How can you prevent buyers registered in another country but have a US ship to address from bidding

[mike_bibby]

In my auctions I do not allow International shipping but have recently noticed that buyers who are registered in another country but use a US ship to address can still buy your item. You do not find out until the sale is complete and you look at your payout details and this is what you see:

International Fee   1.65%    -$0.16

Charged because the buyer’s registered address is in Australia.

We need a new setting where you can block these buyers from bidding on your items if you wish to.

[katzrul15]

You cannot block these individuals, unfortunately.

E-Bay has taken a hands-off approach to buyers who use freight-forwarders to ship to a US based address and then forward the items outside the US.

[kare-bearb]

There has never been a way to prevent a non-US member from bidding if they have a US shipping address.

Paypal used to allow us to block their payments.

Managed Payments has no such block.

[dbfolks166mt]

     The problem is you can not block them. Worse yet is the international buyers who have a US account but use a freight forwarder to get around the blocks. About the best you can do is check the address on the item when it comes time to ship it. If it is a freight forwarder you have to decide if you wish to continue with the sale. You can always cancel the sale using problem with buyers address as the reason. This is valid since you do not sell or ship internationally. 

[caldreamer]

You cannot stop them from bidding.   Most likely, customer plans on using "freight forwarder" and ships to USA location.   You would still be charged "international fee" because customer has foreign EBAY account.

[jayjaspersgarage]

I can see given the price of many of your items that have sold over the past 90 days this would be disturbing.  I think the extra tax write off would come in handy for the items forwarded to other countries.

If you can target what might get forwarded before you list you could just increase your prices on those items to help defray the extra charges.

[duffy4444]

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@dbfolks166mt wrote:

     The problem is you can not block them. Worse yet is the international buyers who have a US account but use a freight forwarder to get around the blocks. About the best you can do is check the address on the item when it comes time to ship it. If it is a freight forwarder you have to decide if you wish to continue with the sale. You can always cancel the sale using problem with buyers address as the reason. This is valid since you do not sell or ship internationally. 

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   dbfolks166mt has a useful and fairly comprehensive response here as for what to do if you don't want to ship internationally PERIOD. And let's face it... allowing a freight forwarder to get in the middle of a transaction is a recipe for disaster, especially since a lot of international buyer scams use that route. In such a situation, you could easily kiss your item goodbye as well as your money when it is a scam. I simply don't like the idea of an international buyer going around and thru a back door to get what they want in a sneaky manner.

   In the future, here's how you can immediately determine if the buyer's address is just a freight forwarder for an international buyer:

   On EVERY sale or offer inquiry, the first thing to do before shipping the item is to click on the buyer's feedback number, where you can see the buyer's actual location. If it is not in the US (very often Russia or China, but could be anywhere in the world), and the shipping address is in the US, it is a freight forwarder. That is when the mess begins if you ship the item, and your nightmare will often begin when a scammer is on the other end.

   Then you can cancel the order like dbfolks166mt states and refund the buyer, IF you are concerned about the potential loss of your item and your money - or if you simply do not want the surprise of eBay charging you an additional percentage as an "international fee".

   Many innocent international buyers use this freight forwarder technique on valid sales, but a courteous "thank you but I do not ship to an ultimate international destination" message to them will let them down more easily. You can also make very clear in your original listing description that you do not ship to international addresses. That will put them on notice right up front (as long as they actually read  the description and your policy).

   I will ship internationally only DIRECTLY to certain countries that I choose when I list an item, but most of the world is out for me -  I don't need the hassles.

Cheers, Duffy

[toysaver]

This is a major issue eBay needs to address.  The wording of blocked buyers used to be 'live in a country I don't ship to' and was changed to have a shipping address in a country I don't ship to allowing the circumvent.  The price of the item usually takes into account the fees which is screwed by a foreign buyer BUT my bigger concern is international shipping causes more wear and tear and packages are opened by customs agents with little regard for how fragile items are nor is the repacking job as good as the original.

