resolved GMCPaul's no foreigners?

[bhemingson]

I ordered nearly $300 worth of parts on GMCPaul's website and 24 hours later I get full refund basically saying "it costs us too much to process foreign orders get lost" I don't understand as I paid in US dollars using PayPal and asked it to be shipped to Washington State. I don't see where the cost is unless PayPal is secretly screwing Canadians. I have bought over 75 items on eBay and maybe $5000 in parts from other vendors. Any other Canadians get this from other vendors?

[CG]

Did you take this up with them before posting here? Seems odd with the method of payment you mentioned and the ship to Washington state there would have been any problems.

Was your refund and message done via email?

[davepl]

It clearly states on their checkout: "We do not ship outside the USA"

Their checkout form clearly ONLY supports the USA, and does not provide Canada even as an option. You say you "asked" them to ship to Canada, but if you just paid for USA shipping at a USA-only website and then put something in the comments field, I'm afraid you're overreaching.

Now if GMCPaul's had an international checkout and decided after the fact not to support it, as you kind of make it sound, that'd be different. But that's not the case.

Ever try to ship something to Canada? It's no fun. You need a customs broker, there's GST to contend with and collect, and frankly, it's a pain. Even shipping stuff to family is annoying and the stuff can sit at the border in a warehouse. If you pay for FedEx Next Day (ie: air) it's quick because FedEx does the brokerage, but you pay for that too.

If and when Canada wants to do business they'll make it easier. As it stands right now, they don't want to play. They should make it so that a US company can send stuff painlessly to you via UPS Ground at the same rate (and not require bilingual packaging) and then you'd be cooking. But that won't happen. So don't expect US vendors to jump through a bunch of hoops and complexity and cost just for 10% of the size of the US market.

I say all this being from Regina. I know the pain and the cost. Even sending birthday presents to my relatives is annoying. But it's all self-inflicted by Canada upon themselves...

[bhemingson]

If you read the post. I asked for it to be shipped to Washington State. I used my Canadian address as the billing address and Point Roberts WA as the destination. I was charged US dollars on my PayPal. GMCPaul's is free to not take my money I don't care it's their business. I just want to know of other vendors that do this so I don't waste my time and theirs filling out forms.

I ordered another bunch of stuff from Matt's classics and could have added to that order to save shipping. They had zero issue.

[HO455]

Well it's more complicated than that. It started back in the nineties when the US put tariffs on Canadian wood imports and Canada wasn't happy about it. So 25+ years later we're still playing games about it.

[bhemingson]

A USA company getting paid in USA dollars to ship to a USA address. I suppose I could have lied and made my billing address Point Roberts WA and they never would have known.

I quit shipping to Canada years ago when UPS charged me more in "customs brokerage" than I paid for a '64 Corvette exhaust manifold. Cheaper for me to a mailbox service across the line and pick up myself.

[custom10nut]

It's company policy. Paul's is not the only small to mid-sized business to do this. There has been times when I wanted to buy things for family, and because the billing and shipping addresses were different, they wouldn't accept payment.
This prevents fraud. It sucks for us honest guys
A way to fix your issue would be have your friend in WA order and take delivery, then pay him and pick it up.

[DeadheadNM]

I've received good service and good parts from GMC Paul's. If your deal falls through try Wes Hepp at Classic Heartbeat in WA state: http://www.classicheartbeat.com/default.htm

[suburban99]

Originally Posted by bhemingson

I ordered nearly $300 worth of parts on GMCPaul's website and 24 hours later I get full refund basically saying "it costs us too much to process foreign orders get lost" I don't understand as I paid in US dollars using PayPal and asked it to be shipped to Washington State. I don't see where the cost is unless PayPal is secretly screwing Canadians. I have bought over 75 items on eBay and maybe $5000 in parts from other vendors. Any other Canadians get this from other vendors?

Yes I have had this happen as well. Now I have a credit card with a US billing address and no more problems. I use Ship Happens in Sumas as the ship to point for UPS/Fedex and USPS goes to my Post office box.

[LongBox]

This frustrates me as well, as I have a list of stuff I want to order for my spring work on the GMC. From what I read, GMC Pauls has good stuff, but is not interested in orders from outside the US, even if they are to be shipped to an American address. The only work around seems to be to get a friend in the US to order the stuff.

