Where Art Thou, Global Shipping Program?

[Curious Curator]

Yesterday a potential buyer contacted me through ebay asking me to add his island on the Pacific to my list of places to ship to. Unfamiliar with the task, I did what I “think” I should have done. After not hearing from him for about 24 hours, I thought,”Eh, no big deal-it happens”. Tonight, I get an ebay notification that the item sold. Ok, great, I thought. Well upon further review, seems the item is going to a P.O. Box in the Solomon Islands. Ok. Now, do I send it? It is “not” going through the Global Shipping Program and I’m not sure why. Anyone familiar with this one? Thanks in advance.

[sonia]

Are the Solomon Islands included in the GSP program? Not all countries are.
You can’t add any country to the GSP yourself that isn’t already in it.

[sonia]

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/shipping-items/setting-shipping-options/global-shipping-program?id=4646

Doesn’t look like Solomon Islands is in GSP. So I’m guessing you added Solomon Islands to your listing as an additional international shipping option, which means you agreed to ship there direct.

[Curious Curator]

Thanks, sonia. Now, I guess the question is, should I go ahead with the sale? The package is going to a P.O. Box. Should I be leery? Anyone? I’ve never had this happen before.

[sonia]

I suggest doing some googling on whether mail typically gets through to the Solomon Islands okay and whether there’s any tracking at all, etc. I don’t know anything about that country myself.

[Jay]

If its not an expensive item, we’d take the risk. We’d also take into consideration the communication of then buyer (intelligible and reasonable)?

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

I concure with Jay. But going forward, if you want the complete backing and protections of the GSP program, just stick with the countries that GSP covers. When we get requests through messages only if we ship here or there, my reply is we only ship to countries listed in the GSP program. Simple as that.
Makes it so much easier to have a standard SOP and stick to it. For us having a large list of SOP’s for most situations just takes the pressure off us, keeps us from getting into possible touchy situations, and the size of most Sales are just not worth the extra effort or potential issues.

Just my opinion with only my first half of cup of coffee.

mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art

[Curious Curator]

Thanks Jay, thanks Mike. It’s a $75. sale, so for me, it is a big sale. I guess I’ll just send it and cross my fingers. I will definitely let this be a lesson to me to be more cognizant in the future.

[Curious Curator]

As I’m getting ready to ship this, I realize there are cheaper postage rates, by more than half through USPS. At priority shipping, it is $58. At first class, it is $24. Do I ship at the lower rate and refund the buyer, or just ship at the priority rate? Thanks

[Jay]

If they paid priority, ship priority. Should give you better tracking too. Thats what you want.

[Sharyn]

First class is good for items less than four pounds; however, not all countries provide tracking all the way to the final destination. I recently shipped an item to Ireland with no problems, but I wouldn’t do it for all countries. I received tracking information all the way to the airport where it left on a plane.

You can find out from this site as to whether a country provides tracking or not:

https://pe.usps.com/text/imm/immc2_022.htm#ep3032639

I don’t see the Solomon Islands, so you might want to send it priority just for the tracking. How much did you charge the buyer for shipping?

[Curious Curator]

Thanks Sharyn, the fabric weighs 1 1/2 lbs. I do shipping by weight, so ebay calculated $61. and my actual shipping will be $58., but when I looked at the other options, it came out to $24 and I forget what the other was called, but it was $20. The customer paid $61. for shipping, the item was $75. I paid $4. for the item. I haven’t printed the label yet.

[Sharyn]

So, yeh, since you feel a bit uncomfortable with this sale, I recommend priority shipping especially since the cost is covered.

[Curious Curator]

Ok. Thanks so much for your help, Sharyn.

[MDC Galleries & Fine Art]

To bad it is a PO Box or maybe FedEx would have been less costly, but FedEx doesn’t take PO Box addresses.

[Author]

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