eBay

triber · ‎10-23-2012

Before I moved to our present address 2 years ago, we worked on a missionary school campus with many families for 34 years, and we only had PO boxes, we never had a problem with it. I see sellers often refuse to send to them.

The addresses I have had problems with are business names, a library, a museum, etc.

femmefan1946 · ‎11-08-2012

WRONG: the reason sellers won't ship to PO Boxes is because #1 they can charge more for Courier Services

The seller does not get this money. It goes to the courier. And if the item is returned for a refund, the buyer gets his shipping fee back and the seller is now in a negative cash position.

#2 the Courier Company's charge atrocious fees for collecting Duties & Taxes to International Countries. Duty $3.50, Tax $3.50 Collection Fees: $50.00

Courier fees are high, but they start around $25 and vary depending on the value of the item. And the Tax you quote would be on an item that cost under $30, depending on province. A $50 customs brokerage fee would not apply.

Shipping via USPS / CANADA POST: Duties & Taxes the same. Collection Fee: $0.00 so that's priceless to me.

Canada Post charges $8.50 (or more) as a service fee for negotiating the border. If you are not charging this, you are doing your job incorrectly.

Do your homework before stating lies.

Pot meet kettle.

Whoever told you you can't get Tracking #'s for PO Boxes is an out and out LIAR....USPS / CANADA POST give tracking #'s on ALL addresses, regardless if it's a Street Address or PO box.

Tracking, true tracking, is only available on certain services. Regular Parcel and Expedited Parcel offer only Delivery Confirmation. Which is really all that Paypal requires. For tracking the seller must move to ExpressPost or Priority Post.

Small Packet offers only insurance.

From USPS, the seller who wants Delivery Confirmation must purchase a form of Global Priority which starts around $20-25, and again, this money goes to USPS and not to the seller.

pocomocomputing · ‎11-08-2012

Canada Post handling fee went to $9.95 in August. It was $8.50 briefly (about 1 year) and was $5.00 before that.

http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/aboutus/news/announcements/customsfee.jsf

Canada Post has been collecting duties and taxes on behalf of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) for many years, and is compensated for this service through a handling fee charged to customers. As of August 18, 2012, this handling fee will rise from $8.50 to $9.95 for all mail that has been assessed with import duties and/or taxes by CBSA.

Canada Post is mandated to be financially self-sufficient and therefore must ensure that we reflect the true costs in providing products and services. Despite this change, Canada Post still offers the most competitive all-in price for international parcel shipments.

Items that clear Customs before August 18 will be subject to the current rate; items clearing Customs as of August 18 will be subject to the $9.95 handling fee.

inuk_the_polar_bear · ‎11-08-2012

I was taught a "work around" for the "no PO box" thingee. Up Here in the sub Arctic we have one postal code, no home delivery, one post office. Everyone has a PO box.

There are always two lines on the address for deliver to. We simply put the street address on line 1 and the PO box on line 2.

Line 1 gets the parcel shipped to "NO PO BOXES". Line 2 puts a card in the PO box to go to the counter to get the parcel.

recyclemikey · ‎11-13-2012

It's not so much Canada Post that gives me a hard time shipping to PO boxes, it's Paypal.

Twice, I've had someone claim not to have received the package when I sent it to a PO box and they put a claim in through Paypal who gave them back their money.

Sure I was able to get the cash back from the shipper, but what a run-around. It took 90-120 days in some cases.

now I'll only ship to PO boxes if the buyer has more then 20-30 feedback and at least 5 over the past few months.

zeetoner · ‎11-24-2012

I have never had any issues shipping to a PO Box in Canada with Canada Post or with Canada Post to a PO Box in the US

On the contrary - I have had some issues shipping from Canada to a street address in the US with Canada Post - In some places in the US - a street address does not get mail - but there is no real way to know this until after you ship

Now I use USPS via Champlain - so PO Box is not a problem and the street addresses are verified too

You can also verify a street address in USA on USPS

PS - I also ship by FEDEX express to US and Canada - I get about 50% off the rack rates - anyone interested - please contact me

leon@zeetoner.com

nuvistors · ‎11-24-2012

Many small communities in Canada do not have delivery to a street address. The only way they can get mail is to go to the post office where they have a post office box. If something will not fit in the box a notice is left in the box.

A far more secure way of delivery than any street address in Canada.

mother2bedirect · ‎01-02-2013

As many others we are in a remote area with no street addresses and numbers. We use a PO box number to receive all our post. Our Ebay and our Paypal Account is also registered to the same PO BOX!

