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Im just curious. i was talking to a customer in PR and he informed me that a lot of companies wont ship to puerto rico even though it should be the same shipping cost to ship there than it would be anywhere else. I sell a lot of crap on amazon and the only way people in puerto rico can buy my items is if i offer international shipping which makes no sense to me. Even though they can only buy when i offer international shipping they still pay the same prices as domestic.
Wondering if anyone has a good reason that companies do this.
My opinion is that they don't ship is because if the mailman left the package outside the home it get stolen. That's happen to my friend. The mailman left the package outside and unsecure, and scan label as delivery. He never receives the package.
The companies thinks the people lie about it.
I would think it has a lot to do with the way of being shipped and the costs involved. Anywhere in the continental 48 states can be shipped by truck or rail, whichever is the cheapest. To go to Puerto Rico everything must go by plane or freighter.
I shipped to Rochester NY and it was stolen from my son's front porch. That has nothing to do with why things are not shipped to PR. In Hawaii, Alaska, and PR, things don't get there as fast. As long as a seller makes that known, it shouldn't be a problem. I think some dealers are just not wanting to deal with freight or air costs. PR in particular uses PO boxes because of the distance often from the homes to the mailbox. The Post Office has no problem receiving shipments and people pick them up regularly in a timely manner. There really is no excuse for companies to resist shipping to PR, anymore than to Hawaii or Alaska. Those that do not, are losing over a million customers a day. They might want to re-think their shipping methods.
When I was first using ebay years back I didn't know about shipping to an APO or anything like that, so of course the very first auction I sold was to an APO and the shipping cost was ridiculous. Then you have people who claim they didn't receive the item and demand a refund.. it's scammers that made me quit selling stuff online and I just work a few hours of overtime and throw stuff in the trash now.
Im just curious. i was talking to a customer in PR and he informed me that a lot of companies wont ship to puerto rico even though it should be the same shipping cost to ship there than it would be anywhere else. I sell a lot of crap on amazon and the only way people in puerto rico can buy my items is if i offer international shipping which makes no sense to me. Even though they can only buy when i offer international shipping they still pay the same prices as domestic.
Wondering if anyone has a good reason that companies do this.
Disclaimer about not shipping to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, APO boxes goes back ages now. This or will say something like "shipping to continuous United States only".
If you want to have your eyes opened go to UPS, USPS, FedEx or any other shipper and run calculations on even sending a small shipment to PR, Alaska, or Hawaii.
Shipping to the non-mainland US states or PR costs plenty. It is also why nearly everything in those places costs more than on mainland. What is not locally produced must arrive on a plane or ship/boat.
Before air travel dominated shipping to these places was slightly cheaper. That was because the only way to reach PR,Alaska or Hawaii was by ship/boat and there were still plenty of scheduled passenger liners who also carried cargo. However once airplanes replaced ships and especially jet aircraft shipping costs increased.
Basically the larger and heavier something is more it will cost to go by air. Those shipping such things often have basically two choices; the can charge full costs (and possibly lose a sale), or charge less and eat any loss. Then there is a third, just don't ship things to Alaska, Hawaii, or PR.
Should like to also point out it is possible to ship via "ground" service at least to Alaska (IIRC FedEx, UPS and others offer), but again it will cost and take longer.
Otherwise there is shipping via ocean freight (ship, boat or whatever) to Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, just as one can send things to Europe or anywhere else in world that way. Not the best option for time sensitive things, and may be costly but you have something large or very big (such as a car, major appliance, etc....), it might be the most economical way to go.
The USPS ships to Puerto Rico at domestic rates. A flat rate box from San Francisco to Oakland is the same cost as from Seattle to San Juan. Equally, the distance rate for a similar UPS or FedEx package from San Francisco to Atalanta is the same as from Atlanta to San Juan providing it's an air shipment.
The issues comes in with ground shipments. When you use ground it has to go by ship. But unlike Hawaii with nothing between it and California, Puerto Rico has many non US foreign countries between it and Florida. Because of this, a cargo ship loaded with a UPS or Fedex container destined for Puerto Rico may leave Florida and first stop in the Bahamas, next on to Cuba, (may even go around to Jamaica) swing over to the Turks and Cacos, over to Haiti and the DR and finally hitting PR before continuing its trek through the Caribbean. This means it's all done under international shipping and not domestic rates. FedEx, UPS and DHL have planes that go direct to PR where they control all cost, but they don't own any ships.
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