Visa declined because of nationality

[shilala]

One other thought...
Many retailers don't want to take a cc from one place and ship to another. ESPECIALLY if the cc is from one country and shipping is to another.
The opportunity for fraud is huge, and for an American to come and try to find, let alone prosecute a criminal across borders would be just plain impossible.
Heck, with Ppal you can't ship anywhere but your own address.
I can definately see that logic.
If they went to Canadian officials and said "Hey, we sent cigars to somewhere in the US for this Canadian so he could avoid Canadian taxes and skirt Canadian law and this bad man stiffed us by stopping payment after he hauled the smokes across the border", what would the law in Canada say?
CI has absolutely no recourse, not to mention the fact that they've colluded in an illegal act.
If you look at it from that direction, it's simply intelligent business. They'd have to have rocks in their heads to even put themselves in that kind of position, right?
It may be a stretch, but I'm sure it's happened and parties have gotten burned.

[aich75013]

Originally Posted by shilala

One other thought...
The opportunity for fraud is huge, and for an American to come and try to find, let alone prosecute a criminal across borders would be just plain impossible.

This is what I was thinking when I read the first post.
I'm sure CI doesn't want to tell you on the phone, "we think you might be using a stolen card number." Using a Canadian card to ship to a US address would seem a little fishy to me.

[icehog3]

Originally Posted by shilala

Many retailers don't want to take a cc from one place and ship to another. ESPECIALLY if the cc is from one country and shipping is to another.
The opportunity for fraud is huge, and for an American to come and try to find, let alone prosecute a criminal across borders would be just plain impossible.

Absolutely.

[mash]

Originally Posted by shilala

One other thought...
Many retailers don't want to take a cc from one place and ship to another. ESPECIALLY if the cc is from one country and shipping is to another.
The opportunity for fraud is huge, and for an American to come and try to find, let alone prosecute a criminal across borders would be just plain impossible.
Heck, with Ppal you can't ship anywhere but your own address.
I can definately see that logic.
If they went to Canadian officials and said "Hey, we sent cigars to somewhere in the US for this Canadian so he could avoid Canadian taxes and skirt Canadian law and this bad man stiffed us by stopping payment after he hauled the smokes across the border", what would the law in Canada say?
CI has absolutely no recourse, not to mention the fact that they've colluded in an illegal act.
If you look at it from that direction, it's simply intelligent business. They'd have to have rocks in their heads to even put themselves in that kind of position, right?
It may be a stretch, but I'm sure it's happened and parties have gotten burned.

I don't know if this is their logic, but a couple of your assumptions are wrong. First, they have not "colluded in an illegal act" by selling cigars to a Canadian, any more than if we buy CD's, books etc. online. Second, they have no knowledge or responsibility about what the Canadian does after he picks them up in the States. Canadians travel to the US by the millions, we are entitled to purchase legal items and have them shipped to American addresses.
Obviously they can sell to whom they want, but this isn't in any way illegal.

[Nikko]

CI have had this policy for a while. I tried over a year ago with the same result - my Canadian credit card is registered to a Canadian address therefore they will not accept it.

I offered up a US credit card (registered at a US bank) which unfortunately had been reregistered to my new Canadian address (having moved from my previous address Stateside and still wanting to receive statements) and that too was refused. It was not only a credit card but a debit card too, so they could not have been cheated of funds - the money has to be in my account for it to be authorized.

SO, even if you had a US debit card but it is registered to a Canadian address it is unacceptable, according to the two people I spoke to at CI.

I was, like you, going to have my order shipped to a friend in Cali and collect them - as for customs and duty avoidance - we can carry 50 sticks per person back into the country without any tax, so no offence would have been committed.

Still, since that time, Jack Schwartz, Atlantic, and a few other very helpful establishments have benefitted to the tune of a few thousand dollars (I travel a lot). Thank you to the less closed minded vendors.