Fed up of typing the same eBay UK question

Maybe this is not strictly appropiate for this forum but I can't think of another. I use eBay UK loads and I'm sick of typing out the same question to a seller: "Do you send to Ireland and if so how much would postage be?"

Is there any way I can type it out and have the question filled in for me? I know I can type it out and save it in notepad and then copy & paste but that's a little inefficient. Has anybody a really nifty solution?

I tried a few form fillers and notes addons for Firefox but wasn't impressed. Sorry jorel if this isn't right for the forum!

J_Wholesale

If their only shipping options are UK only, or UK and Worldwide, then I assume they don't ship to Ireland. Don't waste your time on sellers who can't be bothered to show a shipping charge to Ireland or Europe. There's plenty more fish in the eBay sea.

J_Wholesale

J_Wholesale wrote: »

If their only shipping options are UK only, or UK and Worldwide, then I assume they don't ship to Ireland. Don't waste your time on sellers who can't be bothered to show a shipping charge to Ireland or Europe. There's plenty more fish in the eBay sea.

I can't agree I'm afraid. A lot of the things I search for there's only a few sellers offering it. If you put a little more effort in asking them will they send and sometimes you get a result. Some of the postage estimates make me laugh though. I know we're talking about eBay UK but I was trying to buy a official copy of Ubuntu on eBay US and the seller wanted, in their words, "at least $30"!! Barmy

thegoodlife

I agree there is some rare items and you have to ask the seller if he ships to Ireland, Unfortunately some ebay UK sellers don't take into account that irish users may be buying from them....:rolleyes:

Eoin

Deleted User wrote: »

Is there any way I can type it out and have the question filled in for me? I know I can type it out and save it in notepad and then copy & paste but that's a little inefficient. Has anybody a really nifty solution?

If you don't mind using a button on your Firefox bookmark toolbar, it's quite easy.

rubadub

J_Wholesale wrote: »

If their only shipping options are UK only, or UK and Worldwide, then I assume they don't ship to Ireland.

You must miss out on a lot so. I find when I ask 95%+ will ship to here. I also ask for the cheapest postage, once I got a UK guy charge me LESS than he would have charged a UK buyer since he was charging them first class. When asking for cheap post I always mention that I am in no hurry to get it and realise cheaper postage will take longer and assure them I will not leave negative feedback if it takes a while.

eoin wrote: »

If you don't mind using a button on your Firefox bookmark toolbar, it's quite easy.

How does that work? You can always type it into google and save it as a bookmark and then got to that link and cut & paste each time.
http://www.google.com/search?complete=1&hl=en&safe=off&num=30&q=Do+you+send+to+Ireland+and+if+so+how+much+would+postage+be%3F&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

Eoin

rubadub wrote: »

How does that work? You can always type it into google and save it as a bookmark and then got to that link and cut & paste each time.

It's a simple enough piece of JavaScript. Create a new bookmark button with this as the URL:

"JavaScript:document.M2MContactAAQBuyer.messagetype.selectedIndex = 3;document.M2MContactAAQBuyer.message.value = "Hi,\n\nDo you ship to Dublin, Ireland - and if so, how much is postage?\n\nthanks,\n\nEoin";alert("done");"

This will set the dropdown list so the shipping question is selected, and will fill in the form field.

The only problem is that it only seems to work when you put a JavaScript pop-up in there, I don't know why that is.

Also, if the form fields differ between the eBay sites it won't work, though that wouldn't be too hard to work around.

eoin

eoin wrote: »

It's a simple enough piece of JavaScript. Create a new bookmark button with this as the URL:

"JavaScript:document.M2MContactAAQBuyer.messagetype.selectedIndex = 3;document.M2MContactAAQBuyer.message.value = "Hi,\n\nDo you ship to Dublin, Ireland - and if so, how much is postage?\n\nthanks,\n\nEoin";alert("done");"

This will set the dropdown list so the shipping question is selected, and will fill in the form field.

The only problem is that it only seems to work when you put a JavaScript pop-up in there, I don't know why that is.

Also, if the form fields differ between the eBay sites it won't work, though that wouldn't be too hard to work around.

That is just perfect

Eoin

Cool! Let me know if it doesn't work - I can probably change the JavaScript so it picks up any text area instead of doing it by name.

Red Sleeping Beauty

Fair few EbayUK sellers either aren't interested in dealing here or aren't aware that there's about 4million potential customers

Watch out with buying anything that has "Free P&P" attached to it. The free P&P is only for the UK and it is included in the price. When looking for postage prices I've been asking people to take in to account that the "free" P&P to the UK is included in the price of the item. I also quote a link to the Royal Mail's site where it shows the prices for the weight category.

I think ebay sellers aren't charged fees on P&P so including "free" P&P in the item price means they're hit with higher fees and a lower total net amount they take away. I could be wrong... Ebay is, like every other non-Irish website, a pain in the hole to use because of lack of Laser availibility and the Euro/postage thing. Royal Mail see Ireland as just "Europe" rather than actually connected to a part of the UK. An Post however account for Britain being separate. NI postage is same as everywhere in Ireland and there's a lower rate for GB and then a Europe one.


- sorry for rant

Eoin

I find a lot of them don't bother putting prices to Ireland on the item, but will actually quote if you ask. I find it's normally a good idea to say something like "I presume it will only be a few extra quid on top of the UK postage?", to stop them pulling some ridiculous price out of their behind.

Alan Rouge wrote:

I think ebay sellers aren't charged fees on P&P

Yep, which is why I've often found an item that looks pretty cheap until the £50 shipping to Ireland.

Shaneod21

Yeah thats a tactic that is used quite a lot. Lower your price to get people interested and then when on your page they only see the p&p. It works, however, it is not used as much anymore!

Amazon is good for shipping. It will only allow a certain charge for shipping, so you know your not getting ripped off.

sue97

Just sat like a fool and watched over an item and at the last minute discovered that the system would not let me bid even though seller had agreed.

Should I change my system settings to UK or is there a workaround. Really annoyed, would have paid 3 times what it went for and wasted 40 minutes

rubadub

sue97 wrote: »

Should I change my system settings to UK or is there a workaround.

Thats what I do, have my address right up until the end and then put a UK ending on it, so it is plain to the seller to see. I always email before hand. You should get automatic sniping software to put bids in at the last second, I use www.snip.pl . Also you can stick a superficial bid in to see if it goes in, IIRC you can go up to the point of confirmation and then back out, it should have told you if your address is OK before this confirmation point.

Eoin

Surely the seller should have just updated the listing? Changing the country you're in would skew every other shipping price that's listed.

sue97

Is this a new thing. I often bid before on stuff with UK delivery only and never had a problem.

I should have bid earlier but did not want to start a bidding war.

Will try a test bid in future.

Tnx for help

rubadub

eoin wrote: »

Surely the seller should have just updated the listing? Changing the country you're in would skew every other shipping price that's listed.

I am not sure if a seller can alter it at any time they want, it is also hassle for them for a single potential bid. I would not ask a seller to do it. The shipping price will be wrong no matter what, unless he is charging the same to the UK as here, you can add on extra payments in paypal. I have sent lads money separately from paypal to make up the difference.

sue97 wrote: »

Is this a new thing. I often bid before on stuff with UK delivery only and never had a problem.

Its not new, I was changing my address ages ago, seems a bit hit & miss if you have to do it or not. I think some will have worldwide checked but not specifically listed you have to email for the price, but will be allowed bid.

sue97

Thanks, I just moved to the North