Quoted from roc-noc:I can speak to that. I have a web based company and we ship products all over the world. It used to be Indonesia where all the fraud orders came from. The last two years Indonesia has been replaced by Brazil. There is no disrespect to you. But statistically it is risky for us to ship orders to Brazil or even to a forwarder that is reshipping to Brazil.
I think it might have to do with the high duty that you have to pay when you import products from the US. I am told that it is 100% of the price.
Two years ago, my first burn was $1000 in product that was shipped to Brazil by USPS and insured. Tracking showed that it stopped in customs and the customer never picked it up. We could never communicate with customs to get it returned to us. And of course the customer charged us back for the $1000. And USPS said that it had been delivered (to customs) so their insurance would not pay.
Well, I can relate to that, and I'm sorry to hear about this problem that happened to you...
Yes, most of the times shipments are held in customs, sometimes for over a month, and the custom taxes are 60% of the whole value (products + shipping).
So, supporting this hobby here in Brazil surely is not easy ($$) for us as it is for you guys, but that's something that I myself am completely aware of, and there's nothing I can do except to be ok with it!
Scammers unfortunately are everywhere. Thank god my conscience is clean... though I also had some problems in the past, I tend to believe I've always been completely honest with every vendor!