Shipping to spain any issues?

[musicyouneed]

Hi I sent a CD to Spain on Nov 1/16.  It was to a town in the Costa Del Sol near Malaga.  The buyer contacted me today Nov 25 that he had not yet received the CD.  I asked him to hold off until next Thursday and if he hasn't received it I would repay him.  

I have sent a couple of CD's to Spain in the past and not had any issues.  I sort of have a policy that if things get lost in a country, besides Canada and the US, I may reconsider not shipping there again.  

I just wondered what your experience has been?

[pjcdn2005]

I don't ship there often but havent had any problems when I do.

[silverpinups]

I sent a couple "higher value" items to Spain this Summer. I sent them Xpresspost with the full declared value and they sat in Customs for roughly 2 weeks (I'm not kidding).

They were finally delivered, but it took 3 weeks for Xpresspost!!

There are long customs delays in that country for some reason and I don't think I will be doing business there in the future.

This is what I would explain to your customer....   

[recped]

I wish more of my old Spanish buyers would return. Unfortunately most of them dropped eBay when the Euro dropped in 2009, USPS rates went up and many US sellers started using GSP.

Still get a few orders (92 since 2009) and never had any serious issues.

[ricarmic]

I do not sell a lot of stuff to Spain but I have never lost anything to Spain so far....

[musicyouneed]

So even if this person gets the CD.  Ebay estimated the delivery to be:

If he gets the CD, I will get a late shipment ding even though it was sent the next day, and if he didn't get it, I am out the money for the CD and the shipping.   I guess Spain and Australia will go on my no fly list. 

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

I have had a couple of problems selling to Spain. One small box I sent made it to the Spanish post office but it sat there for a few weeks. They never contacted the buyer to pick it up & then it was returned to me. I only know this as there was a sticker on it explaining why it was returned & my postal lady can read Spanish. Took about 2 months from when I first sent it to get it returned back to me. I don't ship there anymore.

[silverpinups]

There are problems in Spain and I'm sure your business there is sporadic at best so excluding them from your ship to countries is probably your best option.

I wouldn't block Australia though, it's a good country to ship to with very honest people.

I ship there on a regular basis without a problem.  

[musicyouneed]

Thanks, I am going to block Spain from now on.  

I have had quite a few sales to Australia (USA 1st, Canada 2nd and Australia 3rd) and everything arrives but not within the time period that ebay specifies.  Australia is a huge country like Canada and if you are sending to some small hick town, population 5,000 in the middle of nowhere, the ETA is not long enough.   I just hate those late dings.  If Ebay changed their ETA by a week, then no problem, but the late dings are a problem for me. 

[recped]

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@musicyouneed wrote:

So even if this person gets the CD.  Ebay estimated the delivery to be:

If he gets the CD, I will get a late shipment ding even though it was sent the next day, and if he didn't get it, I am out the money for the CD and the shipping.   I guess Spain and Australia will go on my no fly list. 

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Where are you seeing that?????

[musicyouneed]

Hi you see the estimated delivery on the order details page.  

[silverpinups]

eBay's estimated delivery times need to be extended by a week across the board.

I haven't had any problems as of yet with "late shipping" defects but their timelines for delivery are just alittle too tight....

[recped]

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@musicyouneed wrote:

Hi you see the estimated delivery on the order details page.  

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And you see delivery dates from two weeks ago? If so that's clearly a glitch.

When I look (on .ca) at a current listings of yours it shows shipping to Spain as "Estimated Delivery within 8 -12 business days" which would be December 7 - 13.

When I look on .com I see "Estimated between Fri. Dec. 9 and Thu. Dec. 15"

When I look on .es I see "Prevista entre el vie. 9 dic. y el jue. 15 dic. "

These would be the estimates if I bought and paid today.

[recped]

OK so I just noticed (again) this part......

Hi I sent a CD to Spain on Nov 1/16

So yes the estimate given in the order details would be accurate with the estimates I'm see for current listings.

Things is, they are estimates, I find they ones eBay provides are mostly pretty reasonable but obviously sometimes things take longer.

If you want to extend those estimates then use a generic shipping service such as "standard International" instead of a specific service like Small Packet that will get you a longer estimate. You can also extend your handling time although I see you already have 3 days.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

I have sent to Spain like maybe once a year with no issues, but then again I have ridiculously long handling time set (5 - 10 business days depending on item) for the sake of avoiding late defects. Personally I ship in about 3 business days because of my own work schedule I can't go to the post office within 1 business day. Ever since I changed my handling time to ridiculously long, and switched my shipping method to surface (I do still ship Air in actuality) so that the delivery estimate is super long (or unavailable to some places) I haven't had any new late defects, but it certainly is eating into my sales and I might need to change that up after Xmas if I don't get enough Xmas sales to stay TRS...... I had 4 INRs last year post-Xmas so I'm not changing anything until maybe February. I have a good November (27 sales! More than my June-October combined lol) so my TRS is still safe for now. But yeah, if your sales to Spain is minimal I'd stop shipping there. I blocked a few European countries because of the INRs and late defects I got last Winter.

[momcqueen]

I've never lost anything destined for Spain but it does seem to take a little longer than the buyer is comfortable to wait. 

[musicyouneed]

Does standard shipping give me more time than international light packet?  If so how many days more?  

I am trying to get economy shipping as I do on .com but Raphael stated that won't happen until next year.  

[musicyouneed]

Would dropping this off at chit chat make it any longer?  It was coming from Vancouver to Spain through Chit Chat?  I do know that it added a few days to my expedited parcel to ON.   Just wondering for those who have experience. 

[recped]

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@musicyouneed wrote:

Does standard shipping give me more time than international light packet?  If so how many days more?  

I am trying to get economy shipping as I do on .com but Raphael stated that won't happen until next year.  

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Maybe an extra couple of days.

FWIW, we both sell in the same category, I offer International worldwide without exclusion and get buyers from a pretty wide range of countries including the "high risk or slow" locations.

I have one "late delivery" in the past year and that was from a UK buyer who answered the "did you receive this before xxx" with a "No" (it was probably just a day or two late if that).

Since you can have up to 5% "late" for Global TRS I don't worry about it very much.

Add to that the fact you can qualify for TRS with either Global or US stats there is even less to worry about since I almost always have 0% late for US shipments.

[recped]

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@musicyouneed wrote:

Would dropping this off at chit chat make it any longer?  It was coming from Vancouver to Spain through Chit Chat?  I do know that it added a few days to my expedited parcel to ON.   Just wondering for those who have experience. 

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If you are really obsessed/concerned about late delivery stats.......Using Chit Chat for domestic Expedited WILL add a day or two over direct with Canada Post, I'm not sure how being in BC would affect that, it could add extra time if Chit Chat are sending those all to Toronto for processing.

The other issue is that it takes several days for Chit Chat to provide you with a tracking number to upload to eBay and then more time before it actually gets a scan. If you do your own CP postage you can easily upload the tracking and get a scan within your delivery time which guarantees you an on-time rating regardless of when it's delivered or what the buyer says when/if they leave feedback.

I actually just did an experiment with ChitChat  domestic Expedited service. It was a regional delivery (Postal code M to K) of a light item and because of this the savings were very small. I dropped it off at CC on Thursday afternoon, it still doesn't have a scan (they have now provided a tracking number) and I don't expect it will get one before Monday. If I had sent it direct it would have had an acceptance scan on Thursday and possibly even been delivered on Friday (definitely by Monday). As it is now it will probably be delivered on Tuesday.