eBay

memorychips · ‎11-10-2016

Hi, I really take pride sending international parcels. However one country in particular gives me serious issues. Israel. Almost all parcels get lost when sending from north america (canada) to Israel. Does anyone else in USA or Canada have issues sending to Israel? Is it anything to do with war zone? None of the parcels sent via small packet ever end up coming back to my address as return to sender (maybe air parcel small packet are abandoned and not returned? anyone know?)

I've also had some issues sending to Brazil, however more customers I have from Israel.

Now really, I do want to send parcels to Israel... I ordered hard drives from Israel and I received them, but when I send parcels to Israel they disappear and never arrive, and never return to sender. What gives?

So I've had to block all buyers from Israel, sadly. I don't want to, but had to make this decision. I'm losing lots of money on that country.

ricarmic · ‎11-10-2016

Lost or seized at customs?

Here is the link to import restrictions by country:

http://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/manual

and click on international destination listing

I noticed Israel has import restrictions for:

radios, telephones and other electronic equipment

I don't see anything specific about batteries.

I don't see anything about auto parts.

memorychips · ‎11-10-2016

I am not sure if the items are being seized at customs because I do not ever get the parcel back, nor any communication from customs of any kind.....

I am wondering if small packet air parcels (no tracking) are ever returned to sender, because I don't see a "return to sender" text on the parcel, whereas with expedited parcels there is a note on the parcel saying "Return at senders expense at current postal rates" or similar. Are air parcels small packet just abandoned and thrown in the garbage if there is a delivery issue?

Would customs, if they had an issue, every try to contact anyone? or they just chuck it in the garbage, out of site, out of mind, informing no one... That seems to be somewhat the way it is happening... as I never hear anything, see anything, or have any communication of any kind, other than from the buyer saying "I did not receive my parcel". And I have no clue why.

Thanks for your help. And, it doesn't appear to be a restricted item as it's mostly auto parts I ever send to Israel.

ricarmic · ‎11-10-2016

I'm no expert, but I don't expect there is any communication for seized items.

I'm lucky my stuff (stamps) is normally on the ok list....

I do remember in the days when people paid by cash, folks in Brazil devised many ways to try to get cash via mail out of the country (which they weren't supposed to do). When it got discovered on its way out of Brazil, the letter was opened, the cash "seized" (ie in the pocket of the inspector) and the letter sealed back up and on its way again... got lots of empty letters in the olden days, the Brazilians just kept trying.....and eventually one got through!

marnotom! · ‎11-10-2016

@memorychips wrote:

I am not sure if the items are being seized at customs because I do not ever get the parcel back, nor any communication from customs of any kind.....

I am wondering if small packet air parcels (no tracking) are ever returned to sender, because I don't see a "return to sender" text on the parcel, whereas with expedited parcels there is a note on the parcel saying "Return at senders expense at current postal rates" or similar. Are air parcels small packet just abandoned and thrown in the garbage if there is a delivery issue?

Small packet service is just an extension of letter mail service. Items sent by small packet go into the letter mail stream.

In theory, undeliverable small packets should be returned to sender just as an undeliverable international letter would be. However, they tend to be shipped by surface mail which takes considerably longer.

How often do you get shipments to Israel? Have they all had this problem?

femmefan1946 · ‎11-10-2016

Brazil and Israel are two of the very few countries I won't ship to.

Too many problems.

Brazil's problems seem to come from unsatisfactory customs and postal systems.

No idea what is the problem with Isreal which I think of as a 'first world' country.

Turkey is also problematic enough that Paypal no longer supports clients there.

maggiebvintage2010 · ‎11-10-2016

Here is an interesting article:

http://www.timesofisrael.com/israelis-go-postal-over-failing-mail-system-but-it-could-be-a-lot-worse...

Apparently many areas do not have home delivery. Also, the zip codes are similar to US zip codes, and mail often gets delivered to the US. The country should be the last line, after the zip code, and Israel should be printed using very large letters.

https://www.tripadvisor.ca/ShowTopic-g293977-i1733-k7641867-Letter_from_US_to_Israel_1st_Class_Mail_...

memorychips · ‎11-11-2016

marnotom!, Are small packets also part of letter mail or is that light packet? Light packet is essentially exactly the same as letter mail but small packets a little bit bigger than letter mail... That's interesting if they get returned to sender for free without charge! Because expedited parcels cost money, which annoys me. If an ebay user gives a bad address, I take the hit, and pay the return fees on the parcel. With small packet that won't happen, it just takes forever for it to come back?

Maybe when Jesus returns to Israel for the second coming, he can fix the mail there. Hopefully! Crossing fingers.

tobyshitzu · ‎11-11-2016

"

Turkey is also problematic enough that Paypal no longer supports clients there.'

Paypal was forced out by the gov refusing to renew their license (to favour domestic banks). They didnt want to leave

marnotom! · ‎11-11-2016

@memorychips wrote:

marnotom!, Are small packets also part of letter mail or is that light packet? Light packet is essentially exactly the same as letter mail but small packets a little bit bigger than letter mail...

I think you've pretty much answered your own question. Light Packets are essentially glorified oversized letters. So are Small Packets for that matter.

femmefan1946 · ‎11-11-2016

Thank you for that information.

All (both) the Turks I know are such straight arrows, I wondered what the nation had done to annoy PP.

But it was the other way around.

Mind you, with so many teachers, journalists and lawyers being jailed, I'm not sure I'd like to ship to Turkey anyway.

Anonymous · ‎11-13-2016

Just include Tracked Packet or XpressPost for outside North American and I noticed I no longer get any buyers from Spain, Brazil and Brussels due to the hefty shipping costs which help a lot as the eBay system is not helping to "exclude" countries which they are not included.

ypdc_dennis · ‎11-13-2016

@femmefan1946 wrote:
Thank you for that information.
All (both) the Turks I know are such straight arrows, I wondered what the nation had done to annoy PP.
But it was the other way around.

Mind you, with so many teachers, journalists and lawyers being jailed, I'm not sure I'd like to ship to Turkey anyway.

T's answer is not quite correct (this wasn't about favouring Turkish banks). Paypal was forced out because the main sticking point was the requirement that paypal's Turkish financial transaction information had to be stored in the country of Turkey (and by logical extension, available to the dictator's minions).

Paypal: “Our suspension of services is a result of new national regulations overseen by the BDDK that require PayPal to fully localize our information technology systems in Turkey.”

-..-

tobyshitzu · ‎11-13-2016

If you look into more in depth articles on this you'll see there is strong speculation the motive behind this is to advantage BKM , the turkish bank consortium pushing credit cards and payments and domestic Lyzico. Paypal had operated there for 8 years, now conditions to get rid of them.

tobyshitzu · ‎11-13-2016

n illustration of such protectionism is playing out in Turkey. In April, Turkish banks launched Troy, a national payment-network champion. In June, PayPal withdrew from the Turkish market. The U.S. company could not get a new license from regulators in the country over Turkey's insistence that processing infrastructure be housed locally. But the move was seen as favoring the Turkish competitor.

https://www.paymentssource.com/opinion/governments-should-just-butt-out-of-payments-competition