New eBay 'Import Charges'

Gents..

Two listings I have found lately. Laptop charger and a 1/6 mortar are asking an additional charge for a fee to offset import charges.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/390541639534?ss ... 1438.l2649

In Australia I can import an item with shipping up to the value of $1000 without a duty. These clowns are raking in funds for no reason. I paid two separate invoices for the Laptop charger from the US. One for the item, a base shipping charge, then another shipping charge and the import charges? Anybody else spied this from outside the US?

Couchy..

I see no mention of it in the listing. Is it an ebay-policy, or seller?
What exactly are they charging for?
The seller has no obligation but to write the correct value on the package, and if mailing through USPS the costs of the shipping form with space for customs declaration is already included in the mailing costs. Well, you knew that already don't ya?
So if they're charging extra for that, that's BS, never heard of that, and I get stuff from the US every couple of weeks.

G'day..

Here is the info link on it..
Global Shipping Program is available to buyers in the following countries: Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, United Kingdom

http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/shipping-globally.html

On the listing it looks like this..



Mofos..

Couchy

And they actually want you to pay that? What service do they provide for that money? None I bet.
Well, will be checking that when I spot a nice find on ebay. Bit on the lookout for fifties aluminum cast and polished jets from Verkuyl, Allyn and the likes.

Amazon U.S. do the same thing, you pay the charges at the time of purchase rather than at the point of import. The only issue I would see would be if previously you have managed to evade duty somehow by the seller undervaluing the item. We have all done it so perhaps this is a way of governments to close the loophole.

Australia is import free up to $1000 and that money should go to the Australian Customs/Government coffers and not eBay. Not sure if this is legal? I will not be buying any more item using this method. Shipping and 'duties' ran to $36 instead of the $19 quoted.

Couchy

This sounds really weird.
Does Ebay.com have an agreement with foreign governments to collect duties and taxes on their behalf?
I try to figure how would it be telling to italian customs to go to ebay.com to collect their duties... fat chance.

Probably a scam.

ciddu said:

This sounds really weird.
Does Ebay.com have an agreement with foreign governments to collect duties and taxes on their behalf?
I try to figure how would it be telling to italian customs to go to ebay.com to collect their duties... fat chance.

Click to expand...

It's not weird at all. Courier account holders have always had the option to pay tax and customs clearance fees rather than the stated recipient.

For cheaper items under the threshold there are no taxes.

m444uk said:

ciddu said:

This sounds really weird.

For cheaper items under the threshold there are no taxes.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Yet we still pay the charges...once...and then shop elsewhere.

Couchy

I did some investigation into this some time ago. The situation is that normally Australians can get away with importing $1000 worth of goods without paying import tax and GST. Customs declare the $1000 price point as the margin where duties collectable are mandatory. Collection of duties below this point is optional as being 'uneconomic to recover'. However, if the assesing Customs officer is having a bad day or wants to bump up his benchmark figures for the month - expect to be stung at values above $500. It has happened to me twice.
In fact, I've been stung on an item at $250 - which is against their own published guidelines, and when I queried it they said "fine, dispute it, but know that we will follow our processes to the letter, which will probably result in the shipment being returned to sender while it is in disupute. If you want your goods without paying double postage, I suggest you process the shipment as instructed"

Also as far as I know, there is no facility for the sender to cover the importers fees to Customs (Australia). Sounds more like a ebay scam to me, and should be referred to the ACCC.

It's not weird at all. Courier account holders have always had the option to pay tax and customs clearance fees rather than the stated recipient.

For cheaper items under the threshold there are no taxes.

Click to expand...

I wonder how this fee is determined for so many different countries/customs... o is it a standard fee?
Of course I don't know about other countries, but regarding italian customs it's almost impossible to know beforehand the right amount of customs duties and fees, which sometimes seems to be calculated in a quite subjective and unpredictable way.
The courier can pay it and recover the cash on delivery, but the correct amount is determined only when the parcel hits ( literally, quite often)the customs.
I have to pay attention to sellers applying this practice, because I think it just could cause more problem with italian customs - and by the way, here there's no threshold whatsoever: even the cheapest goods are supposed to pay.

ciddu said:

It's not weird at all. Courier account holders have always had the option to pay tax and customs clearance fees rather than the stated recipient.

For cheaper items under the threshold there are no taxes.

Click to expand...

I wonder how this fee is determined for so many different countries/customs... o is it a standard fee?
Of course I don't know about other countries, but regarding italian customs it's almost impossible to know beforehand the right amount of customs duties and fees, which sometimes seems to be calculated in a quite subjective and unpredictable way.
The courier can pay it and recover the cash on delivery, but the correct amount is determined only when the parcel hits ( literally, quite often)the customs.
I have to pay attention to sellers applying this practice, because I think it just could cause more problem with italian customs - and by the way, here there's no threshold whatsoever: even the cheapest goods are supposed to pay.

