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Author Topic: International Shippers: Any countries you will NOT ship to and why?  (Read 3780 times)

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Online Taffeta

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Re: International Shippers: Any countries you will NOT ship to and why?
« Reply #15 on: November 14, 2017, 06:55:48 AM »
I would like to say there's nothing wrong with our postal system, but bearing in mind I once had a package go to Holland via China, I maybe can't quite say that ;) I also of the four packages I sent this last week, the only one that has not arrived yet (maybe due to train strikes?) was one sent domestically within the UK. The international ones got there fine. Sigh.

Mind you, while most of the US International hubs seem ok, the one in Illinois is addicted to sending my mail to Canada first (presumably because of the postal code) even though the packages always have UK written on them. They always get to me, it's just the usual routine that if it's coming through IL then it's going to take longer because it's going sightseeing north of the border first.

You have to see the funny side or you go mad ;)

I still won't punish a person for their postal system issues though. I understand the frustration, Tulagirl, but it must be even more frustrating for the person on the other end. It's much harder being outside of the US and dealing with the no-international-shipping rules because our country is so much smaller and it's therefore a lot harder to find the things we want without looking outside our own borders. Having doors shut in our face because of where we live as opposed to who we are is discouraging and frustrating.

Postal services are all a bit bananas. But the people at the other end aren't necessarily. Mind you, there are a lot of people on ebay these days who want to play the system and that's another problem entirely. Ebay itself is another problem entirely :/ which is why these days I predominately do all pony related deals through here.
« Last Edit: November 14, 2017, 06:57:40 AM by Taffeta »
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Re: International Shippers: Any countries you will NOT ship to and why?
« Reply #16 on: November 14, 2017, 07:43:57 AM »
I'll ship to anyone when I'm selling on a pony board, like this or the MLPTP. 

But if I'm selling on eBay, I won't sell to Italy.  Their laws say "no imported toys except wooden ones", and even if it's not always enforced . . . it's still the law.  Meaning if they decide to yank a package I sent, neither I nor the buyer have any legal recourse to make the Italian PO deliver it, or even to get it sent back!   Not worth the risk when I'm selling to strangers who might get angry / leave negative feedback.
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Re: International Shippers: Any countries you will NOT ship to and why?
« Reply #17 on: November 14, 2017, 10:12:52 AM »
Ha yea that is the crazy US postal system.  They like to take the packages on a tour. LOL  LadyMoondancer, they enforce it a lot because, I have gotten calls from Italy customs.  They are super nice and very easy to deal with but, the buyers were not. And, yes, they will yank the package.  Many countries have very interesting rules that we should all be reading a lot more than we do about what can and can not be shipped into their area.  Its not a basic list like people think.  It is a rather detailed list and takes a lot of research sometimes to even find that.  A lot of time to read it and decide if you can ship your items there or not.  I finally had to stop shipping to Italy due to these issues.

 The fact for me is that I sell very little for this to be a problem for me.  Sure if you have a store or sell regularly then I can see it may cut into your business. I only sell maybe two or three things a year. It is not worth it for me.  No one is upset with me either. I never get messages begging me to sell to their country.  Just doesn't happen.  My decision is not bothering a single soul.  The people in Russia that have bought from me, have used a US postal box and I am fine with those types of things.  It leaves me out of a lot of the stuff I have gone through in the past.  So, if people really want stuff from sellers that do not ship to their country there are ways to get it anyway.  When I want something from the UK and the sellers won't ship to me, I don't get upset. I just find a shipping buddy to help me.  Its just not that big of a deal to me, and I doubt it is to the average person.  I use to sell a lot, but not anymore.  It is just too hard for me now with all the changes.
« Last Edit: November 14, 2017, 10:17:56 AM by tulagirl »
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Re: International Shippers: Any countries you will NOT ship to and why?
« Reply #18 on: November 14, 2017, 12:21:07 PM »
I don't know why domestic postage is so much worse than international. It seems to be the case everywhere. Maybe they try to put the smarter people in the international depots? Maybe it's like a promotion to get to those centres? I know I have had packages going within my city end up 2 states away! I once ordered two items, one from the UK and one from my city, and despite being shipped on the same day, the UK one arrived first. Seriously. The Aussie one went bouncing around the country to all the state distribution centres, while the O/S one went straight to the customs centre and to me. It's worse living in the city, at rural PO's you have two boxes, local mail (anything in the district) and outside mail (anything else) and so local mail gets to you faster. Here, it's regular mail and express mail, so the whole country's mail goes in the same box, and it all gets sent to the nearest state distribution centre. And if that centre is full, it gets sent to the next state, and so on. It makes it take so much longer, when an extra box on the street for in-state or even in-city mail and a consequential section in the sorting centre would save so much time. But the AusPost CEO is a profit gobbling good-for-nothing, one of the highest paid CEOs in the country, so nothing will ever change, except for the worse.
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Re: International Shippers: Any countries you will NOT ship to and why?
« Reply #19 on: November 15, 2017, 01:13:12 AM »
I don't sell, but I do buy internationally so perhaps I can add my thoughts. Shipping through the postal service to South Africa can take forever as they like to give themselves 21 working days just to scan the parcel into the country. Yes indeedy, that is correct. So it is not unknown for a parcel to take up to 3 months to arrive by which time eBay will not allow me to rate my seller. This I learnt the hard way the first time it happened and although I did try contacting eBay to find out how it could be done (the seller had been awesome) all they replied with was a generic "how to rate a seller" response. Not helpful.

It is because of these reasons that I now make use of a shipping agent from America. The cost is the same or less as sending the item via snail mail; they take a photograph of it when it arrives at their facility and the parcel arrives at my door (not in my post box) in a maximum of 2 weeks. There is really nothing not to like in this for me. And so I imagine it is for others who also make use of these services. It also opens up a wonderful host of buying opportunities as you can now bid on those items that are US shipping only.

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Re: International Shippers: Any countries you will NOT ship to and why?
« Reply #20 on: November 15, 2017, 04:05:50 AM »
I've shipped ponies and other toys all over the world. I still will ship anywhere  -  but due to scammers being literally everywhere now (and that includes the UK where I am and the US , not just the countries some people think are more risky to ship to  ;)  )    I always use tracking/delivery confirmation (it's called various things depending on your country) . That way I'm covered if anything goes amiss. I have stuff on the way to Italy and Russia right now actually. I shipped some more to Italy last month. no issues , but I think genuine buyers are willing to pay the extra for secure shipping/tracing/protection, especially if the item is rare/expensive/their country is known to have issues with non tracked parcels going MIA etc   :awake: 
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Re: International Shippers: Any countries you will NOT ship to and why?
« Reply #21 on: November 15, 2017, 01:42:41 PM »
Yea I agree with that idea.  Once when I was shipping all over the place I had a buyer buy an item from me. It was an expensive doll.  I sent it with tracking.  The buyer tried to pull a fast one on me by waiting a month and saying they never got it.  I did a quick track on the package and discovered it was delivered.  I copy and pasted that information in my response message to them. I never heard from them again.  I think they probably thought I would have no way to prove they got it.  This was before the days when ebay held you responsible for a package that goes missing in the mail.  It was before the days you could not leave feedback for a buyer.  Once ebay changed everything the issues got worse with people trying to pull stuff only this time if the postal systems in other countries were not willing to scan my boxes I was just stuck.  This had started happening a lot to me.  I would pay for international tracking, but the country would not scan it and I had no proof of delivery.  This is why even with tracking that is not always protection for a seller.  It requires that everyone do their part and I am finding not only in the USA but everywhere postal systems are not scanning things on a consistent basis.  If it happens to be a high dollar item and it is not scanned well there is no protection there and ebay would make us as sellers refund that buyer whether they got the item or not since there is no proof they got it.  Just as I seem to have the worst luck with ebay sellers, I have the worst luck with the global shipping system too.  Its that little gray cloud that tries to follow me around lol.  So, its not until something like this happens and you lose a great deal of money because of the process that you feel you have to make a change.  Especially if it happens over and over which it has to me enough that with ebays new rules I have just quit selling a lot for the most part.  The weirdos seem to find me.  A system that only protects buyers is not a good system. Paypal and Ebay have fixed it to where the small amount of bad buyers out there can just go right on stealing from sellers if there is any kind of glitch and they will catch it and use it to their advantage.  For the good buyers out there it is sad because, the bad buyers have ruined ebay for me.
« Last Edit: November 15, 2017, 01:47:08 PM by tulagirl »
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Re: International Shippers: Any countries you will NOT ship to and why?
« Reply #22 on: November 15, 2017, 02:48:17 PM »
eBay has become a less and less appealing option for individuals over the years - it's mainly all geared towards commercial enterprises now. 
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Re: International Shippers: Any countries you will NOT ship to and why?
« Reply #23 on: November 15, 2017, 07:55:36 PM »
If it's someone I personally know is trustworthy like from a collector community I'll be glad to ship anywhere but with randoms on ebay, I'm sorry but I have to use GSP.
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Re: International Shippers: Any countries you will NOT ship to and why?
« Reply #24 on: November 17, 2017, 10:53:31 PM »
I'm slowly working on selling off my various collections and I've found headaches with these countries that make me choose to not ship to them unless the buyer understands the risks (facebook, board sales) or through the Global Shipping Program on eBay.

