No Overseas Shipping

This is really starting to annoy me.
This is an International forum.
EBay is an International auction site with proper safeguards in place to protect International buyers and sellers. Paypal has gone to great lengths to recover money from dodgy EBay buyers and sellers in the past.
So in my opinion if advertising your ebay auctions here on SHForums there should be an SHForums rule stipulating that all auctions have to be International.

 

I hear ya, brother. Can't tell how many eBay auctions I was ready to 'buy it now' or even on the regular classifieds here, only to read the fine print...

 

This thread rears it's head from time to time - guess it's time again...

I ship international, but I will not begrudge those here that do not. If my post office is an example, it takes me sometimes up to a half-hour between waiting on lines, dealing with the "help" there, and forms to fill out. A forum rule like this would be cause more harm than good.

 

I have shipped 24 CDs/SACDs to the States from Ireland in the last year WITHOUT registered tracking. Not one has got lost.
I have received about 35 packages via Amazon.com from the States in the last year. Not one has gone missing. Go figure.

 

It is your opinion. Here's mine. Such a rule is one way to drive sellers away. The only one who should determine where items get shipped is the seller. Their items, their rules. Secondly, I doubt the Gorts will ever involve themselves to the point of dictating where members ship their items. It's unrealistic to expect that.

If an item interests you enough, you can PM the seller to see if they will make an exception. If they won't, you can see if a U.S. member will by the disc and then ship it to you (where you cover all postage fees).

 

You didn't really address Kayaker's point. You're talking more about post office reliability, while he was talking about the time spent mailing international packages. You don't have to use international tracking with the U.S. postal service, but some sellers prefer to, which is understandable. Even so, there are customs forms that must be completed. And, there are still the long lines.

We have postal kiosks in U.S. post offices, which are machines that allow you to buy stamps or postage for packages. They are convenient. It used to be that I could use the kiosks at my local post office for international packages, but I can't anymore. They took away that feature. My guess is a lot of people weren't putting the customs forms on the packages. I always did. Oh well. Now I have to wait in line when mailing something overseas.

 

I've never had an issue with shipping overseas, and will continue to ship worldwide. I also, on occasion, act as a middleman to help frustrated buyers purchase from those that won't ship worldwide. I have a pretty good post office here and the wait is usually short (except on old people day) but I can understand not wanting to stand in line at some of the more busy post offices.

Occasionally I ship from Huntsville, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia and the wait can downright suck. If that were the norm I probably wouldn't ship at all.

 

I almost sold a 2 disc DVD to a forum member in Europe but the shipping costs are just too much. The buyer (which I understand) didn't want to pay over $10 for 1st class shipping. I gave him the exact amount because I had the post office weigh the package and hive me the cheapest shipping option. Shipping costs are the real deal breakers not the buyer/seller.

 

At my local post office, sometimes the wait can be in upwards of 20 minutes.

But when shipping stateside, I can simply print out a Paypal shipping label and drop my package off at the post office counter, no waiting required. Or, if I happen to be home when the postman arrives, I can even have him take my packages to the post office for me.

 

That sounds great at face value. However, the problem is when something does get lost or stolen, the seller has to eat it. It is just not worth the risk, especially if it is something valuable.

If there was some way to safely track packages and shipping was cost effective, we would all consider shipping overseas. I would even go as far as saying a seller would probably make money too.

 

U.S. post offices are ridiculous. My local post office has four postal worker stations ("registers"), but I never see all four being used. When I go there on a Saturday morning or in the evening after work, they use two of the stations at most. They don't operate like a retail store where they call more people up to the front to work the registers when the line gets long. If the line extends to the door, they will still just have two people up front. The postal workers don't even speed things up to get the line moving. They work their normal, slow pace. If there are three people in a row with orange cards to get packages, they will get one at a time instead of collecting all the cards at once and making one trip to the get the packages. It's a colossal waste of time standing in line at the post office.