When we have an item delivered, they insert a card in our box and every time we have to sign at the counter when we present the collection card. I think this is the most secure way to receive an item. We have never had an item lost. I remember when I received a phone call from the post office telling me that they found an item which belongs to me. It was a CD in a thin envelope posted almost 4 months previously and because of it’s size it was not discovered for all that time. But never mind this is not my point.

A few months ago and until Ebay did their maintenance works, … when we ordered something and the sellers did not post to PO Boxes, after paypal and ebay accepted and confirmed our purchase they used to ask us to provide an alternative address other than a PO BOX or contact the seller as he/she did not post to Boxes. But by then we were already committed to the purchase, which was a problem if we didn’t have an alternative address. There was nowhere mentioned that the seller does not post to PO BOXES. If that was excluded and mentioned in the postage details, then I would go and buy from elsewhere.

Now after their “maintenance” (late 2012), for four or fives times when I tried to purchase something, at the last moment just when I hit Confirm payment at the last page of Paypal, I get a meaningless error message “Sorry we are unable to process your request. Please try again. You may need to retry your checkout”. Well I pulled my hair out, I got even more meaningless advice from Ebay and Paypal representatives, ebay blaming Paypal and Paypal blaming their security checks, ebay again advising that is due to the fact the seller requires immediate payment. BUT WHEN I CHANGED THE DELIVERY ADDRESS TO A STREET ONE, THE PURCHASE WAS COMPLETED WITH NO PROBLEM. I think the people behind the help desks have to go for a couple of hours for a refresher course.

I sincerely hope that Someone with clout in EBAY will read this and do something about it.

First we want to stop sellers from excluding posting to PO BOXES (if they do not use courier companies as we all know they do not deliver to Boxes)

Second make sellers state clearly where they post to, or not, in their exclusions.

Please write your experiences as we need Ebay to fix this!

vintagevidds · ‎02-29-2016

What will they do when all of Canada is switched to PO boxes which started last year.

If your a canadian and want to get around this simply sign up for Fleximail with Canada Post. This will allow you to pick the closet Canada Post Depot as your new ship to address and you will no longer have the limitations placed by eBay.

One other thing most sellers dont know is you have to change your options on your eBay account. However I still refuse to ship to PO boxes in the US. Not ran like they are in Canada.

femmefan1946 · ‎02-29-2016

Zombie thread from 2012.

And FWIW, the new government has put a hold on installing new community mailboxes. We'll see how that goes.

With Canada Post talking about how lettermail is less and less important to them, and e-commerce using the postal system more and more for deliveries, it makes sense to me that the very insecure community mailbox system will go by the board in the near future.

It may be replaced by larger post offices where everyone has to pick up the mail rather than getting any form of delivery. Or they may return to doorstep delivery, but reduced delivery days.

They haven't asked me yet.

dutchman48 · ‎02-29-2016

This is what a seller in the UK told me why they won't ship to any PO Box in the world

Up until last year, Royal Mail stated that they would not deliver any Registered packets to any P.O.Box in any country. They have since relaxed that to a few - Canada is I believe one of them. We have had a few packages go missing to P.O.Boxes globally that are registered and have never received insurance payments from Royal Mail - not for any missing package - we are still fighting all the cases and as of today - zero.

Unfortunately, we cannot send to P.O.Boxes registered - I will be happy to send regular mail with no insurance at buyers risk

pjcdn2005 · ‎03-01-2016

@vintagevidds wrote:
What will they do when all of Canada is switched to PO boxes which started last year.

If your a canadian and want to get around this simply sign up for Fleximail with Canada Post. This will allow you to pick the closet Canada Post Depot as your new ship to address and you will no longer have the limitations placed by eBay.

One other thing most sellers dont know is you have to change your options on your eBay account. However I still refuse to ship to PO boxes in the US. Not ran like they are in Canada.

As mentioned, that plan has been put on hold but we've received our mail in one of those mail boxes for 12+ years and the mail is addressed to our house address, there is no p.o box given.

In what way are the post offices boxes not run the same way in the U.S.? It's actually safer to have an item in a locked box then to have it left on the doorstep at a house.

reallynicestamps · ‎03-02-2016

In what way are the post offices boxes not run the same way in the U.S.?

I believe they are.

PO Boxes are the safest addresses. Much safer than the 'box at the bottom of a 500 yard driveway' which seems so common in the States. Courier boxes (like UPS or Mailboxes Etc. are almost as safe.