Russia - very long delivery times and scanning for tracking is hit or miss. I just had to refund a buyer $102 for a pony that is 'missing' because it was through eBay and despite the buyer saying they were fine (choosing to not pay for Priority Shipping) they opened a case and eBay made me refund it all despite showing I had indeed sent the parcel. So now I just have to hope that the person is honest if the pony every shows up. Other times (using After Ship, I can track packages on the Russian Post) it's taken between 3-5 months for delivery. My buyers, other than the eBay one have been OK - but I don't want to deal with the stress when selling through eBay so I will only send via Priority Mail off eBay and using the GSP on eBay.

Middle Eastern countries - Issues with customs and 'lost' mail. I will ship but only either priority international or GSP.

Italy - I choose not to ship toys. I'm too worried it will get confiscated by customs. I have shipped in the past with no issues, but again I'm very careful about my eBay sales.

South America (not-Mexico) - I've had items get lost, I once had an EMPTY box come back to me from Argentina with the item completely missing. Now I only ship via priority mail or the GSP.

eBay has just become a very unfriendly place to simple sellers honestly. I'm going to be very very glad when I'm finished with getting rid of most of collections just so I can go back to buying occasionally.

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Re: International Shippers: Any countries you will NOT ship to and why?
« Reply #25 on: November 18, 2017, 09:33:08 PM »
Interesting, so an italian MLP collector would always need a proxy address in a european country from where shipping is rather inexpensive - like UK or Germany.

I myself am selling regularly, most of the time I send tracked/insured up to ~$35 as it's only an extra $3 or so... but even if I send without tracking (if Paypal buyer protection is not a matter) I have had no problems with mail being lost. A few months ago, I've had a package come back from the US because they could not deliver it, it had not been fetched from the post office or the like. I got no response in my attempt to contact the buyer either, so I refunded the item price and kept what I paid for shipping - lost the Ebay fees, sadly but it seemed to me like the best solution. The other way round, a package for me went back to the US because of German customs and postal strikes - the seller didn't contact me when he recieved it back, although I had asked him to keep me updated and I discovered him attempting to resell the ponies via the Arena six months later, contacted him and he sent them out a second time after I paid shipping again)... that time, everything worked well.

Anyway, up to now, I am still shipping anywhere in the world. I find it quite fun actually, hope my luck with overseas shipping stays the same in the future.

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Re: International Shippers: Any countries you will NOT ship to and why?
« Reply #26 on: November 18, 2017, 10:40:45 PM »
I ship anywhere too!
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Re: International Shippers: Any countries you will NOT ship to and why?
« Reply #27 on: November 21, 2017, 05:58:08 AM »
Just as a quick update to my previous post in this thread, the parcel I sent to a completely new ebayer in Russia arrived with no issues at all, within about a week too! and the person was lovely to deal with  :)
To be fair , I have had no issues with ebay customer service helping me out if anything really has gone amiss or I've needed any advice concerning a parcel or a buyer (international or otherwise) , they've been really good with me - but I always recommend using an actual phone call or live chat , rather than just emailing them ;)  :awake:
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Re: International Shippers: Any countries you will NOT ship to and why?
« Reply #28 on: November 28, 2017, 07:48:34 AM »
I think that if you are worried about there being problems, then it's better not to ship to a particular place. I can understand people not shipping to a place because of fears about tracking and so on. It's better than not shipping to a place because of the people. The latter I have a problem with. The former, not so much. It happens.

USPS though has a situation whereby all packages have tracking I think? or most of them do. That doesn't happen in all countries so I suspect packages that don't get tracked out of the US don't get scanned entering other countries all of the time. All I can suggest is that it's better to use insurance for high level items. If it doesn't arrive, then the seller is protected as the postal service ought to reimburse the value and if you have an invoice for the sale, it's easy to prove.

But really, people should not ship where they're not comfortable shipping because to be blunt, it's a terrible experience for both buyer and seller and it means that if something goes wrong it will not benefit either party.

I have no problem shipping to Russia if someone in Russia wants to adopt my ponies ;) but I am not so keen on ebay these days. Too many charges, too many issues. As a buyer, it's fine. As a seller, I'd rather not.

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Re: International Shippers: Any countries you will NOT ship to and why?
« Reply #29 on: November 28, 2017, 08:40:49 AM »
First Class International from the USPS can SOMETIMES have tracking, depending on the country it's going to. (It is supposed to have it to the UK.)

Back when I was selling really actively (a year or so ago) there was a period where First Class International had great tracking, followed by a period where the package would utterly disappear from the tracking system as soon as it left the US.  No fun having packages "disappear" while eBay buyers breathe down your neck because it's been two weeks and there's no info on their package!  All the packages eventually arrived, but it was stressful.

These days when I do eBay, I ship everything by Priority International.  Unfortunately it costs the buyer an arm and a leg, but it's tracked, it's insured, and at least they are faster than the GSP and aren't going to damage items with a boxcutter.  I did just sell an Optimus Prime toy to someone in France, so I guess people will still pay the crazy shipping if they want an item enough.
« Last Edit: November 28, 2017, 08:45:20 AM by LadyMoondancer »
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