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Won't Ship Item to Canada

Started by NorthernMan, June 22, 2011, 11:48:40 PM

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NorthernMan

There is an Ebay auction that i am interested in. The seller doesn't know what the device is and is asking for some help in identifying it. I would like to bid on it but i cannot even send an email to the seller let alone bid on it. They only sell to the U.S.A.

If someone would ask them to open up the auction to Canada it would be appreciated. BTW , its a lightning arrestor . Actually, if anyone has NOS N.E.
arrestors i am interested. Link below.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Northern-Electric-Telephone-7-Amp-NE-98B-NOS-/260806795837?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cb94be23d

JimH

I asked if they could ship to Canada.  I'll let you know what they say.
Jim H.

paul-f

I'm curious.  What's keeping you from contacting the seller directly?

I recently offered several non-phone items on ebay for US shipping only and immediately got several messages through ebay's message system from Norway and Japan asking if I would also sell to them.

They also had no problems bidding.
Visit: paul-f.com         WE  500  Design_Line

.

K1WI

Northern Man,
 
   I think i can give yiou a little insight as to why  many sellers are hesitant to ship e-bay items to Canadian bidders.   In the last year or so I sold three items to buyers to our north, The first item , a candlestick phone , took 31 days to arrive at its destination , another took 27 days ,and the third never arrived at all !. As you can imagine the winning bidders were not too pleased and  naturaly (understandably) blamed me for slow shipping even though I provided copies of USPS receipts etc.  The phone that was lost in transit took 9 months for me recoup the value even though it was insured at the sold value! I paid the buyer at my own expense until I was finaly reimbursed by the post office.   
   I am reasonably sure the problem was at the US side . probably where items clear for customs release because I have never had a problem with merchandise coming from Canada .
   I do feel bad that I state that I would rather not ship parcels to Canada in my  listings and will only send after the buyer understands why!
    Andy      K1WI

JimH

I replied to the seller via my ebay account.  I asked if she could ship to Canada.  Here's the correspondance:

Sure...and just to let you know, I've got a 2nd one I'll be listing with the box when this auction is over, and/or I may offer it to the highest bidder after this auction. Where in Canada are you so I can quote you a price? thanks.
charlotte

*****

Hi,
I couldn't get any kind of a quote from the website except for express mail, so I opened my postage program. it had this message about a strike in Canada:

Due to a nationwide strike in Canada, the USPS is currently not accepting any mail for destinations in Canada for the duration of the strike and you may receive an error message in the Stamps.com software. If you have already sent an item to Canada, please be aware that there will be delays for mail destined to this country. For further updates relating to this strike, please visit the USPS website of www.usps.com.

So I guess I can't ship it until after the strike is over. I would guess that regular global priority mail for this item will be about $25.

*****

Jim H.

AE_Collector

#5
NorthernMan: I noticed the protector didn't sell. Were you able to work out something with the seller to get one of them? I do have quite a few different types of protectors around here but few if any would be NOS.

Canada Post Strike is over for now so the mail is moving to/from Canada again.

There seems to be quite a few different limitations that sellers can put on their accounts with respect to bids from foreign countries. I haven't seen a scenario where contacting the seller doesn't appear to work but I've certainly encountered the auctions that automatically block your bid when you place it. Some come up with a warning saying that you should contact the seller becasue they may not ship to your country. Those ones will still allow you to place the bid after presenting you with the message.

Other auctions outright block your "foreign" bid and that is it. Just a little frustrating when  there is 10 seconds left in the auction that you are trying to snipe it. Both times when that has happened to me there was one bid on the item so it was sitting at the opening price. My bid could have significantly increased the price that the seller got for the item if my bid hadn't been blocked. Instead both sellers got only the opening price, probably the worst case scenario for any seller. If there are 10 or 20 bids on an item, losing one bid from a Canadian probably makes no difference but when there is only one bid and the only other bid is blocked there is no way arond it, it is going to cost the seller.

My situation is a bit different in that while I am registered with ebaY as being in Canada, all US ebaY purchases are shipped to my US address which eliminates any shipping hassles for sellers. But that doesn't count for anything when a seller blocks bids from Canada.

There is also a different scenraio that I have encountered where an auction is blocked becasue the seller doesn't accept PayPal payments from other countries! WTH...isn't PayPal supposed to remove all money transfer and exchange problems from other countries?

Terry

AE_Collector

Quote from: NorthernMan on August 16, 2011, 03:15:03 PM
i changed a few items in my Ebay account to make it appear i am an American so that i could bid.

Well you are an American.....A North American, but not a United States of American....

Terry

AE_Collector

Quote from: NorthernMan on August 16, 2011, 09:26:59 PM
That would be Canada of America ?

Maybe a United (most of the time) Canada of America...