International Buyers Stay Away From Ebay Usa!

[Paul80]

That's the big problem with this system you don't know until the auction has ended just how much extra they will add to the final price, Final price plus seller postage charges plus whatever ebay think is the correct amount for your country, which in the UK is 20% VAT plus £8 handling fee so £28 on a £100 item, but at auction it might have only sold for .99p if no other bidder bids on the item and then there would be no duty due.

 

Which is why I think import duties on second hand goods is wrong, but its even more wrong when someone overseas send you a birthday or Christmas present and they sting you duty on that.

 

Paul

Edited August 13, 2013 by Paul80

[hari317]

The main problem, which has not yet emerged in the discussion, is that I cannot know the final price & the method of calculation of this "reloading" arbitrarily decided by eb@y because in the beginning the object starts with a price of $ 0.99 and then, in the last seconds of the auction, will decide the final price ... It does not seem at all correct!

anyway no one can know the final price the auction will end at. I agree they must mention the international shipping markup as a percentage of the item value beforehand so that one can figure that in the bid.

[elysee]

If eBay is not careful, it will put itself out of business by driving away buyers and sellers.

[Sandy1]

 

surely the broker in the destination country gets some fees for his labour? and this fees will be paid by ebay and friends from the service fee collected?

 

Hi,

 

While I agree that Brokers are typically international companies, and I do not know their internal financial machinations, the tracking information I had access to showed that the Broker did not receive the Item after it cleared Customs, as would be the case if the Broker was also the carrier. As mentioned, the carrier is the postal system.

 

If anyone else has recently made a purchase using the GSP, I encourage them to carefully review the tracking information, which may be different than the legerdemain I saw.

 

Bye,

S1

[Paul80]

It might be that the carrier is acting as the broker as well, that's how it looked on the tracking route my parcel took.

 

Paul

[olivier78860]

Usual service : you buy something, item arrives at your customs, they charge you a fee consisting of import tax and item handling, you pay it when you receive the item.

 

New service : you buy something, they make you pay a higher fee (disregarding the item's eligibility to import tax), so they already can play with your money (think of several thousand times 35% of items' values). Then they pay the real tax to the customs, and keep the handling fee.

 

So the broker has played a bit with lots of money for a while, keeps the handling fees, and then refund you the difference far later.

 

That's called parasitism.

[Mickey]

Ebay has contracted out the delivery and customs clearance to a company called Pitney Bowes ...

 

It is 'insane and foolish", so they kill exchanges for mostly low value & used items, between the USA and the rest of the world!

They do not know that there are people who also live in times of crisis with small revenue items which do not use more!?!

 

Pitney Bowes is a nearly 100 year old company expert in dealing with mailing and such things (franking and postage metering, especially). As Ebay is increasingly a store front surrogate rather than an auction house, farming out shipping charge computation to PB makes good sense. As for the 'estimated or computed' charges. It's quite possible Ebay has little or no choice in the matter. A series of law suits brought by various states against Amazon and other U.S. e-business, has forced e-companies to tack on sales (or use) taxes on all transactions. It would not surprise me at all if the Feds haven't done something similar not just to Amazon but to other E-businesses as the result of some trade and tariff treaties with the Euro-zone.

 

Check your credit charges for the next few months. PB or Ebay may very well credit back the estimated charge after the paper chases on both sides of the Atlantic run their bureaucratic races. Legally, they should. If they don't, you can either pursue the matter then, when it will have become ripe, or decide not to do business with U.S. Ebay permanently.

 

All the usual disclaimers: I don't work for Ebay and hardly do any business with them. (I do, however, do a lot of shopping via Amazon and have followed the sales tax issue carefully.)

[colex]

I rest of my idea, even wrong, that they're taking advantage of the poor ebay users ...

 

First increase their rates by 3/4% to 10%, in addition to the compulsory rate of almost 4% with Paypal, then eliminated the feedback of sellers to buyers ... Now imposed this other "fee" on international transactions.

Enough is enough!

 

For me, now, I will stop buying anything from the USA through ebay platform.

[sargetalon]

I'm an eBay seller on occasion and don't ship internationally just because of all of these headaches. I saw an eBay notice about this option but never looked into it. I'm not sure about all of these fees but a centrally organized shipping service like this would entice me to expand my auctions to overseas buyers, provided the fees were fair to all parties. Sounds like this current implementation isn't ideal.

[mirosc]

If eBay is not careful, it will put itself out of business by driving away buyers and sellers.

I don't think so.

