Why Don't Buyer's Read the Listings!

Jo_F

I have some items on Ebay, my seller preferences are set not to accept bids from outside the UK, it stats in the bit about the postage that I will only send to the UK, and its even specifically stated in the description, yet I am getting questions about the stuff from people outside of this little island. :mad:

Do they not read what is there, in big letters in the flamin listing?

And breath

geri1965_2

This annoys me as well. I just ignore them now.

Another thing is people hassling me to put on a Buy it Now price.

Jo_F

Well I answered the guy, telling him that his question was immaterial as he wasn't in the UK, and he has now come back to tell me that although his account is registered abroad, he is actually in the UK, I have checked his profile but all his feeback etc is private, all I can find out is that his account is registered abroad!

Hintza

Block him if you are worried.

soolin

I agree, I blocked a woman yesterday because she asked 2 questions I thought were rather daft and I won't risk selling to her if she can't understand a listing where I have sold dozens and dozens with no problem at all.

dollydoodah

I am selling an item - it doesn't end until next Sunday and the bidding is already at over £120. Just had a question which read 'I am interested in this. I will pay you £50 for it.' Not even bothering to reply and duly blocked :rolleyes:

hazey31

Can I give you a reason why buyers ask these things? I'm a UK citizen living in Europe and as a result there are certain things like clothing brands, DVDs or books that we just cannot get over here, or for a ridiculous price in shops or on Amazon. For example, in Germany a newly published, bog-standard paperback book will cost in excess of 13 or 15 euros due to different taxed applied. So if we can try and find something a little bit cheaper on eBay, it's got to be worth a go. Even had you set all your preferences to 'UK only' and had written it 10 times on the item listing, if it was something that I was desperately after it's well worth sending a very polite, nicely constructed email* asking if it would be possible and of course wanting to pay you the full amount for secure posting over here.

Remember, when looking at stuff on eBay we have no idea about any previous dodgy experiences that you might have had with 'foreign buyers'. I have 100% positive feedback- there are some geniuine 'foreigners' out there.

* Am definitely not a 419 scammer!

NotQuiteNorbert

*Holds hands up*

Not exactly the same, I know, but I myself have been guilty of asking overseas sellers to post to the UK when they don't state this in their listings. My reason for this is: if you don't ask, you don't get, and the worst they can say is no.

StaffsSW

I will occasionally message an international seller from my PS selling ID to ask about a purchase, but that's only if they do not have UK postage listed. I never try to bid to see if they have their blocks in place, and then ask about postage.
Using a very high score ID usually gives a little more credibility to my request, but I will still buy it on a separate ID. If they say "no", I don't argue - as I have stopped the majority of my listings going abroad due to excessive losses, and I respect any sellers who do the same.

On a similar note, I've recently listed a very large and heavy item as collection only (written in large red, underlined, bold text at the top, middle and bottom of the description, along with a line on what type of car it will fit into) - and I had 14 separate people asking for a postage price.

FOURTEEN!!?? I even posted each reply to the listing, but still they kept asking. The last one caught me on a bad day. I suggested postage would be £13,000 + vat which would allow me to take a few days off work to buy a transit van, insure it, fuel it, hire a labourer for the day and drop it off with them.

Coincidentally, my BBL also grew by 14 extra names....

hazey31

stevew8975 wrote: »

Using a very high score ID usually gives a little more credibility to my request, but I will still buy it on a separate ID. If they say "no", I don't argue - as I have stopped the majority of my listings going abroad due to excessive losses, and I respect any sellers who do the same.

On a similar note, I've recently listed a very large and heavy item as collection only (written in large red, underlined, bold text at the top, middle and bottom of the description, along with a line on what type of car it will fit into) - and I had 14 separate people asking for a postage price.

FOURTEEN!!?? I even posted each reply to the listing, but still they kept asking. The last one caught me on a bad day. I suggested postage would be £13,000 + vat which would allow me to take a few days off work to buy a transit van, insure it, fuel it, hire a labourer for the day and drop it off with them.

Coincidentally, my BBL also grew by 14 extra names....

Now that sort of not paying attention to what's written in the description is inexcusable!!!

bluebell13

hazey31 wrote: »

Can I give you a reason why buyers ask these things? I'm a UK citizen living in Europe and as a result there are certain things like clothing brands, DVDs or books that we just cannot get over here, or for a ridiculous price in shops or on Amazon. For example, in Germany a newly published, bog-standard paperback book will cost in excess of 13 or 15 euros due to different taxed applied. So if we can try and find something a little bit cheaper on eBay, it's got to be worth a go. Even had you set all your preferences to 'UK only' and had written it 10 times on the item listing, if it was something that I was desperately after it's well worth sending a very polite, nicely constructed email* asking if it would be possible and of course wanting to pay you the full amount for secure posting over here.

Remember, when looking at stuff on eBay we have no idea about any previous dodgy experiences that you might have had with 'foreign buyers'. I have 100% positive feedback- there are some geniuine 'foreigners' out there.

* Am definitely not a 419 scammer!

I have chosen to post to individual buyers outside my usual countries if they have requested it on a few occasions. Basically then, I can check out their feedback and work out a reasonable postage price. If they wish to buy I then ask them to message me back and I remove their user id from my block. I have never yet had a problem, and a lot of them seem to be ex-pats.