The problem is that many US sellers use courier shipping because they pickup from the shipper, always track and include insurance. If the seller brings the item to the courier, they will even pack it.

But.

PO employees cannot and will not sign for the owner of the PO box.

So couriers don't ship to PO box addresses.

And ~~dumb~~ naive new sellers would just copy the Terms of Sale of experienced sellers, without trying to understand the reason for the refusal, and somehow it became gospel that PO Boxes were an unsafe address.

Someone (perhaps you, pjcdn) was saying that the reason we should not Register shipments is that the USPS does not accept responsibility for those anymore? Could you elucidate, or am I waay off base?

pjcdn2005 · ‎03-02-2016

It wasn't me. You might be referring to dutchman's post about registered mail and the UK.

hlmacdon · ‎03-02-2016

@reallynicestamps wrote:
In what way are the post offices boxes not run the same way in the U.S.?

I believe they are.
PO Boxes are the safest addresses. Much safer than the 'box at the bottom of a 500 yard driveway' which seems so common in the States. Courier boxes (like UPS or Mailboxes Etc. are almost as safe.

The problem is that many US sellers use courier shipping because they pickup from the shipper, always track and include insurance. If the seller brings the item to the courier, they will even pack it.
But.
PO employees cannot and will not sign for the owner of the PO box.
So couriers don't ship to PO box addresses.
And ~~dumb~~ naive new sellers would just copy the Terms of Sale of experienced sellers, without trying to understand the reason for the refusal, and somehow it became gospel that PO Boxes were an unsafe address.

Someone (perhaps you, pjcdn) was saying that the reason we should not Register shipments is that the USPS does not accept responsibility for those anymore? Could you elucidate, or am I waay off base?

Couriers can deliver to USPS post office boxes, provided the buyer is signed up for the USPS street addressing service for their post office box, which results in the address being denoted with a # (also gets interpreted as Unit or Suite by some software) and carrying the street address of the post office rather than being denoted with simply PO BOX XXXXX in place of the street address.

For Canadians near border towns it is a great service to sign up for, as the low yearly fee is considerably cheaper to pay versus the per package fees of other forwarding/receiving services, assuming you get a decent volume of items.

awisewon · ‎06-06-2016

Y es they are tracked UPS & FEDX can be stolen from your Deck before you get home to get the item or you miss them and have to go pick it up from UPS or Fedx

femmefan1946 · ‎06-07-2016

Royal Mail stated that they would not deliver any Registered packets to any P.O.Box in any country.

It is my understanding that Paypal and eBay do not recognize 'registered' mail as being electronically viewable. So using that particular service would be wasted money.

Canada Post offers several Delivery Confirmed or Tracked services which are accepted by PP and eBay.

https://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/far/business/findARate?execution=e1s1

This is a useful website and worth bookmarking.

Notes-- use metric measurements. And 90210 is still a memorable US postal code.

And once any shipment arrives in another country, the originating postal system's responsibility ends, no matter what the service purchased was.

Some countries do have handling agreements outside of the Universal Postal Union, but don't count on it.

hlmacdon · ‎06-07-2016

@femmefan1946 wrote:
Royal Mail stated that they would not deliver any Registered packets to any P.O.Box in any country.

It is my understanding that Paypal and eBay do not recognize 'registered' mail as being electronically viewable. So using that particular service would be wasted money.
Canada Post offers several Delivery Confirmed or Tracked services which are accepted by PP and eBay.
https://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/far/business/findARate?execution=e1s1

USPS has lead the push for Registered Mail to be dropped as far as tracking visibility is concerned. USPS and Canada Post are on board with that with more countries to follow. We'll likely be seeing increased costs for international inbound shipping with tracking with the push to epacket, post express/tracked packet. Going to be interesting for countries that have relied upon low cost lettermail rates associated with registered mail.

lorhodgso-0 · ‎01-24-2017

Basically, those of us who live in rural areas are second class citizens. We can't order because we have no physical address that couriers will deliver too and PO boxes are also seen as second class. We can't get high speed internet without paying a fortune for data.
So much for all citizens being equal

marnotom! · ‎01-24-2017

@hlmacdon wrote:

Going to be interesting for countries that have relied upon low cost lettermail rates associated with registered mail.

If you're thinking of Asian countries, what they call "registered mail" appears to be a completely different ball of wax than here in North America and other countries.

Registered mail here is tracked and recorded manually, whereas for Asian-Pacific Postal Union countries have their registration system set-up electronically. That largely accounts for it being less expensive there than here.