If they lost as much on domestic orders as I assume they were losing on these fraudulent foreign orders, then they would indeed cease all domestic orders. Being out of business can do that to you.
Look at the “about” page, this is a two person operation. There are more Fuck You’s in the OP than there are employees to yell at. How much time do you think these people have to deal with fraudulent overseas orders?
You know, you’re right. I’m sure they could have just shut down the Liechtenstein bureau in the shipping department while keeping the Kazakh bureau open.
C’mon, matt, this isn’t a multi-national conglomerate we’re talking about here, it’s a couple of guys in College Station, TX. Their international business was probably pretty small to begin with, so one or two people ripping them off made it more of a hassle than it was worth. It’s not like Toyota decided to quit shipping Camrys to France because a guy in London stole one.
It’s a stupidly worded excuse. But there’s also customs problems, too. The policy isn’t stupid.
As far as I know, AVS (address verification system) doesn’t work on all non-US cards. At least that’s what I see in my CC processing account when a non-US order goes through - “AVS not applicable.”
Plus you do need to pay extra $$ to process non-US cards.
You ever fill out one of those NAFTA forms?
It’s just that “Due to a spate of credit card fraud from people with last names ending in H,” etc. seems to make as much sense to me as a loss-prevention strategy as that mentioned in the OP.
There may well be some detail of which I am unaware that makes it sensible to respond to a spate of credit card fraud by ceasing to do business with anyone not in the United States or Canada. As it stands, however, I don’t get it.
Chargebacks suck.
No. laughs But there have been times I have been so desperate to get something only sold in the States that I’d pay a premium for it to make it worth the while.
Smaller stores can get a pass for this, but it irks me when I go to someplace like Amazon.com because something isn’t sold on Amazon.ca, and they won’t ship outside of the US.
I’m figuring that it mostly involves the ability to deal with the authorities to solve the problem. I’m sure there are many nations that have developed means to deal with credit card fraud effectively, but there are also others that haven’t. A two-person operation really doesn’t have the resources to figure out how to deal with the legal system of any random country that happens to host a customer. If most of their business involves the US and Canada, and they are reasonably confident about having some legal recourse in those countries, and substantially less so elsewhere, it makes sense to limit their dealings to those two countries.
I totally agree with the OP, and I’ll add my own “Fuck you!” to people who charge “handling fees” above International Postage rates to ship something to Australia.
It requires about 2 minutes worth of work to write “Australia” as the destination country on the parcel and write three lines on the Customs declaration to the effect that the parcel contains “Books” or “DVDs” or what have you.
I understand paying extra for International Postage- that’s fine, it costs money to mail things overseas. But charging me $10-$20 US dollars on top of that just because I don’t live in the US? I fart in your general direction!
If I ran a mail order business and wanted to charge people an extra AUD$20 handling fee to ship to the US- Just Because- you can bet I’d have an inbox full of angry E-mails and my business wouldn’t last long. There are other countries besides the US out there, and a number of online retailers would do well to remember that.
At least you got a reason, and a somewhat plausible one at that. I lived in Hawaii, which has been part of the United States for nearly 50 years now. Hawaii is only as far away from the US as the US is wide. So what’s the problem with shipping there? Beats me, but companies often won’t ship there at all, and if they do, it’s for an additional and frequently obnoxiously high amount. Alaska is often in the same boat.
Being in the US isn’t good enough for some US companies.
Fuck amazon.co.uk for not shipping amazon marketplace books (you know, the used book sellers that are linked to amazon) to Bulgaria. I saw a book I wanted that was one freaking pound. But no, you won’t ship it to me. Do you know how hard it is to get books in English in Bulgaria? (Okay, it’s not impossible, but selection’s bad and I have to ride a bus for an hour and a half to get to the closest bookstore.)
But I see that you will ship to countries in the EU. I can’t wait for fucking January. SEND ME YOUR BOOKS, DAMMIT.
