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Hey everybody. The title says it all but the details are as follows:
We are in the GSP [Global Shipping Program] and have been for years. Never a problem most of the time.
We have a metal reproduction statue of a standing & walking Lion on a pedestal. We use “Make Offers to Watchers” every day and sent an offer out the other day. A potential buyer made us a counter offer and we accepted.
Now she states that Ebay is sending her a message that this item can’t be bought and shipped to Sweden.
Well, Sweden is on the GSP list. Our shipping tab shows countries we do and do not ship to. Sweden is listed in the list of countries we do ship to.
I told her to check from her end about art, VAT, any regulations about reproductions, etc. and I would check from my end. Ebay reps are clueless. So, any thoughts from the SL gang as to what’s up?
I told the buyer to double check her payment info., dbl. check her address, etc. and she said it is all ok. She says the Ebay message refers to this item not being able to be shipped to Sweden.
From my end, it is not oversized, will be under 1,728 cu. in. so no DIMM Weight issues, only weighs about 5 or 6 pounds soaking wet :-).
I checked in our shipping tab for her city in Sweden and her zip code and I get the typical message that “This Item will be Shipped by the Global Shipping Program”.
Would appreciate any insights or tips.
Thanks,
Mike at MDC Galleries
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Total guess from the blue, perhaps a poorly written script is reading the word lion and considering it a wild animal or fur, etc.
USPS.com has the actual import rules for various countries, perhaps reading through those with an eye towards misinterpretation of the listing might give a clue.
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Well OD that’s a thought. Even though we have other keywords like statue, figurine, sculpture an algorithm can’t “think” per say but with all the focus on the accomplishments of “AI” these days you would think that 3 or 4 keywords pointing or referencing an inanimate object that then the use of the word “Lion” would be grouped into that circular reference.
But who the heck knows these days. I think I should include in my written daily agenda a section for “DWATCI” [pronounced dwat-chi]. It means “Deal with all the Crap Issues” of the day. 🙂 This section could be a real time suck as i am finding out. Not due to scaling up our business but dealing with all the online “CRa..uh, “Stuff”] 🙂
OK, so much for fun stuff. Have to go and figure this out for this lady and “answer a customer question, How Red is this Red Vase”. No just kidding, but as we all know and have experienced, it does happen.
Fun, fun, fun. But seriously thanks for the point in that direction. It is a $150 offer we accepted so worth the look see.
Thanks,
mike – MDC Galleries
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Mike – I had a similar problem a while ago – maybe last year. I don’t remember the details. I think that the buyer was from that area of Europe, Scandinavia or thereabouts. I called eBay, and the customer rep told me that, while the country is in the GSP program, the item was not. I talked to the buyer about shipping direct, but I think that is when she finally got a cost and backed out. I forget what the item was, but it was a household item, like an art vase or something like that.
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Thanks for the reply Sharyn:
I just woke up and saw a message from the buyer She said she contacted the Ebay rep from Sweden. This is the reply she got.
<h3 align=”left”>Thank you for contacting eBay Customer Service! I understand that you need help about paying for the item. It’s my pleasure to assist a valued member like you.Mats, I am sorry to hear that this transaction was not yet completed I appreciate your effort in contacting the seller to work things out.
I carefully checked the item and I was able to see here that it’s not restricted and I don’t see any issue on your account that will not allow you to pay for the item.
To resolve this issue, the seller will just need to relist the item not under our Global Shipping Program in that way he will just send you invoice with a shipping cost of the item.
So, it seems you need to relist. I will take the action you said and cancel the order.
Chat later</h3>
So if I read this correctly, the rep said nothing is wrong with the listing, nothing is wrong on the buyers side but seems Ebay can’t complete the Sale. So their solution is for me [the seller] to relist the item and NOT USE THE GSP Program as it is intended to do.I understand many people ship to countries outside of GSP but I have never wanted to do so. By doing that it eliminates all the protection that the seller and buyer have and other benefits under the GSP Program.
I am beginning to wonder if this is something this buyer has done before, says they can’t pay, uses this same Ebay excuse just to get the Seller to pull out of the GSP Program umbrella and ship directly.
Why would a rep that sees everything is OK on both the Buyer and seller sides, sees no issues, yet tell a Seller to cancel the listing, re-list, figure out own our own the VAT and Import fees, then send an invoice and hope everything goes well.
To me that is what the GSP program is supposed to do.
BTW notice the last sentence. “I will take the action you said and cancel the order”. Well that was not done. It still shows as a purchase and is in the “Awaiting for Payment” section of my seller hub.
Even though it is a $225 statue that went for $168 on an offer, I am thinking I should not go through all of this. Since the item also has not been canceled from her end like the Ebay rep said [maybe if real], is cancel it myself stating that the Buyer requested the cancellation. Or no, better still just let her cancel it. Then when it comes through, I will kill the listing and relist as it was before, still using the GSP and let her try agagin. If not then she is just out of luck.
Even though it is a $168 Sale, she hasn’t even seen what the final Import Fees and VAT is and could after all of this still change her mind. To me the $168 sale is not worth the “potential risk of what this may be” or the hassle.
Any opinions from those who ship International and don’t use the GSP?
Thanks,
mike – MDCGFA
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Mike: I don’t ship much international any more. Could be a scam. Perhaps buyer just wants to avoid GSP fees, maybe worse, since buyer probably understands that you are losing GSP protection too.
My thinking is that a person who dickers on the price really wants the item and is not a scammer. Problem is that their dickering may continue thru the shipping process, and even after the item has been delivered.
Perhaps you can get an eBay GSP rep to provide more information?
Your post reads like you are in scam alert mode. Go with your gut on this one.
