> As Howard pointed out, I ship internationally by Global Priority and > (mostly) Air Letter Post (standard air mail). Very, very few > packages have been lost, but some to take quite a while to > arrive. Most of the delays seem to be related to sitting in > customs in the destination country. For example, I've sent > five packages to a certain customer in Sweden. Four have > arrived in approximately one week, but one of them took > nearly a month. The package that took a long time was no > different from the others, and I see no pattern to this. In my mind, that delay of a month is the same as the package being lost. The customer isn't happy. I start feeling like I have to re-ship and eat the loss. If the tracking were good enough to say "it is NOT lost, just sitting in customs" then the customer could rest assured that it would get through, but this is not possible as far as I can see. > The pattern I do see is a significant difference in the mail > systems depending on the destination country. My shipments > to the UK and Australia, for example, arrive pretty much like > clockwork. There is a much higher percentage of > unpredictable and lengthy delays with my shipments to Canada. I've had problems shipping to the U.K., Canada, and Australia which most people say are fine. I no longer accept anything but prepaid orders (cash, check, money order) for anything more than $50 from ANY country. Part of being picky and refusing orders that I'm not comfortable with means that I can keep regular prices closer "to the bone" and pass the savings on to customers who I do come to trust. And I have had issues in the USA as well. Sometimes, on large orders when the address isn't confirmed, I will try to verify it by looking up a phone number in one of the online phone books, then giving a quick call to confirm that the expected person is at the other end and really did place the order. One guy's mother ripped me a new hole for disturbing her at home. Refund. Another guy wasn't sure that my customer "was still hanging around, but we see him sometimes." Refund. > Sometimes buyers get a little "frustrated" when the package > hasn't arrived after several weeks and it's only a "few > hundred" miles. There is nothing I can do about this, other > than try to make sure that the possibility is fully > understood before the transaction is completed. How do you "make sure that the possibility is fully understood"? > There are also countries where the mail is quite unreliable > and frequently subject to theft. A customer in South America > made sure that I would send his order by registered mail -- > and even then he knew the odds were significant that the > package might never arrive. There are many areas that I do > not ship to, because the odds of trouble are too great. I > think that Peter Anderson has trimmed the list of countries > he ships to as well. I've seen lots of "lost" packages to Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico so I don't accept PayPal for ANY order from the Latin countries. Love the refund button. Does anyone share a list of countries that they will and will not ship to? Is there a "international shipping watchdog" site that records losses? > Overall, my international shipping experience has been very > good. I just use the small green sticker (as Howard > mentioned) and generally ship by standard air mail. When > done properly, the odds of a successful outcome are very > high. PayPal works great and I have no worry about the often > substantial balance I have in my account with them. I know > of several guys who do large volume through PayPal (in one > case over $200K in one day) with no problems. Obviously they > aren't selling PICs and electrnonic components -- heh, heh! Why on earth would they not get a real CC account at a bank? Is it not possible to xfer funds via CC? > I have been very pleased with their service, and I think > buyers need not have any hesitation about using them vs. any > other secure online credit card transaction. The seller is > the one bearing the risk, which is relatively small in my experience. > > -Randy > www.glitchbuster.com > I've noticed that you have... Well... Lasted a while now, and I hope you have continued success of course, but I wonder what you have done to automate or smooth the process of filling orders? Do you print postage labels from PayPal? Do you use a separate shipping service like stamps.com? Do you use an inventory management program? Accounting? Pardon me while I pick your brain... --- James. -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist