i NEED to get a TSW upper engine mount & a stud kit for my MCS but currently can't find a vendor that accepts credit cards outside of the U.S. or accepts paypal (except for outmotoring but they don't have the TSW mount). whatever i buy will have to be shipped to a freight forwarder in NY then they will ship it to me here in the Philippines. any suggestions?

 

okaaaaaaaaaaaaaay no replies yet

 

Well, the vast majority of NAM members are in North America, and most of the rest are Americans in the military overseas, so it's not like many people here have much experience with the issue.

How about international money order? You should contact the vendors directly and discuss what options they can arrange. Can you pay your freight forwarder and have them do the purchase?

 

^ sadly the freight forwarders don't offer that kind of service. i'm asking ALL of my friends here hoping one of them has a U.S. credit card

i've contacted Way and he said that he doesn't do paypal because of some issues he had with them before. i asked if there are other ways to pay for the items. no reply yet.

i tried ordering from Detriot Tuned. although i "think" they allow purchases from non-U.S. based cards, the shipping address AND billing address MUST be the same for your order to be confirmed online. the issue here is the shipping address will be the freight forwarder in NY & the billing address my address here in the Philippines. if i put the same address (in the Philippines) for shipping & billing, the online form doesn't generate a freight charge via FedEx because the shipping address is not in the U.S.

 

I handle international orders for a non-MINI related vendor, and I'd second rkw's suggestion. Unless the vendor has detailed info posted on their website on how they handle international orders, you're much more likely to get a response if you contact them by e-mail and ask how they might be able to handle your particular situation. If international orders are not common for them, it can take some time to figure out how to handle the shipping and answer your request.

Unfortunately, freight forwarders are often used in cases where there is fraudulent credit card use, so it's not very likely you'll find someone willing to bill a credit card from outside of the US and then ship to a freight forwarder.

If you're insistent on using the freight forwarder, I'd recommend offering to pre-pay using a money order, bank check, or wire transfer. Too many people contest the charges when paying by credit card and PayPal. Any time a charge is contested, the credit card processing company/PayPal automatically takes the payment back from the vendor and requires a very strict burden of proof to get the money back.

Lots of website shopping cart software isn't capable of accurately calculating international shipping charges, and won't show a shipping charge for online international orders. Our's is this way, and we automatically put every international order on hold to verify that the order isn't fraudulent and contact the customer with shipping charges.