Why not ship to Italy and Africa

[coffee_machine_express]

Hi,

I'm about to start selling a small product to ship worldwide. I've noticed a lot of sellers not shipping to Italy, Germany, and all of Africa?

Are these areas particularly fraudulent? Are there other problems? Is there a list of "danger" countries to avoid that I can find?

Thanks for your help, I don't want to get burned.

[*new2vintage]

With some countries there are problems with the postal system and/or customs and sellers may receive negative feedback for problems that aren't their fault. The only country I refuse to sell to is Nigeria which is a well known home for scammers.

[foxette-in-sox]

Italy apparently has a bad reputation for mail theft by postal workers,Africa usually means Nigerian scammer & Germans don't have to have Paypal.

Thats about all I know.

[kopenhagen5]

I don't send to Italy, Turkey, South America and India because of having had mail theft. I have even had packages opened and some items taken then resealed.

Africa, I guess because of scams as said.

[travelling_agoraphobic]

The South African postal system is hopeless! Slow, strikes and totally disorganised. We have had more problems with South African parcels than with any other country in the world.

I've stopped selling internationally. Too many hassles for too little return.

[austeam]

I am not sure which countries are the problem as I don't ship internationally but I do know some have no tracking beyond customs.  It is too easy for the buyer to claim it was not received even when it was.

However, if the item you sell is not too expensive and you can afford to risk the loss you could always give Italy and Germany a try and see how it goes.

[freshwater-2]

Because of the known problems with Italian post, I don't buy from Italy.  Apart from ebay, I have sent postcards from Italy to Oz, and I have arrived home weeks before they arrived.