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I don't like filling out the International Shipping Paperwork!

Me neither - but 70% of my stuff needs it! :pout:

From here Italy and Spain are the worst - delivery times are often up to 6 weeks using Airmail or often the item just disappears!

I put tracking on everything but 99% of the time the China Post w/s is down and the alternative sites don't work. I put it on there in the hopes that any unscrupulous buyers will see it and think "damn! that's tracking, there's no way I can scam this guy..." so far it has worked quite well. :croc:

I try not to add up the cost I have shelled out on this kinda unnecessary extra. It is an extra 7rmb or 70p a parcel...if you times that by 10, by 100, by 1000!!! :shhh:

I Ship all my internationals via first class international, so tracking works until it leaves the country and I didn't find any country showing tracking info when it been shipped first class.
I have lost packages in Canada many times as in the US. I believe that 60% of this lost packages are dishonest costumers, but it is not too much you can do when you are the seller.
High risk countries are in the middle east. Asia, Europe, South America and Oceania are ok, Africa is little risky too.

2 months ago a costumer from france or Tunisia open a case agains me on PayPal after 2 days of purchase when item was already shipped. A week later he was not anymore a registered used on eBay. 100% scam
I contacted PayPal about this because 50% of my sales were canceled and refunded to sellers because this "buyer protection" plan. After all, 1 week ago this case was close in buyers favor. This is frustrating because every time international buyer open a case it is nothing you can do about it. PayPal will have to correct this in the future, because is very easy for International buyer to buy anything through PP and get it for free.

Hi! Im send two packages to Germany and never received by customers. : (

The last one by express and in tracking information: FRANKFURT Handed over customs, and 5 days in this status. Shipment by EMS from China to Germany.

Always

I wont ship to Italy. Every package I have sent was 2 months delivery. Every single one. Lucky for me all buyers were honest and let me know it actually made it and paid again. Will never ship there again.

Surprising. I get several packages a week from the US. Almost never have issues. I dont expect it in 3 days mind you

Been bad lately. The last year or so always sloooow. A few years back it was awesome. Faster then the US. But now....

It really is. In this day and age it blows me away that mail with tracking can be so messed up. It truly makes no sense with connectivity we have now

I dont ship anything without tracking. People are just so prone to screw with you when there is no tracking. They have no problem leaving a nasty feedback that they never received. But wont bother correcting it when they get it the next day.

If I cant ship with tracking of some kind, I dont ship

Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand for me, 95% I'd say show delivered and good tracking via Express.




True Story: Friend sends a package from US to China right before she is about to go to China. She writes "To China" on the upper left and "From US" on the bottom right.


Few days after she arrives to China, her package gets delivered in the US at her address. Lmao.

She spent 50$ to have the package go 1 mile around the block :D

3 out of 5 you're lucky!
Italy is the number 1 blacklisted country for lost mail.
Before I even started selling on eBay, I looked at other listings of my product to see how to best list.
Then I noticed lots of sellers saying they do not ship to Italy due to postal issues or high chance of lost mail.
I followed suit and blocked Italy. :FF:
On a global scale, Italy is the country with the highest incidence of thefts.
And Rome is ranked first for the city with the highest rates of pickpockets.
Even if your item makes it past the thieving hands along the mailing route, there is still a good chance that your buyer is gonna steal from you!
Don't mean to be nationalist here, but I'm stating facts.
Verify with Google if you like.

Germany and France - worst customs
(Germany strict, France is just slow - like 4-6 weeks to clear)
I declare as gift to Germany and so far postage time been ok and no loss.
France - so far no buyers - I'm thinking of blocking them too after reading lots of horror stories about their customs average time being 4-6 weeks.
Italy - high risk of loss due to theft
USSR - probably high theft risk too and the country is huge but I have been lucky with my Russian mail so far.

Canada troublesome?!?
I have shipped a lot to Canada with little problems...
less problems than US and UK!
Australia - mostly ok.

So far, most lost mail for me has been US and UK!
But to be fair, that's also because most of my buyers are from US and UK.
More mail, more loss.

But I'm really distressed that 10% of my international mail seems to get lost!
What percentage of your mail gets lost?
I've been looking for solutions and found a few.
Will have to test them out when I get back to selling.

Wow... I thought I had it bad at 10%.
50% loss that is not acceptable!
You need to rethink which countries you will ship to and also select your buyer preferences.
Do you know that there are various buyers that you can block?
Go to your account settings and there's something like buyer preferences and you can set to block buyers with x number of unpaid item strikes in x days, and various settings.
You can also block buyers in countries you do not ship to.
Try to minimise the problem buyers.
I've found this is very important for a sustainable eBay business, or any online business for that matter.

I don't sell small items, I sell software, so usually the item is $100 or over. With the exception of Canada for items that are under $100, I only ship USPS Global Express internationally. One $80 "freebie" for a dishonest buyer taught me that lesson. Ironically, the one country I have *never* had problems with is Russia...Germany too.

She messed the postage, I would say.
In a country that does not use English, why write the names of different countries and on the same side??
Also, in a mailing address, the country name is written at the bottom.
E.g.
1234 Forest Street
Cincinnati, Ohio 92930
United States

Your friend wrote USA at the bottom so they looked at this and sent it to USA.
She did not comply with the usual mail labeling layout.
The mailroom sorts out hundreds of mail a day and they do not spend a long time paying attention to every detail on the package.
They are used to the conformations of addressing and mail labeling and they take a quick look at the country name at the bottom and that's where it's going to.

I never put return address or even just the country name on the front side of the package.
I always put the return address at the back or side, to minimise confusion for the mail people.
I try to put the sent to address, postage stamps, customs declaration form, and airmail sticker all on the same front side.
If there isn't space, then the customs label goes at the side or back.

My shipping policy varies with item sale price.
<$30 - No tracking standard airmail
$30-$80 - Registered airmail with tracking
>$500 - DHL/FedEx/UPS with insurance - depending on which gives the best price

I try to avoid selling items between $80-$500 in the international market as they are neither here nor there.
Too expensive for non-insured mail (the postal service does not offer insurance to many countries) and not high value enough for the expensive courier service.

You didn't get it.

The package never left the country, in fact it never even made it to the Sort Facility.

The post office were the package was dropped off is the same post office that delivers to her area.

Postal workers here speak English, although it's a rather particular one :)

How would you know it did not go to the sort facility? :boink:
Anyway, this is not the first time I've heard stories like this.
That is why I'm kinda paranoid that they will send my mail back to me instead of the recipient and I deliberately write my address much smaller at the back of the package.
Mail people instinctively send the mail to the address written at the front with stamps and all, and that is written in the bigger font.
It would be quite strange indeed if they chose to send the mail to the small address at the back.

@mercurial, that's a funny story.