Sellers refusing to ship to Norther Irela

[thebouldpete]

This has to stop, full stop!

A note to Ebay..... apart from this whole Brexit faf.... please admend listings espically from Mainland UK to force sellers accept to ship to Northern Ireland as I see absolutely no reason why they shoud'nt.

All, and I mean All delivery firms and companies including couriers will and do deliver to Northern Ireland without exception. While there may be a small surcharge, this is all.... I constantly use Royal Mail and they have never ever failed me (same delivery charges all around NI/GB). I am fed up by the fact that I sometimes have to have items sent to my siblings in the UK only to have them re-directed to my Northern Ireland address.... not on!

please Ebay.... without going polical set all listing to automatically allow delivery to Northern Ireland.

[tressygirl]

It's not eBay preventing delivery to N. Ireland it's the sellers themselves selecting not to.

I sell many,  many items to N. Ireland and you are correct using Royal Mail costs no more than to send an item to your next door neighbour.  I've never had any problems they arrive there safely and quickly.

However,  the largest item I sell and rarely at that,  is a medium sized parcel,  I believe couriers charge quite an expensive postage when items are large,  needing a courier delivery.  This may be the reason some sellers select not to post,  otherwise I do think some block N. Ireland from ignorance not knowing the majority of items do have the same postage cost as to anywhere within the UK,  when using Royal Mail.

[thebouldpete]

Thank you, You are correct...

I am in a way suggesting that eBay dis-allows this option for sellers refusing to ship to N.Ireland, even to the point of eBay informing sellers that they have no option to not to. I would be happy to pay a bit more for heavier items within reason. 

[tressygirl]

Aaah  I do understand  and sympathise with your point of view, but eBay cannot enforce a seller to sell to a country they do not wish to.

[earsmedia]

It IS 100% Ebay. I sell lots of goods, originating outside the EU to happy customers in NI and today ebay have told me from December, my listings will NOT be visible in NI, unless I can find and pay for a representative in NI to validate the items. It's an EU safety thing. It means that many products, especially Chinese sourced items cannot be shipped to customers in NI at all. If I sell an item that I perhaps make just a few pounds on, it is impossible for me to comply. CE labels are not enough - the EU wish me to name a person in NI to be responsible for it. Totally unworkable and I will simply be unable to sell items to people in the North. It's just crazy, and ebay are going to comply with the EU rules. Our Goverrnment are doing nothing about it.

[cooksongold]

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@earsmedia wrote:

It's an EU safety thing.

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So...not 100% ebay then. You are aware ebay don't have a choice right?

[tressygirl]

My bad @earsmedia, sorry   I misunderstood your post thinking it was a general question we receive here a lot when members are upset that items are not being sent to NI because of an extra postage charge, so I went down the route of explaining how RM charge no more.

This is a recent ruling and @cooksongold  is correct ,  this is nothing to do with eBay, but it's a new EU ruling.

I'm sure you can Google and get the  all these new rules to be enforced.

[myriad*seller]

Its due to new GSPR regulations (EU regulations)

Many UK sellers are now no longer selling to EU and NI because it is just too much paperwork/time/expense to comply with all the new GSPR regulations.

Unfortunately, NI are going to really suffer because of this, making them excluded from buying from many sellers on eBay and beyond. 

Take a look at the GSPR threads currently running, for an explanation as to why sellers are choosing to block sales to NI from October. 

[thebouldpete]

Living in NI I should have been aware of these changes, to a degree I was with food sources being labled for and sold in EU/NI in the main supermarkets here, nevertheless eBay are being a bit too cautious in my view.
So in other words, going forward, if I want to purchase an item off ebay not delivering to NI, is to get the seller to send it to a sibling in the UK mainland , then get them to send it to me via RM without any hassle...seems to me eBay need to take note and be responsible. How does Amazon get around this?

I wonder how this applies to me selling from NI to UK mainland if anything at all? 

[cooksongold]

They aren't being cautious at all. The directive is clear. A responsible person (ideally the manufacturer) based in the EU/NI is required for the vast majority of none food products if that product is placed on the EU/Northern Ireland market.

Amazon, its still not clear. Their policy page is a contradiction. They state we don't need to provide anything for Amazon UK - except the page also states it applies in Northern Ireland.

In terms of GPSR, it wouldn't apply from Northern Ireland selling into GB - as GPSR doesn't apply in GB.

[Anonymous]

I've just discovered that I can block Northern Ireland customers on my Shopify website.

Still, it dosen't sit easy with me that I am blocking my fellow NI citizens to be able to trade as usual with GB customers.

