Paypal question Re: shipping to APO/FPO addresses

Faust

Assume you sell a coin (or anything) to a buyer with an APO/FPO address and they use Paypal. How do you ship the coin and get seller protection through Paypal since there is no method of onine tracking and signature confirmation to the military addresses? I don't want to block APO/FPO buyers but it seems there is no way to get the Paypal seller protection. Any ideas?

Stork

You can get a return receipt with the registered/certified mail, but that doesn't have on-line tracking.
But...
I did find this Link. Of course, it contradicts what is here.

So....I called the number to the Military Postal Service Agency, and yes, Express Mail will give you on-line tracking to the APO/FPOs.

Neglecting the express mail option, I did email paypal to see if they had a different standard for the seller protction policy going to those addresses. If I hear anything of interest I'll let you know.



Cathy

Faust

Thanks for the info. I called Paypal too and there was no exception for APO/FPO. To get the seller protection, you still need the tracking or tracking with signature confirmation (if over $250), and it has to be trackable online. I didn't know that about the Express Mail, I'll try that next time. In my case, I sent it Priority with insurance and return receipt. Hopefully, my buyer is honest.

JapanJohn

This is near and dear to me. I have lived at an FPO address for 9 of my last 11 years. Mailing to an FPO is just like mailing to San Francisco or New York. From there the military takes it. The only difference is that most packages require a customs form.

Where I live in Okinawa Japan we have Federal Express as well. They don't deliver to your door but there is an office you can go to to pick up your stuff.

Consequently there is a Fed Ex office at a base in Iraq I recently visited. I had been there nearly a month and was about to be released and something broke. I actually got a part from New Jersey in three days............Sorry that had nothing to do with this.

FPO mail can be sent registered and I believe can be tracked now. I left Japan in late 2003, and returned in Dec 2005 and was amazed at the level of service increase by the post office. I was also impressed by the number of people who are now shipping to FPO. I'm aware that you have to fill out that customs form and stand in that line and I'm willing to pay a couple more dollars for the trouble.

It has been my policy to NOT do business with people who DO NOT ship to FPO addresses. Exclude me from this statement but the men and women of the US Military overseas deserve support from the US public at large. It's a tough thankless job and having the ability to have your favorite food/coffee/toy/book/movie/coin/software/hobby items........etc. really helps keep the morale up. When you're in a strange place it sure makes it all okay to go home and have the things you're used to.

I CANNOT function without a certain brand of tea, a certain powdered capuccino mix, Moonlite BBQ sauce from Owensboro, Ky., and on and on.

Sorry, this turned into a rant. FPO shipping is safe.

John

KoinDawg

I was paid by PayPal but was not able to generate the shipping label at home on my P.C. because the address. Just had to take to P.O. and afix the customs paper on outside. I've always felt that our troops overseas deserve the same treatment as all Americans on ebay. So I would never exclude APO, FPO addresses.

Faust

Just to clarify my first post, I would not exclude shipping to APO/FPO. I'm only trying to find a way to ship to those addresses with seller protection from Paypal. Without seller protection, its all too easy for buyers to do chargebacks on sellers.