Shipping issues to Puerto Rico

[BSV-Automotive]

Shipping issues to Puerto Rico......according to PayPal "Sorry, the selected country or region is not supported." It won't even give me an option to select from.  But if I go to eBay I can select USPS or FedEx.  Does anybody know if I can ship to Puerto Rico.  When I searched on USPS's website it stated they were hit by an earthquake and some Post Offices were closed or relocated but this person's zip code wasn't one of them. Can anyone help me?

[WarrenPink]

Hello @BSV-Automotive

I hope you are doing well. 

Apologies for the inconvenience. 

There are certain countries that are restricted here in PayPal due to Federal laws and Government regulations. In this specific concern, for the meantime, make the transaction outside PayPal. I hope this helps!

If you find this or any other post was helpful, make our community better by giving kudos or accepting it as a solution

[rocomendez]

Dear Warren:

Please allow me to correct your statement: "There are certain countries that are restricted here in PayPal due to Federal laws and Government regulations."

Although there may be countries that PayPal is restricted from shipping to, it would be impossible for Puerto Rico to be one of them. This is because Puerto Rico is not a "country" at all, it's a region of the United States (I realize it's not a state, but neither is Washington DC). In addition, there are no federal laws or government regulations that prohibit or limit shipping to Puerto Rico. Shipping to Puerto Rico is exactly the same as shipping anywhere else in the US, regardless of your shipper of choice (USPS, FedEx, UPS, etc.). There are no customs, taxes or import/export issues because, again, it's a part of the US and not a foreign country. Unfortunately for the over three million US citizens who live in Puerto Rico, many of our fellow countrymen and women in the mainland are not aware of this and incorrectly refer to Puerto Rico as a foreign country, which negatively affects our ability to conduct business, as evidenced by BSV-Automotive's query. There is no reason BSV-Automotive should have problems shipping to Puerto Rico, and it would be in the best interest of the entire PayPal community that you 1) help them do so and 2) correct this situation so others don't encounter the same issue.

[wandacburns]

To reiterate what  has already been said, Puerto Rico is a United States territory and as such, PART of the United States. It is NOT another country, so what's your problem other than bigotry?

[rocomendez]

Dear BSV-Automotive:

I'm sorry to hear you are having problems shipping to Puerto Rico, and am doubly sorry to read PayPal's inadequate and factually incorrect reply (see my response to them below). Of course you can ship to Puerto Rico, and you may do so via any of the outfits you normally use to ship anywhere in the US (USPS, FedEx, UPS, Amazon, etc.). I moved here from California in 2018, shortly after hurricane Maria, and was here for the earthquakes, and I can personally vouch that postal and/or private carrier deliveries continue normally. Sadly, many businesses and organizations in the mainland US are not aware that Puerto Rico is a part of the nation and incorrectly list us as a "country" in their pull-down menus, making it difficult and sometimes impossible for us to conduct business. Given that there are over three million potential US customers here (there is no such thing as a Puerto Rican "citizenship"), this situation creates an entirely needless obstacle for all us sellers/buyers, both here and in the mainland. Hopefully PayPal will correct it soon.

[SalDaGal]

I sold 2 dolls last week. One went to Chicago, the other to Puerto Rico. The package going to Puerto Rico got there 2 days sooner than the one to Chicago. Of course, Paypal nor Ebay would allow me to purchase the postage thru them because I assume they're under the impression that PR is a Communist country with an evil dictator ruling. My buyer in PR paid the extra cost to go there, no problem. Only problem was me standing in line at the post office for an hour with 2 heavy boxes. My buyer in PR just bought another statue from me and I've tried every trick I cAn think of but By George...PayPal says no shippy Porto Rico and they're standing firm on that imbecilic rule. I think that most of the crew working for PayPal are under 25 and have no clue where Puerto Rico is! So, I'll stand in line for 2 hours on a Saturday to get my buyer's package to her because heaven forbid I should be 1 day late mailing it even though the Post Offices were closed for a week due to frozen locked doors that they couldn't open. Am I the only one here that thinks I'm Einstein's cousin compared to 90% of the rest of the population?