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Postage policy did not apply to listings correctly
Hi everyone,
I’m posting to see if any other sellers have experienced something similar and to understand whether this is a known issue.
We’ve been using eBay business policies for a long time. Certain locations (including Northern Ireland) were excluded in our shipping policy for specific items, particularly those containing batteries due to shipping restrictions.
Despite this exclusion being set at the time of sale, the listing did not show the restriction, and a buyer from an excluded location was able to purchase the item. Normally, overseas orders go through the Global Shipping Programme, but in this case the Northern Ireland order was processed as a normal domestic shipment.
Due to a busy period, we didn’t spot the address before creating bulk postage. The parcel was later disposed of because it contained batteries and breached shipping rules, meaning we now have to refund the buyer and take a financial loss.
We contacted customer service and were told they don’t know why the policy didn’t apply. We were advised to create a new policy for restricted items, which we did. Interestingly, while the old and new policies look very similar in Business Policies, listings created under the new policy now correctly show Northern Ireland as excluded, which suggests something wasn’t working properly before.
My questions to the community:
Has anyone else had shipping exclusions set in business policies but still had buyers from excluded locations purchase items?
Is this a known system glitch, especially with Northern Ireland / GSP?
How do you protect yourself from this happening again, especially when using bulk postage?
Has anyone successfully received reimbursement or acknowledgement from eBay in a similar case?
We’re happy to ship where allowed — just not restricted items like batteries. Business policies are supposed to prevent situations like this, so it’s frustrating to end up at a loss when exclusions were already set.
Any insight or shared experiences would be really appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
