Shipping to Foreign Countries - Need to Know

[Former_Member]

This is going to be a long one…

Not sure if any of you have run into this problem? Monique or Karen if you know anything more about this please share with us.

I had an order this week to South Africa, this brought up an issue for me. That etsy doesn’t allow you to “choose” the countries you ship to. The order was placed and I had offered “free shipping” however south Africa postage would run $60. I cancelled the order hoping that the $30 in fees charged by both etsy and paypal will be refunded. I have still to wait on what the result will be.

The only other method I found was to adjust every one of the items in my shop. Per below:

When you choose “ships from” dropdown box (in my case free shipping is for USA, Canda and UK)

1. choose USA and cost 0.00
2. choose Can and cost 0.00
3. choose UK and cost 0.00
4. then choose “everywhere else” $25-$60” in my case (I find it cost around $25 for a small package and $60 for a large package to ship to most other countries) be sure and outline this shipping rule in your policies section. If the item is less to ship I will refund a customer the difference. This is what I have chosen as my option currently.

Now another thing to take into consideration is scamming. I did contact paypal and they advised me that when you ship to a foreign country they are NON-US Verified. Which means paypal has verified them with a foreign bank account and credit card. To me this leaves open for someone to order your art, pay you, then claim they have not rec’d the item and now you have given them your name and address on the package and paypal may reverse the charges and refund them the money off of your account. The paypal rep said this is a possibility… so please read all rules on ETSY and Paypal regarding these issues. These problems are on case by case basis, and hopefully the good/right guy wins.

I found that paypal will only “partially” refund these transactions, the rep explained that means if they find it a fraudulent purchase they will refund you the full amount for your merchandise but they will not attempt to get the item back for you. This is what I was told that “partial” means.

Now Etsy claims to get a FULL refund, but I am not sure how. But I recommend that you place insurance on any high dollar amount you are shipping out. USPS will reimburse you back the full amount for an item they cannot recover that is lost, but I am still not sure if this situation would fall into that category. As the item did arrive, regardless if it were to a crook or not.

I had to first cancel the payment on paypal, then I used the cancellation button on etsy. Here is the help page for etsy

http://www.etsy.com/help/article/1945?ref=help_search_result

I do not want to exclude other countries but I do want to protect myself (and the customer) from scams without either one of us paying more than we should whilst having a smooth transaction. And in todays world when it comes to your personal information you must safe guard yourself at every step.

I just want everyone else selling to know this issue as another cost of doing business you need to be aware of.

I would love to hear any input any one else has on this......

♥
(¯`v´¯)
.`•.¸.•´ ♥
¸.•´.•´¨) ¸.•¨)
(¸.•´(¸.•´ (¸.•¨¯`* ♥ Tammy ♥

[Innovatora]

Hey everyone,

This is such a great thread, thanks for starting it, Tammy. I do have a couple of questions myself, as I have not run into this specific problem, but I am eager to learn more.

Under the "select a location" tab when listing a new item, Etsy gives us the choice to set shipping prices for different countries. South Africa is one of them, no?

But I often find that when I set general shipping prices for an item, I have to figure the farthest distance from where I live, which is the highest shipping price. That farthest distance would be California for me. If the customer happens to live closer, I would refund the extra shipping charges through Paypal.

I haven't heard of the NON- US Verified problem, which seems sketchy. Is it because Paypal verified them with a foreign bank account and/or credit card and that leaves open an opportunity to claim they have not received the package? And does Paypal refund them the money without your knowledge or consent?

And as for "partial" refund, Paypal refunds the seller but the item may not be returned to the seller. Correct?

I do think it is a good idea to place insurance on a high dollar item, since there is always the possibility of the item to get lost in the mail or damaged during the delivery. I don't have this experience, but I am assuming that this is a safe practice for the customer and the seller.

Thanks for providing the article, Tammy. And the item did arrive safely to the customer, you say?

Anyone else with input or experience with this, please share!

Monique

[Former_Member]

The item is still on the way, I will have to update you.

Yes the only way you can program individual shipping is to select a shipping amount for each individual country.. I count about 240 countries in the list. It would take all afternoon... or you "pick" specific countries you ship to the most and then choose a different price for "everywhere else"

So it looks like you have to lump over 200 countries into "everywhere else" but... regardless from what I see there is nothing stopping anyone from halfway around the world from buying your item. And you may be selling something that is $16 and giving free shipping, though its going to cost you $100 to ship it to them.

It would be great if you had a profile you could create for your shop that just completely excludes countries you do not want to sell to. Pay pal has no such option either. If someone clicks buy, the sale goes through... regardless how they are verified.

(((UPDATE))) I looked around and found that you can add a "shipping profile" http://www.etsy.com/help/article/190

Not sure how to do this yet... but we can give it a try..

And fyi, yes etsy did reverse all the fees of this transaction. I had cancelled mostly because the buyer had given me a PO box, and of course you cannot ship to a PO box.

But now, yes the order went through and my dragon is going to be apart of a wedding in south africa :)
Its cool to sell internationally, but you need to be careful and take each sale case by case.

And be sure to check "everywhere else" in shipping and put a price. You can guestimate prices for shipping USPS on the website. Here is etsys shipping guide http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2009/seller-how-to-shipping/

If anyone else knows of a better way or trys the shipping profile, love to hear your comments

Tammy

[Innovatora]

Yes, there are many countries to choose from, and it would take too long to list every country's shipping price.

That's where the "everywhere else" comes in, so that different countries can be grouped under one label. But shipping prices can range greatly from one area to the next. As a seller, I figure the most expensive area to ship to is the "everywhere else" shipping cost of the item.

I have not heard of the shipping profile; will need to check that out.

Also, glad your order went through!

Monique

P.S.- As Tammy said, if anyone has information on this topic or on the Etsy shipping profile, let us know!

[Former_Member]

OMG, Monique I just had an epiphany!!

If you just choose what countries you want to ship to, but DONT choose "everywhere else" then...

Anyone from everywhere else is excluded from buying your item?

This things driving me crazy lol! I'm losing sleep!

Tammy

[Innovatora]

Hey Tammy,

I asked your question in the forums and I received a response along the lines of "If you don't list 'everywhere else' as your shipping option, then you can only ship to the countries you listed in your shipping profile."

Here is a link that explains shipping profiles further:
http://www.etsy.com/help/article/190

Let me know if this helps!

Monique