Sellers who won't ship outside the US

I've never understood why some sellers on Ebay and elsewhere won't ship outside the US. What is the reason for that?

 

Because it is a pain in the ***.

One, for anything larger than a small envelope, it is difficult to quote an accurate shipping price via USPS.com. And if you guess wrong, you're could be out a substantial difference in shipping cost.

Second, you have to make a special trip to the Post Office. No online shipping via USPS.com. Since a lot of Post Offices have closed lately, you may have to make a decent drive just to get to one. Then wait in a 10-15+ minute line once you're there. In other words, a domestic package can be put in your mailbox (<5 minute process from printing postage to mailing) vs. an international package which is typically an hour's worth of time spent.

Third, USPS does not offer any type of tracking or delivery confirmation. The customs label allows you to view if the item has been delivered, but it does not suffice as "proof of delivery" per Paypal rules. So, technically a buyer could file an "item not received" claim and win even if the custom label shows as delivered.

Forth, the risk of a package getting lost once it leaves the US goes up exponentially. Just last year I sent a very expensive CD to a forum member here. It got lost somehow and took about 3 months to show up. That is never a good situation for buyer or seller. USPS cannot help if your package goes missing. I'm not even sure why they offer insurance.

 

I didn't realise you couldn't track USPS deliveries, that's pretty stupid.... I'm guessing the Paypal proof of delivery is the main problem.

 

Exactly. Although the customs tag tracking will show you that the item has been processed through US customs, and maybe even process through the other country's customs (maybe even delivery), that is not enough info for Paypal's proof of delivery, i.e. a seller is very exposed to risk.

From the Paypal website on how a seller is protected, among other things:

• For all transactions, keep proof of shipment and delivery that can be tracked online. If your buyer picks the item up in person, or you can't provide traceable proof of delivery, your transaction won’t qualify.
  
  [*]For payments over $250 USD (or local currency equivalent, including shipping and tax), be sure that you have signature confirmation of delivery in addition to proof of shipment (See above). If a buyer files a claim, you must respond to our requests for information as outlined in our communications to you.

Signature confirmation can be added for US deliveries easily and cheaply. The potential extra buyers overseas is simply not worth the increased risk for many sellers. I guess if you sell/ship stuff as your main business, you just take that risk as a cost of doing business. But if you're the occasional seller, selling just a few items per month/year, potentially eating a few hundred dollars because of a transaction gone bade, is not fun.

 

Basically as stated it's a pain in the *** and a good way to get ripped off.

 

Eh, I'm having to route some guitar gear I bought from the US through Canada and then down here, bloody pain in the ****!!

 

Some more discussion on similar topic here:

Past thread: Why are some Americans afraid to ship to Canada?
http://stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=243995

 

Exactly.

The biggest reason for me, though, has been the ongoing second-guessing of what it costs and what is involved in shipping internationally by buyers. I can't tell you how many times international buyers on eBay have not understood how eBay works and have tried to haggle over shipping AFTER THEY'VE WON AN ITEM I sold. Usually, I end up lowering the shipping cost simply so I don't receive bad feedback (I have a 100% positive feedback rating and I want to keep it). I have eaten dollars several times due to this phenomenon. Almost always, difficult eBay international customers will not hear my reasons for the extra cost to ship internationally (outlined so well in the post I cite, above). What I hear from them, constantly, is: "It only cost X for this other seller to send X to me from the United States. Why are you ripping me off by charging Y to ship to me?" At that point, I KNOW I'm gonna get hassled. And I do get hassled. I always tell such folks I intend to make no profit whatsoever from shipping or spending what it costs to package items securely. But they never, ever seem to understand what I have to go through to ship their item to them out of the country. They simply don't listen.

And that's exactly why, with a few exceptions, I won't ship internationally.

 

Overall, it's just not worth it for all of the reasons stated above. If there were ANY reliable tracking methods, it would be different. I make exceptions for the forum of course

 

For packages, i.e. a piece of audio gear, you really can't use USPS Priority International First Class, because it is too big or heavy. That means you have to use Express Mail International or Priority International. A 25lb package is over $100 just in shipping to many destinations. That is typically way too much of a percentage of the item cost for many buyers. As rstamberg mentions above, no buyer is going to like that quote, and of course the seller loses more money the higher the shipping price (because of what Ebay/Paypal take out in fees), so it's a lose/lose for everyone.

