eBay help please?

[little.fox]

I just won an auction a few hours back, and now the seller has messaged me, saying they don't ship abroad. Apparently their auctions are supposed to be set to no foreign bidders, but this one let me bid anyway.

I have replied asking if they would please make an exception, as I have already won the item, but is there anything else I can do?

This is not a very easy item to find, so I'm not inclined to just let them back out. I do understand their not wanting to ship abroad, but isn't it up to them to make sure their settings are correct?

[Moondancer115]

Maybe someone on here who lives in that country want to help you. So yhe seller send it to someone of us and she/he will send it abroad.
From whoch country is it? Maybe write it in the subject

[Malancaiwen]

I would totally do what Moondancer115 said! I already asked for help here and helped people get some stuff. We are nice community, let's enjoy it

[tootie_tails]

Apparently their auctions are supposed to be set to no foreign bidders, but this one let me bid anyway.

What did the auction description say? Does it say they ship to Sweden/europe? If it doesn't, then it's pretty inconsiderate of you to just go ahead and bid anyway.

If the seller doesn't ship to Sweden, contact and ask them beforehand instead. Many sellers say yes if you contact them politely and well ahead before the auction end to give them time to check out your feedback, time to find shipping options and so on.

I do understand their not wanting to ship abroad, but isn't it up to them to make sure their settings are correct?

No! It is your responsibility to comply if they don't want to ship to your country! The ebay auction page may or may not allow you to bid anyway but that doesn't mean you can go ahead and just do it. You need to ask their permission first.

I think you owe the seller an apology.
If you still want the item, you need to let the seller decide whether it's acceptable. For example if they could ship to someone in their own country who can forward to you (like others said, many people here are very friendly and helpful).
If the seller won't do that either, I think you should offer to pay the relisting fees for them.

[ponylady]

I understand that it let you bid but I am not sure there is much you can do.  If they are refusing, you can't make them ship it to you unfortunately.    I know alot of sellers are leary shipping abroad because for one they have either had previous problems or they have a lack of knowledge on doing so.

Did it say anywhere in there auction about not shipping Internationally?  Or they only ship to the US.

I probably would just politely message them and ask if they would consider shipping it to a US friend for you?  If they agree, I am more than happy to be your go to.   

[little.fox]

What did the auction description say? Does it say they ship to Sweden/europe? If it doesn't, then it's pretty inconsiderate of you to just go ahead and bid anyway.

The auction listing did not say anything about not shipping abroad, obviously I would not have bid if that was the case!

Edit to add: Do you mean to say you message each seller before putting in a bid, just on the off chance they might have their settings wrong? I doubt it!

I think you owe the seller an apology.
If you still want the item, you need to let the seller decide whether it's acceptable. For example if they could ship to someone in their own country who can forward to you (like others said, many people here are very friendly and helpful).
If the seller won't do that either, I think you should offer to pay the relisting fees for them.

I fail to see how I owe them an apology and their relisting fees??!!
All I have done is bid on an item they were wanting to sell.

I think you are being well out of order accusing me of doing something wrong here!

[Moondancer115]

I think there was a mis reading here.
You did nothing wrong and it was wrong to accuse you for something.
Please people read the post before accusing someone and ask first before making your own facts. 
Just want to keep this a positive communitie

What I understand from it. The auction was for worldwide bidders. Nowhere was sated that they don't send abroad so you bid on the item.
I think it is their responability to fill in the auction form the right way. If it says worldwide and there is nothing said in the discription about not shipping abroad, that you are in your rights. But hey I don't know everything just my opponion. Please correct my if I am wrong hihi

Little.fox I hope you can work something out with the seller. Maybe someone in that country wants to help out.

[fantail]

This is super frustrating
I sell some on ebay, and I have noticed lately that anytime you list or relist something, ebay automatically sets the international shipping option to flat-rate, even if you don't put in a value for shipping cost (and this still happens if you relist something that previously had no international shipping). I still think the seller should make an exception for you though because you did bid and are letting them know how much you want it. I have had internationally bidders win my auctions that I didn't mean to have international shipping on, but I still honored the transaction and shipped to them.

