This happens, and for a lot of the residents who do online shopping, you are surely familiar with this.
Check out the Daily Deals on e-bay for instance. Sellers slice the prices of goods and products there at a price you would not hesitate to pay for, only to be told upon checkout that they won’t deliver to the CNMI. What is worse, most of them haven’t even heard of Saipan or know where in the map it is.
As an online shopper, you may have received inquiries or even refunds from online merchants that they cannot deliver the items to where you are.
You may have saved a ready reply that you can just copy and paste in reply to these online merchants, telling them that Saipan and the CNMI are U.S. territories, and that we use U.S. postage rates and U.S. zip codes.
Businessman Bud White, owner of White Coconut Computer Services in Tanapag said as he relies mainly on getting his computers, computer parts and accessories and all other gadgets from the states, he had tried everything to get his orders here for the past years, but the only reliable solution to this problem is to find someone you know from the U.S. who will deliver the goods that you want to your address here.
“I have been in the island for the past 30 years, and there still is no solution to this problem. A lot of online merchants still don’t know we exist and won’t deliver goods here,” White said.
He finally solved this problem when he found a partner on the West Coast who buys his orders and forwards the packages to Saipan on a regular basis.
White said that another challenge for CNMI residents is for merchants who know where the islands are, they will deliver goods at exorbitant shipping fees.
He said when you see “Free Shipping” on various products, don’t jump at the offer immediately because chances are they will send your package fourth class. It will sit at the very bottom of the priority list in post offices where it passes through, and you won’t have the item in your hands even after two months or more.
Living on a remote island is already challenging as it is, but until something is being done to make merchants realize we are here and if you need to place orders for various items from the mainland regularly, you will have to find someone to deliver the orders for you here, White said.
