International Shippers: Any countries you will NOT ship to and why?

[Stiletto]

I know we have some major sellers in here that have been shipping for a long time, and I want to pick your brain.  Hope you don't mind!  In your years of experience are there any countries you will not ship too?  And why?  Did you have a bad experience, get scammed, problems with imports/duty fees anything like that I want to know.  My experience shipping International from the US has been pleasant so far and I've shipped to about 15 different countries without trouble.  I'd really appreciate your opinions and experiences.

On a side note: Several of my International buyers have been using agents to purchase from me instead of shipping to them directly, which is even better for everyone if you ask me.  But I don't know how expensive that service tends to be for the buyer.  Can someone who has used an agent to purchase something through eBay shed some light on this for me?  Thank you!

[tikibirds]

I will not ship to ITALY. Every single package I have sent there never made it to its destination and a few times I have gotten them back over a year later and the package looked like it was a war zone.

Canada, Germany and Netherlands have had delays in delivery.
China - no problems but they have to pay import fees. I have sent huge boxes of baby food to former co workers here.
UK - No problems
Singapore - No problems

[bluerose9978]

I second Italy. They have an old rule that you can only declare wooden toys. And I have heard of too many problems.

Also, many Asian countries may take months to arrive if you don't ship by expensive services and I prefer to ship via the cheapest method to save my buyers on shipping costs. So I just prefer to avoid it unless someone requests to buy and is OK with the length of time it may take.

[Lady Frostbite]

I've been told to only ship to Malaysia by tracked/signed, as parcels get 'lost' a lot (I have a friend who lives and is from there, and she warned me before sending parcels to her).

I've also heard horror stories for Italy. I'm very lucky that, to memory, all mine have gotten there. I think it was my Italian buyer who first warned me!

[Stiletto]

I will not ship to ITALY. Every single package I have sent there never made it to its destination and a few times I have gotten them back over a year later and the package looked like it was a war zone.

Well, I never thought Italy would be someone's problem country!
I currently have packages in transit to Russia and Malaysia, so hope they make it.  Other places I have successfully shipped are Canada, Australia, Reunion (French Island), Germany, Norway, Sweden, England, Poland, New Zealand, Denmark, and a couple others that I can't seem to remember right off the top of my head.

[Stormness_1]

The African continent in general is super expensive to ship to from here, so any enquirers from there are pretty swiftly let down, I'm talking $70AUD+ for a single pony tracked, and it's closer than Europe!

I've never had something not arrive, thankfully. I have had parcels opened/damaged locally, but no countries in particular have been put on my blacklist because of actual problems I've had shipping there. *fingers crossed* *touch wood*

[Marlin]

On a side note: Several of my International buyers have been using agents to purchase from me instead of shipping to them directly, which is even better for everyone if you ask me.  But I don't know how expensive that service tends to be for the buyer.  Can someone who has used an agent to purchase something through eBay shed some light on this for me?  Thank you!

I don't know about 'agents', but I have used something similar to the GSP but run through my country's postal service instead. I usually do this with ebay buys since overseas shipping can be through the roof and by getting my parcels sent to my US shipping warehouse, I can get several parcels combined into one.
The downside (aside waiting for everything to arrive and then their processing time, and then the actual shipping to me, lol) is I am paying shipping within the US, and then to my country. Another occasional setback is the service charges by volumetric weight, so I have been stung there a couple of times, but both of those situations can and have been balanced out by saving money getting several parcels consolidated into one.

[nhal039]

Russia is the only country I won't post to as all my parcels have been lost! Any other country has be all good

[Stiletto]

I don't know about 'agents', but I have used something similar to the GSP but run through my country's postal service instead. I usually do this with ebay buys since overseas shipping can be through the roof and by getting my parcels sent to my US shipping warehouse, I can get several parcels combined into one.
The downside (aside waiting for everything to arrive and then their processing time, and then the actual shipping to me, lol) is I am paying shipping within the US, and then to my country. Another occasional setback is the service charges by volumetric weight, so I have been stung there a couple of times, but both of those situations can and have been balanced out by saving money getting several parcels consolidated into one.

I'm curious exactly how this works through eBay.  In one instance, I had an agent/warehouse/not sure what to call them actually make the purchase from me themselves, asked me to include a packing slip, and put item # on the box.  Sure, np everything worked out fine, and off it went to their warehouse en route to their customer in Japan.

But I have had 2 other people, both Russian, purchase through what seemed to be their personal account and the shipping address was to a warehouse in Delaware.  Where, like you said, I'm sure they had several packages sent, gathered up, and then shipped to them in Russia.  So I guess my question is -- Which way is it supposed to work? And how can I research which countries have these services available? 

