Any countries you don't ship to?

[BrightIdeas]

For all you online retailers, are there any countries that you specifically do not ship to? (i.e. because of greater risk of taking payments/sending there, or whatever)

I would be really interested in hearing comments on this.

 

[RBS]

Dont ship to Russia, Ukraine and Africa. You can just check ebay mobile phone listings, most of them have list of countries where sellers dont ship.

 

[cycloneuk]

Germany and Italy.

 

[MASSEY]

You want to avoid, all african countries, also Gibralter! Avoid any contries that are tax havens.

 

[snakeeyes121]

Italy, their postal service is a complete shambles.

Anywhere where the buyer wants you to post something to their sick aunties brothers cousins daughters cat

 

[4little1s]

Avoid Africa

 

[Babybots]

Africa, Russia, Italy.

I also avoid America, mainly as my insurance does not cover me for anything sent there, apparently too much of a risk as they tend to sue people for every little thing.

 

[thecyclingartist]

A lot of other artists and craftspeople have had major issues with Italy, who stop and hold a lot of goods.

 

[eBaySpecialist]

Funny, in all my eBay dealings with clients and in my own transactions, Italy seems to come up the most when it comes to black holes in the European postal system. Even peeps in the US say the same.

 

[BrightIdeas]

Thanks for your replies. Italy? Interesting one, I never would have thought that country would be mentioned.

 

[dingbat]

I've been having grief with Portugal recently. Don't know if it's just the customers lying or the postal service has got worse.

Germans rarely order anything. I think they're very much into buying from Germany only.

 

[webpromoterservice]

Africa is not a country. Africa is a continent with about 40 countries. There are many good african countries you can ship to, but avoid Nigeria

 

[MDG]

We ship to Italy quite often using parcelforce and haven't had any problems to date.

We've been asked not to ship to any of the following (not that we did anyway) as a condition of applying for a merchant account.

Belarus,
Burma,
Cuba,
Congo,
Cote d'Ivorie,
Iran,
Iraq,
Ivory Coast,
Lebanon
Liberia,
Myanmar,
North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea),
Serbia,
Sudan,
Syria,
Zimbabwe
Yugoslavia

 

[QuickHomeBuyers]

Nigeria must be on your top list.

Somebodys aunties uncle died and they live in america. you have to send the mobile and will be paid 3 times the market value because they like you

 

[quikshop]

Africa is not a country. Africa is a continent with about 40 countries. There are many good african countries you can ship to, but avoid Nigeria

Its not worth the risk, in 11 years of selling on-line I've never had a genuine order from that continent. Its harsh on those who do want to buy legitimately but any risk assessment would fail every African Country.

One initial step you can take is to only ship to the Country where the payment card is registered. That immediately cuts out the US-registered card being used to buy goods for a Kenya or Nigeria delivery, a common circumstance.

 

[ameliako]

In my experience, I think it unsafe to ship to Nigeria and Vietnam


Amelia

 

[FatCatBroadcast]

Use shipping companies like FedEx or UPS, they have their own experience in shipping throughout the world, so it wouldn't be a problem at all.

 

[buygifts]

Definitely Italy and virtually anywhere in Africa.
Italian post is notorious for items "going missing".
High levels of fraud in Africa.
Russia, Poland, Portugal and Greece are soon to be added to my "Do not post" list

 

[Deleted member 136029]

I've recently had problems with both Malaysia & Greece, but haven't ever shipped to any of the countries on MDG's list. The shipping address/credit card country/IP address check is always a good way of seeing whether there may be something dodgy going on.

Italy is a surprising one - never had any problems there at all.

 

[paretowasright]

We ship to Italy quite often using parcelforce and haven't had any problems to date.

We've been asked not to ship to any of the following (not that we did anyway) as a condition of applying for a merchant account.

