Selling & shipping, International vs. CONUS

[nfetterly]

Re: CPF Marketplace and now Panjo Problem

Echo, echo, echo....

I'm guilty, I'm a Canadian by birth (up in Canada right now), living in the USA for over 20 years and received US Citizenship 2 years ago.

Very easy to ship in the USA from my house, tracking, etc, they will even pick it up from my box.

Shipping to Canada or overseas it is more difficult, particularly if there is more then one item in the package, then the paperwork doesn't work on-line. Shipping costs are $$, folks in Canada complain about the cost, I had a package my wife wanted to ship to Canada - $45 from the USA, I was going to Canada the next week, went to a pharmacy where they had a post office kiosk, $12 usd, little wait time.

Now if I want to ship - really insured & tracked from USA - it goes registered mail. I got this from a member in belgium whose wife works in the belgian post office. It sits in a safe in the post office. It's tracked. It's secure. To mail from the USA it's a PITA (Pain In the #ss). Brown paper wrap (I work in the paper industry), Brown paper tape - NO PLASTIC TAPE - all seams stamped - all done at the desk.

Okay - if I'm selling a $600 light - and someone want to pay insured & registered - if they have +100 postings I'll probably go for it if they ask in a PM. Frankly it;s so easy to insure up to $500 shipped in the USA, all done at my house. It's not totally lazy, it's just no extra time....

And yes been out tonight with someone else driving, and I shouldn't go on CPF when I've been drinking.....

 

[gyzmo2002]

Re: CPF Marketplace and now Panjo Problem

Me: I'd like to ship this small package to "xxx" country.

Postal Clerk: We don't ship packages to ....

What a robot lol. Long story [emoji38]

 

[nbp]

Re: CPF Marketplace and now Panjo Problem

OMG Seery, funniest thing I have read on CPF in ages!!!

 

[archimedes]

Re: CPF Marketplace and now Panjo Problem

.... funniest thing I have read on CPF in ages!!!

... :lolsign: ...

:goodjob:

 

[kj2]

Re: CPF Marketplace and now Panjo Problem

Hmm, shipping outside the EU is very easy here. Yes, I've to fill in a form, but only have to write down whats inside, value and put my signature on the bottom. If you know the form, it's done in 15 seconds.

 

[japudjuha]

Re: CPF Marketplace and now Panjo Problem

I have never had to pay customs duty so far. That even included my Polarion PH40 which was over $1000 at the time, several years back now though. That had everything declared in plain sight in the box too!

Good question, and some good replies too. I am in Australia too and I can't believe what a backwater we are compared to the US. Do we sell anything flashlight related here at all? There are good online shops but they are pricey.

A question for you japudjuha, what is the customs duty for importing a light if the value is declared? If it's insured then the value needs to be on the package as I understand it.

 

[socom1970]

Re: CPF Marketplace and now Panjo Problem

Seery, that is hilarious!!! It's like we go to the same post office... you are spot-on with that. That is exactly what I go through just about every time I ship international also. Well put!

 

[Jumpmaster]

Re: CPF Marketplace and now Panjo Problem

I very rarely ship outside the US anymore and here's why...here are some snippets of a conversation I've had (to varying degrees with different buyers)...

Them: "Can you mark the customs form as "gift"?"

Me: "Umm...no...and even if I did, then I wouldn't be able to insure it for full value."

Them: "But you'll refund me if it doesn't get here, right?"

Me: "Ummm...NO...I really need to insure this for full value and declare it for full value on the Customs form."

Them: "Oh...ok, nevermind."

Then...once I shipped a small package to Australia...guy said 1st class mail was fine...sent it...waited 8 weeks...package finally showed up ripped apart and the contents gone. It was packaged/sealed very well...somehow, it managed to get mangled open.

So I shipped him another set of the things (since I happened to have extras...cost me another $10 in postage and another $20 in materials, but I just wanted the guy to be happy)...took another couple of months and finally got there..guy hounded the living daylights out of me both times asking where his stuff was constantly even though he didn't want to pay for anything other than first class mail.

Another time, sent a package to Canada...three delivery attempts were made over a week or so and the guy never picked it up. Came back "returned to sender - unknown address"...verified the address with the guy...I had it on the package correctly...sent it again, took another month to get there...guy is ####ing at me the entire time about how long it's taking (Again, only wanting to cheap out on the first class option)...and finally gets there...I paid out of my own pocket to reship it to him...he didn't care. He was a ******* about it the whole time.

Now...I'm not saying folks on here would necessarily act that way...but these aren't the only instances of bad international transactions I've had...they're just the worst, most recent ones which have caused me to pretty much stop shipping internationally anymore.

If folks want to buy my stuff and have it shipped internationally now, I direct them to my listings on ebay because they take care of international shipping. I just have to make sure it gets to a US shipping center and they take responsibility for the rest of the way. I personally won't ship internationally anymore, if at all possible...everything is all well and good and folks are nice and friendly until 1) you declare actual value on the Customs form or 2) they opted for the cheapest shipping method and then get mad when it takes more than a week and/or cannot be guaranteed to get there...even though they were given the prices of and shipping options for safer methods (i.e. express mail international and registered first class...no one ever opts for those for some reason and I make it clear that if they don't want them then I will not be responsible if their stuff gets stolen enroute.....but it doesn't matter anymore, I just won't do it.)

 

[seery]

Re: CPF Marketplace and now Panjo Problem

What a robot lol. Long story

OMG Seery, funniest thing I have read on CPF in ages!!!

... :lolsign: ...

:goodjob:

Seery, that is hilarious!!! It's like we go to the same post office... you are spot-on with that. That is exactly what I go through just about every time I ship international also. Well put!

Thanks. I knew you guys would like that!

 

[Pete C]

I had to jump in here. An ever increasing number of vendors are unwilling to ship to Alaska. You don't find out until you try to checkout and their addressing system simply does not have Alaska as a State or it won't take the zip code. When I came up here over 40 years ago it wasn't unusual to argue with the person taking your phone order whether or not we were part of the United States; now you don't get that chance.
Companies blame it on the number of shipments lost by the USPS. Hard to argue with that, but it means you need friends "Outside" who will forward stuff by priority mail. Surface/parcel post comes by barge and containers get washed off all too frequently and take weeks when they do make it.
Every flight out becomes a shopping event if there is time!