[varebelrose]

"...allowing a freight forwarder to get in the middle of a transaction is a recipe for disaster"

Quite a few of us have had very good experiences dealing with freight forwarders. For those who choose to not ship internationally nor use GSP, its a viable way to reach a global market without the international shipping risks. Now, if the currency exchange fee is the biggest deal breaker for the OP, I can sympathize, but thats another issue.

[downunder-61]

Totally agree, I will not ship off shore, and when this happens I cancel/refund citing Problem with Buyers address and the buyer is immediately blocked.

[eleanor*rigby]

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@dbfolks166mt wrote:

     The problem is you can not block them. Worse yet is the international buyers who have a US account but use a freight forwarder to get around the blocks. About the best you can do is check the address on the item when it comes time to ship it. If it is a freight forwarder you have to decide if you wish to continue with the sale. You can always cancel the sale using problem with buyers address as the reason. This is valid since you do not sell or ship internationally. 

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That is not a valid reason for cancelling the sale. If the buyer has a U.S. shipping address, it is inappropriate to cancel the transaction based on the buyer's address. It would be an abuse of the seller cancellation policy.

eBay staff have addressed this issue a number of times. From Trinton (former blue) on October of 2019:

And here's a link to the comment in the original thread:  eBay Policy Change/Seller Protection Change when Buyer uses a Freight Forwarder? 

If you prefer to confirm eBay's position on your post, feel free to tag a blue yourself.

[eleanor*rigby]

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@duffy4444 wrote:

dbfolks166mt has a useful and fairly comprehensive response here as for what to do if you don't want to ship internationally PERIOD. And let's face it... allowing a freight forwarder to get in the middle of a transaction is a recipe for disaster, especially since a lot of international buyer scams use that route. In such a situation, you could easily kiss your item goodbye as well as your money when it is a scam. I simply don't like the idea of an international buyer going around and thru a back door to get what they want in a sneaky manner.

   In the future, here's how you can immediately determine if the buyer's address is just a freight forwarder for an international buyer:

   On EVERY sale or offer inquiry, the first thing to do before shipping the item is to click on the buyer's feedback number, where you can see the buyer's actual location. If it is not in the US (very often Russia or China, but could be anywhere in the world), and the shipping address is in the US, it is a freight forwarder. That is when the mess begins if you ship the item, and your nightmare will often begin when a scammer is on the other end.

   Then you can cancel the order like dbfolks166mt states and refund the buyer, IF you are concerned about the potential loss of your item and your money - or if you simply do not want the surprise of eBay charging you an additional percentage as an "international fee".

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That information is not correct. Transactions cannot be cancelled based on the buyer's address when said buyer is using a freight forwarder. 

[eleanor*rigby]

@toysaver wrote:

This is a major issue eBay needs to address.

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I imagine it's working exactly the way eBay wants it to work . . . 🤐

[duffy4444]

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@varebelrose wrote:

"...allowing a freight forwarder to get in the middle of a transaction is a recipe for disaster"

Quite a few of us have had very good experiences dealing with freight forwarders. For those who choose to not ship internationally nor use GSP, its a viable way to reach a global market without the international shipping risks. Now, if the currency exchange fee is the biggest deal breaker for the OP, I can sympathize, but thats another issue.

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   Yes, a lot of us have had some good experiences with FF. But a reading of a few hundred posts on this and the shipping and returns forums will show a substantial number of sellers with the bad part of FF. Additionally, a scan of the posts will show some sellers have had bad experiences with GSP protecting sellers, and on the FF issues.

   Finally, with the increase in the likelihood of international damage to an item or high instance of INR claims, cc chargebacks is an also an increasing issue. International problems with this only exacerbates the overall problem.

   I do not blame sellers at all who do not want to ship internationally at all or to certain areas of the world. Who wants to spend their time fighting and eventually losing an international sale with a FF issue in the middle? We do not become sellers so we can waste our time with hassles.

Cheers, Duffy 

[mr_lincoln]

@mike_bibby   PayPal let Sellers block Buyers with foreign funding sources, eBay's managed Payments has no such security setting.  It is a real deficiency of the MP system.