APO addresses and credit cards

[nancyb]

I have always refused to ship to APO or FPO boxes because I read that it wasn't safe from the merchant perspective. My shipping policy is clearly stated on my site and on the order form itself. It also states that I don't ship credit card orders outside the US.

Received and order 4/6/2003 with requested delivery by 4/30/2003. The shipping address was
DISA-Europe
Unit 30xxx Box 2xx
APO
AE
09131
USA
Tel : [phone]xxx 5xxx

I wrote to the customer on 4/6/2003 telling him I could not ship to APOs and that I ship only to the credit card billing address but I would be happy to send blah blah blah.

Never heard another word until today when I received his email telling me he had been travelling and just got his email. He says that the APO is his credit card billing address and if the package is shipped USPS he will have to sign for it.

I included the mailing address (with 'xx' for anonymity) because I'm not familiar with this kind of address at all.

Question:
is shipping to an APO/FPO actually safe with credit cards assuming the issuing bank approves the charge with the APO address? I'm still not comfortable sending outside the US but that's another question.

Thanks for any input,

[bcc1234]

Those are US military addresses outside of the Continental US.
It's pretty much the same as delivering to any other location in the country is you are using USPS (with the exception of the cost).
Some of those addresses are mobile, while others are not, but I shipped dozens of times to those addresses and only had one package lost in transit. So it's not bad at all.

[msr986]

> He says that the APO is his credit card billing address and if the package is shipped USPS he will have to sign for it.

I can verify that it is possible that the APO address is the billing address. I've taken orders to APO's that have AVS verified. If you send it insured, then the recipient must sign for it. Delivery confirmation is not available on USPS APO shipments.

[lgn]

We have shipped APO's all the time, and we never had a problem with lost parcels and or fraud.

After all its the US military, and I don't think a commanding officer would take it to lightly, if there staff was using the APO mail system to commit fraud.