Shipping to China

[mattd]

I’ve read some older posts on the topic but would like to know if anyone has been shipping knives to China lately?

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Nearly every order from China I have come across was a scam. This has been covered many times before in discussions here. I don't recall anyone in the US ever mentioning a real order from China. Also, be aware of tariffs and fees.

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

I have shipped knives to China. They used a freight forwarding service located here in the United States. As long as the address you ship to is the confirmed PayPal address I think you should be fine.

If you are shipping to an address that is different than the confirmed PayPal address, you won't be covered if there's a problem.

there was an issue a while back where one of the knife makers who frequents this forum shipped to a freight forwarding service. The freight forwarding service must have opened the packaging and not put it back together properly. When the box went overseas and arrived to the Chinese buyer the knife had been damaged in shipping. That buyer opened a claim with PayPal and the knife maker was on the hook at least for a while. It ended up having a happy ending, but it was a pain. this is a risk when adding a freight forwarding company to the mix. But, at least in theory, if you are shipping a properly package knife to a confirmed PayPal address in theory you should be fine. So far I have been.

Your risk mitigation boils down to minimizing risk of a chargeback. You can get a chargeback from PayPal, you can also get a chargeback through PayPal from a credit card reversal. However these are risks you can face from any buyer, not just Chinese.

 

[mattd]

I have shipped knives to China. They used a freight forwarding service located here in the United States. As long as the address you ship to is the confirmed PayPal address I think you should be fine.

If you are shipping to an address that is different than the confirmed PayPal address, you won't be covered if there's a problem.

there was an issue a while back where one of the knife makers who frequents this forum shipped to a freight forwarding service. The freight forwarding service must have opened the packaging and not put it back together properly. When the box went overseas and arrived to the Chinese buyer the knife had been damaged in shipping. That buyer opened a claim with PayPal and the knife maker was on the hook at least for a while. It ended up having a happy ending, but it was a pain. this is a risk when adding a freight forwarding company to the mix. But, at least in theory, if you are shipping a properly package knife to a confirmed PayPal address in theory you should be fine. So far I have been.

Your risk mitigation boils down to minimizing risk of a chargeback. You can get a chargeback from PayPal, you can also get a chargeback through PayPal from a credit card reversal. However these are risks you can face from any buyer, not just Chinese.

Thank you very much for the detailed advise, I appreciate it.