Grrr ... ebay bid blocked!

[Vroomfunkel]

I placed an esnipe on an auction on ebay.com.au but when I got up this morning this message was waiting:


eBay says seller has blocked you from bidding
eSnipe was able to snipe the bid in the time specified. However, eBay indicates that the seller on this auction has listed you as an account to block bids. Your bid was rejected.

Now, the auction was listed as shipping to Australia only, so I guess eBay has now put features in to allow people to automatically block bids from someone who is registered outside the country if they do not want to ship internationally.

Simply, THIS SUCKS!!!!

I appreciate if they don't want to ship internationally - and I respect that! I have friends in Australia who I make arrangements with to pay for and forward such items for me, and in the rare circumstance that a seller really doesn't want to ship overseas, there has never been a problem with doing things this way. But now I just get automatically blocked :angry:

I would have paid at least double what the auction ended for too. I am tempted to email the seller and say so ...

Vroomfunkel

[InsaneDavid]

Ignore this post as the forums were choking and it double posted in a way...

Two posts down is what I wrote...

[RockyRaccoon]

Well Man, I've been in the position before as the seller where PEOPLE DO NOT READ THE 'WILL SHIP TO' BOX, and bid anyways / asked me shipping rates to thier country, so you are left with a sale that makes you NO MONEY because you won't ship it there anyways and this goofball bidder bid anyways.

SOOO... yes, a seller has a right to block you by country. I know it sucks, but, hey, for piece of mind knowing some person isn't gonna bid and try to pull the "I'll pay you double!11!1 Crap that I'am sure Ebay can't protect because it's a deal outside the ebay system in most likely some weird terms of service!".

I'am not Mocking you with that, it's just that I've been in a position as a seller before in this circumstance where the same tactic was tried to be used on me.

[InsaneDavid]

I would have paid at least double what the auction ended for too. I am tempted to email the seller and say so ...

And they'll say "that's nice" and tell you they don't ship internationally and don't want to play pass the buck or runaround sending items to someone who didn't win the item (ie a friend of yours). That always reeks of fraud and that's why sellers don't do that, to protect themselves.

I'm actually glad you got blocked from bidding on that auction since you bidding on that is a violation of the auction terms if they ship to Australia only. Especially since it seemed that you were going to ask them to ship direct to you after the fact anyway...


...and in the rare circumstance that a seller really doesn't want to ship overseas...

The seller obviously "really doesn't want to ship overseas" - that's why in the auction terms it says they wouldn't.


I appreciate if they don't want to ship internationally - and I respect that!

Obviously not.

Auction terms are there for a reason! That's the number one reason why I don't list as much stuff as I would like to on eBay, every night I end up having to respond to "please please please send to me" e-mails and block userID's of those that just can't READ THE TERMS and TAKE THE HINT. The only thing more annoying than that is when people e-mail you after they win "I have a buddy that lives close to you, can THEY come and pick it up?" If it could, it would be in the terms, it isn't so they can't.

I don't mean to be ranting and so forth but bidders ignoring auction terms is the biggest problem on eBay right now.

[Vroomfunkel]

Well, I am afraid you are in the minority in my experience.

I have bid on many items like this, and as soon as the person knows that they are going to recieve a payment from somebody in their country, and that they can post it to an address in their country, there has never ever been a problem.

I never insist on someone posting directly to me if they don't want to ship outside their country, but in 9 times out of 10 once I say that I can get someone in their country to send a payment, they will volunteer to post it direct to me if I pay the postage.

And frankly, if an auction states no shipping outside X country, and I want to bid and have it posted to somebody within X country, I don't see what the hell the problem is.

Vroomfunkel

[Jed]

I set the block too, for users registered in countries to which I don't ship. I had to do that after someone in Germany won one of my auctions in which I clearly stated US only. It normally wouldn't be a huge deal, but I usually do free shipping. Now, common sense states that if I offer free shipping, and ship to US only, that the free shipping is only eligible for US buyers.. well, he tried fighting it. >_> I somehow avoided the neg, I think I just shipped it free and took the loss. But still, right after that is when I set the restriction.

[jajaja]

I am tempted to email the seller and say so ...

This is a really lame thing to do. It have happend to me once that someone offered the seller a higher price after I won the auction and he sold it to him.
I have been tempted to do it once tho, but I would never do it because I know it sux for the guy/girl who won the auction.

