Exclude PR from shipping?

[vivandergerman]

How do I exclude shipping to Puerto Rico? I have excluded Protectorates but I still get PR orders.

[monster-deals]

I'm not sure I understand why you want to limit your sales.

[evry1nositswindy]

Shipping to Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico are exactly the same as shipping to any other state in the US.  As monster-deals says, why limit your sales?  I have shipped to Puerto Rico and have had no issues. 

[fab_finds4u]

Well, dang.  Maybe they have an old car they need  part for and they are using a package forwarder? 

All I know is if I lived in any part of the US, like Alaska, or in a US territory like PR  and saw that you only shipped to the lower 48 I would feel slighted because USPS and UPS ships there, too.  But if I saw you shipped to a large number of foreign countries but you didn't ship to my domestic US address in the US then I'd be p!ssd.  There's a few foreign  countries you ship to I'd refuse to ship too so I don't understand why you'd  exclude Alaska and Hawaii. 

[evry1nositswindy]

If you really want to do this, look under account settings> shipping settings.  

[vivandergerman]

That's not even remotely accurate.  Shipping anything to PR, AK or HI is 2 to 3 times more expensive than any other state.  

We list hundreds of items at a time and have thousands of unique items in our store.  It is impossible for us to weigh and measure every item, so we charged fixed shipping prices.    I cannot ship to PR, AK or HI for less than double those shipping prices, on average.    Ebay has a way to turn off shipping to AK and HI, but apparently not PR, hence my question.

[vivandergerman]

Because I cannot afford to sell to PR.

[vivandergerman]

Really?  I am not sure why it's so impossible for people to answer the question, but is so simple for ridiculously inaccurate accusations and idiocy.   Personally, I don't give a **bleep** what the people of PR think of me or my company, so why would that factor into a business decision?

We use the global shipping program.  Therefore, we are not responsible for the cost of shipping internationally.   Ebay does not consider PR to be international, but apparently also does not include it as a protectorate, instead, they appear to consider it a state, which it is not. 

USPS and UPS and every other dog and pony ship to PR.  At twice the cost of shipping anywhere in the US.  We are responsible for those charges.     I am tired of cancelling orders from PR that will cost more to ship than the total value of the order.

[evry1nositswindy]

I mostly sell books, so the price doesn't vary from zone to zone.  I do agree that different zones are more expensive depending on your location.  Maybe set up calculated rather than fixed shipping prices??

[vivandergerman]

There is, apparently, no option to exclude PR.   We have a business account with Ebay, so that uses "Buisness policies" to handle shipping, payment and returns.    There is no specific option to not ship to PR, only AK/HI/US Protectorates.

[grasscarp]

In your shipping preferences you need to exclude the Caribbean.

PR is listed in both the Protectorates and Caribbean. 

Why not ship to PR?  It is the same as shipping to any state -Alaska and Hawaii included. USPS has same rates to PR as the U.S. (Not sure of FedEx or UPS). Also I have far less issues with USPS when shipping to PR!! Only downside is eBay charges a small international fee for PR shipments.

[grasscarp]

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@vivandergerman wrote:

 Shipping anything to PR, AK or HI is 2 to 3 times more expensive than any other state.  

I regularly ship USPS First Class or Priority to PR, AK, or HI at the same postal rate as any other state. You must have a unique shipping situation to be paying 2-3 times the rate that I pay. 

Wish I knew more of how you ship, and the package weight and size. 

Good luck!!

[fab_finds4u]

Shipping less than double?  How about shipping to San Juan PR for exactly the same cost to ship to Los Angeles?  

I looked ar the first 2 items on your list, lamp parts, and both have Economy Shipping, which is USPS Ground (or Media).

Novelty OH to Los Angeles  costs $9.90 for a l lb regular size Priority Mail package, and $9.55 for  USPS Ground.

To San Juan it costs exactly the same. LET ME REPEAT THAT,,,,,,,,,exactly. the. same.

2 lbs is $15.50 Priority and $13.80 for USPS Ground. To PR the cost is identical.  

I'm sure when you're shipping an oversized package it can be a lot more but a saw a lot of your items are less than a  cubic ft in size, and there's no reason you can't ship those packages for the same cost. You're losing business when you don't need to.  And a flat rate box is the same cost to all zip codes. 

[vivandergerman]

Thank you for the idea.  I will exclude Caribbean and see what happens.     

Shipping is NOT, I repeat, NOT the same to PR as to the continental US unless you are sending first class or flat rate post office.   99.9% of my packages do not meet first class requirements and 95% of my packages will not fit in flat rate boxes.  We use USPS, UPS and FedEx to ship, depending on size and weight, and all three are far more expensive to PR.  

[vivandergerman]

You have no idea what you are looking at.    Almost every item we have listed, probably 3950 out of the 4002 currently active, is listed at 1oz and 1x1x1".    That is why we don't use calculated shipping.  Those are default numbers that our software inserts.  They are not accurate, and because all 4000 items are different size, shape and weight, it is not feasible to use correct information.  

I'm not sure why it's so freaking hard for people to believe what I'm writing. 


A big thank you to Grasscarp for pointing out that Ebay also lists PR as Caribbean.   I did not have to eliminate the entire region, I was able to eliminate just PR.    Still a pain in the butt to modify a dozen different shipping policies, but it's done.  Time will tell if it has solved the issue.