eBay

suchsavingswow · ‎11-28-2019

We just had two listings for chef's knives removed because they violate eBay's knives policy. These are basic chef's knives used for chopping food. They do not meet any of the qualifications for knives that are not allowed per eBay's policy so we called seller support to find out what happened.

Apparently knives are not allowed to be sold to the UK and we sold two through eBay's Global Shipping Program. This program does not allows us to choose which items can be shipped to which countries. Our only choose moving forward is to take all knives off the Global Shipping Program to prevent them from shipping to a single country. Why would eBay want this? And why does eBay allow knives in the kitchen knife category to be listed for the Global Shipping Program at all if this is an issue?

It seems to me eBay could simply set the Global Shipping Program to not ship knives to the UK. They (and sellers) would make money off knives sold to all the other countries in the world. Can anyone explain why they do not do this? We are running into lots of nonsensical choices like this on eBay that make us question why we are using this platform.

kensgiftshop · ‎11-28-2019

@suchsavingswow wrote:

Apparently knives are not allowed to be sold to the UK and we sold two through eBay's Global Shipping Program. This program does not allows us to choose which items can be shipped to which countries. Our only choose moving forward is to take all knives off the Global Shipping Program to prevent them from shipping to a single country. Why would eBay want this? And why does eBay allow knives in the kitchen knife category to be listed for the Global Shipping Program at all if this is an issue?

It's the sellers job to know what can and can't be shipped to certain countries.

They don't want to ban all the countries, because you can ship them to some countries.

Have a great day.

dhbookds · ‎11-28-2019

just take that (those) items out of Global shipping and do your own international shipping......excluding the UK or whatever countries ban them. There's a list on the USPS site of import limitations in various countries.......

suchsavingswow · ‎11-28-2019

The Global Shipping Program does not allow a seller to choose which countries an item can be shipped to. It is all or none. Why can't they simply adapt the GSP to prevent items from being sold to countries where they are not allowed? It does not seem that hard.

southern*sweet*tea · ‎11-28-2019

https://emberleaf.com/Technical-Infomation/Uk-knife-law

"Uk knife law

Basic laws on knives

It is illegal to:

sell a knife of any kind (including cutlery and kitchen knives) to anyone under 18"

They'd die if they saw me in my garden with my pocket knife in my pocket and my 8 inch bush knife strapped to my leg.

The easier you are to offend the easier you are to control.

We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did. - Thomas Sowell

kensgiftshop · ‎11-28-2019

@suchsavingswow wrote:
The Global Shipping Program does not allow a seller to choose which countries an item can be shipped to. It is all or none. Why can't they simply adapt the GSP to prevent items from being sold to countries where they are not allowed? It does not seem that hard.

You would think they could do that, but have you noticed all the problems the site is having.

Their programmers are not the best and they can't even fix the problems they have now.

Have a great day.

earlyant-77 · ‎11-29-2019

@southern*sweet*tea wrote:
https://emberleaf.com/Technical-Infomation/Uk-knife-law
"Uk knife law
Basic laws on knives
It is illegal to:
sell a knife of any kind (including cutlery and kitchen knives) to anyone under 18"

They'd die if they saw me in my garden with my pocket knife in my pocket and my 8 inch bush knife strapped to my leg.

How would they know how tall the buyer is?

liamcannon · ‎12-13-2019

I also had a temporary restriction because I sold a fixed blade knife that is restricted is some countries outside of the US. After re-reading ebay's knife policy, I was scratching my head as to why my account was restricted because the knife was NOT in violation. I called ebay's customer service with no avail. Talking to the representative was like talking to a brick wall. He could not answer any of my questions. He couldn't even tell me why the knife was in violation. He kept repeating, what sounded like a script. I finally figured out what the problem was on my own. I don't use Global Shipping for any knives because of potential problems. There is a glitch in ebay's relist algorithm that automatically puts a check mark in the Global Shipping box even if you didn't list it that way originally. As ebay is not interested in fixing this problem, I now have to relist knives individually and uncheck that box. I can no longer use the bulk listing option for knives without the risk of having my account restricted.

judydu2 · ‎12-13-2019

@earlyant-77 wrote:
@southern*sweet*tea wrote:
https://emberleaf.com/Technical-Infomation/Uk-knife-law
"Uk knife law
Basic laws on knives
It is illegal to:
sell a knife of any kind (including cutlery and kitchen knives) to anyone under 18"

They'd die if they saw me in my garden with my pocket knife in my pocket and my 8 inch bush knife strapped to my leg.
How would they know how tall the buyer is?

Too funny!

gwzcomps · ‎12-13-2019

@kensgiftshop wrote:
@suchsavingswow wrote:
The Global Shipping Program does not allow a seller to choose which countries an item can be shipped to. It is all or none. Why can't they simply adapt the GSP to prevent items from being sold to countries where they are not allowed? It does not seem that hard.
You would think they could do that, but have you noticed all the problems the site is having.
Their programmers are not the best and they can't even fix the problems they have now.

It isn't even a programming problem. It is a problem that the people at eBay lack even the smallest amount of skill when it comes to predicting problems. Many times I have seen them implement bad ideas, then get confused on why they fail. I guess that is the problem with designing things from a reactionary standpoint instead of being proactive.