U.S. Sellers cannot offer to ship to Asia?

[Rally]

We can certainly understand eBay's concerns with all the fakes being offered on eBay. Today we revised a couple of our listings, only to be told, when we went to submit the changes, that we could not list handbags unless we changed our shipping information to show that we would not ship to Asia. We did so, and then went on Live Chat to ask about this. The conversation is fascinating, we think:

7:34:05 PM System
Initial Question/Comment: Selling
7:46:51 PM System
Elizabeth P. has joined this session!
7:46:51 PM System
Connected with Elizabeth P.
7:46:56 PM Elizabeth P.
Hello and welcome to eBay Live Chat! I apologize for the wait as we are experiencing a high volume at the moment. My name is Elizabeth. May I start by having your name and your user ID?
7:47:04 PM xxxxx
My email address is [email protected]
7:47:12 PM xxxx
(xxx) xxx-xxxx
7:47:28 PM xxxx
7:47:46 PM Elizabeth P.
Thank you very much, Mike, and how may I help you today?
7:48:00 PM xxxx
We revised several items today, only to be told we cannot offer to ship them to Asia.
7:48:11 PM Elizabeth P.
I see.
7:48:14 PM xxxx
My question is, can Asia no longer offer items in the U.S."
7:48:34 PM xxxx
Specifically, handbags
7:49:01 PM Elizabeth P.
Asian members may ship to the States. May I ask if this is regarding a error message that you may have received?
7:51:08 PM Elizabeth P.
I'm just checking to see if you are still with me and that I have not lost you.
7:51:20 PM xxxxx
No, not at all. I merely revised some of our items (handbags) by including a statement that they are authentic and welcoming Buyers to have them verified at a local authorized store (boutique, department store, etc.) When I click "Submit Revision" the message I got was that I was not allowed to offer these items to Asia and to please change my shipping options (which I did.) My question is this: why can I not ship handbags to Asia if Asian sellers can ship them here? Most of the bags (not all, but most) shipping from Asia are fakes.
7:52:06 PM Elizabeth P.
I see. May I have a moment to look into this for you?
7:52:14 PM xxxxx
Take your time.
7:52:21 PM Elizabeth P.
Thank you.
7:54:52 PM Elizabeth P.
Thank you very much for your patience. At this time eBay is turning their philosophy to one of an increasingly safe community for both buyers and sellers. It is important to us that everyone on the site has a gainful experience. We believe the changes you are seeing are going to be important steps to helping keep our community together, safe and trustworthy for a long time to come. If you would like more information on the changes you are seeing please visit this link and hit "email us" to send off your questions and concerns: eBay Help : Contact Us
7:55:50 PM xxxxx
Thank you, elizabeth. In other words: you don't know what I am talking about, have no answer, and would just as soon move on to the next caller, right? =)
7:56:35 PM xxxxxxx
Probably an unfair quesiton, Elizabeth. I apologize. Have a great evening.
7:56:35 PM Elizabeth P.
Not at all, Mike. I'm afraid that this is due to a recent change to help cut back on counterfeit items.
7:56:52 PM Elizabeth P.
At this time is there anything else I may help you with, today?
7:57:41 PM xxxxxx!
Most couterfeit items are coming from China, at least in my field, and this seems a plan designed to protect them rather than us. Thank you for your help.
7:58:17 PM Elizabeth P.
If you would like more information on the changes you are seeing please visit this link and hit "email us" to send off your questions and concerns

 

[sjc0105]

I'm surprised at this.....

 

[Rondafaye]

I'm selling a handbag too. I got the same message when I revised my listing.

 

[siworae]

well... i guess i'm glad that they are least taking some steps to fight against counterfeit bags, but it saddens me because there are quite a few honest sellers from Asia that have sold real bags for awhile now, and have established a good reputation.

and yet, i'm still seeing tons of fake bags. so far, not so good.

 

[Roxane]

It's quite funny really... US sellers cannot ship genuine handbags to Asia, while Asia counterfeiters are able to ship fake handbags to US sellers! Or perhaps they think that Asian counterfeiters rely on genuine handbags bought on eBay to make their fake goods?!? How laughable can they get?

 

[chloehandbags]

Elizabeth P obviously doesn't know this, yet!


The four safeguards of the program are as follows:

1) Sellers who list items that appear on eBay's list of items particularly susceptible to counterfeiting (which we'll herein call eBay's anti-counterfeiting list) must become PayPal verified. However, those sellers are not required to offer PayPal as a payment option in their listings.

2) eBay will conduct manual "seller reviews" for sellers who list items on its anti-counterfeiting list. eBay will not authenticate items, but will use various information to determine if sellers will be permitted to sell such items. eBay would not get specific about exactly what criteria they would consider during the review process, but said it would consider "a variety of factors."

3) eBay will ban 1-day and 3-day auctions of all items on its anti-counterfeiting list to give eBay members and rights-holders enough time to review items.

4) eBay will restrict cross-border trade on items on its anti-counterfeiting list. Sellers in the U.S., Germany and UK may ship such items worldwide except to Hong Kong and China. Sellers in English-speaking countries can trade such items freely with each other. But sellers in China and Hong Kong may not list these items on their local sites or on any other eBay site.