ebay import charges

[moonbeam]

Ebay found a new way to get a LOT of money:
import charges.

Apparently that is an extra service you can choose for your auction when you offer international shipping.
International bidders see this nice text next to a nice sum of money:
„This amount includes applicable customs duties, taxes, brokerage and other fees. This amount is subject to change until you make payment. If you reside in an EU member state besides UK, import VAT on this purchase is not recoverable. For additional information, see the Global Shipping Program terms and conditions“

It basically means the seller apparently ships the package to an ebay facility first. There it will be opened again (which I don´t like AT ALL), gets a nice customs label and new invoice and is then send to it´s destination.
I know because I made the mistake to buy something with this service attached.
This service is completely unneceessary because it is basically what happens anyway when I go to the customs office to get my pakage.
But now ebay gets extra money for it. With most auctions I´ve seen the amount you have to pay extra (on top of the normal customs fee) is around $10.

Here in Germany we have a free limit of up to $40 for which the customs office won´t charge any customs fees at all. But that is not considered in this ebay fee. So it can happen that I have to pay customs and the extra ebay fee even for things that would normally cost me nothing extra…

This is a major turn off for me (and I believe many other buyers as well)!
Unfortunately most of the intl. ebay auction now have this service attached…
This basically means I won´t bid on the majority of intl. auctions anymore because I refuse to give
ebay more money.

So please, please, please, if any of you sell on ebay and are willing to ship intl. DON`T use this
service!

[Ela_Hara]

I was always suspect of this service, and I want to know what goes on with the items I ship out.

Let’s face it, if I let an intermediary take control of my shipping what happens if THEY mess up or break/loose my package before my Buyer gets it? I’ll still be liable and need to make good on the sale. I figure that ‘service’ is also most likely making money off the Seller as well as Buyer, and I don’t trust it. So, don’t worry I’m never going to use it – it’s unnecessary in my opinion. Packages have been shipped internationally for many many years without this, why then would you start paying for a ‘Middleman’ now?

FYI – as a Seller, you aren’t required to use this service (yet), and can select the option to choose your own International shipping – that’s what I do.

IN SEARCH OF MY NEXT GRAILS:
Black Peacock & Butternut Adult Poads
Kickstarter 'Rainbow Tiger' Bantam Dragon

*~*~*~* Ela_Hara: The DragonKeeper *~*~*~*
*** Come visit me on deviantArt at http://ela-hara.deviantart.com

[Kim]

Yeah this is part of the Global Shipping Program and I hate it and won’t use it. Living in Canada I find a lot of U.S. auctions now have this and I don’t think U.S. sellers realize how much buyers have to pay for this service. I will give an example of a Windstone dragon on ebay for $200 that says shipping with priority mail will be $44 and import charges will be $28. Well if something is too big to ship with first class international mail and the weight is correct then the shipping is not bad, except for the fact that that is not necessarily what you are charged for shipping. Only after you’ve won the auction do they give you the shipping amount which actually charges you for the seller to ship the item to the U.S. shipping centre and then charges you for shipping the item from there to you and any other fees associated with it including administrative fees. As well, the $28 import charges would very unlikely be charged by customs. Out of all the pieces I have had shipped to me from ebay and Windstone which is probably like 100 pieces, I have been charge customs fees maybe 4 times and only on big packages. Now if I had had to pay an extra $20 for fees with the global shipping program every time I got those 100 packages, I would have paid out over $2000 in unnecessary fees. This is one reason I don’t buy large pieces, because the shipping and fees are so expensive.

It’s interesting in that every small box I have ever received even if valued at say $200 or $300 for a grab bag or something like that, I have never been charged customs fees on and if I get something shipped with first class international mail I never pay more than $10-$20 for shipping versus priority mail is twice as much, bout $20-$40 and the Global shipping program only uses priority mail. So you are not only paying twice as much for shipping but adding on their import fees, you are actually paying more like 3 times as much as if a seller just shipped a piece directly to you using first class international mail. Every auction I see with the global shipping program on it, I will not bid on it until after I have messaged the seller explaining this and asking them to take the global shipping program off their listing. Most sellers I have messaged are very cooperative and take it off their listing if they want bids and most are not even aware of what the fees are that are charged to their customers. The only problem is that once an auction has bids, they will not allow a seller to change it to take off the global shipping program so I have missed out on some pieces because of that. As long as I see auctions with that on though, I will keep messaging sellers and explaining why I will not use the global shipping program. Here are the terms that explain the program and fees:

http://pages.ebay.com/shipping/globalshipping/buyer-tnc.html#programfees

Looking for rainbow or pink & teal grab bags!

[moonbeam]

It’s interesting in that every small box I have ever received even if valued at say $200 or $300 for a grab bag or something like that, I have never been charged customs fees on

Ahhh lucky you! I had to pay for every single one so far >_< Funny enough it is only pakages from the US, no matter how big or small, that I had to pay for. Pakages with high values (all correctly declared on the pakage) from other countries went through without any charges.

