Don't move Country........ because its technically difficult for ebay !

[Anonymous]

So you've spent years building up your seller feedback.  You've never had a return, or a negative - but then you move country and ebay tell you to open up a new account because it is technically difficult for them to move your account.

I find it disgraceful, they constantly harp on about building your feedback and reputation, and then you lose it all because you've had to move.

[papso22]

That's right, they can no longer change the country of registration,  you need a new account 

[four_mid_able]

Iv'e seen a few posts like yours recently and i am gobsmacked by each.

I would have thought it would be a simple thing to do ,just as simple as it is to change your UK address when you move within UK.It's not like you would be moving to another planet.

All that would need changing apart from address is your bank and possibly your phone number.

[Anonymous]

It is the final nail as far as I am concerned. 

Ebay seem to be constantly dreaming up new ways to disadvantage sellers, and to prioritise buyers.  But without sellers they will not have buyers.  As a buyer your feedback counts for very little, so a buyer changing country and being forced to set up a new account will have very little impact. As a seller your feedback is everything.  I cannot be bothered to start again from zero, so my ebay selling days are now  over.  Fortunately there are plenty of other online sales platforms to choose from............ maybe one day ebay will wise up and realise this.

[fargvs]

Account registered in France 2009 ... transfer of account details between Country sites is no longer possible ... Changing Location addresses will not change the France registration default so a new UK registered account is required.

[cha778375]

Ebay needs to get up to speed, with so many people moving and relocating people would like to use the same ebay account. Also unable to switch my account from Hong Kong to UK.

If this is not permitted, not sure why they still have the countries listed in the drop down option in the account settings, as if eveything is ok. Just been on their phone with on of their customer support agents teaching me to change my address in incignito mode -  seems ebay staff are also un aware that changing countries not permitted.  Need to look int an alternative to buy and sell in the UK. 

[thesmokingrunner]

You know it really wouldn't be rocket science to enable someone to update their account details but, and this is probably more likely the reason, eBay would miss out on some extra commission.

For example if an account holder originally registered overseas and then moved to the UK, VAT would still be charged on any UK-to-UK purchases because the original registration occurred outside the UK. And as eBay charge a seller commission on the total amount paid by a buyer, eBay earns a greater income from those accounts. Sure, the buyer pays VAT when they shouldn't and seller pays more commission, but when has eBay ever put buyers and sellers first?

I strongly suspect that it's not that Ebay can't code for it, they just don't want to.

[pip_204]

I moved from the UK in to the USA in 2018 and I moved my Ebay account to USA.  I bought and sold on there no problem.  I moved back to the UK in 2022 to be told I cannot change my region back to UK because of the USA banking laws (by Ebay).  Either way I am having to start from scratch with a new account.  Very annoying after 21 years on my previous account!

[Anonymous]

I obviously share your frustration, but I simply refuse to start again so I have started selling my odds and sods on other platforms.  

I was never a prolific seller, I simply sold stuff when I needed to have a clear out.  However I was becoming more and more uneasy with ebays increasingly bad attitude towards sellers, when often the buyers are more likely to be the "scammer".   One of the items I am selling elsewhere at the moment is a collectable whitefriars glass vase - should an ebay buyer choose to replace their chipped version with my pristine version - ebay would hang me out to dry and make me pay for the privilidge of posting my item to the scam buyer.  So in many ways I am glad that ebay have forced this change upon me.  

[ch-595667]

That's a right pain having been able to change countries prior. So the guy I spoke with on Customer support as per my last entry here, he asked me to email a screen cap into this email (customerhelp_uk@ebay.com) with my screen cap of why/where I cannot change the address. He said he would look into for me ASAP. This was 9 days ago. No reply. Terrible customer service. I've not had a bounce back neither so I assume this is a working email!?

[2pandora58]

Well,  at least by reading these posts I found out why I can't rid of a foreign currency as my default or add a new credit card to my account because eBay can't move with me. I'm a dual citizen, I've been living in the UK ordering online for 10 years but they still think I'm in Canada lol. 

[lincolnshiremarine]

Hi

You could try asking on the weekly chat with the eBay community team.  They hold the chats on  Wednesdays at 2pm, just for an hour.  You cannot post until 2pm, sometimes they will answer straight away.  Other times they will answer after the chat closes, if they answer after it closes, you cannot reply to them.

Best wishes 

[pikmanpikman]

I just learned of this too. It's 'funny' as they happily moved my UK account to Germany and now won't move it back again 🙈. It is almost like they created the problem in the first place...
This was after them explaining they could at least move my reviews to a new account (which I created) and then no, they cannot... At least the 5th person in the chat finally told me that.

Definitely the nail in the coffin here too, it's now a no brainer to move to a different platform, why sell good things with a zero rating?

[dr.dinte]

The same here 12 years with 100% positive. They've put me through multiple customer assistants. And seems no one knows what actually is the issue. They don't know ebay doesn't want to change your country. They are just passing you from one to another.

i had like 6-7 and eventually they told me I have to open a fresh account. In this case fresh is not good is zero/nothing/nada/useless

[myriad*seller]

It is probably to stop sellers gaming the system to get out of having to charge import VAT on sales etm. 

If sellers were able to change countries then there may be ways to commit tax evasion and fraud

[dr.dinte]

Exactly for this purpose! 
But what about ocasional sellers like myself?

I have used my account 99% of the time for buying.

There should be a solution for me to able to change countries and to sell stuff from time to time. As they can easily tell I am not moving my country to avoid VAT.

I personally not buying from people with zero items sold.

I will open an account in UK just for fun to see if anyone will buy anything from an user with zero sales.

[4_bathrooms]

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@myriad*seller wrote:

It is probably to stop sellers gaming the system to get out of having to charge import VAT on sales etm. 

If sellers were able to change countries then there may be ways to commit tax evasion and fraud

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In most cases eBay now also needs to know where a seller is domiciled for tax purposes due to the new reporting regulations introduced by the OECD (an international organisation). Given the tax authorities in most of the countries eBay operates in now hold eBay jointly liable for any tax evasion by sellers using their platform (in certain circumstances anyway) I can't see eBay ever budging on this.