[ponylady]

I'm not sure if this is a matter of misreading or not but please refrain from turning this into an argument. 

Little.Fox as I mentioned above I am more than happy to be a go to person if this person agrees to ship to someone in the US for you.

I do not think you owe the seller an apology though.  It was her mistake. But like Fantail mentioned, mistake or not, the right thing to do is honor the transaction.  It does not mean she will though so be prepared for that.  Again I would email and ask if she would consider sending it to someone in the states for you.

[little.fox]

Ponylady, I will certainly not turn this into an argument, I just don't think it's ok that some people draw their own conclusions and then go about accusing people, when I really had no reasonable way of knowing this seller didn't want to ship abroad. One can't possibly be expected to message the seller before every bid, just to make sure it's really ok, that's just absurd.

Thank you for your advice and your offer, I will PM you if they should agree to a middle man.

[Sarahlacewing]

Sometimes when you pay with paypal a seller is hesitant to ship to a 3rd party because they don't receive the seller protection if they don't ship to the address listed on the paypal website.  In this situation, how does a person handle the middle man?  Is it a situation where they just fill in the comments to ship to this place, or do they actually have to add the address to their account? Sorry to piggyback your thread I have just often wondered this.

[ponylady]

It is true a seller loses there "Seller Protection" if they ship to another address other than what is listed on the account.

It can be handled a couple ways though.  Oviously one being that the seller manual changes the address when they go to print the shipping label.  Or in all actuality anyone can have up to 9 "gift" addresses in your paypal account. Add your work address, friends, family etc. Then when you buy something on eBay or pay online for something with Paypal, simply select that address from your list during the payment process (edit address link is there) . Then the seller gets a good address, generated by Paypal and no questions or special instructions are needed.

The latter in my opinion is the safest method and everyone is happy.

[RockinPrettyBeats]

I know it's common for people to ask another person to be the middleman for a pony but as a seller I wouldn't do it. I might do it if it was arranged in advanced but there is no way I would do on a whim. There is way too much that can go wrong.

- Seller protection is gone
- Middleman can claim they never got it and buyer & seller loses
- Buyer gets pony and says there is a flaw but seller thinks middleman caused flaw

So many different scenarios that make it nervous for the buyer.

I don't understand something though. If the seller doesn't ship overseas then what was the shipping price? Did it say something like contact seller?

In any case, I've learned from another forum that I am on regularly not to assume that there wasn't a "no international" in the auction. Many times it is missed by the buyer.

I'm not saying that's what happened here but I don't understand the idea that an honest seller can't make a mistake. It's great if she goes along with this middleman plan but if she doesn't I think it's only polite to move on.

[tootie_tails]

I don't understand something though. If the seller doesn't ship overseas then what was the shipping price? Did it say something like contact seller?

Yep, that's what I was thinking.

What did the auction description say about shipping?

If it said "ships worldwide" or "ships to Europe" etc, then you have done nothing wrong obviously!
But so far you have only posted what the auction description *did not* say.
What you said in your first (and second) post here seems to imply that it was a "ships to: United States" auction. That is what I meant.

RockinPrettyBeats has some valuable input here. I find many us only sellers reason just like that, they are very willing to work with you if you just talk to them about it beforehand.

What the description *said* makes all the difference here.
If it doesn't say you can not pay with Monopoly money, that doesn't mean it's safe to assume you can. 

[little.fox]

It's great if she goes along with this middleman plan but if she doesn't I think it's only polite to move on.

And this is exactly what I'm doing.

If it doesn't say you can not pay with Monopoly money, that doesn't mean it's safe to assume you can. 

You obviously can't see how silly this statement is. You have done nothing here except bite my head off for making an honest mistake, if you can even call it that, and I'm not interested in discussing with you any further.