eBay incorrectly tells buyer "does not ship to"

[richard1rst]

I have a buyer in the Netherland Antilles trying to make a purchase. When he clicks Buy It Now he gets a message “This item will ship to Netherland Antilles but the seller has not specified shipping options” And he is unable to complete the purchase.

BUT when I create my listings, this one included, I state “ships worldwide” and I do NOT have any exclusions. Isn’t that a shipping option?

Any idea what the problem might be.

[missjen831]

It sounds like you ship worldwide but you failed to set up international shipping so eBay can't calculate a shipping cost. 

Edited to add--I looked at a few of your listings and you do offer international shipping, you just haven't set it up yet. 

[richard1rst · Accepted solution]

Thank you for your note. Actually, I have never had a problem shipping worldwide so it is, or must be, set up correctly.

However, A little further rearch has supplied the answer.

According to the U S State Department web site, in 2010 the Netherland Antilles was dissolved and Curacao became an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In other words the political entity known as the Netherlands Antilles no longer exists.

The post office web site has correctly changed the destination name to Curacao but eBay has not. The post office web site no longer lists Netherlands Antilles, but eBay still does.

In other words, when eBay attempted to get a quote from the post office for Netherlands Antilles it came back as not available because they no longer exist. And when my buyer entered, correctly, Curacao eBay refused the address because they have not updated their database to the correct name.

Note that the change happened in 2010 ***SEVEN YEARS AGO*** and eBay has still not updated their database.

[missjen831]

Ebay doesn't get the quote from the Netherlands post office though. Thats not the carrier you would be using. The quote comes from the domestic carrier--USPS, UPS or Fedex. You use USPS so the quote is based on USPS.

[richard1rst]

Correct - eBay accesses the U S Post Office web site and the U S Post Office no longer lists Netherland Antilles.   I am not sure why you thought I was trying to imply that eBay would access the Netherlands post office.

[pjcdn2005]

The buyer should be able to update their address to Curacao...is that what they did?

[richard1rst]

Yes, they tied to enter Curacao but eBay and Paypal said that the address was invalid and would not let the order proceed. And I assume they say that because the eBay country list does not include Curacao even though the post office country list does. It appears that as far as eBay and Paypal are concerned neither the Netherlands Antilles nor Curacao are valid countries.