And always ask the seller if it says that he dont ship to your location :)

[NESaholic]

Bummer,although you could have mailed the seller first saying that he doesnt have to ship abroad but to a friend of you in Australia,3 minutes more work but maybe twice as effective in future buys.

[Buyatari]

Look on the good side.

Now that you know about this block just have one of your buddies from Australia bid next time. Just think of all the other potential bidders who won't be able to bid against you.

Adam

[Flack]

And frankly, if an auction states no shipping outside X country, and I want to bid and have it posted to somebody within X country, I don't see what the hell the problem is.

Did the seller know of your intentions to do this? I'll bet they probably would have allowed your bid if you had told them this in advance. Just a thought.

[Massimiliano]

This happened to me last week.
And made me loose a complete masters of combat for 3 £ BIN :(

[Mayhem]

And frankly, if an auction states no shipping outside X country, and I want to bid and have it posted to somebody within X country, I don't see what the hell the problem is.

Because then they are not protected by eBay/Paypal seller protection regarding registered address(es) for the buyer in question not being on file.

I've had a couple of these myself... but I have asked the seller in advance if he'd either ship to me or allow it to go to someone in the US and they have said yes. They still need to go in and allow bids from me to happen though.

[Griking]

For every person like you may may have paid on time and wouldn't cause a problem after the fact there are three others who do. It may not all be the buyers fault but they're problems non the less. Common problems with shipping Internationally are;

1) Buyers who are unaware of International shipping costs. Especially for heavy items
2) No PayPal seller protection in many cases
3) Can't track shipped packages.
4) Items get "lost" or delayed in customs.

Some people simply just don't want to deal with the headaches of shipping internationally and they have that right. Personally I'm glad that eBay has that filter option. They've actually had it for quite some time now. I know because I use it myself for large items that would cost a lot to ship.

Now had you contacted the seller up front and asked him if he would make an exception for you he may have agreed. I know that if someone takes the time to email me and ask this I usually do. But by trying to snipe the item at the last second with no prior communication you kind of loose that option.

Honestly I wish that eBay had a "No Sniping" options as well.

[8bitnes]

Honestly I wish that eBay had a "No Sniping" options as well.

Yahoo auctions have that (at least 2 yrs ago they did). If a bid was placed in the last minute or so, the auction automatically got extended for 5 minutes on each occurrence. It was an option the seller had to select though. I think this might actually discourage bid wars and high prices though and thus something ebay is disinterested in adding as a feature.

[jajaja]

An auctionsite here also have no-sniping "protection". If you place a bid within the last 5 min. lets say its 3 min. left, it will go upto 5 min again.

[Vroomfunkel]

I am tempted to email the seller and say so ...

This is a really lame thing to do. It have happend to me once that someone offered the seller a higher price after I won the auction and he sold it to him.

This is not what I meant. I am not in the business of trying to persuade a seller to give me the goods if someone else wins an auction, no matter what the circumstances.

More in the way of letting them know that allowing international bidders can be a good thing, and doesn't necessarily have to mean any more hassle for them at all than a normal sale.

And yeah, next time I will just get my Australian friend to bid. Have done that before, but it's just a lot less hassle to set up a bid for an auction that ends in the middle of the night.

As for 'snipe protection' - I would still bid late whether this kind of thing was in place or not. Don't see any point in bidding earlier, if I know how much I am willing to spend. Only gives other less decisive people more opportunity to change their mind and outbid me. If they don't know how much they're ready to spend beforehand, that's their problem, IMHO!

Vroomfunkel

[SoulBlazer]

Granted, Griking listed some good reasons, but I don't see the hassle in shipping out of the country myself.

You get MORE bidders, with MORE money, for very LITTLE hassle.

Just as long as you clearly state in the auction how much shipping will be and terms if they use PayPal, I'll always happily ship worldwide, and have, to 15 different countries, without any problems.

(This includes Amazon as well as EBay, mind you.)

Just the other week I sold a DS game here on DP to someone in England. Never would have had that sale if I had US only.

So yeah, I see both sides of the argument. Contacting the seller by e-mail before the auction ended and asking 'may I be allowed to do this and this?' is good. Not looking at the terms of the auction and placing a automatic snipe is bad.

