Shipping-From-China Policy
International customers from select destinations may have the opportunity to choose their order to be shipped from China.
Please ensure that you fully understand and accept this policy, particularly the Risk Disclosure section, before selecting the shipping-from-China option at checkout.
If you are from Taiwan or Vietnam, please read the destination-specific information.
TL; DR
- Do not select the shipping-from-China option if you have strong concerns over the privacy of your personal information.
- Do not select the shipping-from-China option if you expect to rely heavily on the courier's customer service.
- If you're from Taiwan or Vietnam, please make sure you read the destination-specific section before choosing the shipping-from-China option.
Background
The Benefits of Shipping from China
We predominantly manufacture our products in China and have a long history of shipping from there. Directly shipping from the manufacturing country offers significant benefits to customers in certain international destinations, summarized as follows:
- Direct shipping from China waives the cost of freight to our main fulfillment location in the U.S., allowing us to offer this saving as a rebate to customers and reduce the shipping charge.
- Geographically, China is closer to many destinations, resulting in lower shipping costs.
- Chinese couriers generally offer lower shipping prices than their U.S. counterparts.
Summarizing these benefits, we anticipate a 30%-80% saving in shipping charges for many international customers. We aim to continually lower shipping costs for our customers and hope you can benefit from these savings.
Concerns with Shipping from China
While Chinese couriers offer competitive prices and time-efficient services, some of their practices do not align with our standards. Incidents involving customer data safety have been disturbing. We suspended shipping from China in July 2023 due to these concerns, as detailed in a related article.
Despite this, we faced strong customer and licensor demand to reopen the shipping-from-China option. We acknowledge that lower shipping costs via Chinese couriers are crucial for some customers, leading us to reintroduce this option, albeit with reservations.
Since 2017, we have worked with multiple Chinese couriers and partnered with S.F. Express, the most renowned courier in China, since 2021. Despite their reputation, they have not been immune to severe concerns. However, our knowledge of the Chinese logistics industry suggests that other couriers are likely worse in these matters.
In keeping with our tradition of transparency, we give our customers the right to choose, fully informed. Below are the details of our concerns and special clauses, depending on your shipping destination, that you must accept before using this service.
Limitation in Service
By choosing the shipping-from-China option, you acknowledge and accept that the following service limitations may occur during your order's shipment.
Insufficient Tracking Information
It's common for parcels to be handled by different couriers, especially in international shipping. However, we found that Chinese couriers tend to not disclose their shipping partners to customers, making it difficult to identify the final courier. This can inconvenience customers who may need to contact the terminal courier for proper delivery. Additionally, tracking information might not be timely or detailed due to varying data exchange conditions between couriers.
To mitigate this issue, we created a "Who Is Delivering My Package?" page to help customers identify the terminal courier and tracking number.
Insufficient Customer Service
S.F. Express offers multilingual online customer service, but in the service channels other than Chinese, they often only advise contacting the shipper (us) for assistance, indicating an inability to directly address issues with S.F.'s Chinese-speaking operations team.
While we are happy to assist, this long communication chain can delay issue resolution. Most other Chinese couriers do not even offer customer service, although we seldom ship with them currently.
Our Privacy Compliance
We are concerned that Chinese couriers do not prioritize privacy. Pawprint Press, based in California, complies with the highest standards of customer information protection, including CCPA and GDPR. Our full privacy policy is available here.
However, we have found no evidence of misuse of customer data or legal breaches in our partnership with Chinese couriers. We continuously monitor their practices and ask customers choosing the shipping-from-China option to read the Risk Disclosure section carefully.
Risk Disclosure
By selecting the shipping-from-China option, you acknowledge and accept the following risks during or after your order's shipment.
While it's not our obligation to ensure courier compliance, we outline risks identified through our experience. We disclose these risks as part of our legal compliance and only work with couriers when there's no substantial evidence of customer data misuse. If you suspect any misuse of your information, please notify us immediately for legal action.
Risk from Unprofessional Data Processing
There's a possibility of accidental exposure of customer personal information due to unprofessional data processing.
For example, in an incident leading to our previous suspension of shipping from China, we inadvertently discovered someone (we don't know)'s full name and phone number due to a courier app's auto-fill error. This incident highlights the courier's data protection inadequacy.
In China, convenience often trumps privacy concerns, leading many companies to laxly handle personal information. We have no evidence of malicious intent but warn customers of a higher data leak risk under these circumstances.
Destination-Specific Information
Taiwan
Shipping from Mainland China is often more economical and efficient. However, Chinese couriers require the Taiwanese recipient's National Identification Number (身分證字號), leading to a understandable privacy concern.
We must reiterate that we do not agree with such practice as this is clearly an unnecessary collection of personal information. Based on our interpretation to related regulations, a customer is not required to provide their national ID number if the phone number on the package is verified via the EZ WAY system. However, Despite this, Chinese couriers mandate this field in their system.
If you choose shipping from China option, you may put your ID number in "Company" field of the shipping address provided at the checkout. If we do not have this information, we may have to contact you and there will be a delay in processing your order.
Vietnam
The shipping-from-China option to Vietnam is usually cheaper but has proven unreliable. Reports of unprofessional delivery services and unreasonable package returns are common.
We must reiterate that our resource is limited. S.F. Express is currently the best available option for shipping to Vietnam from China, despite its limitations. We previously suspended this option and considered shipping only from the U.S. However, after discussing with some of our loyal customers from Vietnam, we learnt that a low-cost shipping option, though of less satisfying quality, is still favored by our customers.
In light of this situation, we regretfully have to apply a special clause to all orders going to Vietnam where the customer chooses to ship from China:
There will be no free re-shipment for undelivered orders, unless the fault lies with the sender. Any re-shipment will incur a fee, at least equal to the original shipping cost, depending on the incident. We strongly recommend choosing shipping from the U.S.
Please note that there is a strict requirement for the address on any Vietnamese order shipping from China. To help us process your order in a timely manner, please fill in your address in Vietnamese (Chữ Quốc ngữ) as detailed as possible and provide an accurate postal code. Avoid providing a vague postal code (e.g., 700000), as it will delay your order.
If the shipping address you provide does not pass the courier's validation system, we may need to contact you, which could result in a delay in your order.