eBay

herecometheplayas · ‎05-12-2018

In the last day I have received 3 sales from buyers with addresses in the US, but who are either non-US registered or have non-US addresses with paypal. They have higher fees, even though they are going to US addresses. This has just started happening. I have my PayPal set for US only. Why is this happening and how do I stop it?

mebuck1234 · ‎05-12-2018

They are probably using freight forwarding service located in the US. Many foreign buyers use these services to buy from seller who dont ship internationally. If you want to complete the sale you would have to change your settings in Paypal to accept their payments.

ittybitnot · ‎05-12-2018

I have my PayPal set for US only. Why is this happening and how do I stop it?

Your buyers are likely using a US freight forwarder address. Other than getting hit for an additional % or so by PayPal, this is nothing unusual.

There are TWO settings in PayPal that you need to consider. The first is concerned with "blocking payments in currencies I do not hold". This will allow payments from non US accounts, but the buyer pays the currency conversion fee and you will only get USD$. This is likely what is going on here.

If you do not wish to deal with buyers that use a forwarder, you must also select "block payments fron non-US account". This will insure that your buyer cannot pay you at all.

Personally, shipping to a forwarder is not so bad in that you need appropriate delivery confirmation only to that address for any subsequent INR complaints. Now that ebay is having sellers "foot the bill" for SNAD returns, this has caused a real murky area about how this is supposed to be accomplished....

jonathankirkland · ‎05-12-2018

Yep good advice above.

If you are selling fixed price listings, I noticed that adding IPR (immediate payment required) stopped pretty much ALL of these freight forwarding people from purchasing from me because they all seem to use e-check, either to attempt to scam, or just because that's how they need to pay and they take forever to clear, so I never got another one after requiring immediate payment. Something to consider.

agent006140 · ‎05-12-2018

immediate payment reqired wouldnot stop echeck,it just take longer to clear.

if say a buyer in the Carribean buy from you and use a US freight forwarder,and files INAD,you would have to give them a return shipping label but it would be from his US freight forwarder address to you,not from his country

This means he has to ship to his freight forwarder and ask his freight forwarder to ship to you using your return label.

Most forwarders would not be bothered or just not set up to do so,and the buyer may not want to pay that shipping cost from his country to his forwarder.

herecometheplayas · ‎05-12-2018

I do get the buyers that use the forwarding, mostly going to Doral. But these are all going to residences. All my listings are immediate payment required. My settings at PayPal are:

or the items not sold on eBay, Only allow payments from the users with confirmed address.
Yes
No
Ask Me

Allow payments sent to me in a currency I do not hold:
Yes, accept and convert them to U.S. Dollars. Additional charges apply.
No, deny the payments
Ask Me, decide accepting or denying each individual payment

Block accidental payments:
You may prevent accidental payments by blocking duplicate invoice IDs
Yes, block multiple payments per invoice ID
No, allow multiple payments per invoice ID

Block payments from users who:
Have non-U.S. PayPal accounts
Initiate payments from the Pay Anyone subtab of the Send Money tab
(If checked, you may enter an Alternate Payment URL for your buyers.)
Alternate Payment URL:
(optional)
Block non-U.S. shipping addresses

As I said, this just started happening yesterday. Did something change at eBay and not PayPal?

pjcdn2005 · ‎05-12-2018

@ittybitnot wrote:

There are TWO settings in PayPal that you need to consider. The first is concerned with "blocking payments in currencies I do not hold". This will allow payments from non US accounts, but the buyer pays the currency conversion fee and you will only get USD$. This is likely what is going on here.

That setting doesn't affect ebay at all because the seller always receives payment in the currency that they sell in. If the buyer holds another currency in their account and purchases an item listed on ebay.com, PP or their credit card will automatically convert the money to $US at the buyer's expense. The setting that I have checked off says ' Ask Me, decide accepting or denying each individual payment' but I haven't been asked in over 10 years of selling. That is because any listing that I have on ebay.ca must be paid in Canadian and any listing on .com must be paid in $US. Neither buyers or sellers have an option of paying or receiving in a different currency unless they do not go through ebay checkout.

pjcdn2005 · ‎05-12-2018

I'm confused..you said that you do have buyers that use forwarding but if you have the block buyers with non US accounts, how have they been paying?

That is the one block that should definitely stop buyers who are registered in another country. I suppose the odd buyer may have a US PP account but I don't think that is common or easy to get if you are outside of the US.

ittybitnot · ‎05-12-2018

That setting doesn't affect ebay at all because the seller always receives payment in the currency that they sell in.

That is not true. Any seller can accept other currencies unless they employ the block noted above. With the recent international promotional fiasco, sellers were told to remove that block so that payments in Euros, Pounds, etc. could be received and later transformed into USD at the seller's expense...Sorry, not going to happen. Even if Rupees were accepted, and the currency rate changed, PayPal will insure that your exchange rate is unfavorable.

div_style · ‎05-12-2018

I opted into that promotional "fiasco" which will automatically end at the end of the month. Yes, PP's exchange rate is unfavorable, but the absence of FVF on sales more than makes up for it. I have got about 20 sales this way so far, definitely not enough to continue the promotion, but I am hoping some of those buyers will come to the US site later on for repeat purchases.

List more, sell more. Goodwill that other, uh, stuff.

Feeling sleepy? There's an app for that.

pjcdn2005 · ‎05-16-2018

@ittybitnot wrote:
That setting doesn't affect ebay at all because the seller always receives payment in the currency that they sell in.

That is not true. Any seller can accept other currencies unless they employ the block noted above. With the recent international promotional fiasco, sellers were told to remove that block so that payments in Euros, Pounds, etc. could be received and later transformed into USD at the seller's expense...Sorry, not going to happen. Even if Rupees were accepted, and the currency rate changed, PayPal will insure that your exchange rate is unfavorable.

That is a totally different situation. On .com you list in $US so the buyer has to pay in $US. If you list on other sites which is basically what is happening with the situation you are referring to, your listing will be in that site's currency so that is how the buyer will pay for it. Obviously if your listing is on the German site and it is in Deutsche Marks, you can't block DM otherwise the buyer couldn't pay.

I list on .com and .ca and I have never blocked any type of currency. All listings on .ca are always paid to me in Canadian currency and all listings on .com are always paid to me in US dollars. I guarantee you that if buyers were given a choice when they made a purchase from me they certainly wouldn't choose to pay for the currency exchange if they could pay in their own currency and get me to pay the exchange fee. Yet, in 10 or so years no buyers has ever paid me in a currency different from what I listed in and that is because they don't have that option.