Ebay sellers - A cautionary tale

[Rickfactor2]

I'm in Canada and have encountered a new issue with ebay regarding their International Shipping Program.

Basically, if you list your item and don't even offer International Shipping, Ebay has their own International Shipping program that you are enrolled in automatically.

I recently sold 2 paintball items (simple air fittings) and listed as domestic sale only but both buyers were international to me (US and the UK).

With the ebay program, you ship to an ebay hub in your own country and then ebay ships it again off to the customer. They take care of any additional shipping costs, customs forms, tariffs etc.

Sounds great eh? Nope.

A few weeks later, you will receive an email.

We wanted to let you know that unfortunately this item could not be shipped internationally. As a result, your order can’t be fulfilled. This could be due to import restrictions or eligibility requirements. You get to keep the sale and we’ve issued a refund to your buyer. We understand this may be unexpected and would like to share more information about eBay International Shipping.

The buyer gets refunded, seller keeps all proceeds just like if the sale went fine, and seller is protected from negative feedback.

Unfortunately, there is no warning that this will happen and my items were a couple burst discs, gauges, and some fittings. Not dangerous air cylinders or paintball "guns."

So what happens to the items? Currently, they are marked as "liquidated" and there was no hint that they would be sent back to me. Ebay ate the entire thing.....twice.

So fair warning. Sell via this forum or your marker may end up in the bin because of whatever rule ebay is not aware of for their own shipping program. I spoke to them twice on the phone and they did not even know.

[Swedgin!!]

Thanks for the heads up 👍🏼

[scottieb]

So if I ran Ebay and an item I really liked came across my desk to ship internationally then I could keep it for myself and send this canned message to the seller and buyer? The buyer might be a little chuffed but would soon be over it with the refund. The seller quickly ends up not caring as he too gets his money. What a sweet deal if I was at Ebay!

[Heavy_D]

I have ordered my fair share of things from ebay international over last year and haven't had any issues with customs etc. All my purchases were from the USA, shipped north to Canada. and showed up fine for me atleast.

[Chuck E Ducky]

So what happens if you post a $2k “regulator” I buy it in US Ebay will refund me and you just sold a reg for 2k?

That probably won’t last long Ebay is in the business of ripping people off not losing money.

[$L!mBo]

Chuck E Ducky are you thinking what im thinking?

🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑

[scottieb]

I'm thinking it.

[Jimmydee]

I think I am too. Lol

[Chuck E Ducky]

I’m Learing a lot from MCB

[$L!mBo]

brb, listing some scrap pieces of pipe as "AKA paintball RARE VINTAGE PROTOTYPE regulator" for $2k
Chuck, you make a new ebay profile with a UK address
LETS DO FRAUD

[Chuck E Ducky]

VPN or Bust Bro 😎

Daddy needs a new Lambo

[$L!mBo]

someone is definitely going to exploit this for a shit ton before it gets shut down i say get in there while the getting is good

[Chuck E Ducky]

Absolutely the day care business is getting to competitive time to diversify.

[packersrule729]

Lmaooooo

[Jordan]

I tried buying a Fastchanger off of Doc last year - same thing happened. Despite it being listed as an international item.

EBay is @$*&ed.

[Pumps4ever]

All I know is Ebay rips off the seller so bad I will never sell anything on ebay again...

[autococker04]

I sell an item for $120, buyer pays $145, I get $105. I always try to ballpark what I’ll walk away with and it’s always worse than my worst case estimate. It is super easy though.

[Maxwell]

I'm going to short eBay to make some money off of this as well. Exploit it all you can guys!!

[Trbo323]

Super Nova found a deal on a couple of emfs a few weeks back. Seller listed 2 new emfs for $385 or something. Well under MSRP. We each bought one and paid, I'm betting the seller then realized what they did and cancelled both of our orders, saying that we requested the cancellation. This is against ebay's terms to do. Both of us reported and in both cases eBay sided with the seller.

Sent from my motorola edge 2024 using Tapatalk

[Super Nova]

Yup that happened

[William the Third]

I've only had eBay respond positively once when I reported something. It was when I won an auction, for less than the seller liked. After having taken my payment, they relisted it again for more, but didn't refund me. eBay actually completely removed the users account, and refunded my money.

Just recently I reported a seller who had the same gun listed twice, one as an auction, and one as a BIN. eBay did nothing, and when the auction ended without meeting the reserve, they listed it again, all while the BIN listing is till running.

[nerdcore]

I am loving the mini eh-bay rebellion (e-bellion, if you will) going on in this thread.

If i can't sell local or on mcb, then the stuff ain't selling. I'm not dealing with platforms that don't specialize in us, youknowwhati'msayin'?

[DocsMachine]

Just had this happen for the first time, myself. Shipped an LED XL Freak back on the 20th, to their international center. Just got a message this morning saying it could not be delivered, and that the customer has been refunded. No suggestion that they took or will take funds from me, though they could easily just tack that on to the next payout.

And no indication I'll get the part back- I suspect it's a case of eBay cutting their losses, and just tossing it rather than paying to have it shipped home.

Doc.