Belarus,
Burma,
Cuba,
Congo,
Cote d’Ivorie,
Iran,
Iraq,
Ivory Coast,
Lebanon
Liberia,
Myanmar,
North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea),
Serbia,
Sudan,
Syria,
Zimbabwe
Yugoslavia

Yes same here with Italy and Greece also becoming problematic.
I will also stop shipping to Scotland when it becomes the 'Democratic People’s Republic of Scotland'

 

[jamesrenrut]

Definitely Italy and virtually anywhere in Africa.
Italian post is notorious for items "going missing".
High levels of fraud in Africa.
Russia, Poland, Portugal and Greece are soon to be added to my "Do not post" list

Oh that was scary. Export nowadays are unsafe. So sad.

 

[keir77]

We ship to anywhere in Europe, always using RM International Signed For. If the customer wants the product they'll pay the extra.

We don't ship to the U.S or Canada as part of our insurance conditions, however we stopped shipping to the U.S anyway as customers expect their goods in a couple of days, when in reality they were taking much longer.

Not had any issues with Italy although a lot of people complain that they have had issues.

 

[Skateboard Express UK]

indonesia.

 

[Sade]

It really does get on my nerves when I see people make ignorant comments about Africa. I was going to ignore but suddenly decided not to. Yes, Africa is a continent with at least 50 countries with millions of people. A few thousands decide to go on the Internet and perpetuate fraud and you decide that based on 0.05% (if even) of the entire population in Africa, you won't sell to them. Anyways it's your loss not theirs. Go and ask Asos, TMLewin, Debenhams etc who are among their biggest international customers - Nigerians!!! Last year, Debenhams had a Nigerian language amongst 2 other languages welcoming customers throughout their shops. Perhaps you should ask them why? They are big spenders and don't all live in poverty like your media wants you to believe. And no they are not using funds from scams to shop.

Majority of Nigerians are not involved in scams and earn legitimate incomes. As your UK newspapers term it, there are a lot of "petrodollars" in Nigeria and most other African countries. The scams from there are unfortunate but there are so many scams even in the UK and yet I haven't heard anyone saying they won't sell in the UK anymore. It's good to be cautious but to completely ignore a whole continent with millions of people willing and ready to spend their money is quite ridiculous. Anyway, we all can't be Richard Branson - ask him why he has investments in Nigeria.

I am done saying my piece. As I said, your loss - not theirs.

 

[Skateboard Express UK]

i assumed that the people here who listed countries have done so based on bitter experience and chose to share that with others trying to run small businesses. after losing money several times from orders to indonesia that were all bogus (every single one), we have simply decided that our business can not afford to accept orders from that country (not because of the media or richard branson or anybody else). the police in that country clearly have no interest in pursuing credit card fraud, so the criminals have a field day and international ecommerce businesses can't afford to try and sell products to honest citizens there. i appreciated the feedback from the other posters in this thread talking about countries that have caused them problems and cost their businesses money and i'll take their responses into account when looking at which countries to sell to. anyway - rant on................

 

[captaincloser]

I no longer ship to Necker Island because of Richard Branson.
My reason is mainly jealousy.

 

[Sade]

i assumed that the people here who listed countries have done so based on bitter experience and chose to share that with others trying to run small businesses. after losing money several times from orders to indonesia that were all bogus (every single one), we have simply decided that our business can not afford to accept orders from that country (not because of the media or richard branson or anybody else). the police in that country clearly have no interest in pursuing credit card fraud, so the criminals have a field day and international ecommerce businesses can't afford to try and sell products to honest citizens there. i appreciated the feedback from the other posters in this thread talking about countries that have caused them problems and cost their businesses money and i'll take their responses into account when looking at which countries to sell to. anyway - rant on................

I did not mean to come across as rude but I am Nigerian and comments like these drive me up the wall. Especially because in my experience, these businesses haven't tried. They have based their experiences on hearsay. It would be interesting to hear from any of them that have actually tried shipping to Nigeria or other countries in Africa.