Click to expand...

The EU is a tariff union. Exports coming in from outside are subject to a tariff charge which is the same for all of the EU27. The courier just looks up the commodity code which is an international standard.
VAT is also due at the local rate and most courier companies also want a clearance fee for their trouble.
If an Ebay seller has loads of positive feedback it appears they know the system. I've found buying stuff from Hong Kong (lens) and China (assisted opening knife) they just declare a really low value and the stuff never gets stopped by customs.

Got a response from the seller in the linked eBay item. He was unaware of it, and it appears it is a new eBay thing. I will run updates on Turbo Lister and see if a template eBay USA item has it. It IS bullshit, it IS money for nothing. I have over 2000 transactions on my current ID. I have only ever paid duties twice. On two Aero A-2s from Mark Moye in the US. That was around 1997. Nothing since...til now! And I can guarantee that the duties are not going to the Australian Government. This is a fraudulent grab for funds.

https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/gsp

The payment was made to Pitney Bowes Inc. eBay have their logo in the Paypal payment. And the $5.99
shipping is in there twice? Item description lists it as International Priority Shipping - a non USPS option,
similar to a courier. If eBay push it upon sellers it is not too nice.

Purchase 1: Transaction ID: 0V586259683187142
Seller
koatech Note to seller
You haven't included a note.
Shipping details
The seller hasn’t provided any shipping details yet.

Description Unit price Qty Amount
Genuine IBM OEM 72W AC Power Adapter ThinkPad T41 T42 T43 T 20 Fru 92P1016 NEW
Item number 380529846417 $11.00 USD 1 $11.00 USD
Shipping and handling $5.99 USD
Insurance - not offered ----
Total $16.99 USD
Payment $16.99 USD

Payment sent to [email protected]
From amount $16.88 AUD
To amount $16.99 USD
Exchange rate: 1 Australian Dollar = 1.00651 US Dollars

Purchase 2: Transaction ID: 44C70320J13924136
Seller
Pitney Bowes, Inc.

Note: A separate payment was made to this global shipping company to ship your package and clear it through customs. Learn more about why a separate payment was made

Description Unit price Qty Amount
International shipping $5.99 USD
Total $19.22 USD
Payment $19.22 USD

Payment sent to
From amount $19.09 AUD
To amount $19.22 USD
Exchange rate: 1 Australian Dollar = 1.00680 US Dollars

I won't be buying anything from sellers who directly or inadvertently ship via these means again.

Couchy

And a revision to the User Agreement - "Unpaid Items and Payment Failure. Your purchases of GSP Items under the Programme are subject to eBay’s unpaid item policy. eBay reserves the right to collect, using any collection methods at its disposal, any unpaid amounts that eBay pays to your Seller and/or Pitney Bowes because of your non-payment or failed payment."

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/shipping/global ... r-tnc.html

The scam explained. No couriers, shipped as usual, via the cheapest means possibly at a rate higher than USPS Priority Mail?

Payment Split. PayPal will split your payment of the Programme Fees between your Seller and Pitney Bowes in the following manner, as reflected within your Order Details page and in your PayPal account overview:

i.Payment to your Seller: PayPal will transmit to your Seller’s PayPal account that portion of your payment consisting of the GSP Item price and the amount (if any) charged by your Seller to ship the GSP Item to the U.S. Shipping Center.

ii.Payment to Pitney Bowes: PayPal will transmit the balance of your payment to Pitney Bowes’s PayPal account (identifiable with the description “Pitney Bowes Inc.”).

My $11.00 charger could have shipped for a tad over the US $5.99 from the seller to the US shipping centre and the import duties? Not fussed about the dollars. It is the principle of the matter. 10% of every item and 10% of the shipping is not enough. Lucky I only buy these days...

ausreenactor said:

And I can guarantee that the duties are not going to the Australian Government. This is a fraudulent grab for funds.

Click to expand...

I wonder how Customs (Australia) feel about all this revenue that they are supposedly due, but missing out on? Perhaps refer the matter "just for your interest" to Customs and ACCC, and sit back & watch the Government go chase their revenue. Of course it'll only result in eBay changing their terminology of the fee so they get to keep their new revenue stream. :x

From the T&C page:
"Relationship between eBay and Pitney Bowes. eBay Inc. ..... Pitney Bowes is neither owned by, nor affiliated with, eBay."
I'd call their bluff on that. There's some financial relationship there, I'd bet any part of my anatomy you care to mention. A contractural relationship of convenience for the purposes of generating extra revenue.