U.S. ebay sellers refusing to sell to Canadian buyers

bling-nut

Member
Mar 10, 2007
1,062
2
O.K. you guys, I buy and sell on ebay. My feedback is at 134 with 100% positive feedback and everyone (so far) has said extremely nice things about me. You know,like super fast payment, exc communication, authentic LV and so on. But there has been times that I have been searching ebay forever looking for somethg in particular and when I find it, wouldn't you know, the seller refuses to let me bid because I am in Canada!
What is going on??????
 
Nothing is going on, they just don't want the hassle of having to deal with Canada. It's much easier if they ship within the US. Also, border issues. It's individual choice.
 
O.K. you guys, I buy and sell on ebay. My feedback is at 134 with 100% positive feedback and everyone (so far) has said extremely nice things about me. You know,like super fast payment, exc communication, authentic LV and so on. But there has been times that I have been searching ebay forever looking for somethg in particular and when I find it, wouldn't you know, the seller refuses to let me bid because I am in Canada!
What is going on??????

Personal choice!! I cant see the problem- some of my auctions i do my country only because I cant be doing with the hassle. If you send your own country it can be there the next day and the transactio is over and done with. No hassle with taxes, tracking and waiting etc

If you really like an item there is no harm in emailing the seller and asking them- they can only say no!
 
Unfortunately, international transactions are full of problems, not to mention the added expense of extra paypal fees (they charge 4.5% for international, but only 3% for same-country payments), and much higher shipping costs that lots of bidders don't want to pay. I had trouble recently with an international buyer who couldn't understand why a 12 ounce package would cost her $35 in shipping. It's because USPS Internation Express mail costs that much!! And I wasn't about to ship internationally using anything but a service that requires a signature for delivery. ;)
 
I don't ship internationally anymore because I had too many problems when I used to. People didn't understand longer shipping times, higher shipping, customs, etc. It just wasn't worth the hassle. Sometimes I'll make an exception if the buyer has good communication with me.
 
i agree with caannie. i sold an item to someone in Canada (was my first ebay sale) and got hit with the "cross-border payment" fees with Paypal--indeed, it's 4.5% as opposed to 3%. Not much if it's something small but if it's a bag over $1000 it can get up there.

also, certain carriers (like UPS) cost a fortune to ship to Canada. so usually to ship there USPS is used but i can understand why someone doesn't want to use it (tracking isn't as good, i've found).

and then another big issue is CUSTOMs. sure, it is the *buyer* who must pay any customs fees, not the seller..however because of this, many buyers try to haggle the sellers into marking items as a "gift" in order to not pay the customs fees. Many sellers state this in their auction (that they refuse to lie on customs forms) but it still happens that winning bidders ask the seller to do just this (i've read many examples of this in this sub-forum). Or, the buyer doesn't say anything until they get the notice to pick up their item, and upon seeing how much $$ they owe in customs they refuse to pick it up, and complain to the seller (some even leave neg feedback--as if it's the sellers fault! lol). So some sellers want to avoid this hassle and thus only ship within the US.
 
^^ Sometimes I think these buyers must be very young, if they think they can avoid customs fees and get angry about higher shipping costs or expect a really fast delivery when the sale is an international one.

By the way, marking the item as a 'gift' will still result in customs fees, anything over something like $20 results in customs fees.

I always ask if I may bid and if the seller says no, then I just go look for something else. It can often mean the seller is a bit lazy to go to the Post Office and fill out the paperwork. I've had a number of sellers email me and tell me how long they had to wait in line to fill out the paperwork.

They don't need us, the US is such a big country, they have enough buyers, I guess.
 
I used to not ship out of the US because I wasn't familar with all the procedures and forms of doing so. Now I will, but I will only ship to confirmed addresses to protect myself. I haven't any problems or hassles as of yet.
 
I put it in the listing that I only ship to the US, but people still bid anyway. Since I only show shipping to the US, it is a hassle. I wish people would read the listing before they bid. I write it in large font and even spell out United States now. I just don't want to deal with customs and extra fees and all.
 
I put it in the listing that I only ship to the US, but people still bid anyway. Since I only show shipping to the US, it is a hassle. I wish people would read the listing before they bid. I write it in large font and even spell out United States now. I just don't want to deal with customs and extra fees and all.


When I set up my ebay auctions, I always check the box that says "Do not ship to users registered in countries to which I don't ship." That way, if I say no but they still try to bid, they can't.
 
I have to say that I'm considering not shipping to Canada anymore, because the postal system is pretty messed up. I will only ship EMS internationally, and it takes items half the time to get to Australia than it does to Canada, which makes NO sense. I asked the manager at my local post office once why that is, and he said it's because the Canadian postal service requires every package to go through customs in every single province it travels through. I'm not good with my Canadian geography, but that means an express mail package could be held up for days in several different customs locations. It's quite normal for the process to take about 2 weeks, whereas things arrive literally halfway around the world in 4 or 5 days. It's certainly not your fault, but Canadian buyers who don't know this get frustrated with how long it takes to arrive, and they blame it on the seller, which is unfair.
 
I find that most international areas are full of buyers that haggle and are generally a pain in the @zz. Exceptions included Japan and most of Europe, so I still ship to Japan and Europe. But Canada, ugh, seems like nearly every one of my canadian transactions, the buyer claimed they didn't receive, said it took too long, or threatened me a negative feedback if I didn't pay their custom fees. Frankly I am sick of it, I have better things to do than sit at my computer all day arguing over $50 customs when they are already getting something at a great deal.
 
I'm Canadian and I live in the States. Sorry to say that I'm one of the people who won't ship to Canada. The duty payments are huge and I'm not comfortable marking something as a gift, when it's not. Also, sometimes when it is marked as gift, there are still duty charges.

My family still lives in Canada, and when I ship to them, sometimes it will arrive in a week and sometimes it has taken over a month. It's just easier shipping within the states. bummer, but that's how it is.
 
I still ship to Canada and every other country, but I have noticed that fees are higher and shipping costs are higher. Many times bidders complain about high shipping fees, but like others have said, the only way to protect yourself is to mail your item via usps express. That's because it's the only way you can get tracking. I'm shocked at how high the prices have become. I'm not surprised that less and less people are shipping out of the US.