you cannot bid or buy this item as you are not a business seller

[nimulas]

I want to buy a £10 item and I get this message “ you cannot bid or buy this item as you are not a business seller ...”.
Contacted the seller who said to contact customer services.
Any ideas? I’m not a business seller but the item is just a wee frame so not sure why it won’t let me bid or buy it.

Thanks in advance.

[john1297576]

"wee frame" That might explain it, are you in Scotland? Have you checked that the seller will deliver to where you live, look at exclusions.

As already said the robots sometimes come up with the strangest excuses for various actions. They know seller will not sell to the Highlands (for example) and from the limited choices they have come up with a reason which seems daft.

[arkwebus]

That is indeed very weird.  There is absolutely no reason that any form of seller should not be able to buy anything.   Part of the trouble is that "sometimes" eBay messages do not mean what they say.  There may be another reason.  Examples are that the seller does not post to where you are [may include isle of Wight - Highlands of Scotland - Scilly Isles etc].  If you have non payer defects that would prevent it too.  There may be other reasons that I cannot think of

@nimulas 

[tressygirl]

If the seller cannot see any blocks their end preventing you from bidding and buying then they have advised you well that you need to contact eBay Customer Services,  they can explain why you have this restriction,  as they have full access to your account.

To contact eBay Customer Services, type Advanced Search in to Help & Contact bar top of your eBay page. Scroll down to the bottom of that page, you will see Contact Us, and the option to use Live Chat, and sometimes, there is a Call Back system.

Both options will give you an approximate time you need to wait for a response from their team.

Lines open between 8 a.m. and 10 pm today.

[rusticrye]

These are the Community boards - this isn't the way to reach Ebay Customer Services if that's what you thought you were doing. You need to go to Help & Contact (top and foot of any page). Live Chat and request-a-callback are available there during working hours.

@nimulas 

[nimulas]

I know I just wondered if this was a common issue.

[m25jet]

In addition to the information that has already been provided, it is worth bearing in mind the fact that eBay often seem to change the means by which you can contact eBay Customer Services.  For example, eBay used to always put the Call Me Back option at the bottom of the eBay Customer Services page, which can be accessed by clicking on the Help & Contact link shown at the top and the bottom of this page.

In order to ensure that I was providing accurate information when I posted this reply I decided to check just prior to posting my response to your query as to whether or not the Call Me Back option is actually showing at the bottom of the eBay Customer Services page as it should do, and at the time of typing this response it is not appearing at the bottom of the page.  However, having clicked on the Policies tab, I noticed that if you scroll right down to the bottom of the page there is a mobile phone icon next to the left hand side of the page, with the words "Have Us Call You" to the right of it, along with an estimated waiting time.  Therefore, if you do decide to contact eBay Customer Services and are looking for a quick means of being able to access the Call Me Back option, click on the Policies link shown at the bottom of this page, and you should see the Call Me Back option at the bottom of the Policies page.