International shipments through SkyBox.com...?

rfrink

rfrink

KMG Grinder Maker
I've just recieved an email from someone who lives in South America and would like to buy some of our products. They have referred me to SKybox.com which mediates shipments out of the USA.

From what I can understand, people sign up on skybox and recieve a US address where they can have packages sent to while they shop online. Then SkyBox forwards the packages to the recipient and handles the brokerage, customs, and exporting stuff.

Is anyone familiar with this service? are there more like it (yet)?

Any experiences to share?

-Rob
 
Rob,

There are so many scams going on out there right now. Next they will arrange for there carrier to pick it up for free and offer you 30% more than what the item is worth.

I would take caution, if its legit...I apologize. You just never know.

Chris

rfrink said:
I've just recieved an email from someone who lives in South America and would like to buy some of our products. They have referred me to SKybox.com which mediates shipments out of the USA.

From what I can understand, people sign up on skybox and recieve a US address where they can have packages sent to while they shop online. Then SkyBox forwards the packages to the recipient and handles the brokerage, customs, and exporting stuff.

Is anyone familiar with this service? are there more like it (yet)?

Any experiences to share?

-Rob
Click to expand...
 
That was my first thought of course...but this http://www.skybox.net company seems legit to me. When an international customer signs up...they give a US shipping address such as this:

Example:
Name: John
Last name: Smith
Address 1: 1900 N.W. 97th Avenue
Address 2: Suite # 123-4567
City: Doral
State: Florida
Zip code: 33172
Telephone: (786) 265-4880

And as soon as I saw that...I thought, I'll be darned...we've shipped to this address before...several times actually and we knew that the end user was in central/south america. We just thought it was being shipped to a relative or something. But we've seen this address on more than one order..to unrelated customers.

There's another familiar address that we seem to ship too as well in Blaine WA. It's something on Portal street...and again, we are seeing a regular routine where someone in Canada asks the normal questions about machinery...then places the order and has it shipped to Blaine to what seems to be the same address that we've shipped to several times in the past. Different customers...same address.

It makes me go ....hmmmmm.

Until I heard about this SkyBox company...then it makes sense. There are companies that provide a service so people outside of the US can make online purchases.

But I'm still guarded and hoping to learn more about this. How nice would that be to ship to international customers again without the hassles that make it so impractical for us.

But, boy-o-boy doesn't that lend itself to fraud....



-Rob
 
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Well Rob, I am glad I ordered a KMG before you stopped shipping international.
I am just as happy with it as on the first day I got it.

Too bad I can't order extra contact wheels anymore......
 
For the majority of my shipments overseas I use USPS Global Express.

In 12 years only 2 boxes went missing...one was eventually returned and the other the insurance paid off.

I ship hundreds of boxes each year using this service, very reliable.

The problem with Global Priority mail is that they don't provide tracking service and some exotic places...like Canada...they won't let you insure it. So no tracking and no insurance...that is the service I want to use to ship my knives! :D
 
It seems legit and looks like a great service.

Anyone could have done this before themselves by using a freight forwarder and customs broker. They are just making it easier for online customers.

Now that you know, just be sure to vet out the payment methods for those shipments that you recognize as going to that address.

Heck it even add more more layer of verification...as the bills must be paid up at that business too, or they wouldn't process your order.

Have you contacted them and found out what follow up and protection they have for your end of the transaction?
 
I've shipped to a few different freight forwarders before but not this one. I hope we hear from more that have used this particular service as I'd like to have a reliable export freight service. For imports I have been using Griffith&Co or Unishipper. I'd like an outbound option to share with customers. Rob, if you happen to come up with the Blane Washington company, let us know please.
 
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