Seller wont send to PO Box

[cunniaan]

I've just encountered two sellers that don't say anything about not sending to PO Box anywhere in their listing & you only find this out once you go to buy the item.

Then you have to ask then if you can cancel the order.

Not good enough. They send the items by post anyhow, so I don't see what the problem is from their end.

But if it was in their listing that they don't send to PO Box I wouldn't buy from them & therefore wouldn't have to ask to cancel the order.

How can this be avoided?

[sandypebbles]

As you would know, *if* a courier is used, they will not deliver to a PO. Box

Some sellers have also had problems with scammers using a PO Box address

I myself have a PO Box and have not had this problem so far

But I am surprised that it is not mentioned under where it says 'posts to Australia' 'see exclusions'

If the seller has their settings not to ship to a PO Box, it should be under that

Is that where you looked, or only within the item description blurb?

IF the seller does not have their settings set up that way, did you ask either of them if they are willing/able to do so?

[glenbankloel]

Sorry to hear that this happened to you.

Although it is up to the sellers discrection and choice where they will and won't post to, we do agree that they should indicate this information in their policies or listings, would save a lot of angst for the buyer. 

At this point in time it is not regulated by eBay that sellers must indicate if they will or won't post to PO boxes. The only thing you can do as a buyer is ask the question before purchasing.

Not ideal, but would save you some time and frustration.

We don't understand their decision either as it all (mostly) goes by AP so has to travel through their system anyway and would think a PO box would be safer delivery option than through the letter box.

But, sellers have their reasons and you cannot hope to know what they might all be.

Perhaps another seller might drop in here and add their personal comments re PO boxes.

We don't have a problem with them and have never had an issue with deliveries to them.

[lyndal1838]

Look at the seller's postage options....that should tell you if they will send to a PO Box.

Some sellers use couriers so cannot send to PO Boxes.

[11dustyattic]

As others have said, just check the postage tab before purchase. I have a post box now, and happily send to PO boxes, but respect that some others have their reasons not to. I don't use couriers, that would be the biggest issue I would think

[4channel]

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@cunniaan wrote:

I've just encountered two sellers that don't say anything about not sending to PO Box anywhere in their listing & you only find this out once you go to buy the item.

Then you have to ask then if you can cancel the order.

Not good enough. They send the items by post anyhow, so I don't see what the problem is from their end.

But if it was in their listing that they don't send to PO Box I wouldn't buy from them & therefore wouldn't have to ask to cancel the order.

How can this be avoided?

---

Hi cunniaan, I'm glad you have brought this up. I have to say (from memory)  that I have never encountered a seller that won't send to a P.O. Box. (Oh execpt one in an annoying GSP situation) It should be up to the seller to state clearly on their page, "I DO NOT SEND TO A P.O. BOX" and if they don't put it on the page, they should make a reasonable effort to send to a P.O. box.

You have been inconvinenced by a seller who should have stated their policy clear. They didn't make it clear!

[countessalmirena · Accepted solution]

4channel, eBay's Exclude postage locations page specifically demonstrates that sellers are able to exclude PO Box addresses if that suits their business.

Manage postage settings › Exclude postage locations

Select the regions or countries you don't post to

Domestic

 ☐ Sydney Metro             ☐ Brisbane Metro       ☐ Melbourne Metro

 ☐ NSW Regional             ☐ QLD South East       ☐ VIC Regional

 ☐ Northern Territory       ☐ QLD Regional         ☐ Perth Metro

 ☐ Adelaide Metro           ☐ QLD Far North        ☐ WA Regional

 ☐ SA Regional              ☐ Tasmania             ☐ WA Remote

---

International

 ☑ Africa(55)               ☑ Asia(21)             ☑ Central America and Caribbean(30)

   Show all countries          Show all countries      Show all countries

 ☑ Europe(49)               ☑ Middle East(12)      ☑ North America(6)

   Show all countries          Show all countries      Show all countries

 ☑ Oceania(20)              ☑ Southeast Asia(12)   ☑ South America(14)

   Show all countries          Show all countries      Show all countries

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Additional locations

 ☐ PO Box

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 ☐ Also apply to current listings

 🛈 When you apply your postage exclusions, we'll block buyers whose primary delivery address is in a location you don't post to. You can change this setting in the buyer requirements section of your selling preferences. These exclusions will be used as the default for all of your future listings, and you can make listing-specific changes to them at the time of listing.

(Rubrication mine.)

I hold to it that a seller has the right to make terms and conditions (within the permitted consumer legislation, of course) as best suits him. I would not demand that a seller changes his opening hours to suit me, or would allow pick-up if the seller has specified that this is not available. I would not express incredulity if the seller informed me that they could not shorten their handling time for me, or asked me for an alternative delivery address if I had specified a PO Box and their postage information had indicated that a PO Box address could not be delivered to.

Perhaps one of the problems is that buyers just don't look at the postage tab. Do you think that might be the case, that buyers may frequently be unaware that the Postage and payments tab gives all sorts of useful information, including whether or not the delivery address option excludes PO boxes?

A seller who has specified in "Exclude postage locations" that PO Box is an additional location to which he doesn't post has stated their policy exactly as eBay require. It can't be any clearer - unless the seller then goes to the additional trouble of adding the information in the item description. But really... if a buyer doesn't check the Postage and payments tab, is he really any more likely to be reading through the item description? Especially if he's using the eBay app? I truly don't think so... so the extra effort (in trying to make it even clearer for buyers that the seller doesn't post to PO Boxes) is likely to be unpaid, unvalued and probably unnoticed.

It would be wonderful for many buyers if they could do an eBay search in which one of the filters under Delivery options was

  ☐ Doesn't exclude PO Box addresses.

Unfortunately eBay have not provided this search option - and I very much doubt that they will do so in the future. Of course, I may be wrong; buyers may want to send a features suggestion to eBay en masse, in a huge concerted effort to move the forces of inertia. But eBay's Unsolicited ideas submission page puts it very clearly:

❝At eBay, we appreciate comments from our members on our products and services. But we have a long-standing policy of not accepting unsolicited suggestions, ideas, or proposals.

[...]

eBay is always pleased to hear from members of the eBay community and welcomes their comments regarding eBay's products and services. However, eBay's long-standing company policy does not allow eBay to accept or consider ideas, suggestions, proposals or materials other than those eBay has specifically requested❞

(The above boils down to "eBay doesn't want your suggestions, but we're phrasing it in a nice polite way to avoid your being bitterly offended.")

If anyone STILL wants to go ahead and proffer the suggestion/comments, here's a direct link to contact eBay CS with the search suggestion.

[tazzieterror]

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@4channel wrote:

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Hi cunniaan, I'm glad you have brought this up. I have to say (from memory)  that I have never encountered a seller that won't send to a P.O. Box. (Oh execpt one in an annoying GSP situation) It should be up to the seller to state clearly on their page, "I DO NOT SEND TO A P.O. BOX" and if they don't put it on the page, they should make a reasonable effort to send to a P.O. box.

You have been inconvinenced by a seller who should have stated their policy clear. They didn't make it clear!

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Looks 4channel has returned to their non-sensical ways!

Seller doesn't need to state anything anywhere, as postage exclusions are shown *GASP* under the postage tab on the listing. You have erred in characterising this seller's policy as unclear.

What is unclear is how you could not be aware of this despite nearly two decades on eBay!

Also, I hope you feel special as countess went to the trouble of rubricating for you in her response above! You are fortunate!!

[sandypebbles]

What a load of rot


WHY exactly should sellers have to spoonfeed buyers?

IF it under exclusions, that is good enough

IF a buyer cba to look there before buying,it is on them and them alone

Given the radio silence from the OP, it is obvious they did not bother to check

[pauls1239]

Has happened to me a few times.  The way i got around it was to set up an alternative postage address(home address) in your account information(Registration address). If the buyer won't send to a po box a message comes up to change the delivery address.

So no more stressing. Except of course if you have a major reason(like someone blew up your mailbox). It's not ideal, but what is, on Ebay.