I know I am way over thinking this but my brain has to know how the ins and outs of how things work.

[Baby Sugarberry]

Mail forwarding companies work both ways - some just give you a different address to give to the seller, while others do the actual purchasing (more common when there's a language barrier as well as international borders.) Any major country that does exports will usually have forwarding businesses, they're independent 3rd parties usually.  The eBay version forwards all packages to a central warehouse where they're made as small as possible (often to the detriment of the item) and then ships them out again to the final destination.  I hate the GSP, it's almost always way overpriced versus shipping directly.

Mail into Canada is indeed slow.  I've had stuff show up months late but rarely is anything ever lost.  Most of us up here know and expect that already. 

[Marlin]

I'm curious exactly how this works through eBay.

In my case, I buy through my ebay account. I just have a US shipping address (which is my shipping warehouse). The shipping warehouse knows it's my parcel via my ID number in my address. They notify me when parcels arrive and I direct them as to if I want items consolidated, and when I want them dispatched to me in my country, which they do after I've paid their shipping

[tulagirl]

Italy, South America, Africa, Russia and Australia and China.  I have had issues with these countries.  Either they are way too slow like two months slow, they lose stuff, they don't scan my registered mail properly, they open stuff and damage it, the buyers are unreasonable about their own custom fees and the customs shipping rules drive me crazy.  There are a lot of countries you can't ship certain items to.  I don't have time to mess with all of that.  Like no plastic toys and stuff like that.  I am getting close to just dropping all international because of cost.  A small item is costing me 20.00 to ship to the UK it is just insane what the US makes me pay for international packages.  Most of the people that buy from me use an agent or a USA address and that person deals with the hassles which is so much better for me.  I get to ship to a US address and then the third party whom ever it is ships to the buyer.  So, international people still buy from me, I just don't have to ship to them directly.  Typically they don't leave feedback either and that doesn't matter either.

[tikibirds]

Also, many Asian countries may take months to arrive if you don't ship by expensive services and I prefer to ship via the cheapest method to save my buyers on shipping costs. So I just prefer to avoid it unless someone requests to buy and is OK with the length of time it may take.

Shipping to the USA is OK. I have never not received my stuff but shipping to China - it needs to go priority mail or via FEDEX or UPS. My packages were filled with baby food so it had to go priority die to its weight anyways.
 

[Taffeta]

I don't have any countries I won't ship to. Italy isn't a problem if you are shipping within the EU (which right now we still are) because the custom rules are different and therefore items don't need to be declared. So everything I have ever sent to Italy (touch wood) has got there.

I don't like to judge a country by one bad experience with one resident. I have been on the receiving end enough times of people who won't ship anywhere outside of whatever country it is because of one bad experience with someone "somewhere in Europe" lumping us all together and assuming we're all going to be problem buyers based on geography. I find that so offensive that I would never do it to anyone else.

 If I know the postal service in another area is somewhat unstable I would absolutely insist on tracking although I tend to use tracking now anyway because of paypal. I've been doing this 20 years and thus far most things have gone ok. I have had parcels be delayed or diverted to China (!) and sometimes get returned to me but most of the time it gets worked out. And that's a part of the risk of dealing overseas.

The worst experiences I have had as a seller or trader were with people in the US. I've only ever been scammed by people in the US but in both cases the incidents were literally years ago. I don't think that was because the US is full of scammers. I think it's because there are vastly more US people online than anywhere else and so by a matter of probabilities it's more likely. I was just unlucky on a couple of occasions, that's all. I love dealing with the US. US ponypeople are awesome. I'd never blame a whole country because of one or two people being unpleasant.

So yeah, I will ship anywhere. I prefer to judge by person. If everyone refused to ship to a particular location the ponypeople there would never get any ponies, and that would be sad. So I prefer to do my transaction by person, not location, and then try to figure out the best way once I know where I am shipping.

[tulagirl]

All I can say is I never made decisions based on one problem. I make my decisions after numerous problems and hassles for me that cost me money.  After several issues with the same kind of problems one must use intelligence and say, "enough."  Especially now that ebay has changed the rules and you are responsible for everything that isn't your fault if a package doesn't show up.  Nope not for me.  I refuse to ship to places where it is the same thing over and over and then have Ebay make me pay the buyer for stuff that is beyond my control.  If I was wealthy I guess I could take the chance, but I can't afford to give my stuff away free and pay to ship it free.  My decision to not ship to a country has nothing to do with negative feelings about that country either.  I love every place and all cultures.  That doesn't mean however I can afford to deal with their postal system. I don't even like my own country's postal system. I am certain it is staffed by gorillas but that is another topic.