Shipping to China

[katlover1952]

Does anyone here ship to China? (I know they ship to us all the time LOL)  I have just had a bid from someone who lives in China. I do not show that I will ship to China but I have never put in countries that I do ship to. Figure most people would like to know the shipping cost BEFORE they bid. But this week have had 2 bidders (1 a buyer) who have bid even though I don't show as shipping there. The buyer was from the Ukraine and thought that perhaps it would be best to have tracking and of course this made the shipping quite a lot. When I sent the invoice I did offer to cancel if she felt she no longer wanted the item because of the cost to ship but have not heard from her yet.

Is there a way to bulk revise all your listing to add the countries you will not ship to. I really don't want the hassle of cancelling etc so perhaps I should be more prudent and list countries I will not ship to.

On another note what countries have other sellers had problems with and will not ship to.

I normally put in the cost for US, UK, France, Germany, Australia & Japan. I also show that I will ship to Europe but they would need to contact me for the costs.

[westernstargifts]

I ship worldwide and I can't say that I have had more problems with one country over another.  I have also occasionally shipped to China with no problems at all from that country.

I don't block countries so I can't give you an answer about the bulk edit.  If you don't want to ship to those countries they should be blocked or you risk a negative and a defect if you cancel the order without the buyer initiating the request to do so.

[sporting_pro]

Yes, there are a few countries we block. Namely Brazil as we have over 8 items shipped there and buyers filed DNRs. (1 buyer got the item 10 weeks later and resent the payment to us). We also put a note in our listings to South American / Africa / Mediterranean countries as those countries tend to not arrived by Canada Post guidelines...

You can turn on the DO NOT SHIP TO countries in your setting and it will automatically adjust for all your posts.

Hope this helps!

(and if i were you, i would, i rather not risk a negative feedback with 1 less buyer/bidder)

[vintagenorth]

Hi, you can set blocks by going to your Accounts; Site Preferences; Exclude shipping locations for your listings and edit to add those you don't wish to ship to, then click on Apply to all current listings, then click on Apply to save.

[ricarmic]

What I have done with China and Brazil is set the shipping rate for that country to require tracking. (Fortunately both China and Brazil are listed separately, as is Russia).

This seriously reduced the number of purchases, from those countries, however in the last few months I've had folks from China especially buying a number of items so that the relative amount of shipping is not so bad, so it has been working in that respect.

[reallynicestamps]

My stuff is pretty cheap, and stamp collectors are an obsessively honest bunch, so I don't worry about it much.

But I have had problems with slow delivery to Brazil, Italy and Spain. The customers were understanding.

And I find French customers a bit demanding but honestly so.

I don't ship to Africa (although I will accept orders from RSA and Egypt) and have had a lot of problems with Israeli buyers, about 50/50 on complaints of various sorts.

[realjazz-123]

Tracked shipping to China is expensive. For me a single package is $23 untracked and $84  tracked!!!  Every time you ship to China without tracking, you are are risking an INR email from buyer. A few days ago I got one (I shipped untracked) and on follow up call to PAYPAL, I was told that buyer will almost ALWAYS  be refunded in INR claim when there is no tracking. In other words, the cost of item and your own risk tolerance are factors. Shipping only with tracking will greatly reduce risks of INR but also GREATLY reduces the number of sales and bids. It is a very frustrating dilemma I face with each international sale.

[widgetc]

I do stamps too. I have shipped to China perhaps 100 times with one loss only. Israeli buyers have been my worst with problems about 10% of the time. Nowhere else is even remotely that bad. Brazil no losses but several slow arrivals.

[reallynicestamps]

Shipping only with tracking will greatly reduce risks of INR but also GREATLY reduces the number of sales and bids.

Cookie Jar Insurance.

Also there are third party insurers who will do one-off or annual contracts.

We use a mixture of Cookie Jar (self-insurance-- add a few pennies to every single item to cover occasional losses) and Hugh Wood International Insurance for high value shipments.

There are times when postal insurance and eBay Seller Protection are just not enough coverage.