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I would cancel the item and relist it in another category. Change the title too. Then just send the new link to the buyer directly (be sure to turn off any promotional listing setting during the relist).
Who know what is setting off the algorithm?
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Thanks guys. I will call a local rep here first to see what they say. Then maybe just do as D&C mentioned. Unlist it, do it over, take it off GSP and message them and invite them to start over. Only this time ask for an invoice and tell them they will have to pay VAT-Customs stuff themselves.
Maybe that’s all they are fishing for is to by pass GSP and lower the shipping costs.
I will do all of that later.
mike – mdcgfa
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Hey D&C: I just remebered I can’t end a listing until the purchase is canceled. I told them to request a cancellation and we will quickly accpet their request. This will end the unpaid item status [no case is open currently-just not paid yet].
I told them to select “Changed my Mind” as a reason. Then once it is canceled I will be able to unlist it, edit and re-list as I desire. But until canceled it is sort of frozen to edits, changes, cancels and the like.
Sent all this to her and will see if she follows through on the request. I know I can cancel from my end if I have her request to do so in writing, but I prefer to just let her do it. Who knows, she may bail and not do it.
Ball is in her court and I am just going to wait and see what she does.
Thanks all… mike – mdcgfa
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Sounds like a plan though I would just go ahead and cancel the order, choosing “there’s a problem with seller’s address” as the reason which has worked for me in getting the cancellation done (and my fees back) without the necessity for any more back and forth, rather than waiting on the buyer.
I sell direct and I’ve never had a foreign can’t-pay situation, but I did have some issues earlier in the pandemic with buyers from some countries I usually ship to being unable to purchase my items at all, and one situation where the buyer could purchase but I could not print an eBay label. (I was able to print one on PirateShip.) At the time, the USPS had a list of about 100 countries for which mail was suspended. Turns out that eBay was involuntarily adding some of those countries (but not all of them) to my list of countries to which I don’t ship and then separately disallowing shipping labels to be printed for some other random countries. Different departments taking things into their own hands, I guess.
If you take it off GSP don’t forget to add the language back into the listing about the buyer having to pay any taxes or duties.
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Yep. I knew about having to add the verbage about VAT / Import fees back in and also included that in my last message to her.
She as of now has not responded to my message and request for her to cancel. I assume she still wants to proceed with the transaction. They are 6 hours ahead of us here on EST so it is about 7 pm there. She has had hours to act and cancel. She may not want the small buyer ding of canceling and using changed my mind as a reason.
Since she did include the Ebay rep message to cancel and relist, I guess i could as you say, go ahead and do that for her. But officially, as the buyer, she personally hasn’t asked me to do so or indicated that she is agreeable to a cancellation and relist situation. But I think enough was covered that I would be OK issuing the cancellation from my end. Relisting and editing it and then send her the link to the new listing.
Then if she still wants it she can buy it, ask for an invoice and I send her the new total. I will also bury an AGR fee into it now.
AGR is our in house code for “Aggravation” 🙂 🙂
mike-mdcgfa
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Hey Mike, I got an offer on an inexpensive figurine yesterday, countered, re-countered and accepted, then got message from buyer saying that I said I shipped to Israel in my listing (true) but then he tries to pay and it says he cannot. Sounds very similar to your situation. I explained it was probably an eBay payments glitch and I’d cancel the sale. Since it was a low price thing that I was already taking a discount on, I wasn’t hungry to figure out what was wrong or to ship on my own not in GSP. So I’m no help to you, but interested in if you get it all worked out.
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That is very interesting MD:
I wonder if it has anything to do with Managed Payments. We were brought into MP about 2 or 3 weeks ago. But no international orders up until now.
Are you in MP? If so, this may be an avenue that I need to check with the local [hopefully] rep when I call them later.
Could be that MP is having an issue with Pitney Bowes doing the billing as a third party and Ebay can’t get it’s share somehow? I even think I remember reading or hearing about MP and GSP not playing well together on the playground. Have to also backtrack that thought and see what I can dig up.
Didn’t Jay or Ryanne mentioned that once they got put on MP that they would have to decide if they are going to ship direct. I know Ryanne has said recently that GSP is still a go to for her, but for some reason think the topic of MP & GSP popped up as bumping heads somewhere.
Hhhmmm… Just too busy to spend much time right now to dig it out of Google or Ebay forums.
mike – mdcgfa
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Yes, I got moved to Managed Payments over on Aug 20th I believe. I’ve had two previous GSP sales since the move, and both were fine. One Canada, one Singapore. I was able to print labels and send those to KY with no problem. So this is my first managed payments/gsp glitch.
By buyer hasn’t responded yet as to whether to cancel or not so my sale is still in limbo right now.
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Finally got issue resolved.
Buyer claimed they didn’t see or have the option to cancel. So, I took the bull by the horns. Canceled the sale from my end, with buyers permission of course, selected buyer requested to cancel.
Reworked the listing, took it off of GSP, even though GSP does ship to Sweden, create a new International Priority Mail policy, editing the listing and reposted it.
He bought it right away, paid instantly, knows she is to cover the VAT and Import Fees and paid for everything. It left this morning. $150 lion statue plus $92 shipping.
So everything is finished state side. Now comes the wait to see if he gets it and without any problems.
Thanks for all the input / advice / opinions guys and gals.
mike – mdcgfa
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I have encountered the same issue multiple times in regards to GSP. The eBay reps are clueless and seem to always suggest removing GSP as the solution to the problem. It’s not. You just need to list in a different category. This has worked every time for me at least.
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OK Zach. Will try that next time. That will be so much quicker than a total take down and a complete relist.
Change the category and refresh-revise the listing.
Think some of us are just bumping into the issue Ryanne discussed in this episode. The MP program not playing well with items listed in the GSP program.
mike – mdcgfa
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