And of course we still have the issue of no delivery confirmation and messing with waiting in line at a Post Office.

Which reminds me, I sold an amp this week to a fellow in Colorado. It was so easy, fast and cheap. I could calculate the exact price of shipping via FedEx, and I printed out the shipping label at my house. I dropped it off at a FedEx Office location about 9pm one night when I was out doing something. No waiting in line, they give you a receipt for drop off confirmation, and the package was delivered 2 days later for $30. Nothing could have been any simpler! Sending the same item overseas would have cost 4X the price, taken a lot more of my free time, and I would have still been very exposed to a buyer that made a Paypal claim.

 

it's worse for the sellers, but as a buyer, I'm reluctant to buy from overseas shippers, because it's a pain as well....I do it, probably 1/3 of the time, because the item in question is totally unavailable from a US seller

 

Shipping by Fedex is great. Too bad all shipping isn't like that.

 

Yeah this used to annoy me somewhat but when I found out what a PITA it was I figured "Fair enough". Luckily for US sellers they have a very big market unlike say Canada where you really need to offer shipping outside of the country.

 

Another problem is that too often buyers expect you to lie on the customs form and understate the value of the item or declare it as a gift. I'm sorry, but if you're selling anything more than the occasional piece, developing a paper trail of fraudulent documents, however trivial, isn't a good idea.

 

Yes. About 80% of buyers have asked me to indicate a lower declared value.

Basically, the whole ordeal of shipping outside the US is fraught with headaches, more money spent, and time. With very little incentive to do so. As mentioned earlier, there are plenty of buyers in the US for almost everything you might want to sell. I've never head two overseas buyers/bidders building up a price to something astronomical. In other words, if I have to take a few dollars less to sell to a domestic buyer, in exchange for less risk/hassle, I'm perfectly fine with that.

 

Also, PayPal doesn't let me print First-Class International postage so I have to make a trip to the post office. I can usually only get there on Saturday mornings if at all.

 

I ship all over the world and never have any issues. I have only ever had one problem and that was with a disc I sent internally within the UK.

I have also shipped thousands of products globally (incl Italy) each year with no tracking through work and the only probs I have had have been internal in the UK on 4 parcels.

In fact I am one of Royal Mails best customers within my area because of the volume we send out.

I for one will declare a lower value if it results in a buyer not getting ripped off by his local postal service. Here currently the PO alone charges a handling fee of $18 (£11) for anything that comes above $24 (£15) + Duty + VAT (depending on what the product is).

I am also extremely grateful for anyone who will do the same for me.

Re the cost of shipping abroad personally I just use a set of scales, weigh the product, put on the stamps (which I have at home. I can check how much it costs by using the Royal Mails website), stick a customs dec on it (you can print this off of the Royal Mails website if you don't have any) and pop it into the PO letterbox.

Job done and takes barely 5 minutes

 

I believe you, but the process you're describing does not apply to the US, and does not answer the OP's question. Much more painful here in the US, to ship out of the country.

 

This summarizes things pretty perfectly. I still sometimes sell outside the US, depending on the value of the item, the size/weight, and the destination country. But all the above issues enter in any decision.

 

True shame you have such a garbage postal service then.

 

Works fairly well, domestically. Although hampered by finances.

 

Most people on this forum are great, but you still get the CONUS guys.
Also a few weeks ago I was actually quoted $40 p/p to ship a CD to Ireland on this forum.
Some really nice guys here.

 

When I do Canada only pay it forward discs it does not go over well with some people in the USA, especially if it is a desireable item. I guess it is not a two way street.

$40 is a total joke from North America to Ireland. Unless the seller was adding in his/her hourly wage, gas consumption and price of ink to fill out the customs form.

 

He had dropped the price 4 times, so he probably reckoned he could claw it back with postage.

 

Well, we don't know what kind of CD it was. If it was a valuable CD, then the seller might have been quoting a trackable service that would appease PayPal, and those are ALL extremely expensive--$40 is not out of the ballpark. So before everyone piles on, more information is required.

If it was a common as dirt CD and the seller was just throwing out a price to get the buyer to bugger off, then that's a different thing.