No return address/shipping over seas

[LoopHole]

Anyone here from the US ship a lot of international packages? I ship out 20 a month and never had a problem until recently. I always mark my packages as "Gift" and include the price on the customs form ect. Recently i had a buyer complain that he has to pay extra or something like that. Im guessing he got charged some type of customs or tax fee? Any idea how to avoid this extra fee?


Second question, what happens to an item that is shipped over seas and the buyer refuses it. But the return address is unavailable. Means no one lives there. Does it go back to the receiver? Or what happens to it..


Last question, has anyone been using the option in pp shipping label Return Address: "other"? It allows you to type in a different return address than the one on your pp. I am a little skeptical about using this. I feel like pp is monitoring this also. After all what do they not monitor now days.

[rsot]

1. Some countries do have cut off on value considered as "Gift" - e.g. if you send something 250+ (or 150+ - I think it's 150...) from US to Canada, won't matter if you mark as Gift or not - the SHEER value of the item will make it subject to duties. Way to avoid this fee? You mark the item as low value and hope customs does not think the size/contents gives its true values away.

2. If refused - goes back to receiver VIA CHEAPEST SHIPPING MEANS POSSIBLE i.e. boat/surface. If not return address? Then the item is sent to country of initial stamp/post fees-paid and sits in a bin as unclaimed. After 6 months (think this is the cut off time), if unclaimed, is opened and either sent to charity/taken by postal work/destroyed.

3. I would NEVER provide old address to pp, OTHER or not - figure pp monitors EVERYTHING.

[LoopHole]

Originally Posted by rsot

1. Some countries do have cut off on value considered as "Gift" - e.g. if you send something 250+ (or 150+ - I think it's 150...) from US to Canada, won't matter if you mark as Gift or not - the SHEER value of the item will make it subject to duties. Way to avoid this fee? You mark the item as low value and hope customs does not think the size/contents gives its true values away.

2. If refused - goes back to receiver VIA CHEAPEST SHIPPING MEANS POSSIBLE i.e. boat/surface. If not return address? Then the item is sent to country of initial stamp/post fees-paid and sits in a bin as unclaimed. After 6 months (think this is the cut off time), if unclaimed, is opened and either sent to charity/taken by postal work/destroyed.

3. I would NEVER provide old address to pp, OTHER or not - figure pp monitors EVERYTHING.

Lesson learned. I should i never put down the real price of the item on that stupid form

How about using stamps.com instead of pp usps labels to change the return address on the label? Do you know if they allow you to do that. Or is it what name/address you fill out that must be the return address. Can you even ship packages without a return address?

[rsot]

Stamps.com is a service I have not used yet so my knowledge is a failure on this topic.

[LoopHole]

Originally Posted by rsot

Stamps.com is a service I have not used yet so my knowledge is a failure on this topic.

Do you use any other service than pp shipping?

[GTB]

something to add

if you send an item overseas and its true value is 100usd and you declare it as been 40usd and the parcel gets lost....will you be able to claim back the full value?

[rsot]

@loophole, when i operated my Canada pp's, I use Canada Post - when I operate my US pp's, I do manual shipping - yeah it gets dicey.

@GTB, you will only be able to claim the value you have declared...there are pros and cons to every fashion of shipping.

[LoopHole]

Originally Posted by GTB

something to add

if you send an item overseas and its true value is 100usd and you declare it as been 40usd and the parcel gets lost....will you be able to claim back the full value?

I asked this question at the post office. The lady told me you will only get the value back that you wrote down. That is why i always put down the real amount.

[GTB]

tricky one then

you would be able to show proof of the true value coz you can print evidence off ebay

and try blag it.......sayin you put wrong amount by mistake

probs would not make any difference

[teedon]

Originally Posted by LoopHole

I asked this question at the post office. The lady told me you will only get the value back that you wrote down. That is why i always put down the real amount.

In my opinion,i will take rsot advise to mark the package to low value to make sure our customers will not need to pay the taxes or import duty ,so this will good for complete the deal more safe and quicly.

Regarding claiming the value back ,i think the possiblity is very little for the goods being lost during the transport,so we can denny this .

Of cource ,you can compare the two cost to see which is more better and use it.But my first consideration is make sure my customer can get the package finally.

[GTB]

yeah true,customers dont want to be paying custom fees unless you warn them in advance

but if the item is like $1000 and you declare it is $50 and it gets lost then you are up sh*t street lol

get out the scales and weigh up your options