I just had Chinese bidders on my ebay items, even though I have EXCLUDED china. I just got off the phone with ebay. They say it's a bug/feature and there is no workaround. They will "forward the problem to leadership, we are getting other complaints like yours." Um, leadership? Sounds like it's planned, otherwise they'd have a technical solution.
Here is what happened. Sunday I listed two lenses, and I didn't want to sell them to China. I did all the machinations to disallow China, including the "Shipping Exclusion list" with that country on it. I checked the settings that I "won't allow bids from countries I don't ship to." I hit save on the listing, and instantaneously get a bidder in China bidding on both my lenses. How? Who knows, all settings are to not allow it.
I delete the bid. Then today another. Guess what will happen 3 seconds before the auction ends? You guessed it, all the Chinese bidders with their sniper programs will win my auction. AND THERE IS NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT IT (eBay phone reps words). She checked all my settings and said I did everything right. But "with our new sellers changes, China is not considered part of Asia in our system. You've blocked Asia, and China underneath that setting...but that's not really blocking them.....sorry...we will forward your problem up to leadership...." She was finished with the call, with a hearty "have a nice day."
So I go to at least update the text on my auction: "Warning - I will remove any bids from China..." But guess what the other new change is? YOU CANNOT UPDATE YOUR LISTING IF YOU HAVE ONE BID. So how do you like that? List an item with China excluded. Get a bid within seconds FROM CHINA, you cannot stop them, and you cannot update your listing. They have just blocked you, the seller, from any control of your sale!
She gave me a complaint number....It's been disabled and the recording says to click the numbers on the ebay web site. ENJOY selling to CHINA!
