the migration has completed, and you are fully updated....

Unfortunately, unless you have VPN ability, you can't check from other countries.....you can check the listing by simply changing the country option in the shipping details.....but I am not sure if that insures that you are offering the services to the actual international buyer......

[pjcdn2005]

I'm in Canada and don't have a problem adding your items to the cart but I only tried with listings that said they shipped to Canada. 

Using a US zip I searched for Math Textbooks and see 108 results.  I also see 108 results when I searched using my Canadian postal code.  But when I search using China as my location I see 36 items.  I don't know why there is a difference but my guess is that the one your buyer is trying to add to the cart is one that doesn't have China as a 'ship to' location.

I've read a few posts from sellers who said that some their listings that showed gsp did not transfer over to ebay international so it could be a problem from ebay's end or that those particular items can't be shipped to China.  Since they are math textbooks, I suspect that the glitch is on ebay's end.

[ckimodog]

@tefka 

Certain things cannot be exported to certain countries.  I had a rosary returned to me from Paraguay because Paraguay does not permit jewelry from other countries to be exported.