Buyer for Puerto Rico blocked somehow?

[Timo]

Buyer messaged me to say that eBay states that my item does not ship to Puerto Rico. I browsed my items with his zip code (00983) and get the same message. It has been a while since I had a sale to Puerto Rico too.

I cannot find a setting that blocks the island. And am starting to think this is an eBay glitch. Anyone have any insights?

[Sharyn]

In your listing or business policies, there is a “Exclude shipping locations” area. Check to see if there is anything there. It is possible to limit an item so that it won’t ship to Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, etc.

What is the item? Is it something that might be restricted to ground shipping only, like perfume?

[Timo]

Puerto Rico is not excluded in the listing setup. I don’t have business policies. And it is an item of clothing.

Must be a global setting on my account that has changed but I can’t find it. Such as somewhere in my Account or my eBay. Unless eBay is blocking Puerto Rico due to USPS issues with delivery there? Haven’t seen an announcement about that tho.

I can see a list of blocked ‘countries’ on my listings. That list shows Puerto Rico and Guam, probably other protectorates.

[Sharyn]

Try the “Manage shipping settings” page:
https://www.ebay.com/ship/prf

Close to the bottom, check to see if there is anything under “Exclude shipping locations”.

[IndySales]

Had a buyer from PR purchase something, but no shipping options were available that fit the item. Priority Mail wasn’t an option at all. I had to cancel.

[Timo]

@Sharyn: I think I found the setting using that link and digging deeper.

That is the correct link but you have to dig deep to find Puerto Rico, which is listed as a Central American and Carribean country. Tentative yay!

[Timo]

@Sharyn: Thanks for your help. Here are the details that i found.

These are global settings for the account in my eBay and affect all one’s listings:

Click https://www.ebay.com/ship/prf

Then near the bottom of this list, there is a row ‘Exclude shipping locations’. Click on ‘Edit’ to access the next page https://www.ebay.com/ship/prf/excludeRegions

To find the setting for Puerto Rico, in the International Section, Central America and Caribbean, click ‘Show all countries’. This opens up a list and you may select or de-select Puerto Rico.

My thinking had been that Puerto Rico is a protectorate. But eBay may have a more global view and sees Puerto Rico as a country that happens to be a protectorate.

At least eBay should make this easier to find the settings for us. After all, as my potential buyer stated: PR has the same USPS service, zip codes, same currency, etc. It looks like I may have lost a sale unless buyer returns soon.

On a per listing basis:
There is a similar way to dig down in the country list and block or unblock Puerto Rico. Again, that setting is part of the list for Central America and Caribbean.

@IndySales: Most of my items are suitable for first class mail. A few years back I sold a laser toner cartridge to a buyer in Puerto Rico. He did not opt to upgrade to Priority, so I shipped it USPS Parcel. Then he complained about shipping time since it went via boat. So it may be better to enable Puerto Rico on an item by item basis.

By the way, it has been about 12 hours and no return email from eBay ‘support’.

[Sharyn]

@Timo – Glad to be of help. Do you remember ever adjusting those settings? Maybe you set something up when you first created your account?

[Timo]

@Sharyn: No specific recollection of adjusting the settings. But, in my mind, Puerto Rico is a protectorate and would be in the domestic list for enabling/blocking like Alaska, Hawaii, APO/FPO. Not separate Caribbean country, as in eBay thinking. So that is/was the issue for me.

My account goes back to 1997 so who knows. But I was mailing things to Puerto Rico a couple of years back. And when you think about it, there are lot of eBay buyers there.

Btw, it looks like Guam and perhaps a couple more protectorates are also unintentionally blocked in my list for similar reasons.

[Old Dad]

I have seen many times where an order from Puerto Rico showed Puerto Rico as the country, which results in an invalid address at best and blocked as international depending on settings. Many complaints about this but eBay ignores the issue.

[Temudgin]

EBay is presently involuntarily blocking certain countries which I assume means they believe mail to those countries is either stopped or unreliable due to COVID-10. Some buyers are blocked from purchasing at all, as I learned from a prospective repeat foreign buyer who recently contacted me with that complaint. I looked at one of my listings from a different browser and saw a much longer list of excluded countries than my usual short list.

Sometimes though buyers are not blocked from purchasing but then eBay won’t let me print a label, as I found out today regarding an order from Hong Kong. So I printed a label from PirateShip which fortunately cost no more than the buyer paid me on eBay for shipping.

Coincidentally, today PirateShip warned me that there is a problem with some PR addresses. Some US protectorates require customs forms but PR does not. Nevertheless it is possible that Puerto Rico has been sucked into the eBay international blockages and you may have no control over whether someone from there can buy until this blows over.

[Timo]

eBay email support got back to me but it took 48 hours. Their response is not really any different that what SL forum states above.

eBay response:
Hello,
Good Day!
Thank you for contacting eBay I hope this email finds you well.
I’ll be assisting you today regarding with your concern.

Checking On your account I see that you set a shipping exclusions In (Central America and Caribbean) and Puerto Rico, Is within this Archipelago, to fix this you need to:

Edit or revise your listings in bulk and choose exclude shipping locations.

To edit multiple listings:

1. Go to My eBay and click the “All Selling” link. (If you use Selling Manager or Selling Manager Pro, use the “Active” view.)
2. Select the listings you want to revise, and then click the “Edit” button.
3. Select the information you want to edit. You can either make changes to each individual listing one at a time, or make the same changes to all the selected listings.
4. Click the “Continue” button.
5. Edit your listings and click the “Continue” button.
6. Check your changes and click the “Submit” button.

You can edit listings in any format, but remember that there are restrictions on what you can change and when. Check our chart for details:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/revising_restrictions.html

When revising listings in bulk, the fields you can edit include price, quantity, duration, title, subtitle, item condition, shipping, listing categories, item description, payment information, and product details.

I hope I’ve explained everything clearly. If you have further questions please let us know.

Best Regards
Jim
eBay Customer Support

[Author]

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