1SKS international sales policies...

S

Sean Hawkins

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Hmmm.... How shall I begin without sounding like I'm complaining....

Anyway, after being on the forum for quite a while, I've decided to change my daily clothes to the 5.11 range. I'd like to buy maybe 2~3 short sleeve shirts, 2 pants and 1 shorts.
On top of that, I'll also like to be wearing a BladeForum t-shirt on certain weekend outings. And maybe a Blackhawk Rescue Belt.

Spark's 1SKS has received many praises and I'd also like to support the board in my own little way.... However, the payment and shipping policies are actually prompting me to look elsewhere.... :( (I live in Singapore.)
Is there anyway Spark will bend the rules for fellow board menbers?

Once again, I'd like to point out that in no way am I giving out business advises or trying to "teach" Spark how to run his business.

Just seems that his site is the obvious choice to buy from....

Spark, if you'll accept my credit card payment and willing to ship by USPS insured Airmail, I can be reached at simyit@yahoo.com or howesim@hilti.com (My eBay user name is seanhowe, please check my feedbacks) We'll work out details...

By the way, is the short sleeve shirt really slightly more expensive than the long sleeve one... Strange..
 
is the short sleeve shirt really slightly more expensive than the long sleeve one... Strange..
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That does seem strange, doesn't it? But price is driven by demand. If there's more demand for long-sleeve, then long will be cheaper.

International shipping can be very expensive. I recently shipped a knife to a friend in Norway. Three-day service cost over $100 US! This was a little box and not heavy and it still cost over a hundred dollars. And believe me, I priced all of the services and UPS was the cheapest and still over a hundred dollars.

By the way, the "Three-Day Service" took six and when I asked for a refund, they first said that the three-days was not a guarantee. I then pointed out that I had a receipt printed on UPS-watermarked paper by a UPS computer with the UPS logo on it that said, "Three Day Service Guaranteed." They next daid that that was a mistake made by their computer and they couldn't be held responsible for a mistake made by their computer. I kid you not. That's what I was told. Finally, UPS said that the delay was due to their subcontractor in Norway therefore they were not responsible for it and refused to refund me. That's UPS; they always have a loophole.

I also found out that USPS can not insure a package going to Norway. The clerk showed me the screen and when you select Norway as the destination country, insurance gets greyed out. The clerk was rather surprised and checked her written manual and sure enough, Norway is not on the list of insurable countries. Norway and America have excellent relations, Nato allies, etc. But apparently the USPS has not been able to work out an insurnace agreement with Norway. So, these are just the sorts of hassles you run into with international shipping. It can drive you nutty.
 
Hi Guys
I'd like to chip in on this one. Freight is a major problem to those of us outside the US, however I have had little problemgetting items delivered to me. A folder will fit inside a USPS bag and costs about 11$ US to send to New Zealand, larger items eg. kukhuri cost 22$ the delivery time is up to 14 days which I feel is OK.I understand that there are fraud related problems involved in overseas tranaction, butit's disappointiing when delivery issues are quoted as the determining factor. The Distinctive Edge, New Graham Knives and Himalayan Imports all ship outside the US no problems.
Phil

P.S. I would also buy off !sks if they shipped overseas, if for no other reason than to support these forums.
 
I've never shipped a knife overseas, but I have shipped LP albums to at least 20 different countries. I always used USPS Airmail service, and never had a problem at all. The average ship time was 6 days, and that's including weekend days. I always had good luck, and every piece arrived undamaged. Price is reasonable, too.
 
My last knife was shipped from the US by USPS Global Express. Cost $US19 to Australia. Took about 3 or 4 days to get here.

Obviously different rules and prices apply to different countries. I've had three knive shipped to me from NGK and all were similar in delivery times and costs.
 
My entire collection of cowboy boots was shipped by USPS, at about $20~30 a pair. Shipping by UPS of FedEx would have cost me slightly more than double....

Come to thing of it, most, if not all, of my "toys" were shipped by USPS to me.

I understand completely that some of the merchants' policies were there to protect themselves from con jobs.

However, it'll be a pity for us who's living overseas if we can't buy from 1SKS just because of that.....

Whatever Spark's decisions are, I'll respect it and there'll be absolutely no hard feelings (Anyway, is there reason for one?? ;) )

Sean
 
shipping thing s internationally is incredibly problematic. First of all, you have the shipper-and non of them are what we wouyld really like them to be- even though I am sure some of themn do their best.

Second, you have the countries export and import laws, which are never simple (especially the latter.). I have had really bad trouble shipping medical articles to other countries (in the days before email and PDFs). I shudder to think what would happen if I would ship the item most relevaNT TO THIS FORUM.

That having been said--I have dealt with 1sks for a number of years now-
long before I know that there was such a thing as BladeForums. Every interaction that I have had with them has led me to believe that their service is outstanding. I have never dealt with them on an international basid because, quitre frankly, I am afraid of the various problems alluded to above.
 
