hows this for interesting?
Potential buyer in Northern Ireland contacted me to say that he had tried to purchase item from me ,but got message saying and i quote buyer :
' Unfortunately this seller won't send items to United Kingdom'.
The item was a garden parasol base. In its box , the dimensions were such that it qualified under simple delivery as a bulky item ,even though weight was only 3.2 kg. Ebay simple delivery states that for bulky items thier is only one choice , DHL couriers are specified. i did not have any problem with this even though they were more expensive than Royal Mail for large items
naturally potential buyer messaged me to ask what was going on.
Cue a very long discussion with Ebay customer services who were very coy as to what the problem was, but suggested We needed to find a category description for item where simple delivery option would not be applicable and i could use my normal postage categories used in the past prior to simple delivery becoming mandatory .
the Ebay representative suggested listing item under garden equipment /chainsaws category not garden furniture/ parasol bases. i re-edited item to conform to this category as requested (which was stupid as a parasol base has no blade , chain length or motor etc etc ). I then found Ebay simple delivery was indeed removed if i used this category. Unfortunately no other carrier would carry item as it qualified as a bladed item without age verification etc etc.
on reporting this to Ebay , they then suggested i list it under Garden equipment /watering equipment/sprayers. i did as requested with the caveat that as with chainsaws , the Ebay required item descriptors for this category were nonsensical when applied to a parasol base. However under this category simple delivery still overrode my postage choices.
The Ebay representative then instructed me to view the menu under medium parcel which special delivery recommended for this category and to tick item overweight . This removed special delivery and i was able to specify royal mail for delivery.
The Ebay representative assured me that this would overcome the problem. i await to see if this is the case.
however i am left with selling an item which is categorised as a garden sprayer but in fact is a parasol base.
when i asked why i could not simply describe a parasol base as a parasol base , i was told that if i did i would be unable to disable Simple Delivery and i would not be able to sell item to a Northern Ireland based buyer.
I still can believe what is going on here.
Is it that DHL wont deliver in Northern Ireland or is there a more Fundamental problem with Simple Delivery in Northern Ireland.
I would find the whole thing quite unbelievable if i didnt have the transcript of my chat with The Ebay representative as fact to prove that i have had to mis descr