The vast majority of Ebayers have accepted all bad and negative "improvements" in the last years and they will continue to do so. The benefits of Ebaying are much bigger than those "nuisances" that don't affect most people and the other will get used to it.

[checkrail]

Most stuff I buy goes straight through customs with no charges. I simply don't bid on auctions only offering this rip-off system.

Kind regards

Timothy

[Ernst Bitterman]

I've been stung by this item myself, and the only consolation is that Pitney-Bowes is less rapacious than UPS. I've sent a couple of notes so far to sellers who have interesting objects lumbered with this nonsense explaining that it will kill interest in their offerings outside the USA. The responses thus far have been in the "Oh, dear, I had no idea" line. It might be worthwhile if we ALL adopted a policy of such notes; hopefully sellers can opt out of the program as easily as in.

 

As a side effect, the one purchase I've made has convinces Paypal that I have a second residence in Kentucky.

[tfwall]

Most stuff I buy goes straight through customs with no charges.

 

Sure, but you are still responsible for paying them on your end.

 

So, the question is whether your time and aggravation is worth the couple of pounds "convenience fee" that Pitney Bowes is charging for handling all this for you behind the scenes.

[checkrail]

No, that is precisely my point. Normally for what I buy British customs do not bother charging, but a prepaid service charge is unavoidable.

[tfwall]

No, that is precisely my point. Normally for what I buy British customs do not bother charging, but a prepaid service charge is unavoidable.

 

They do not bother or are the items exempt? Just because they don't stop the packages and impose the duty on the spot does not mean that you are not responsible for reporting the purchase and sending in the payment on your own.

 

Now, if eBay is charging on transactions that are exempt by law, then that is something your revenue and customs service needs to take up officially with them.

[Mickey]

 

They do not bother or are the items exempt? Just because they don't stop the packages and impose the duty on the spot does not mean that you are not responsible for reporting the purchase and sending in the payment on your own.

 

Now, if eBay is charging on transactions that are exempt by law, then that is something your revenue and customs service needs to take up officially with them.

You're probably correct. Until Amazon was forced to charge sales tax at the rate of state to which an item was shipped, the buyer (at least in California) was responsible for paying a use tax, which is a line item on the CA state income tax return. (The use tax is nothing new. I believe it dates back to the 1930s.)

Edited August 14, 2013 by Mickey

[dontheo]

Although the Bay has changed over the years it is still the same game. One is looking for something they want and/or at a great price. The program you are referring to is their global shipping program. It is something the seller opts in to. All you have to do is study the entire item and expenses and it will tell you. Not everone needs to use this option when selling an item.

 

When I list something to be sold internationally I don't use it. However, I just list items to sell that I thought I needed or didn't know I had already. lol

 

I like to buy certain things I can't get here through eBay too. Just got to read the entire listing. Just don't do business with that seller or ask them to ship it differently if they will.

[oknrabata]

In Italy, the law provides that if the value of the object is not more than 45 euro, there're not duties and VAT! Instead, ebay at checkout apply fee calculated on the value of object even on shipping fee!

Well, it's 45 Euros for the pen plus 18 Euros for shipping which pushes it over 45. Shipping is a service you'd pay VAT for within europe so it also applies to shipping charges from elsewhere. Don't tell me you don't pay taxes on foreign shipping costs in Italy?

Sadly this limit is ~30 Euros in Germany and yes, I still prefer to deal with customs on my own.

 

[checkrail]

British customs inspect all items before they reach the buyer. My duty as buyer is to declare the true value on the parcel, which I do. Frequently they decide not to charge what they are entitled to under the law and the item is so released by them only after that decision is taken.

[colex]

Well, it's 45 Euros for the pen plus 18 Euros for shipping which pushes it over 45. Shipping is a service you'd pay VAT for within europe so it also applies to shipping charges from elsewhere. Don't tell me you don't pay taxes on foreign shipping costs in Italy?

Sadly this limit is ~30 Euros in Germany and yes, I still prefer to deal with customs on my own.

 

 

 

 

Tax laws in Italy based on a calculation of duties and / or VAT only on the value of the item speed stated on customs declaration when purchases are made between PRIVATE persons, are excluded all freight charges until 45 €.

If the purchase has COMMERCIAL goods must travel with a tax document (invoice or a pro-forma invoice) that are referred to as the shipping costs, and in the latter case, where the total value exceeds 22 € will be applied to all customs charges.

 

 

This is an excerpt of customs charges / fees and method of calculation in Italy taken from the site of the Italian (sorry if it's in Italian)

http://www.poste.it/postali/estero/tariffe_sdoganamento.shtml

Edited August 15, 2013 by colex