All USPS Packages Shipped to China Being Returned Due to Addresses In Chinese!

I am beyond frustrated. I sell a significant amount of items to China and just in the past month every single package is being returned to me from USPS due to the buyer's address being in Chinese rather than Roman Numerals/English. Anyone else experiencing this? The worst part is, I have to then contact the buyer (if they haven't contacted me already due to their package not showing up) to tell them they need to send me their address in English so I can re-ship, but who's to pay the cost??? Some buyers are being understanding and are covering the cost to ship again, many are not saying it's not their fault, and some will split it with me. I only use Express to China due to "lost" parcels in the past but it's $65-$70 so you can understand why they don't want to pay again! This was never an issue before with USPS and I am unsure why it's an issue now. Anyone know why? Should I switch carriers for packages going to China? If so, who do you recommend that confirms delivery, is ok with addresses written in Chinese and is reasonable in cost; DHL maybe? All of my packages are the same size pretty much as I only sell one kind of product.

deadmanspipes

3758 View listings

Posted 2 years ago·Last reply 2 years ago

4 comments

deserdog

·2 years ago

6249 View listings

From USPS:

Note: The Mailing Label (International Air Waybill, Item 11FGG1) must be completed in English. If not filled out entirely in English, the shipment will be refused and returned to the origin office.

Section 1 â€” From mailerâ€™s address information. Make sure all of the following information is entered completely and accurately:

Date.
Senderâ€™s Full Name.
Senderâ€™s Telephone Number.
Company Name â€” if applicable.
Senderâ€™s complete address, including City, State, Country, and ZIP Code.

Section 2 â€” To destination address information. Make sure all the following information is entered completely and accurately:

Recipientâ€™s Full Name.
Recipientâ€™s Telephone Number â€” required if shipment is addressed to a P.O. box.
Recipientâ€™s Fax Number â€” if applicable; helpful in case of an inaccurate destination address or difficulty with delivery.
Recipientâ€™s Complete Address â€” including Postal Code. Do NOT abbreviate City, State/Province, or Country. Make sure to use English (for instance, â€œMoscowâ€ instead of â€œMoskvaâ€). POS ONE and Click-N-Ship service provide the Postal Code when required, if the correct city name is entered.
Recipientâ€™s Tax ID Number for Customs Purposes (if applicable).

xadexane

·2 years ago

0 View listings

@deadmanspipes wrote:
This was never an issue before with USPS and I am unsure why it's an issue now.

You can put nonsense (or an imperfect Bing/Google Translate) in English in between the lines of the Chinese address.

Because it only needs to appear that it has those dual lines to get past USPS, and get to China.

Not sure how you'll create a dual-language label like that though.

richard1rst

·2 years ago

53683 View listings

@deadmanspipes wrote:
I am beyond frustrated. I sell a significant amount of items to China and just in the past month every single package is being returned to me from USPS due to the buyer's address being in Chinese rather than Roman Numerals/English. Anyone else experiencing this? The worst part is, I have to then contact the buyer (if they haven't contacted me already due to their package not showing up) to tell them they need to send me their address in English so I can re-ship, but who's to pay the cost??? Some buyers are being understanding and are covering the cost to ship again, many are not saying it's not their fault, and some will split it with me. I only use Express to China due to "lost" parcels in the past but it's $65-$70 so you can understand why they don't want to pay again! This was never an issue before with USPS and I am unsure why it's an issue now. Anyone know why? Should I switch carriers for packages going to China? If so, who do you recommend that confirms delivery, is ok with addresses written in Chinese and is reasonable in cost; DHL maybe? All of my packages are the same size pretty much as I only sell one kind of product.

In the past it was acceptable to write the address in the country's native language as long as the country name was in English. I did it that way for years and never had a problem. The assumption was that once it got to the country then locals, who spoke the language, would taker over and deliver it from there. The further assumption was that the locals may not be fluent in English so if it was all English they wouldn't know where to deliver it.

BUT THE RULES HAVE CHANGED.

https://pe.usps.com/text/imm/immc1_008.htm

Pay attention to paragraphs D and J.

Unfortunately as with all bureaucrats they have never been in a real life situation:

"if the English translation is not known, the foreign language words must appear in roman characters"

Good luck converting a Chinese character to a Roman character.

sdneped

·2 years ago

0 View listings

@deadmanspipes wrote:
I am beyond frustrated. I sell a significant amount of items to China and just in the past month every single package is being returned to me from USPS due to the buyer's address being in Chinese rather than Roman Numerals/English.

2 things. The address should say China, and maybe the city/province/postal code to help, in English. It only needs to get to China, then the full Chinese address (on a second address label side-by-side with the partial English label) takes over.

And eBay considers Return to Sender to be the same as Delivered, so you neither have to refund nor resend. Of course, the follow-on may need to be handled, but there's where Chapter 1 ends on eBay.