I completely agree with David on this issue.
The only way around this at the moment is for me to order on behalf of the customer and enter their address as the shipping and billing address.
Yet this brings up another problem - the buyer receives the bill and sees the price at which i, the designer, can buy the item, minus the markup, therefore they would probably feel they have been scammed in some way and possibly file a dispute with Paypal against us, anyone that has had this issue before knows how cumbersome and infuriating this process can be.
I'm well aware it is for tax reasons but in my opinion that is none of Shapeways business, if i or someone else wants to break tax laws (not that i do but hypothetically speaking), let us be held accountable for our actions by the relevant authorities, we do not need to be babysat.
I also feel that it is in Shapeways best interest to allow this - i can tell from my analytics that people are leaving my site and coming to my shapeways shop, they have already been made aware of the price yet still proceed to the shapeways shop, why are they not purchasing?
Its quite simple, the people that would buy my products are tech savvy, as soon as they realise its a 3d printed product they WILL NOT buy it - a lot of people feel they should get 3d printed objects/files for free such as thingiverse etc.
Whereas, i also have some complicated machinery whereby i have to get the items printed, sent to me and i assemble them here in my home, therefore i can ship directly to them while they simply pay through paypal, i sell quite a lot of those at almost 100$ a pop.