Shipping to Russia & Kazahkstan: how come so many packages with tracking dissapears into thin air?

In the last two or three months, I had 3 or 4 packages sent to these countries with tracking number that doesn't reach destination and the buyers gets refunded either by eBay or Paypal.In one instance the buyer wrote that she had received her fur coat even if the tracking nbumber was never scan after leaving Canada.The worst I'm held responsablble by Paypal & eBay.I'm losing fur coats and payments and shipping costs.

In all instances, the buyer asked for shipping by ship "to save money"...

Any ideas? Any similar experience? Any suggestion?
Of course I'll never ship by ship overthere in the future...

Thank you for your time. I would appreciate your opinions or expériences.

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Re: Shipping to Russia & Kazahkstan: how come so many packages with tracking dissapears into th

The surface shipping problems aside, you might want to take a look at this important information regarding Russia:

 

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/Russian-Regulatory-Changes/m-p/193495#U193495

 

You have a difficult decision to make with respect to shipping -- your items (fur coats, etc.) look as if they're going to be fairly heavy and bulky to ship, which means that any air parcel service will be fairly costly, unless it's going to the US or Canada.  On the other hand, using surface shipping is going to continue to cause the problems you're running into, especially to places like Kazahkstan.

 

Buyers are always going to ask for the cheapest possible shipping rates, and then complain when items don't arrive on the other side of the world within their expected timeframe.  However, my view is that the seller must set the shipping service, not the buyer.  It may mean reducing the shipping costs to attract buyers.  At least you don't have the problem of breakage to be concerned about, so you won't have a lot of extra weight from protective packing material.

 

If most of your sales are outside Canada and the US, then providing shipping discounts to your buyers on air parcel shipping is the best thing you can do.  You then have to decide whether tracking and/or insurance are appropriate for your items.  I would imagine that a parcel marked "fur coat" might attract thieves in some parts of the world.

 

If the majority of your sales are to the US and Canada, you're in a much better position, as the air parcel rates are far better.  Even with an item of clothing that weighs over 2kg, Expedited Parcel is still fairly reasonable if the item value is relatively high. 

 

I sell a fair amount of clothing, but I long ago restricted my "ship-to" destinations to Canada, US, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and a few other countries with reliable postal systems.  You may have to do the same.

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Re: Shipping to Russia & Kazahkstan: how come so many packages with tracking dissapears into th

In all instances, the buyer asked for shipping by ship "to save money"...

 

And they did that to save even more money than you understood because they are scammers who planned to claim non-delivery and get their payment back.

 

The seller chooses the method of shipping that she believes will deliver the purchase promptly and securely. The buyer can either agree, pay, and get thier purchase, or not buy. 

 

Russians are no more nor less honest than any other nationality (no matter what my Ukrainian relations say) but every nation has its share of criminals.

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Re: Shipping to Russia & Kazahkstan: how come so many packages with tracking dissapears into th

Was it tracking number from PAYPAL or from Canada Post?

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