mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
There are lots of great international buyers that have US ship to addresses. They may be here on work visas, extended vacations, or for an endless amount of reasons. And there are lots of Canadian buyers that may live close to the US border that have a US address to have things shipped to because it is so much cheaper for them to just cross the border and pick up the items.
Some international buyers use US freight forwarders too. And that will typically work out fine as well. As long as you are shipping to a US address, you should be just fine.
Also keep in mind that a Primary Account address is NOT the same thing as the primary ship to address. They can and often are different.
@fairmargo wrote:So. There is no good reason to have that requirement?
why does eBay offer it?.
i think I might have thought that it had something to so with currency exchange.
I think you misunderstand. It is exactly the opposite. It is a VERY good thing to choose as one of your Buyer Requirements. It PROTECTS you from buyers that purchase with an international account and NO US ship to address. It PROTECTS you from having to ship internationally if you do not want to ship internationally.
It has NOTHING to do with currency exchange and EVERYTHING to do with where you are willing to ship to.
@fairmargo wrote:Good luck selling.
i was confused, too, about that.
it did cost me a sale. The ship to address was in the USA. The buyers primary address (what the setting applies to) is in Canada. The buyer was unable to pay for the item due to my setting.
It cost you a sale because you got scared and didn't understand, it happens. You would have been absolutely fine to ship to the US address they provided.
Part of Ebay's and PayPal's seller protection goes by the ship to address on the payment notification. You would have been absolutely fine to ship to the US address your buyer provided to you.
@fairmargo wrote:And I would have happily shipped to that us address. PayPal would not accept a payment from the buyer sine her primary address was canadian.
Then you have the block set in PP to block payments from international buyers. You are in control of that. It isn't a block I've ever recommended because you are penalizing buyers for something when they aren't doing anything wrong.
@fairmargo wrote:Are you saying that a seller who has chosen to only sell in the USA would have to ship internationally? I don’t think so.
This box is just for where what the primary address is of the buyer, not where it is shipped to.
still don’t understand the purpose of this option.
NOPE, I never said that. You are confusing two completely different things.
Primary Account address
Primary SHIP TO address
These are do NOT have to be the same address.
The block that you can choose within the Site Preferences for Buyer Requirements reads as follows:
Block buyers whose primary shipping address is in a location I don't ship to.
The block does NOT say "primary address" as you stated. That is can and often is a different address. You need to be paying attention to the word SHIPPING.
@fairmargo wrote:I called PayPal and got someone in the east. Was told it was a problem with the buyer, who should call them. Nope - she called and was told it was a problem with me. The only option I saw on PayPal was to accept other currencies and I could pick which countries. I don’t think that is what you are referring to - is it?
It is in YOUR preferences inside your PayPal account. Your buyer isn't doing anything wrong.
Log Into your PayPal account.
Click on the Gear looking icon on the upper right side of your screen.
On the left side of your screen click on Payment Preferences
On the right side of your screen click the UPDATE button to the right of the words Block payments.
Drop all the way down to the bottom of the screen. Make sure you do NOT have either of those boxes checked.
It looks like this and both boxes need to be empty.
