E-bay announces " expansion of international selling to Puerto Rico " ?

[juggernaut4444]

Puerto Rico is PART OF THE UNITED STATES ! It is under the U.S. Postal system with zip codes just like the 50 states and Washington D.C.-i've shipped items to Puerto Rico many times in the past 15 years...why does E-bay consider this something new ?

[brightlightbookseller]

They're just treating it like an EIS shipment if the buyer chooses.  They must think they have some value to offer like a cheaper shipping rate, but time will tell.  I don't think we've had any EIS shipments to Puerto Rico yet since the change.  It appears that it's merely a choice, too, and you can still do direct shipping and if you already did, it keeps that option available.  I don't think it matters to us as the seller except that EIS actually provides good protection against claims and chargebacks, so I'd rather the sale go through there.

[robbie31415]

Now you can use the EIS program for PR.

That is new.

Also means no returns for the seller to PR customers.

A lot of sellers have PR turned off now they can ship to PR customers without worry.

[chevymontecarlo88]

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@robbie31415 wrote:

Now you can use the EIS program for PR.

That is new.

Also means no returns for the seller to PR customers.

A lot of sellers have PR turned off now they can ship to PR customers without worry.

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☝️This exactly.

[finalvinyls]

I guess the big question is are they going to charge PR Residents some sort of import /export tax or vat fees. 

I agree with everyone. I have shipped to PR many a times using regular mail. Someone mentioned they would have a choice. Technically they wouldn't if Ebay considers it international. 

Ebay needs to let the guys in the basement out for some air so they can stop overthinking the process.

[slippinjimmy]

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@chevymontecarlo88 wrote:

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@robbie31415 wrote:

Now you can use the EIS program for PR.

That is new.

Also means no returns for the seller to PR customers.

A lot of sellers have PR turned off now they can ship to PR customers without worry.

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☝️This exactly.

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It's the same reason they are adding Hawaii and Alaska to EIS, too many sellers block these locations for no rational reasons.

I suppose for buyers some ability to buy is better than none even if using EIS is more expensive and slower than direct shipping.

FYI - Although Puerto Rico is a US Protectorate it is in fact it's own Country, technically a Commonwealth. It came under US control as a result of the Treaty of Paris ending the Spanish American war in 1898.

[robbie31415]

Ebay isn't going to consider it international.

They are adding Hawaii and Alaska aswell.

They aren't going to consider those international either.

This is just to expand mainly the people who only ship to the continental US only.

[tsme35]

Haven't sold to PR in years but back then I had to fill out a custom form, not sure if you have to now or not. You don't have to use EIS, you can just continue like you have been

[bamorris]

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@brightlightbookseller wrote:

I don't think it matters to us as the seller except that EIS actually provides good protection against claims and chargebacks, so I'd rather the sale go through there.

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I'd rather have my PR customers get the same rates as my customers in Alaska and HI. If EIS is involved, they're just going to charge additional shipping costs on top of whatever you pay to get your product to the shipping hub.

This change actually makes no sense. My customers were already included in domestic shipping rates. To move them into EIS just makes my products total cost more expensive for PR residents than they were previously.

I also don't see any real answers in this thread. Just assumptions that it's better now with EIS involved. When the reality is that the additional cost involved for customers paying international rates to PR will move your total cost price out of the market range.

[robbie31415]

You do realize you can still offer direct shipping.

This change makes a lot of sense.

MANY sellers have PR unchecked but EIS checked.

Now all of these sellers will offer their products to PR.

[chevymontecarlo88]

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

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@chevymontecarlo88 wrote:

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@robbie31415 wrote:

Now you can use the EIS program for PR.

That is new.

Also means no returns for the seller to PR customers.

A lot of sellers have PR turned off now they can ship to PR customers without worry.

---

☝️This exactly.

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It's the same reason they are adding Hawaii and Alaska to EIS, too many sellers block these locations for no rational reasons.

I suppose for buyers some ability to buy is better than none even if using EIS is more expensive and slower than direct shipping.

FYI - Although Puerto Rico is a US Protectorate it is in fact it's own Country, technically a Commonwealth. It came under US control as a result of the Treaty of Paris ending the Spanish American war in 1898.

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Honestly i don't care why they are including it with the EIS except that if they keep the no returns rule as they do with other EIS shipments, that would be an awesome deal.

[slippinjimmy · Accepted solution]

For as long as I've done mailorder (just shy of 50 years) it has been common for seller to block/not offer shipping to PR, AK, HI.

For some it was because the shipping was much more expensive (FedEx, UPS but not USPS). Since it was and still is so common many new seller automatically include those restrictions even if they don't really know why.

I suppose eBay could just try to educate sellers that in most cases the block is completely unnecessary but you know that educating many eBay sellers is futile. Of course with EIS it's also an additional revenue stream for eBay.

There are cases where those blocks are totally valid, anything that is Hazmat is one since ground shipping to those locations can be very slow and if you use FedEx, UPS or similar there may be significant surcharges over shipping to the lower 48.

[valueaddedresource]

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

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@chevymontecarlo88 wrote:

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@robbie31415 wrote:

Now you can use the EIS program for PR.

That is new.

Also means no returns for the seller to PR customers.

A lot of sellers have PR turned off now they can ship to PR customers without worry.

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☝️This exactly.

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It's the same reason they are adding Hawaii and Alaska to EIS, too many sellers block these locations for no rational reasons.

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@slippinjimmy there are lots of rational reasons sellers may block those locations too.

Some sellers only ship via UPS or FedEx because it provides the most cost effective overall option for their business (especially if they tend to sell larger items and/or can negotiate better rates with those carriers than they can get from USPS provided they put all their volume through one carrier).

I gave another example on a previous thread about this change showing how the protections EIS offers could also come into play - one company I worked for wouldn't ship directly to Alaska because of product packaging/temperature sensitivity issues but definitely would have done it through this program with eBay taking on the costs for damaged shipments.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/ICYMI-eBay-International-Shipping-Will-Soon-Include-Alaska/m-p... 

The truth is there are some situations where the irrational thing would actually be to offer direct shipping to AK, HI, PR etc (for a variety of reasons) and blocking those regions can and often is a perfectly rational business choice in those scenarios.

If eBay expanding EIS can make it possible for those businesses to rationalize unblocking those places, making inventory available there that wasn't before, that sounds like a win all around - especially since those sellers for whom shipping directly wasn't previously a challenge will be free to continue to do so.

[buyselljack2016]

I stopped shipping "some" items to other than lower 48 because USPS could put it on a boat (a ship for those offended by the term boat) for GA shipping.

eBay is telling buyers that the items will be there quickly.

I'm not giving things away because of INR's being opened under those circumstances, so I lose out on sales to places/buyers that in the past were not an issue.

[buyselljack2016]

USPS no customs form. UPS/FedEx, perhaps needed.