Excluded Countries Incorrect On Most of My Listings

[gran]

I have 30-something countries blocked according to my Shipping Preferences. In checking my listings, a lot of them have excluded countries incorrect. Some have added countries (not the usual eBay blocked) and some don't have them all. I have contacted eBay for Business and they tell me it's been fixed. It hasn't. A ticket has been made. Twice. Nothing has changed. I was told that I am the only eBayer that has reported this problem so getting a ticket made on it was almost impossible. I honestly don't think most users check their listings for this. PLEASE I need a lot of people to check theirs and see if they have the same problem. If I can get more people to complain then we have a better chance of getting this fixed. Will ya'll help me and check to see if your listings are all correct? Look at the oldest listings as well as newer. Please, I'm begging lol

[dbfolks166mt · Accepted solution]

     While I don't have a lot of listings I checked about 1/4 of them and I have no issues. The only eBay additions I have are for the Russian Federation and the Ukraine. 

     The one thing I noticed with a couple of your listings is the Ships To on the listings. Some have Worldwide and others are specific countries and some are just domestic. 

[gurlcat]

I'm a bit confused.  Why do you even have an exclusion list for the items that you ship to (only) the U.S., or to the U.S. and Canada?  Wouldn't that automatically exclude ALL countries that aren't the U.S. or Canada?  

[gurlcat]

Do you use the Global Shipping Program, and are you using the old or new listing tool?  Reason I ask is because I'm not sure how helpful it will be to ask for members to check their listings, when they may have totally different shipping policies than you, and using a different listing tool. 

I do use the GSP and I've recently noticed it disappearing from listings that I know I included it on, making them available inside the U.S. only.  Pretty infuriating, considering how much of my sales revenues have come from foreigners.   I'm also using the new listing tool, though I don't know if that's what's causing it. 

As of just now, I checked several listings, and it appears that the excluded countries are always the same 5.  So there's my answer to the specific question you're asking.

But INCLUDED has a few differences from listing to listing.  I don't know if that's the ebay software automatically filtering out countries that don't allow import of certain categories, or what.  See below, how one includes Vietnam and the other doesn't.  Probably more differences in there too, but my eyes are getting too tired of trying to figure out what hot mess is going on now.  I absolutely do empathize with what you're going through. 

[femmefan1946]

It's my understanding that if a seller does not specifically Block a given country, customers in that country can see their listings and bid on them.

The customer sees "This seller may not ship to your location. Contact seller for the cost of shipping. "

Which , of course, he ignores perhaps because he plans to use a freight forwarder or perhaps because Buyers Don't Read ™.

If a country is on the exclusion list, the customer won't even see it. I believe this is true even if a Blocked eg Russian was searching from Belarus or France which were not Blocked.

[gran]

There are some items I don't ship worldwide, maybe they're too large, maybe too heavy etc. I almost always use eBay International Standard which has limits on weight and most international has size limits (depending on how it's shipped I guess).  So I do have a variety.  I have some 30 excluded in Site Preference but that does not mean much on my listings, as there are always some added and some left off.  There are 4 that are always excluded but per eBay, those countries are not blocked by them so I don't know why. I wish all my international buyers used freight forwarders lol.

[gran]

That's a very good question!  I have my exclusions on Site Preferences. When I'm not shipping internationally I just don't check that option. Those countries just appear on my listings anyway. I've looked at other sellers and the ones I saw seemed to be the same.  So it's not something I do, eBay does it.

[gran]

Fair question!  I do not use the new listing tool. I tried it, hated it and opted out. Everything was fine until eBay suddenly without warning, changed my listings to using it. I tried but couldn't because of too many variations and couldn't figure out enough codes, names or whatever to ID each one. I opted out again. Now this happens.

I do not use GSP very often, I prefer International Standard. Pirate Ship is cheaper than eBay however you have to purchase your own insurance, can't remember if you do on eBay.  Once in a while I use GSP.

Per eBay Rep, eBay does not show the countries they filter out. Somewhere I have a screenprint but cannot find it - anyway per Rep, they do not include any sanctioned countries on the excluded list so that is not why your listings are different.  And one reason eBay doesn't put much effort into my problem is because, as they put it, they haven't had a lot of eBayers complain about it. I say that not many notice!

[gran]

And that's why I try to keep up with current changes and keep my excluded list up to date. We need more users complaining about their excluded list not being correct!

[gran]

Forgot to mention - it's interesting that your excluded countries include French Polynesia, Libya and New Caledonia because that's 3 of the 4 countries that are almost always on my excluded list on the listings but I do not have them blocked on site preferences!

[gran]

‎

Forgot to mention - it's interesting that your excluded countries include French Polynesia, Libya and New Caledonia because that's 3 of the 4 countries that are almost always on my excluded list on the listings but I do not have them blocked on site preferences!

[gran]

eBay Rep told me that enough users aren't complaining about their excluded countries not being correct.  PLEASE, if you have time, look at some of yours. If any are incorrect, please message eBay for Business on Facebook and add your complaint. Until enough do that, this will not be fixed. Their IT team has and is making a huge mess out of this "New" listing tool, I know I can't be the only user that is having this same problem. Please?!

[gurlcat]

I think the reason I can't even quite make sense of what you're saying is because I do use the GSP, which I know buyers in some countries hate because it costs them more than some of the other options, but all I know is that it makes it virtually headache-free for me.  For the first few years I only shipped inside the U.S. and then I learned how Fisher Price easy and fairly bullet-proof from fraud and petty-reason returns the GSP is.  So I signed up, and make so much more money, should have been doing it all along.  

[dbfolks166mt]

I'm a bit confused.  Why do you even have an exclusion list for the items that you ship to (only) the U.S., or to the U.S. and Canada?  Wouldn't that automatically exclude ALL countries that aren't the U.S. or Canada?  

     Logically that should be the way it works but eBay may always pulling in the exclusion list if you have one setup in your shipping preferences. 

[femmefan1946]

The one that throws me is StPierre et Miquelon, which is a French department (state) but also situated just off the coast of Canada.

It's major business is French Immersion language training of Canadian public servants and senior executives. Plus fishing and smuggling.

I see it being Blocked by sellers who do not Block France. smh.

because I do use the GSP, which I know buyers in some countries hate because it costs them more than some of the other options,

It doesn't really.

The import fees that the GSP adds to the shipping cost are exactly what the buyer's nation would charge if any other shipping service was used.

They just don't know that they will be paying duty and above all sales taxes on their imported purchase.