[GMCPaul]

No one told you to get lost. We explained
Sorry we do not accept orders from outside the USA as the costs for accepting payments from outside the USA are higher than for those inside the USA. This order has been voided & refunded

In order to get your order to go through even though we are set up so that international payments are not accepted you put your bill to location as being in the USA even though you reside outside the USA. 1 mention of this to your card issuer along with a complaint that you did not receive something and they perform a charge back and give your money back to you. How do we know this is it it's happened. After expenses we average 5-10% profits. But by being in Canada in order to pay in USA $$$$ there a currency conversion charge. So instead of paying 2.9% on the transaction + .30 per transaction we get charged 3.9% + .30 per transaction. Then they slap a 2.5% currency conversion charge on the transaction raising it to a total of 6.4% + .30 per transaction deducted from the amount you pay.
We do not sell to anyone any longer that is outside the USA financial system for the above reasons. We do not hide this fact. We make it very clear on our check out pages, and by disabling international forms of payment, and we again specify this on our policies page. But you thought you would go ahead and circumvent all this by changing the bill to information to a fake USA address which makes it a transaction ripe for fraud and if it had been a credit card payment instead of a PayPal payment the billing address not being the same as for the CC would have cost us another 1% in fees because it did not match that for the card on file.
We have nothing against those in Canada and think of Canadians as our friends but where we do business is a calculated business decision and our business is conducted in the USA alone.
All USA business's do not ship to Canada, All Canadian business's do not ship to the USA. Fraud jumps upward significantly when you sell outside the USA ( it's bad enough in the USA ) then you factor in the extra costs of accepting foreign payments, additional headaches and fraud if you actually ship outside the USA also and we've found it's just not worth the time.
We recommend Classic Heartbeat regularly for those outside the USA as Wes does deal with these extra costs and headaches. He runs a good business with Quality parts like ourselves. Give him a try and I'm sure you'll be pleased. But please do not try to circumvent a companies policy by lying on the billing address to get a order through as it costs the business even more in fees with a incorrect bill to address after they are already paying inflated card processing fees on a international transaction.
Paul Jr. @ GMCPauls

[James the III]

Originally Posted by bhemingson

If you read the post. I asked for it to be shipped to Washington State. I used my Canadian address as the billing address and Point Roberts WA as the destination. I was charged US dollars on my PayPal. GMCPaul's is free to not take my money I don't care it's their business. I just want to know of other vendors that do this so I don't waste my time and theirs filling out forms.

I ordered another bunch of stuff from Matt's classics and could have added to that order to save shipping. They had zero issue.

Doesn't matter.. many vendors to keep scam artist away. will only ship to the paypal confirmed address AKA billing address..
When a paypal account gets stolen, many times the scam artist would have items shipped to a different address..
paypall doesn't charge you fees to buy.. they might be charging the us vendor the currency exchange cost.. as I'm sure your paypal is linked to an Canada bank..
They ship it to your us address you call paypal and claim you didn't get it or didn't order it. and paypal refunds your money.. and vendor is out of luck..
Not saying you would do this, but many vendors have been burned from stuff like this..
They don't care that you are doing this to evade taxes.. They care if there is a risk of not getting paid..
have the person living at that address that has the paypal billing address confirmed as matching , and it be no problem..
MANY on ebay also will not ship to a non-confirmed address using paypal.
I won't.. as the vendor have no leg to stand on and is s.o.l. when paypal refunds the money..
Sure the vendor has a confirmation it was delivered.. but to an address that isn't the paypal billing address... paypal refunds the money and the vender gets to fight it out with the shipping company (usps/ups/fedx) and all they will do is send an copy of the sig. of it being delivered if sig required was checked, if not just that it was scanned with the gps data showing it delivered there..
nothing more.. so the vendor is out the part and money..
AGAIN.. have the property owner or renter of that address you want it shipped to order the parts.. and no issue..
Paypal refund policy is the WHY.. normal c/c are not as bad.. but most times do the same.. Vendors have had it with this.. I don't blame them..
I have required a paypal account holder of the address to be shipped to, order the part if it's an out of country account paying for it and it's being shipped to a us address.. This gives me a foot to stand on when the buyer claims they didn't receive the shipment.. NOW.. I can reply to paypal with a copy of the shipping confirmation and paypal will honor that. and not refund the buyers money..

[chewychevy67]

I have this issue just buying pairs off this board sometimes from members. That's why I quit buying a membership. Why should I sell to someone who won't sell to me. Try Wes at classic heartbeat. He is the best.

[68c10airstream]

I knew gmcpaul would come through with an honest and complete description of what was going on.

[bhemingson]

Jame 111 do you always jump to conclusions or is this case special? I am not evading taxes so take that theory and smoke it. Each time i cross the border bringing back my purchases i show the invoice to the Canadian border guy and based on my daily limit they calculate fedeeal and provincial taxes and I pay them. That is way cheaper than the fees i woukd pay a shipper like UPS. Paranoid much? I have perfect record as a buyer on eBay. 100% of my transactions were bought and shipped to a USA address using PayPal