Thinkpads Forum

PM send

manual bump

Why don't you ship outside USA?

There are several reasons I don't ship out of the USA. First is that I have before on numerous occasions and it turns out badly more often than it should.

I've had packages returned by the buyer because the duty/customs fees/VAT exceed the value of the item. I can't 100% reliably get a delivery signature and without that, I'm not covered by PayPal and I won't even go into the matter of tracking a package out of the USA. I wouldn't be able to offer "Free" shipping anymore and that works both to my benefit and that of the buyer.

Probably the biggest thing (for me) is that almost all of my shipping is via the US Post Office. The local office has an area where I can walk in and drop off domestic packages without standing in line or talking to anyone. I can also just leave the domestic packages I'm shipping on my porch and my delivery guy will pull around and pick them up when he's done with his route. Neither of these are options for shipping Internationally, I'd have to stand in line (1/2 hour at times) at the post office every time I made a shipment.

Add to that the extra that both PayPal and eBay charge extra for currency exchange and you can stick a fork in it.

I guess I could have just said that I don't ship Internationally because I choose not to based on past experience but where is the fun in that? Besides, someone will be along here shortly to tell me that I'm wrong about all of the above and I wouldn't want to deprive them of that opportunity.

Well, I see your point.

TTT

smidgley wrote:I guess I could have just said that I don't ship Internationally because I choose not to based on past experience but where is the fun in that? Besides, someone will be along here shortly to tell me that I'm wrong about all of the above and I wouldn't want to deprive them of that opportunity.

Actually, you made a very good and honest point, and who can argue with that?

International buyers have to understand that for such low-price items, the total cost of shipping + possible taxes + currency exchange fees may lead to a price that double or more than the stated price. It's typically not cost effective to buy such things outside one's own country.

dr_st wrote:International buyers have to understand that for such low-price items, the total cost of shipping + possible taxes + currency exchange fees may lead to a price that double or more than the stated price. It's typically not cost effective to buy such things outside one's own country.

I would agree that sending internationally might be quite a hassle, especially for $15 items.

But from the buyer's point of view I have to add, that even if the price doubles after shipping and taxes, it may be still much lower than in the destination country. I could give you numerous examples for various thinkpad parts (or complete systems), that after adding additional shipping costs and 22% vat are still 40% cheaper. That's how expensive this stuff is outside of US.

But the price is just one aspect. Sometimes you just can't get a specific part on a local (non-US) market. US thinkpad market (or any for that matter) is huge and it's much easier to find stuff here. Unfortunately, most people do not ship outside US - but as an occassional seller, I fully understand it.

I noticed on eBay that you have a parts-keyboard auction.
I'm looking for some keys from your 39T7118 (the one top-right, with most of the keys missing).
See my posting here: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=89430
Can we arrange on something here?

Not to thread-crap, but what is the deal with prices being so crazy expensive outside of the US anyways? How do people afford that???

The US is a much bigger market than most other individual countries. Vendors can afford to reduce the margins and make up in volume.