international bidders who cant read

[ivak245]

I stopped offering interntional postage a while back as it was more of a pain than what it was worth for me. Whenever someone bids, I usually have a quick look to see where they are from, or if they are a habitual "I did not receive my package" buyer.  I just had a look at some items I have up for sale, and i have an overeas buyer who has bid on a few,  even when I don't offer international postage.I don't really want to get to the end of the auction to tell them that they have wasted their (and my ) time. Besides sending them a polite email telling them that there is no international postage, is there any way of automatically cancelling their bids? I know that they can say "send to my brother in sydney and he will send to me ", but I have fallen for this a couple of times before, and ended up with  non payers.

[*tippy*toes*]

You can cancel their bids and block them, but you have to ask if they really are overseas. Some people move here from overseas. Others might be here on holidays.

Like you, I don't post overseas. I ensure that doesn't happen by blocking every country outsire of Aus, bothe in postage preferences and in buyer requirements.

[springyzone]

What tippy said.

Like you, my sister & i used to sell and had 'posts only to Australia' in our listings but we did have trouble once with an international bidder. We were surprised she had even been able to bid.

You're right, it can be more pain than it's worth.

What we found is that we had to go into the settings as apparently 'posts only to Australia' is not enough. You need to actively block every other place. Then international buyers won't be able to bid in the first place.

 Ebay could make this whole process simpler but they don't.

[ivak245]

So checking the"posts only to Australia" option is pointless?   They might as well  replace it with "sells only to planets in the Milky Way?".

Thanks for all your replies,