I think Spark would be willing to ship by USPS to anyone willing to sign a waiver stating that no claim will be made against 1SKS for any items lost or stolen. He has had a lot of trouble with the USPS and refuses to use them without this waiver being signed.
 
Keith nailed it. Due to the vagaries of international credit card fraud, customs regulations, postal regulations and high rates of theft, mis-delivery, "reported" non-delivery and flat out lack of confirmation, we've lost way more money than I ever care to repeat on non US shipments. As such, the only packages that go out USPS are the ones to the US military to APO / FPO addresses, and ones where the customer has paid with money order or wire transfer and requests that method of shipping.

Sorry guys, as much as I'd like to help every customer in every country, I have to look out for my business as well.
 
We stopped shipping internationally completely in 1999. I think if you find a knife dealer who ships overseas by mail on a credit card order, it is an inexperienced dealer and the policy won't last long. We could more than double our sales very quickly by beginning international shipments again but we would plunge the company deeply into the red. Spark is quite correct. It is sad but true.
 
New Graham doesn't look "inexperienced dealer", but hasn't a problem with international shipping.
 
Knife Outlet said:
I think if you find a knife dealer who ships overseas by mail on a credit card order, it is an inexperienced dealer and the policy won't last long.
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Not necessarily true. We have been in business since 1935 (I have been here since 1974) and experience has helped us detect fraudulent orders.
We have more problems with our "walk-in" trade (bad checks, counterfiet currency, etc) than our domestic/international sales combined.

That said, I am sure any dealer that suspends shipment to any particular country (or countries) probably has good reason. Fraud is difficult to detect, it is time consuming and lost shipments are a real concern.

We may be small potatoes compared to the big websellers, but we have been fortunate. I have told my staff for years....'the first bad international order we ship out, we will have to suspend overseas shipments.' That still holds true.

Mike
 
Then your business must be primarily to members of these forums (i.e. within "the family.") Almost none of our business is. Fraud isn't the issue. We have 7 years experience detecting fraud. Last year we had a total of only $2500 in fraudulent chargebacks - almost nothing.

The problem with international sales is delays and the resulting credit card chargebacks. I'll give you a number. If you separate our international sales from the total for 1998, those sales produced a net loss of $28,000. Eliminating those sales gave us the equivalent of a $28,000 raise in profits for 1999. When your business grows to a larger level and you keep doing international shipments, you will understand what I mean.

I'm making some guesses here but, if you haven't had international credit card chargebacks, then your business is not typical of most internet businesses. I wouldn't kid you.
 
Like Spark and Fred, we have also had to suspend international shipments. We have a very low record of chargebacks for domestic orders due to current safety measures put in place by the card companies as well as the ability to track delivery with all of our domestic shippers (UPS, USPS and FedEx). Unfortunately, the ability to track international shipments is very limited and even with tracking the customs aspect can get you. Before we suspended this policy, 1 out of every 5 international orders ended up being fraudelent or charged back to us. Needless to say, it did not take us very long before we terminated international shipments. A small operation like ours that runs on a very tight margin cannot afford any chargebacks.
 
Obviously there are serious problems experienced by some with International shipping and this is a cause of some concern to me since most of mt knife purchases, (and other stuff), are going to be from places like 1sks and NGK and so on. Fortunately NGK are still trading that way and hopefully they will continue to do so but what a huge bummer if they too decided it's not worth it.

I'm wondering if some compromise might not be possible. For instance, with 1SKS. Would it be worth it to them, (obviously a business decision I can't make), to ship internationally to gold members of this forum. We've been around for a bit and we financially support the forum and we had to use our credit card to do that so I would suggest we're a pretty low risk. This way we get a win/win situation. 1SKS makes more sales and people who appear to be solid get to buy stuff we want.

Just an idea.
 
Hey Sean, why don't you get someone you know in the States to purchase the gear and ship it over to you? I had my BladeForums.com's knife bag brought over to Malaysia by a friend in Tucson, Arizona.. He was very helpful! Personally, I've lost a few shipments from the US to Malaysia... :(

Sam
 
samo, hi there bro :)
i never lost anything -or quite - (a microplus plier , it disappeared from thesme envelope packagin my paramillie -funny they took the 8 usd value ,and not the 100 one..- )
i also bought a sony clie nx80 ( value 560 usd las year) without any prob .. and 40 + knives , and autos, balis , big knives.. all without problems . most of them with usps, some fedex and ups (i prefer usps, is faster and reliable)

so ,from my experience , the international affair is not so dramatic.. but i'm a buyer ,and an honest one..
 
But, Disorder, as you say, you are an honest one. If the percentage of people like you represented the international buying public, the problem wouldn't exist. In reality, the average of international buyers are less honest than you are and they ruin it for you and others like you. The problem has worsened steadily since the WWW came into existence and I don't see any trends reversing it. Take care.
 
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