Posting abroad via a third party courier

[the_book_seekers]

I haven't done this for a while and just want to check something. I'm UK only for posting but someone from China has won an auction. I thought my settings would prevent this, but at some point ebay seems to have changed their rules. I seem to remember having a country blocked stopped anyone registered in that country from buying, now it seems the rule seems to be anyone with their primary postage address in that country is blocked. Meaning buyers can change their primary postage address to get round UK only posting. Am I correct in this and when was this changed if I am?

Also I seem to remember a buyer purchasing from abroad generated a long number/reference within the address - I can't remember what it was called. I'm not seeing this with this purchase - I have the address of the third party courier to post to, but it appears as a regular UK address with nothing added. Has ebay stopped issuing these things or should there be something?

[pegr-834437]

Whilst you may feel they are getting round your blocks they aren't, your blocks are you not shipping to other countries and you still arent. You are just shipping to Harlow or wherever the industrial estate it. Nobody has ever said you were discriminatory btw, the user just said eBay would be if they were to block <insert random country> from buying from you. 

Your choices are fine, nobody is forcing you to do anything else, the buyer is just giving up some of their rights to live within your choices. 

[neovass0]

   Yeah, as many have said in the previous comments, I'm sure you will be fine, just treat it the same as sending to a regular UK buyer. I am also a UK seller and was similarly nervous at first, but in truth there are so many of these services operating at present, it just isn't practical to cancel their orders all the time. I have also found many of the intermediaries politely leave feedback upon receipt of the item, which is more than most actual buyers do, lol. 

   Plus, unlike the GSP, since they have a UK shipping address, in the event of a return request, you are only obliged to offer a label for a UK return, regardless of whether your item has ended up in China, India, etc.  This discourages people from requesting a return and if they chase a partial refund, politely decline. Besides, as many have pointed out, they lose buyer protection anyway when they use an additional third party carrier.