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

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.