U.S. postal workers get paid regardless of how efficient they work, and their visible lack of productivity proves it. Oh, and if there is a long line and it is a postal worker's time to clock out for the day or go on break, they won't think twice about closing their station. They put their closed sign up and walk away. I almost never see someone else take their place.

I can understand why anyone would do anything in their power to avoid waiting in line at the post office.

 

I think it's bollocks as well but people have right to do what they want...but to me they are not living up to the spirit of an audiophile forum and in my opinion are selfish.

I must admit that I love watching a FS thread from someone who won't ship out of the USA and see them either not sell the item or have to do multiple price decreases when for the sake of a 20 minute trip to the post office they probably could have sold the item right off the bat...I won't break forum rules and call anyone out on this but I hope they know...somewhere on the internets I'm laughing at them.

 

Don't forget driving to and fro the post office as well.

 

Yeah - and I have to get two young kids in and out of the car and "entertain" them for 20+ minutes or else they run and touch everything in the post office. Did I also mention the local post office "neglects" to clear the ice and snow and the lack of parking spots these days because they are being used to store the cleared ice and snow?

Please don't preach to us about the "spirit" of the forum here - you do not walk in other peoples shoes here....

 

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Forcing somebody to do something they don't want or have no obligation to do? What is this...Russia?

 

What are you referring to? Communism is long gone in Russia and the Cold War ended 20 years ago.

 

"Socialist" is the reigning insult here these days.

 

...true enough.

 

Sounds like a rough life.

 

I am located in canada and I often ask sellers if they will ship to me, sometimes they yes and sometimes they say no, I never take it personally. No one is entitled to nothing on here..No point in making a thread like this.

 

Buyers are definitely protected by eBay and PayPal. In fact, they can pretty much make a claim on anything if they so choose. Sellers, um...not so much.

While USPS Delivery Confirmation exists for a purpose within the US, PayPal doesn't even accept that as proof from a seller that a parcel reached it's destination. And outside the US, I can't see ANY seller protection from buyer claims that aren't just lip service. Buyers rule and sellers are presumed guilty under the current guidelines.

And it IS an extra hassle to do overseas transactions. If someone chooses not to do that, it's exactly that...a CHOICE. I personally welcome buyers from most countries if they're willing to pay the shipping costs, and allow for extra time if needed. But I understand why people don't want to mess with it as well.

While I agree that excluding anyone outside the US definitely cuts into your buying pool, I don't fault sellers from choosing to limit their sales to US residents...any more than I would fault Canadian sellers to Canada-only sales, or European sellers to their own market.

To say that it should be a requirement is just wrong.

 

I cannot agree that just because you want something that someone else should be MADE to accomodate you.

 

I don't recall anything changing with Paypal rules. I had 160 bucks stolen from me once because an overseas buyer claimed not to recieve the item.

Mind you I still sell overseas because that's where the money at, but damn I worry every time. I've sold to Eastern Europe, The Middle East, Far East whatever. The bottom line is if you sell , your risk of getting stolen from is offset by the money you lose NOT selling overseas. However given the option I would sell domestic 10/10 times for the said reason.

I've sold hundreds of records and only been ripped off twice (once on Ebay and once because I fronted someone on the forum records) In the scheme of things I'm lucky. I've never had a package lost.

FWIW I have a great deal of trust with forum people and am willing to ship anywhere.

C

 

It's the equivalent of the post card in the corner store window here.
You can't demand people do sell beyond the United States because it's just an exchange between a person who says they have something and people who say I'd like that.
It's not a Forum owned activity and nope no moderator is gonna get that into the nitty gritty of how stuff is sold unless that person is being a complete pain in the ***.
I do understand how you feel and would encourage where practicable our American members to consider selling to the rest of us but their post office system isn't so geared up to what is required by law for us even if we can just call in a local office pay up and complete the CN22 in minutes plus many of them may live quite some distance from their local office.