How to specify a Shipping Address that is NOT in Australia?

[*Brum6y*]

Have won an item located in California, USA and want to get it sent to an address in California - but how to set up the address?

The best I've been able to do is by logging into Paypal and adding a Gift Address, leaving the State field (dropdown) untouched and putting everything else in the freeform name and address lines. Paypal doesn't complain about the lack of a state, which is good, but it adds the word Australia at the end.  Arrrrrrghh!!

Tried logging into paypal.com - but it throws me into the /au/ subdirectory on every screen load.

Is there a way to do it properly? Or do I just have to explain the situation to the seller and hope they can cope?

[*wheels*]

Brumby, with PayPal, the shipping address country can only be in the same country that the account is set-up in. Hopefully your seller will be able to work around this.

http://www.pdncommunity.com/pdn/board/message?board.id=basicpayments&thread.id=15774

[*Brum6y*]

Checked that thread and gave the answer I expected - security.

Pity.

I have access to a freight forwarder in California and it was my intention to get the item shipped cheaply within the USA and take advantage of the lower freight cost per item for the international leg.

As it turns out, the seller is acquainted with USPS international flat-rate boxes and the shipping cost direct to Australia was low enough to not bother with the freight forwarding option... but there are some other items I'm looking at where this is not the case ($6.25 to USA, $42 to AUS is one.)

[*CountessA*]

Hmm... freight-forwarding... *eyes Brumby measuringly while thinking of some possible purchases...*

[*Brum6y*]

Here's the response from Paypal:

Thank you for contacting PayPal, my name is Wilfredo and I am happy to
assist you today.

I understand that you would like to add gift address outside Australia
and having difficulties to do this on your end. I will be happy to give
you the steps and additional information why you can not add this
address outside our country. Kindly refer to the details below.

To add a Gift Address:

   1. Go to the PayPal website and log in to your account.
   2. Click 'Profile' at the top of the page.
   3. Click 'Street Address' in the Account Information column.
   4. Click 'Add'.
   5. Select 'Gift Address' and enter a name.
   6. Enter the address and click 'Save'.


This bit is a real hoot - Where does my 'Paypal Protection' go with this?...


Note: The gift address must be in the same country of your PayPal
account. To have an item sent to an address in another country, you can
enter the address in the 'Note' field on the 'Send Money' page and ask
the seller to ship the item(s) to this address.

If you would like to add address in the US, you may open an account
under that country to use the said address you desire. Here are the
steps below for creating a PayPal account.

To open a Personal/Premier account with PayPal, please complete the
following steps:

   1. Visit PayPal at
https://www.paypal.com/.
   2. Click 'Sign Up'
   3. Select either the 'Personal Account' or 'Premier Account' radio
button.
   4. Choose a country from the drop-down menu
   5. Click 'Continue'.
   6. Enter your information.
          o The 'User Agreement' radio buttons must be checked
indicating this has been read and agreed upon
          o Complete the Security Measure by typing the characters you
see into the blank field, without spaces
   7. Click 'Sign Up'
   8. Check your email inbox
   9. Click on the link in the PayPal Confirmation email.
  10. Enter your password and click 'Confirm'

You have completed the sign up process for a Personal or Premier
account.

If you have any further questions, please reply to this email.

Sincerely,
Wilfredo
PayPal, an eBay Company

PayPal Australia Pty Limited.
Copyright © 1999-2009 PayPal. All rights reserved. PayPal Australia Pty
Limited ABN 93 111 195 389 (PPA) holds an Australian Financial Services
Licence, number 304962. Any general financial product advice provided in
this email is provided by PPA and has not taken into account your
objectives, financial situations or needs.

[*CountessA*]

Do you feel like creating a second PayPal account for this purpose?

I know Llama has at least two PayPal accounts, and a few others have mentioned having several accounts to juggle receiving and sending money. No doubt some have also opened a secondary account for purchases to be sent to an overseas address. I am not sure what that says for the whole issue of security... Ah well.

Isn't the catch that you're obliged to enter a different bank account or credit card? This would be of no help if you have one bank account and one credit card. You might be driven to getting a second credit card so that you could have a second Paypal account so that you could... *heads begins whirling...*

[*Brum6y*]

I don't do a lot of overseas buying - so I've not gone into it a lot.  I have been looking at some bargain priced barcode readers for some business process integration ideas I want to try out with my seller friend and they have the freight forwarding account.

The one I recently won only cost $10 to ship to Australia - but some US sellers have very expensive shipping - $150 for example, for something similar.  Another was $42.  Cheaper to get it included at the freight forwarder with other products.  (The place uses UPS which, it seems, charges for the total weight of a shipment, whether it is in 2, 3 or 4 boxes - which makes life much more pleasant.)

Would you like their details?

[*CountessA*]

Very much, Brumby - yes please.

[llama]

Yes, you could open a new Paypal account, however you'd need to use an invisble proxy in the USA to do so, or they will detect the country from the IP and ask you to verify using a US bank account.

There are heaps of eBay-specific forwarders out there

http://www.mailforwarding.biz/

http://www.usglobalmail.com/

http://cgi.ebay.com/USA-Worldwide-Package-Forwarding-Forwarder-Service_W0QQitemZ170346413883QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20090619?IMSfp=TL090619172001r23445

http://cgi.ebay.com/USA-Mailing-Address-&-Parcel%2FMail-Forwarding--Discount_W0QQitemZ310145974689QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20090602?IMSfp=TL090602156004r39237

There is a really well-known one too, but my addled brain cannot remember the name of it.

[*Brum6y*]

I had wondered about whether you could even access the US Paypal service because of the IP addy issue.  I tried manually altering the url in the address bar and it kept throwing me back into the /au/ subdirectory.

Don't know if that was because of another trigger - but I'm leaning towards the IP address one.

Would like to have a play with the proxy angle - but time is limited and my need has been satisfied through alternate means.

[llama]

Ebay and Paypal leave little flash cookies that identify you.

If you wish to appear to be "elsewhere", then you need to create/use a different Windows Login, so that the old cookies cannot be read. That alternative Login should never be used for the "other", if that makes sense.

[*CountessA*]

Thanks, Llama - that's some useful advice.

I had something posted to a friend in Russia, and there was no problem. The seller seemed not to require that the address had to be a gift address in my PayPal account. But this was at least two years ago...

I also had something posted to friends of mine in Canada, for their wedding present. (I'd have loved to be at their wedding - the photos were magnificent, and they've been very dear friends for about five years. I just couldn't manage to get there...) Again, no problem in having the gift sent.

I also send things occasionally to a friend in the US - but through Amazon. They don't care WHERE I am; and that makes much more sense to me than restricting the ability of gift addresses to one's own country.

[*Brum6y*]

Of the situations I have had to address on this matter - ALL of the sellers (so far) have been happy to accommodate my alternate address request.  The question is then one of "Where do the buyer and seller stand on 'Paypal protection' in such a casual change of shipping address?'.

This becomes the focus of my original question, because the seller might refuse to ship to such an address.

[llama]

The question is then one of "Where do the buyer and seller stand on 'Paypal protection' in such a casual change of shipping address?'.

If the seller doesn't ship to the address stipulated on the "payment received" email from Paypal, then they are not covered by seller protection. It's as simple as that.

[*Brum6y*]

If the seller doesn't ship to the address stipulated on the "payment received" email from Paypal, then they are not covered by seller protection. It's as simple as that.

Hence the original question.