Does not ship to US Protectorates

[edesider]

EBAY should REMOVE this "Does not ship to US Protectorates" shipping restriction and STOP the discrimination! American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands are all served by the UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE (USPS). This restriction also, sometimes, applies to Hawaii and Alaska. HI and AS are STATES!!! If buyers think they are losing money to ship to these areas, then by all means put on a shipping cost! For fraud issues on shipping, USPS tracking should address that! Shipping only via UPS/FEDEX? That is no good for business! Hey I am part of the many customers from these areas, and I'm an ebay customer for nearly 20 years with a 100% positive feedback!

Ebay should remove the "Does not ship to US Protectorates" shipping restriction and sellers should take advantage of USPS (especially the flat rates shipping options). Any thoughts? Please share!

[buyselljack2016]

@edesider 

eBay does not, and should not dictate what shipper a seller uses.

Some sellers, for whatever reason, do not care to use USPS.

Many of us ship to those locations.  Best I can suggest is to find another seller.

[ronsam-197]

For what it's worth, ebay deciding PR etc are an "International destination" and charging sellers an additional fee probably isn't helping matters. 

[disneyshopper]

If the seller ships using USPS, there is no need to exclude AK, HI, PR, US Protectorates.  If the seller is shipping USPS, I suspect they might be new and only excluded those locations because they see it on other listings.

Sellers who use Fed Ex/UPS and state free shipping, can indeed exclude those locations because it costs much more to ship and they don't want to absorb those costs when they offer "free shipping" which means the price of the item includes shipping.

[buyselljack2016]

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@ronsam-197 wrote:

For what it's worth, ebay deciding PR etc are an "International destination" and charging sellers an additional fee probably isn't helping matters. 

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I ran into that last year, but at least for me it seems  that they have corrected that issue. I ship USPS, and have had several PR buyers, including 4 this past month, without the "international fee" charges.(too bad PR "sales tax" kicked in)😐

[edesider]

So I won a bid (zero other bidders) at the lowest bid. Seller just said in his listing $15 for shipping. After almost a week of no shipping, I messaged to ask what's up with my paid winning bid. He replied he just cancelled the winning bid and refunded back the money to me because he only ships to the continental USA. BUT, he NEVER stated that in his listing. Otherwise, I would have not bidded. So since he already cancelled, I am not able to write a feedback, appeal the case or get help.

Now here's what I suspect: since I won at the lowest bid, he could just cancel and relist the item, hoping he would make more money than my winning lowest bid.

Is there anyway I can get help from ebay with this?

[firesteel_surplus]

@edesider 

Sorry to resurrect a month old thread but I need to respond to this...something that has not been brought up yet.

I'm one of those sellers that excludes US Protectorates along with HI and AK (and Canada if you want to keep going...). Here is my reason...

I offer "free" shipping. Yeah yeah yeah...I know...it isn't "free." I have to build it into my pricing. But I ship a LOT of stuff that is cheaper through UPS than it would be through USPS and to a majority of the US, I do OK. Of course, once in awhile, I hit the northern part of Maine...but that is another story but still it is continental US. Now...if one of those packages should go to the US Protectorates...which I had happen once when I wasn't paying attention...it went to Puerto Rico...the shipping cost was almost double what the item sold for. I shipped it because it was my fault. To ship USPS was even more...

Now to say "Well why don't you give the option to charge more for those willing to pay..."

No.

No.

No.

No. I am a one person operation. I don't care if I ship one package a year over the US border. EVERY. Single. Problem. I. Had. With a sale was when I shipped over the border. My last two sales to Canada through the USPS was the last straw when both packages took over 3 months to get delivered. That was 10 years ago and I haven't shipped anything over the border if I could help it since.

If ebay takes away the option of sellers to limit our choices of where we can ship, I'll take the rest of my electronic stock and recycle it before I ship one piece across our borders.

Mike

Firesteel Surplus

[stephenstradingcards]

Came here to say this.

Most non sellers don't realize that tracking is EVERYTHING for an ebay seller.  Sometimes it feels like the best kept secret of ebay is that you can win ANY case against a seller if you don't have a tracking number with confirmed delivery.  With this in mind, one may see how an area that doesn't have the most reliable tracking could lead to more opportunities for dishonest buyers.  

Regardless, some will point to the buyer pool as the problem. Others will point to the underfunded and understaffed USPS offices and blame them. (I tend to fall here FWIW)  To be frank I don't really care either way. I just know that after a year of doing business on this platform that selling to these areas creates nothing but headaches, extra fees, and a disproportionate amount scam refunds as compared to my other sales. 

The small amount of business these areas bring doesn't justify these risks for most sellers. 

[laptops4u-14]

Shipping rates are way too high to these locations, that is why sellers who offer free shipping can't afford it and they exclude these locations. all the listings with up to 15oz free shipping is fine for these locations, except that shipping rates are way too high, some time shipping is higher than the actual price of the item. 

[12345jamesstamps]

Depends what you are shipping.

I ship my stuff everywhere without a problem.

[kh-vince]

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.