EBAY WOES

[silverfox0786]

I need to rant

Purchsed a MVS cart from USA for £20 that should not have been an issue

but I get slapped with a £13 customs charge, tracking says delivered with USPS but with Royal mail it says awaiting delivery at PO.

(you might think whats £20 but then it was £20 delivery pus £13 that makes £53 now way will I get that back for that cart)

Ebay don't give a flying F, spend 1 hour banging my head, they said we wont do sh*te, tracking says delivered so that's it your screwed, if you don't pay and accept package

I said what about if it gets returned without me paying an collecting, they said your still screwed, as far as seller is concerned he has sent the item, if you refuse to pay customs and don't accept item that's your problem, we wont help you, its between you and the seller

FOOOOOKING GREEDBAY

silverfox07862014-03-10 21:58:36

 

[Bensonrad]

Do you mean Woe's?

You can spend up to £15 before you get hit with import VAT. So I suspect £10 of your fee is the post office/USPS handling fee for having to detain the item and inform you.

Its nothing to do with ebay, if you import and go over the limit, you have to expect charges, it used to be hit and miss, but they have certainly tightened up these days and know its a cash cow particularly those nasty handling fees. If it was just paying the VAT up front it would not be so bad. The postage cost though sounds pretty normal/reasonable from the states.

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageTravel_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_000014&propertyType=document

I once bought a T-Shirt for $5 from USA, got hit with a big bill and handling fee, as the tool wrote it had a value of $50 on the customs sticker, boy was I peeved.

Always ask the seller to mark the value down to under $15 to play it safe and hopefully avoid the charges.

 

[tb lilley]

What do you want eBay to do? In an ideal world.

 

[silverfox0786]

I fixed the title

ebay not the import issue but the fact they class the item in the uk as delivered even though its not physically delivered to me

and I spoken to customs its £30 max before charges

I think he over valued it for claim purposes

gonna have to pay it or I loose out £40 as I know the seller gonna tell me to go screw

 

[tb lilley]

gonna have to pay it or I loose out £40 as I know the seller gonna tell me to go screw

Well yeah. I'd do the same.

 

[pulstar]

To be honest this is one of the times I would say ebay isn't at fault. You've got a customs charge which seems to be the norm with everything sent from the US now when sold on ebay. It isn't their fault that the USPS says it's been delivered. I know it's frustrating but I don't think ebay has done anything wrong (or could do anything differently) in this case (a rarity, I know).

Edit:

Ninja posts above me...but I'm sure customs count the amount of the item and the postage cost as total value. Which is probably why you got charged. And I'm sure it's anything over £20 (but don't quote me on that).
pulstar2014-03-10 22:14:38

 

[frothmeister]

The £15 limit you can spend importing something before VAT and duties are added also INCLUDES the postage costs.

 

[neo-geo-mvs]

Import value thresholds

For goods moving within the EU, import duties and taxes do not usually
apply. However, for goods imported from non-EU countries, Customs
charges do apply, these may include import duty, excise duty and import
VAT. Goods with a value exceeding £15, for commercial items including
internet/mail order purchases, or £36 in the case of gifts between
private individuals, are generally subject to Customs charges. Normally
charges are calculated upon the declared value (plus shipping costs for
commercial items). Further general information can be obtained by
contacting HMRC on 0845 010 9000 or at www.hmrc.gov.uk

 

[silverfox0786]

basically all I wanted was to agree with seller to return item as it would automatically go back to usa to seller

but then ebay still class that as delivered to me even if it gets returned.

and they wont do anything even if he confirms he received it back. as far as ebay is concerned they wash their hands off it once it shows up delivered on the buyer side.

so now I cant even let the item go back as if the seller gets it back and refuses my refund ebay wont allow me to claim the money back

 

[cosine]

Always ask the seller to mark the value down to under $15 to play it safe and hopefully avoid the charges.

The only problem with that, is if it goes missing, claiming back it's true value would be difficult. I did that once with a cave PCB, and boy did I brick it until it arrived.

As it's already been said though, it's not really ebay that's at fault, customs is hitting everything they possibly can these days, and the handling charges (Parcelforce is worse!) sours it even further.

 

[silverfox0786]

no more buying from EBAY USA or any other country

what annoys though is I beought £70 worth of good from arcade tower and that was fine arrived this morning

looks like its just USA, China and don't even talk about Germany and Dusche post, customs lady told me they customs every item from Germany as they don't have a customs policy so drop shipping is a big problem from Germany to uk

 

[tb lilley]

So because you get hit with a £13 customs charge you:

A) Try to make it the seller's problem
B) Hassle eBay
C) Hassle customs

I reckon you go for D) - swallow the charge and move on.

 

[silverfox0786]

A. you r wrong as if it was uk and I decided I didn't wan tit I have distance seller act 7 days to return

B. its not hassling its finding out what options I have and I learn today I have none

C. customs is to find out why it was slapped with a charge in the first place

 

[Anthony Graham]

Agree with Bensonrad on this.

Keep in mind the shipping charge is also added to the taxes due price so if price of the item was £20 and shipping was £15 (I assume the seller charged something like £5 more than the actual shipping charge with usps to cover costs of packing fees etc too) the total taxes due would be for an item the total of £35.

£8-10 of your charge will be from royal mail as a handling charge (forget the exact amount rght now)! All courier companies charge something similair price wise.

ALL of the above has nothing to do with ebay. It is not there fault and should be something the buyer should expect/research when buying from outside the EU.

I always check and expect a charge now and factor it in to my pricing plans when buying from abroad. I was peeved the first time this happened to me to too. As mentioned this has nothing to do with ebay or the seller. Just the greedy government (which I slightly understand, taxes are due when coming into the uk on all stuff) and most annoyingly royal mails greedy handling charge. A few quid I could accept but the amount they charge is crazy!!!

Ant

 

[Alpha1]

I've been stung many times. Every purchase now I confirm with the seller what to value it at. Some over value it thinking they are doing you a favour.

 

[silverfox0786]

yep gonna have to suck it up I guess

 

[tb lilley]

A. you r wrong as if it was uk and I decided I didn't wan tit I have distance seller act 7 days to return

B. its not hassling its finding out what options I have and I learn today I have none

C. customs is to find out why it was slapped with a charge in the first place

I stand entirely corrected on every count.

 

[silverfox0786]

I guess I have learnt my lesson

 

[Alpha1]

I've been stung over £100 before. It sucks but you have to suck it up and learn on your next US eBay acquisition.

 

[Anthony Graham]

Shipping from Germany to UK is fine, I have done it loads of times. No issues as it an EU country no import taxes due.

I have once got customs charges from china. I bought something from a proper company and they marked the item value as true value. Which was fine as otherwise insurance would have been well below the value of the item and if it went missing huge problems.

99.9% of ebay china seller allways put the value as well below the item price so again this is not ebay, UK customs or royal mails fault. It is chinese sellers doing this to make there stuff cheaper vs the rest of the world and willing to risk breaking the law by shipping under value on customs declarations. Hell most of the time the item declared doesn't even match what I have bought. i.e today I got some test leads market as AV equipment on the customs form?!?!

If I was the ebay US seller I would tell you to go away too as
1) it isn't there fault.
2) they would still be charged by ebay for the listing.
3) they would loose there shipping costs.

Ant
Anthony Graham2014-03-10 22:44:05