I tried to explain it to some sellers as well, asking if they would be ok with taking that service off but only one so far was willing to do so, but did not know how. Luckily the auction ended witout anyone bidding on it so he offered it to me outside of ebay 🙂

[Bullsquid]

I have been annoyed by this “service” (yeah right) as well. I would much rather take my chances with customs waving my item through without charge than always paying customs plus an additional fee to Ebay.

The ONLY situation that I have encountered where the Global Shipping Program is actually helpful is with “U.S. shipping only” sellers that don’t offer international shipping except through the GSP. In every other instance it is just a moneygrab by Ebay.

[Prezaurian]

Thanks for the heads up.

You can check out my work on dA & Redbubble!
https://prezaurian.deviantart.com/
https://www.redbubble.com/people/prezaurian?ref=artist_title_name

[Falcolf]

Thanks guys, I appreciate this! 😀

Check out my finished artwork at http://falcolf.deviantart.com/ and my sketch/studio blog at http://rosannapbrost.tumblr.com/

Excellent!

[drag0nfeathers]

I just had to use this service to ship the mother foo dog I sold on ebay. I was not given a choice however.

Got a busted Windstone?
drag0nfeathersdesign@gmail.com
*OPEN for repairs*

*SEEKING GRAILS*
Arc-en-ciel Emperor
Siphlophis Male Dragon
Calypso Hatching Empress
Ivory Moss Sitting Baby Kirin
Tattoo Mother Kirin
Emerald Tabby Male Griffin
Tie Dye + Orion Hatching Royalty
Indigo Rockfish + Flame Tabby Little Rock Dragons
Dragon Quail + Obsidian Frost Old Warriors
Betta Sun Dragon + Male Dragon
Dreamscape, Orion, Poison Dart, Fireberry, Spangler + Tigerberry Dragons

[Pheonixxfoxx]

I’m a US seller, but I have no intentions of forcing international buyers to use this service if they purchase from me. As it is, stupid eBay charges a fee on the shipping I charge. I’ve always charged exact shipping and refunded any difference to my buyers. The fact “greed”Bay takes some from the shipping I charge infuriates me to no end. I know one reason the charge was put in place was due to some sellers who charged more for shipping the necessary…:

[Lauren]

Wow. I’ve only ordered from Windstone so far (and one other place years ago, so that doesn’t really count) so I’ve never encountered this, but I’ll definitely be wanting to keep my eyes open for this. I was really worried about brokerage fees when my pyos were shipping, but I was lucky and nothing happened….

[Dragoneer_88]

Ebay is getting ridiculous with all these dumb fees. It’s not fair to international buyers. Admittedly, I have used the GPS program before and the one plus was I only had to pay for domestic shipping, but still. It’s just not right Ebay cheats international buyers this way.

While I’m ranting about Ebay…I sold a car part (vintage hood ornament) and they charged state tax fee to the state it was being shipped to, some kind of auto part fee, shipping service fee, and the final value fee. No meat left on the bone for sellers. No wonder sellers overprice their items! No deals to be had anymore.

[Dandr13]

It has to be done before the auction ends. Because if you have already won, then the shipping company – Pitney Bownes? – is owed money for the auction and it is the buyers responsibility to pay them. There is no way to back out of the deal afterwards, you are required to pay them even if the seller ships by some other means. If the seller is willing to change to auction before it ends, so it doesn’t use GSP, you can get around it.

I’ve won an auction before it was changed, from a seller who was willing to ship by other means, and there was no way to get around the GSP charges afterwards.

[Skeeterdeee]

I just had to use this service to ship the mother foo dog I sold on ebay. I was not given a choice however.

Ebay sneaks this in on you!!!! Every item you list, they automatically check the Global Shipping box. For EVERY SINGLE item you list, you have to uncheck this box!! (unless you click “sell similar” on one of your own listings). They’re sneaky b******s with that Global Shipping!

As an American seller, I HATE this new Global Shipping. I sent something to the UK via Global and the customer didn’t like it and wanted to return it. No problem, I accept returns for FULL refunds…except Global Shipping. Ebay charges the buyer for the international postage, the seller doesn’t even know how much they charge (which I looked it up and it is an unreasonable amount!), if the buyer returns the item they will NEVER see that money back…no matter what…even if it is the seller’s fault. It’s a bunch of B.S. and I refuse to use it too.

[chibishiro12]

Wow, I can’t believe they get away with stuff like this. Thanks for the heads up! I will definitely watch for this now.

Looking for-
red fire young dragon
old animal line frog, wolf, barn owl, tortoise, tiger cub

[Pam]

When GSP was added, my understanding is that it was enabled for everyone via a user agreement, the kind that occasionally pops up on you and you just click “agree” without reading it. For a short while it was on all our listings as well. To disable GSP, go to:
Site Preferences>Shipping Preferences>Offer the global shipping program>Edit>Opt Out

Then, any future listings you make should have GSP disabled.

I wish google, or some other huge monopoly company, would make an auction service to rival ebay. With no real competition, ebay can do whatever it wants.

[Author]

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