29 Jun
2004
29 Jun
'04
9:07 p.m.
On Wed, Jun 30, 2004 at 08:21:30AM +0200, Hans B PUFAL wrote:
I find it amazing that in the land of rampant
capitalism they are unable
to see the advantages of selling internationally.
Yesterday I decided to see about buying a new laptop. Having chosen the
model I searched on Froogle and found
well over 100 hits. I contacted the 5 cheapest to ask if they would
ship internationally - four replied NO. The one
positive response was also the cheapest so they get the order!
This is different than eBay sellers - there's been a large amount of
fraud via APO boxes and foreign orders, so lots of laptop and digital
camera vendors won't take the risk. The ones perpetrating the fraud
know how hard it is to catch someone out of the country. I myself
was burned for a couple thousand from a vendor with a retail store
(in Holland) that refused to pay the invoice, claiming that the product
was never delivered ("oh, that? That's not _my_ signature...")
The eBay "will ship to <insert your country of
choice> only" is
something I do not understand. Why reduce your potential
market? An international buyer knows they will have to pay for shipping
and that might put them off but why shut them out
completely? The extra hassle of an international shipment cannot be
that great, at least it isn't in my experience here in Europe.
In the case of eBay sellers, it's not fear of fraud so much as fear of
hassle. The one thing that's different about sending a package through
the Post is a customs form. That's it (and you have to do that for an
APO box as well). UPS is a different story - if you don't do pages
of export documents, even to Canada, they will shunt your package to
a customs broker... the first thing I bought from Canada was for my
Amiga, a disk interface. The seller was new to international shipping,
and put it in a box and took it to UPS. I get this call from a broker
who wants $80 to handle the paperwork (it was a $70 item). I told them
to return it to the sender. He got it back, he got things figured out,
and I got it, I think, in the Post, with no further problems. I have
shipped many things to Canada, even via UPS, and since _I_ fill out the
paperwork, there's never been a problem.
-ethan
--
Ethan Dicks, A-130-S Current South Pole Weather at 30-Jun-2004 09:00 Z
South Pole Station
PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -89.9 F (-67.7 C) Windchill -131.4 F (-90.8 C)
APO AP 96598 Wind 10.9 kts Grid 079 Barometer 670.4 mb (10989. ft)
Ethan.Dicks(a)amanda.spole.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html