[8bitnes]

(This includes Amazon as well as EBay, mind you.)


What makes your amazon account special so that you can sell overseas? My video games listed there are US buyers only.

[number6]

Bottom line is respect the terms of the auction and assume nothing just because you had no problems in the past.

[jajaja]

I am tempted to email the seller and say so ...

This is a really lame thing to do. It have happend to me once that someone offered the seller a higher price after I won the auction and he sold it to him.

This is not what I meant. I am not in the business of trying to persuade a seller to give me the goods if someone else wins an auction, no matter what the circumstances.

More in the way of letting them know that allowing international bidders can be a good thing, and doesn't necessarily have to mean any more hassle for them at all than a normal sale.

And yeah, next time I will just get my Australian friend to bid. Have done that before, but it's just a lot less hassle to set up a bid for an auction that ends in the middle of the night.

Ok, understand what you mean now. Sure, opening for Worldwide shipping might get you a higher price, but usualy there is a reason why some sellers use a bid-block.

I can mention a story I had a while ago. I saw a GBA game on Ebay in UK that I wanted. I hit the BIN button, but got a message that I couldnt bid/BIN because the seller had set bids to only come from people in the UK.
I sent a message to the seller and asked if I could buy it anyway and she said because I had good feedback she allow me to buy.
I bought it, recived it and all went smooth :)
So sending a message to the seller might work things out.

[SoulBlazer]

Sorry, I should have been more clear on that point.

I don't just sell video games on Amazon. I also sell:
video game related books
normal books
music
PC games
movies
and some other misc stuff

[SoulBlazer]

Sorry, I should have been more clear on that point.

I don't just sell video games on Amazon. I also sell:
video game related books
normal books
music
PC games
movies
and some other misc stuff

[InsaneDavid]

This has NOTHING to do with international shipping (that's the seller's choice, I myself don't do it because I don't want to stand in like at the post office and fill out a customs slip) - it has EVERYTHING to do with NOT FOLLOWING AUCTION TERMS. Obviously you read and understood them, and obviously your intention was to ignore them. Again, if a seller wants to ship outside the country then they will say so. In the case of a seller saying that they do not ship internationally it means just that - THEY DON'T WANT TO SHIP INTERNATIONALLY.


More in the way of letting them know that allowing international bidders can be a good thing, and doesn't necessarily have to mean any more hassle for them at all than a normal sale.

But it IS a hassle for the reasons mentioned above in other posts as well as what I said in this one. Additionally personally I don't do business with people that whine about breaking the posted terms because if they can't follow and respect SIMPLE DIRECTIONS (the auction terms) then how do I know they're going to pay, not shaft me with bad feedback, etc.


Bottom line is respect the terms of the auction and assume nothing just because you had no problems in the past.

Indeed Number6, by hook or by crook.

[InsaneDavid]

Double post after about four errors. Whoever Joe is paying to keep the forums running smoothly, he's paying them too much. :angry:

[Vroomfunkel]

You just don't get it, do you? Anyway, this will be my last word on the matter so don't fret too much more about it.

I WOULD NEVER DEMAND THAT SOMEONE SHIP INTERNATIONALLY IF THEY STATE THAT THEY DO NOT DO THAT!

The terms of the auction stated no shipping outside Australia. I would be asking them to ship to Australia. I would be sending them payment in Australian dollars. None of this is outside the stated terms of the auction!

They don't accept Paypal so it has nothing to do with Paypal regulations. Frankly, for all other forms of payment, I am the one at risk, because once the payment has cleared there is no way for me to get it back.

But sure, by all means have your little pissy fit about something that has nothing to do with you. Stamp your feet a bit too if you want. And why not slag off the board while you're at it?

Oh, wait, you already did. :roll:

Like I said, that's my last word on it so by all means, carry on whining about me at your lesiure ...

Vroomfunkel

[ClubNinja]

I would be asking them to ship to Australia. I would be sending them payment in Australian dollars.

Right. We get that. But, as stated a few times previously, you never made these intentions clear to the seller in advance. Unless you give him the courtesy of an email explaining your master plan, then he has absolutely no idea of it. Blame yourself for not being proactive enough to coordinate with the seller in advance.