And damn to hell those pizza delivery people who will not deliver in the countryside.
The nature of business is to go after the most profitable, and to cut the less profitable. Don’t expect a business to do otherwise.
If you want the product or service that badly, hire an agent to handle the transaction.
You mean there’s someone out there going without their cheap, poorly-fitting, Internet meme-referencing, internationally-shipped humourous T-shirts tonight? When will the injustice end?!
I say take that 10 dollars, and instead of having it cause you anguish over poor foreign business decision-making, you buy some of that lovely German beer for that friend you hardly see, or a fancy box of chocolates for a loved one, or even design your own ironic message in a graphics application and have a local shop print it out on a T-shirt according to your own specifications. At least that way, when the hipsters stop and tell you that they love your punningly clever shirt with monkeys on it, you earn the cachet of saying it’s your own design. Plus, you’d be supporting the local economy, and could even become friends with the poor guy trying to scratch a living printing shirts for stag weekends.
Brilliant!
Why are we still talking about credit cards? As I hinted earlier, a far easier way for the business in question to greatly reduce the risk of fraud would be to stop accepting money orders!
Meh.
I have been searching for a single Swedish website that will ship Swedish DVDs and CDs to the US. Nothing.
I’m not taking it as social commentary or a personal attack on countries without ä, å, and ö, though.
I really don’t understand pits like this. It is directed at the little start up company. It reads as if you don’t think they really are sorry that they can’t ship outside of the US and Canada right now.
Why would you think that? When I read their explanation I don’t see a reason to doubt is is true.
I am curious what the thought process is that ends with the tee shirt company being the bad guys here. I really am interested, because when I read it my thought process does not bring me there. Now I don’t know the details, and have to make some assumptions that could be wrong. But here is my basic thought process:
At ten bucks a tee shirt, they are going to have to sell a lot of shirts to make this business work. Their profit margin is relatively small compared to other items so they have to rely on volume. So the more shirts they can sell, the more of a chance they have to make a profit. If they don’t sell enough shirts, they make no profit, and they fail. They don’t want to fail, so they want to sell as many shirts as possible.
So when they find that they are losing money when shipping to some areas because they can’t get their payments, they try to find a way to make that stop. If they could find a way to ship to these places and not get ripped off, they would. The more places that they can sell to, the more chance they have of beating the odds, and making this venture work. So they looked to find a way to be sure they won’t get ripped off anymore and currently can’t find a way to do this.
This makes them sad because they LOVED that they could say they had a international business with customers in 22 different countries. It was very cool to think that their custom designed tee shirts were being worn all over the world. That was something they could rightly brag about. So they hated that because of the economics of the situation, they could no longer sell to certain places. When technology, or changes in banking policies, or cooperation with other governments to help fight against fraud, or whatever, allows them to sell to the places they can’t currently sell to, they will be very happy. So pitting them for a situation that hurts them more than it hurts you doesn’t make sense.
I would really like to hear your thought process. I see rants like this from time to time and really just don’t get them. So I am not asking in order to be confrontational or snarky. I really would like to know how others see this that makes them feel this company is deserving of a pitting.
I understand that not being able to get what you want is frustating. But to me the pitting would be of the system that can’t find a way to stop the fraud. And I agree that since situations like this occur quite often, there is definately an oppurtunity for someone out there to find a way to fix the problem, and make some money in the process. And if someone can do that, I would think this little company would be thrilled.
So sincerely, how does my thought process differ from yours?
Like not accepting money orders as payment, for example? Why do I keep on repeating myself?
Maybe you’d have to repeat yourself less if you explained how they would be safer from fraud without money orders. Regardless, the amount they make from US&Canada money-order paid shipments could be greater than their total overseas shipments, making your idea a money loser still.
I think I understand this pitting, Grits and Hard Toast. The poor German thinks that the Yanks are looking down on his backward country. Trouble is, I don’t think that’s what the T-shirt guys intended.
