International Shipping Advice

[zoso311]

Hey guys, new to this forum, and hopefully I can help, and or receive help from you all.

We are growing into a reputable online business, were our policies are seemingly becoming outdated to our customers. We are centrally located in the United States. As we have been growing, we have always accepted international orders from across the globe. The good thing about our current policies are, we have not received a chargeback from literally 10's of thousands of orders in the past 3 years from an international customer, and we have received quite a few domestic reversals in the past year or so....we do ask for alternate payment methods when a credit card is used for higher dollar orders.

Are there any reasons we should start limiting certain countries from ordering from our store, due to customs duties, and import taxes? We use all USPS International shipping methods, such as Express Mail International, Priority Mail International, and First Class International. We also use UPS Worldwide Express for higher dollar orders, but it has became an extreme pain due to the already astronomical cost, and the fact that the package has to be declared at what we insure it at. That basically defeats the purpose of offering this method, because we just recently had 2-3 orders that were charged 98% of what the package was declared at, for import taxes, or customs duties if you will.

Any help would be appreciated!

[The Old Sarge]

... Are there any reasons we should start limiting certain countries from ordering from our store, due to customs duties, and import taxes? We use all USPS International shipping methods, such as Express Mail International, Priority Mail International, and First Class International. We also use UPS Worldwide Express for higher dollar orders, but it has became an extreme pain due to the already astronomical cost, ...

Pain for whom? You or the customer?

... and the fact that the package has to be declared at what we insure it at. That basically defeats the purpose of offering this method, because we just recently had 2-3 orders that were charged 98% of what the package was declared at, for import taxes, or customs duties if you will.

Most countries that charge customs duties will either place a value on the item themselves or, as in your example, use the insured value. And it occurs to me that no matter HOW you ship an item, the customs fees are going to be the same. Does the country of delivery give discounts for certain shipping methods? Do they not access fees on items imported by certain means but DO access them on items importedby OTHER means?

I don't understand how your current method is "defeated."