DOES NOT SHIP TO ALASKA/HAWAII

[34wild69]

I just went on a little shopping spree.  I think I put 10 orders Ebay, 2 orders on Wish and 1 order on Harbor Freight and 2 to the "other guy".  I had a list of specific items and just started at the top, Buy it now and free shipping, my two must have requirements.  ATV tires, don't ship to Alaska/Hawaii.....ok that's reasonable.

2 spark plugs don't ship to Alaska/Hawaii.....WHY???  

Search my item, find the one, free shipping, good price ex shape if used, etc.

Press buy button and continue on, sometimes it pops up, don't ship, other times, dont happen till I am paying for item.  Its a waste of y time to have to repeat the process and then get to the buy page and see the same message.  I was really annoyed, last time I was on this site and made a purchase, I got CS on the line and told this employee my concerns.  Language barrier big time, my point never stuck and I ended the conversation with stating that there are no Quicky Marts in Alaska.  its got more and more the last say 5 visits.  So maybe while your browsing, took  a look and see how many times you can see.  Right before writing this, I check my ebay page and checked status of all my orders.  Ran into my list, one item left.  A new CD holder book, the pocket pages, 4 CD's each side of each page, you know.  I had peeked the subject the day before, never found me an agreeable price.  Today, found a zippered book holds 400 CD's for $20.50 BIN and free shipping.  DOES NOT SHIP TO ALASKA?HAWAII!!!! NO SALE, I left the 

page!

William Rude

Eagle River, Alaska

[little*blackdog]

I'm sincerely sorry, but I'm not sure what your question is.  You've give a lot of information.  Would love to help but need to know what the main question is.  Thanks.

[little*blackdog]

If your question is basically, "Why don't all sellers want to ship to Alaska?"  I have some guesses...

It's far away.  I'm in Florida and it takes a first class package anywhere from 6 to 9 days to reach AK from here.  I'm not sure about other areas of the country, but I'd guess a lot of sellers are worried that buyers won't wait that long, as sellers are held accountable by eBay to get things delivered fast. 

Priority packages take about 4 days normally, but with politics, weather, and other unforeseen holdups lately, that may not be a correct estimate either.

These are just my guesses.  You could contact the seller(s) and just ask.  Maybe they'll tell you what their issue is.  If you contacted me I'd say the delivery time of your item might be longer than you expected.  That's all.  I wouldn't bar you from buying just because you're in AK and I wouldn't ever put that in my listings.  I don't think it's acceptable to eBay either. 

[corvettestainless]

UPS and Fedex charge an extra to ship there. Sellers that use USPS don't have that issue (except the zone, but it's minor compared to the other 2 mentioned carriers)

[geo2061]

  As a Seller i have never excluded AK/HI as well as US Protectorates and APO/FPO (anyplace   USPS will deliver) hopefully having understanding Buyers that realize the extra time packages can sometimes take to get to their location.

   Each Seller is different  and  per @little*blackdog s advise try contacting the Seller to see if they are willing to ship to AK  - Never hurts to ask - and if they block you, well, they don't ship to your state anyway and their listings would no longer be viewable to you.

  -------------------------------------------------

As A Seller, Think Like A Customer 

[candd205]

When I was brand new and setting up my account, there were a lot of options, what countries do I want to exclude mailing to, do I want to use Global Shipping program, etc. One of the options is do I want to exclude mailing to Alaska and Hawaii, and do I want to exclude mailing to the Protectorates. I can tell you as a brand new seller, it was very overwhelming to set up my account, so I excluded everything that gave me an option to exclude. I thought they must be giving me the option because there are problems with these. Then I didn't give it another thought for years. Then I came to realize how silly it is to not ship to Alaska and Hawaii, so I changed it. But, I suspect the reason that many don't ship to Alaska and Hawaii is similar to my experience when I was brand new.

[house*of*paws]

Hi @34wild69 

Are you checking the Shipping & payments tab in the listings to make sure that the seller ships to your state?  That would save a lot of frustration if you did.

My guess as to why sellers prefer not to ship to AK  and HI is so that buyers aren't given refunds before the item reaches them.  Due to COVID and the current mess at USPS ... deliveries are taking considerably longer than expected.  eBay hasn't made allowances when setting 'estimated delivery dates' ... so many buyers are ending up with free items, and sellers are getting screwed.

It would be great if all sellers knew how to 'block' buyers from purchasing if they live in these areas ... but not all do.