[Zing]

I ran into this problem recently. I lived in the US for 26 years until I moved to Canada 3 years ago. My mother still lives in the US and I use her address for payment and shipping purposes. I have everything I purchase from people in the US shipped to her. However, my Ebay billing address on file is Canadian, so I can use my Canadian credit card to pay Ebay fees.

I stumbled across the deal of the year on Ebay. It had an insanely low buy-it-now and the auction had only been up for 12 minutes. I go to make the bid and... blocked. I quickly emailed the seller asking to have me allowed as a bidder. He replied back pretty fast saying he changed it to allow bidders from Canada, but it was too late. :(

[Insaneclown]

I would still e-mail the guy and say you would pay double for whatever you were trying to buy. Ive done that before...I guess its just the sellers loss then. Fuck'em.

[number6]

The seller sold the item for what they wanted. I don't see where the seller lost anything other than an unwanted bidder.

Contacting the seller offering more money than the final sale amount is auction interference in my book. It's people like yourselves that ruin ebay in my opinion. I certainly do not sympathize with this "problem". A classic case of sour grapes.

[number6]

Bottom line is respect the terms of the auction and assume nothing just because you had no problems in the past.

Indeed Number6, by hook or by crook.

Thanks for the "Prisoner" reference. Glad to see there are others here that know about that classic show.

[chaoticjelly]

The seller sold the item for what they wanted. I don't see where the seller lost anything other than an unwanted bidder.

Contacting the seller offering more money than the final sale amount is auction interference in my book. It's people like yourselves that ruin ebay in my opinion. I certainly do not sympathize with this "problem". A classic case of sour grapes.

Erm.. vroom didnt say he was going to contact them and offer more, he said that he was going to contact them and tell them that he would of paid twice what the item sold for (perhaps that may have them remove the international bidder block options in my ebay in future)... he never said not ONCE that he's going to offer more than the bid amount and take the item from another eBayer... you did read the thread before contributing right...?

Also, it was an auction format I presume.. so how do you know that the seller sold the item for what they wanted? They may have been expecting more? they may have expected less.. you dont know dude, that's the thing with an auction, you never really know what it's going to sell at..

No terms were broken, if vroom was gonna pay in AUD$ within AUS than that shouldnt of been a problem... he's saying how the block thing is annoying.. and yes it is!

You can set in "my ebay" preferences under bidder preferences to block bidders from overseas etc, from certain areas and whatnot... you can also block people with certain amounts of bad feedback in the past few days.. and certain amounts of non paying bidder strikes in the past few days (which is kind of useful)

Personally, I sell ANY item WORLDWIDE, as of course eBay is the "World's Online Marketplace" and I strongly believe that if someone wants to buy an item from overseas, then they should be allowed to! Plus sometimes I've got huge bids for items, and without that international market they would of finished for much less.

I have had a few problems with overseas bidders (such as 2-3 americans buying a UK NES, not realising it wont work in the US, and that shipping will cost as much as the NES itself) but now I just manually choose for that auction only no overseas bidders..

If you manually chose on a particular auction to ship within your country only, if anyone tries to place a bid, then they get a small screen saying that there may be consequences if you place a bid...

I would agree that Vroom maybe should of put forward his intentions to the seller beforehand, as I could imagine a few sellers getting arsy just because your account says "registered in xxxx country", but really there shouldnt of been a problem with placing a bid..

I dont know that there is much more hassle involved with international transaction as InsaneDavid has said...

I usually find that the HUGE HUGE majority of my international transactions go along perfectly smoothly.. (I have 4500+ feedback on ebay and hundreds of international sales..)

I think that most problems stem from that fact that.. I noticed.. if I go on ebay.com and search for "megadrive" or something like that, I get a huge amount of UK based sellers items turn up.. a lot of new bidders may just simply not realise that they are bidding on an item in a foreign country.. and that's where the root of most problems lie...

Unfortunately this is ebay trying to drum up even more sales / bids getting themselves more and more revenue by making items from other countries turn up on the default searches on ebay.com

If they made it so that you actually had to visit ebay.com.au for example, or ebay.co.uk I would imagine that there would be a lot less problems.. or even if they just removed items from other countries from the default searches of certain ebay sites.

Im not sure what all the negativity towards vroom in this thread is.. and I side with him 100% on this issue.