[earsmedia]

I just discovered that the ban on sending products to NI from GB only applies to items that are new to the market (post december 2024) . My reading is that article 51 of the rules makes it clear that continued supply of existing products, already being shipped can continue. Only new products being shipped for the first time after December are banned.  I have updated about 80 listings on ebay with the information in a box, and I've added the CE tickmark to them too. I had just accepted that NI purchasers won't see my ads and I'd lose the business. Maybe it will work.

The other possibility for ebay would be to have an account on ebay with the location of the goods set as Northern ireland. Then if I understand it correctly, I could ship via Royal Mail, who do not require customs declarations for GB to NI, and customers would get the items and be happy. ebay would not know the items were not in stock in a NI location as they have no way of knowing the shipping process customers use if they do not use ebay's own system?

[cooksongold]

What is it you would be trying to do by creating an account with 'a location' of Northern Ireland? its not 100% clear from your post.

[earsmedia]

I think I would create a second account, but that one would be for NI sales and the dispatch location would be Belfast. That way ebay customers in NI would be able to see my listings, but I could actually post from here, as I understand Royal Mail will just treat NI deliveries as they do now?

[cooksongold]

But you would still need to supply all the requirements for GPSR. Being 'in' NI doesn't stop this.

[earsmedia]

As I read the rules, people in NI can buy and sell foreign made goods as per usual. The goods must be safe, of course, but the requirement does not need the responsible person, same as here we do not need one in England, Scotland and Wales. In NI, I believe the usual CE marking is sufficient. 

[cooksongold]

GPSR applies to products placed on the EU and NI market. It does not make a distinction as to only those retailers outside the EU need to provide a responsible person (if the manufacturer has not).

Even if you located in Northern Ireland (which to be fair, you aren't) and the manufacturer either didn't want to be a responsible person, or wasn't in the EU or NI, you as teh retailer woudl still need to appoint one.

[earsmedia]

So ebay would shut down virtually overnight? new and second hand items
do not have manufacturers willing to take responsibility in all EU
countries?  I sold a switch for a tape recorder on ebay. Made abroad, 20
years ago, still in the sealed packet. Impossible to get the company who
made it to be responsble. Virtually every item I have purchased on Ebay,
Aliexpress and the other popular sites would be illegal?  It's perfectly
possible to appoint a responsible person in NI, but how much would that
add to the £6?


ebay at the moment are only planning to restrict sales without the
responsible person to NI customers - and will prevent NI customers
seeing GB adverts. I could easily provide an NI address as I relocate
there for 10 weeks every year and have done for 20 years, so post to my
NI address always comes to me here in england.


Ebay are not, as far as I know, insisting on responsible people being
available for GB sales?

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[jumblemaster]

I've read through this - And it depresses me.

The nitpicking of details by those replying above rather than any sign of outrage depresses me as much as the direction that trade and commerce are moving in. 

These pointless & destructive regulations have clearly not been thought through, yet they continue to be inflicted on us wave after wave by people that don't have a clue and couldn't have ever talked to anyone at the 'coalface.'  

It's clear that the 'Powers That Be' learnt nothing from the previous wave of pointless & destructive regulations resulting from i) Brexit ii) The World Post Authority insisting everything has a Tarrif Code - So they've  have taken it upon themselves to inflict 'A Bit More Of That' on people like me who provide a valuable service and pay them a flip load of tax. Maybe they're so deluded they actually think we want it - and it's good?

Furthermore, this thread does not mention the Windsor Framework, which will wreak havoc from 30th Sep. (Two lots of nonsense to deal with at once!!!)

Everyone knows both the GSPR whatever and Windsor thing are BOTH going to be just as much of a fluff up as the Europe thing was..... (Anyone with eyes can see it coming).

So I dont know why all the previous replies are debating and nit picking the ins & out of this nonsense.

Here's my very simple reply-

Sorry to all my buyers in Northern Ireland who rely on people like me to keep their cars going - You won't be getting anything else from me - And probably nothing else from anyone else on the mainland UK either.

Today I have blocked Northern Ireland on Ebay and will block / decline any Northern Ireland Orders on my website as soon as I can figure out how to do it. 

I used to sell £1000 a week to Europe (It's Almost £0 Now).

Last week I sold £350 to Northern Ireland (Next week it will  £0)

Whoever keeps thinking this stuff up should think about that...... 

[bojangled]

@jumblemaster 

Great post.

This thread has a wider discussion on the situation Inc the Windsor framework issue. Rather long but interesting.

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Business-Seller-Board/GPSR-Compliance/td-p/7634192

Jo