International Orders, to do or not to do?

[dave_last]

That sounds like a reasonable idea :thumbup:, but I wonder how would you verify it? (the (potential) scammer can as well take any BF username and pretend to be that person...)

Maybe you could send an e-mail through BF to that user?

Exactly Huugh, any Blade Forums member in good standing wanting to buy would send me email through BF or PM me.

 

[dave_last]

It's the great feedback, advice and suggestions from everyone on this thread that made it possible for us to open an International Orders Desk thread in the Exchange Area to take International Orders.

I cannot thank you all enough. And yes, established Blade Forums contributors get VIP treatment.

 

[David1967]

Almost all knives I have came from US. I work with dealers that know me and have no problems shipping to EU (and not declaring the full value ). I have used CC and personal checks (account in US). For people without US account I would recommend wire transfer (the fee is around 12 USD) or WU. I do not trust PayPal since I had account suspended for no reason for 8 months

David

 

[gajinoz]

It's the great feedback, advice and suggestions from everyone on this thread that made it possible for us to open an International Orders Desk thread in the Exchange Area to take International Orders.

I cannot thank you all enough. And yes, established Blade Forums contributors get VIP treatment.

Sounding good.

BTW, I saw New Graham mentioned above. I've bought a few things from them. TOP dealer, couldn't recommend them any more highly.

 

[aj1985]

I'm glad someone finally asked us

Please always have an item shipped by USPS if the buyer wants it.

UPS & FEDEX hate us Canadians & over charge us way to much

Please tighten the pivot for every Canadian order & just do your best so it gets across the border.

Just try your best not to overcharge for the shipping.
Many of us would love to order just one knife, but can't because of the high shipping rates. Therefore we wait a much longer period and order a few things from the same store so the shipping balances out.

thanks and take care

aj

 

[Will Power]

I'm beginning to get alarmed about paypal. It's worked fine for me as a buyer but I've heard of people getting accounts stopped for arbitrary or no reasons.Also, is it really secure, hackers could have a field day in theory,any responses?

 

[dave_last]

Please always have an item shipped by USPS if the buyer wants it.

UPS & FEDEX hate us Canadians & over charge us way to much

aj, we're with you 100% on USPS vs. UPS for Canada. We take Canadian orders online on our site and this is what we have in bold on the top of our checkout page:

IMPORTANT: If your order is shipping to Canada we strongly recommend that to reduce service fees for customs you use USPS Priority International. Otherwise you must select either UPS Standard or UPS Worldwide services.​

What we don't say there and will say here on bf.c is that since UPS are charging so much, they make sure that your order goes through customs every time, so that they can make their money. With USPS by contrast orders often avoid customs entirely.

You were probably joking about anti-Canadian motives for high UPS/Fedex brokerage fees. Either way, for what it's worth, and it doesn't help much, the real motivation is that UPS and Fedex are for-profit corporations that will charge as much as they can for "exotic" add-on extras such as customs brokerage fees. Especially since the victim here is the helpless recipient who is not even their customer and won't get their order unless they pay out up front. They literally have the buyer over a barrel. It's highway robbery, plain and simple.​

 

[aj1985]

aj, we're with you 100% on USPS vs. UPS for Canada. We take Canadian orders online on our site and this is what we have in bold on the top of our checkout page:

What we don't say there and will say here on bf.c is that since UPS are charging so much, they make sure that your order goes through customs every time, so that they can make their money. With USPS by contrast orders often avoid customs entirely.

You were probably joking about anti-Canadian motives for high UPS/Fedex brokerage fees. Either way, for what it's worth, and it doesn't help much, the real motivation is that UPS and Fedex are for-profit corporations that will charge as much as they can for "exotic" add-on extras such as customs brokerage fees. Especially since the victim here is the helpless recipient who is not even their customer and won't get their order unless they pay out up front. They literally have the buyer over a barrel. It's highway robbery, plain and simple.​

Thanks very much and I have to call your store in a few weeks to order a benchmade from our previous conversations.

take care

aj

 

[dialex]

A timely thread.

... Shipping/postal charges can vary in a bizarre fashion and I suspect some sellers make a lot out of these charges. For example, a small slipjoint can be anything from 7 dollars to 35 dollars in postage!

Very true, indeed.

 

[dialex]

A dealer could specify that payment had to be made by Western Union. That takes the CC companies out of the picture. They could also state that only orders from countries on a list posted on their website would be accepted and that shipment would only be made by a means such as Express Mail that allows the package to be tracked and would be declared at, and insured for, full value.

The dealer could then carefully double / triple check the order against the merchandise to eliminate the need for returns of incorrect goods and, if knowledgeable about the goods he is selling, eliminate the need for the return of things that, in a perfect world, would have been caught by the manufacturer's QC department.

Once the shipment is made, the dealer could make certain to provide the buyer with the tracking information in a timely manner.

The cost for the time involved in doing this could be built into the overseas shipping and handling charges.

Western Union is not my first option. The main reason being that the minimal fee is 20$ for sending money in US.
Therefore, I use Western Union only when I buy from individuals which can't accept credit cards. An extra 20$ is acceptable for certain knives but if it can be avoided...