Why Not Ship to APOs ?

[erikstuff]

I recently sold an item to some guy with an APO address.  When I went to print up the mailing label a customs thing popped up with the item info on it.  I verified the info was correct and it's on it's way.  

Now, while browsing some ads I've noticed that there are some sellers who don't ship to APOs.

What would be the reason?  Are there problems I don't know about... but will soon find out?

It wasn't anything expensive and the guy has recent feedbacks so that's not a concern.

Thank you.

[dqdistribution]

I think of it from a return perspective, and peurto rico and Hawaii are more expensive to deal with.

For PO boxes, it's not about safest, but accepting PO's locks you into carrier and could end up costing more.

From what I've seen many people are able to get a street address for their PO box anyways so I'd think it's less of an issue.

Maybe if eBay had more options to the business policy that if they want to use a PO box there would be forced to select a specific shipping service, instead of using the 'free shipping'.

[ms.rodriguez*]

Ebay complicates this by allowing folks in PR to write PR as a country.   I had a customer tell me that and when I tried to register, I saw Puerto Rico as a country.   I hope that they fixed that.  Sometimes, you do need a customs form for for P.R. if it's a lb. or higher.  They need to make sure that no plants or seed or pork enter the island because it can destroy the agricultural economy.

[trainup027]

I don't have a regular printer, just a Rollo, so I was unable to print the form the last time I got this sale.  I had to cancel the label and try again.  I tried to get a QR code so I could deal with it at the post office with their help.  Instead, I was unable to get a label at all, and had to cancel the order.  It was depressing for me and probably irritating for the seller.  But I couldn't do it with my printer and they wouldn't give me another option.  😕

[my-world-of-wares]

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@evelyb30 wrote:

In the old days, my TOS stated I shipped FREE to APO/FPO for first class or media mail (books) items.  I figured if someone was willing to serve overseas the least I could do was kick in the postage. Only had someone take me up on it once, but shipping to military boxes and US possessions was always easy.  

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You just changed my entire perspective on shipping to APO/FPO addressed. Thank you. 

I'm going to change my TOS right now. 

[ebooksdiva]

Old thread from 5/2023 

[kh-laura]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.