How can I contact a Canadian seller who blocks Oz?

[five_eyes]

I would like to ask a Canadian seller if I can bid on one of his Auctions.

His listing says he only posts to Canada & the USA.

When I have tried to send an ebay message to ask if he will post to Oz, all I get is an ebay message telling me he does not accept questions.

The stupid part is that I have bought from him a year ago, when he did ship to Oz.

I tried to bid but it would not accept my bid.

I have a saved search set up and this is the first time in over 2 years that this item has been listed anywhere worldwide on ebay.

It is so frustrating because I am sure he would be happy for me to bid, if only I could get a message through to him!

Any bright ideas from the wizards here would be appreciated.

Ta,

[digital*ghost]

No - its not - my post 15 outlines a couple of reasons why, there are a range of others too.

eBay gives sellers the option to prevent blocked bidders from contacting the seller. I don't really see the sense in using that option if a seller is actually ok with being contacted by blocked bidders, particularly as, if someone goes to ask a question via the usual means, they are told the seller can not be contacted. 

Personally, because there are circumstances in which I'm happy for blocked bidders to contact me, I'm happy for them to know I'm willing to communicate, so that they are not under the immediate impression I don't want to communicate with them at all...but each to their own, I guess.

[thecatspjs]

Mmm ... I tend to think a lot of ebayers don't really understand the use of blocks

... nor that if someone that is not a non-paying bidder cannot contact them to make an offer they may wish to consider

[attribeaute]

Change your Registered Country on ebay to Canada or the US... ask the question & then change it back. You can toggle back & forth & it won't cost you a penny LOL 🙂

[cq_tech]

Cats, you might want to think about self-reporting your post #17 as I offered exactly the same solution to a poster in the AC the other day and copped a slap for my trouble (encouraging others to violate eBay policies or the eBay User Agreement). 😞

I still maintain I did nothing wrong, but I doubt that ebay read the accompanying reports and just remove posts as they see fit. Still, it's their playground, so their rules. 😐

[putney32]

if you have bought from them before, their real email address could still be in your Paypal payments file (if you keep all your emails etc)?

[thecatspjs]

thanks loads cq :-x

[***super_nova***]

I am making a lot of friends today 😐

I agree with you too.  It must be very annoying for larger sellers who may get lot of messages anyway, to be getting requests to post to countries they decided they do not want to post to.  Sending o/s requires extra work, such as filling forms.

Sellers do not put limitations on their sales without a good thought, especially those who sold worldwide in the past. 

I used to also ask, very politely saying something like:  " Sorry to trouble you but I have been looking for something like this for a long time and have not been able to find anything near as perfect as this.  However, I do understand that you may have reasons why you are unable to post to AU". 

I personally do not post o/s, I block people from bidding but not messaging me; I would be willing to post o/s, but so far got nothing but abuse when I send them the postage quote.  I am at the point of thinking I should also be blocking them from contacting me.  🙂

[thecatspjs]

Gosh, how terrible, what is the world coming to, that sellers on a trading forum might get a lot of messages containing offers from buyers wanting to buy their goods  ;\ 

[a.s.p.me]

I hate having to reply to the "i'm only a few minutes away, can i pick up" questions, because i worry that the buyer will purchase anyway and end up leaving a negative and i just don't like saying no.

But in your case i doubt the seller would mind if your email was something along the lines of:

Hi,

I bought from you a while ago and wanted to buy again, but see you aren't shipping to Australia any more.

I was wondering if you would make an exception.

I understand if you don't want to and there is no need to reply if you are not willing to send to Australia.

Thank you.

They shouldn't feel uncomfortable with something like that and get to see you are reasonable.

Chances are that they turned off international shipping because of negatives or chargebacks so they may still be happy to deal with you.

[patchoo78]

I still maintain I did nothing wrong, but I doubt that ebay read the accompanying reports and just remove posts as they see fit. Still, it's their playground, so their rules.

If ebay have made it clear that you can't include your email address in a message to a seller/buyer, then you can't. Using any work around as was suggested by catspjs is seen as circumventing ebay policy