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eBay and Amazon (NOB) orders


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2 minutes ago, El Saltos said:

Amazon.com (USA) is no problem.  Equally, Amazon.com.mx (MEX) is easy and fast.  eBay is problematical since shipping is the decision of the seller and many won't ship to Mexico.

How do you usually receive the Amazon NOB items? What is the normal timeframe?

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1 hour ago, hopeful Mex said:

How do you usually receive the Amazon NOB items? What is the normal timeframe?

I order from Amazon US often. About 4 days for delivery. I have them deliver to my house or to Sol y Luna where I have an account so there I should no additional charge.

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1 hour ago, hopeful Mex said:

How do you usually receive the Amazon NOB items? What is the normal timeframe?

Register and sign in to Amazon U.S. using your Mexican address.

Click on the item you want and it will say if it ships to Mexico. Not all items will be shipped to Mexico. If it says it ships to Mexico the price shown are all costs to be delivered to your door. They mainly ship via DHL.

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Customs rejected a legal shipment of mine on the flimsiest of pretenses, claiming I was an importer for trying to get multiple packages of something, same required just for the two fish ponds I have.  The value of the entire order was $100, yeah I'm a big time importer for sure.

DHL and Amazon were absolutely no help, the communication sucked, they didn't even let me know there was a problem for a month and didn't respond in any way of substance.  I even offered to go to the airport to explain to the customs what this was and why I needed that many packages (6) for two fish ponds.

I won't be using either again.  It's back to the "have friends bring it" system.  Mexican customs IMO continues to be arbitrary, capricious, protectionist and crooked.  Just not worth the crap shoot.  Amazon Mexico's prices are much higher than the equivalent U.S. prices for the stuff I might want and the selection is a great deal more limited.

Perhaps in time as Customs make it difficult if not impossible for Amazon to make a profit serving this market this problem will be addressed.  Amazon's business model is based on high volume, low profit per item and it doesn't take a lot of what happened to my shipment to make the business unprofitable.  I'll wager the losses on this small order easily equaled 25% or more.

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3 hours ago, sm1mex said:

We tried to order something last week and Amazon NOB said the items could not be shipped to Mexico.  It was a sweat headband.  Go figure.

A number of things impact whether or not the item will be shipped to Mexico. In the case of the headband, it's likely that Amazon was not the seller and the Amazon Marketplace seller doesn't ship internationally. When Amazon is the seller it usually will ship here unless there is a US gov't restriction (some forms of technology, for example) or it's something that the courier won't handle.

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1 hour ago, Mainecoons said:

Ask yourselves why so many of them won't ship here but have no problem shipping to Canada.  

Funny you should say that - I've had way too many eBay vendors refuse to ship to Canada too.

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1 hour ago, El Saltos said:

I puzzle over that too.  eBay vendors are the worst.  

When we were selling on eBay we would ship to Mexico but only if the buyer would select USPS Express shipping which would give us a tracking number. eBay forces sellers to give a full refund to any buyer who claims to have not received their package. Delivery confirmation was your only recourse. MANY packages to Mexico were claimed to have not been received. Crummy for sellers and buyers both. Almost as bad to Brazil. Never a problem to China or Japan. Go figure.

Actually the problem in Brazil was the impossibly slow Customs. Our terms of sale there were no asking for a refund prior to 60 days from mailing. We would then give a refund and ask the buyer to contact us if the item ever arrived. We had quite a few buyers contact us and return their refunds. That never happened with a single shipment to here in Mexico.

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1 hour ago, El Saltos said:

Interesting.  Won't UPS, FedEx, DHL et al provide tracking numbers?  My experience with USPS is the tracking stops once they hand it over to Mexco Post.

Yes but USPS First Class International is by far the cheapest way to ship internationally. The ones you mention are 4-5 times more expensive. We were primarily selling clothing we could buy for pennies at Hilfiger outlets that foreigners were happy to buy but not pay huge sums for shipping. We could buy insurance through eBay associates for most countries but Mexico and Brazil eventually were excluded. Even with insurance the crooked buyers wouldn't even cooperate half the time with filing a claim and eBay would just tell you "it's a cost of doing business ". No tracking number, no insurance available "This item does not ship to Mexico or Brazil ".

Overall our eBay store, pappysmarket, was fun and profitable.

And a lot of work driving to all the Outlet malls, taking pictures and listing all the items and  daily trips to the post office. Usually 10-20 packages a day. There is a Hilfiger outlet store in Branson so we were able to buy a bunch of clothing and see the Oak Ridge Boys and write off the trip. A big deposit in the memory bank 7th row.

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