Import Charges on Ebay US (1 Viewer)

[cnq]

Hey guys,

I've recently won an item from Ebay US and the seller uses Global Shipping Program. When I try to pay Ebay also adds the Import Charges on top of shipping cost. My question is how can I avoid paying the Import Charges because I will pay Canadian tax here when I receive the item.

thanks

 

[Phantom Warrior]

Hey guys,

I've recently won an item from Ebay US and the seller uses Global Shipping Program. When I try to pay Ebay also adds the Import Charges on top of shipping cost. My question is how can I avoid paying the Import Charges because I will pay Canadian tax here when I receive the item.

thanks

Global Shipping is a courier and just like FedEx and UPS charge a minimum brokerage fee of $25+ to broker the item through customs, even if broker services are not needed. For a single figure, the Brokerage fee can be as much as the cost of the figure. The courier/broker also always collects the HST for the government and that includes HST on the brokers fee. The only way to avoid that is to make sure shipping is by USPS in a non-courier mode. USPS has an agreement with Canada Post for cross border services. When the USPS package is inspected by Canada Customs, they decide if it is worth collecting HST (usually has to be more than $100 value). If they decide to have Canada Post collect the HST, Canada Post charges a $6 service fee. Otherwise you don't pay any fees or HST. I won't bid on items from the US unless the Seller ships by USPS.

Terry

 

[cnq]

Global Shipping is a courier and just like FedEx and UPS charge a minimum brokerage fee of $25+ to broker the item through customs, even if broker services are not needed. For a single figure, the Brokerage fee can be as much as the cost of the figure. The courier/broker also always collects the HST for the government and that includes HST on the brokers fee. The only way to avoid that is to make sure shipping is by USPS in a non-courier mode. USPS has an agreement with Canada Post for cross border services. When the USPS package is inspected by Canada Customs, they decide if it is worth collecting HST (usually has to be more than $100 value). If they decide to have Canada Post collect the HST, Canada Post charges a $6 service fee. Otherwise you don't pay any fees or HST. I won't bid on items from the US unless the Seller ships by USPS.

Terry

Thank you Terry. Lesson learned. I only checked the shipping cost and missed the Import charges.

 

[Phantom Warrior]

Thank you Terry. Lesson learned. I only checked the shipping cost and missed the Import charges.

You can ask the seller if he will ship by USPS.

Terry

 

[cnq]

You can ask the seller if he will ship by USPS.

Terry

I did. He agreed to ship via usps but changed his mind the next day and only wanted to stick with Global shipping

 

[Beaufighter]

Hey guys,

I've recently won an item from Ebay US and the seller uses Global Shipping Program. When I try to pay Ebay also adds the Import Charges on top of shipping cost. My question is how can I avoid paying the Import Charges because I will pay Canadian tax here when I receive the item.

thanks

Cheers,

I use the ebay Global Shipping Program since they assume all liability once the item reaches their Erlanger, Kentucky (CVG Airport) shipping facility. I still insure the item for the first leg of the route to cover my six. I do not have to worry about buyers claiming the item is "missing" or complaining about duties, taxes, etc. even though I have all of that information quoted directly from ebay in the listing itself. Once you utilize this program for a respective item you can not arbitrarily decide to bypass the program and ship it via another carrier/service. In fact, as a seller, you can not even invoice the buyer as ebay takes over. I just had a recent experience with a very similar situation where the buyer's wife asked me to bypass the program and ship directly via USPS. I had to call ebay directly and have them contact her to explain I could not do that as my explanation and quoted ebay verbage was not credible enough. They did follow through thankfully. Below is exact information from ebay regarding the program (I sent this information to the buyer too) but received the following partial message..." I don't have the time to start dealing with ebay on their shipping services".

"In the listing, the buyer sees an estimate of the international shipping charges and the import charge. During checkout, the buyer sees the final charges which include the item cost, the international shipping charges, and the import charge. The international shipping charges include any US shipping, as well as program fees, third-party international shipping charges, fuel surcharges, and processing and handling fees. The import charge includes applicable customs duties, taxes, and third-party brokerage.

In addition to the final charges, the buyer sees the amount paid to the seller and the amount paid to the global shipping provider. You receive the item price and the domestic shipping and handling cost from the buyer."

I hope this helps clear up some of the misconceptions.

~Beau

 

[jazzeum]

I've never used the Global Shipping Program and from the foregoing description I don't believe I will.

 

[Toy Soldier Brigade]

Looks like just another way for eBay to make money to me. Why not just ship via USPS and insure the item. I'm sure it's a lot cheaper.

 

[zulucollector]

Cheers,

I use the ebay Global Shipping Program since they assume all liability once the item reaches their Erlanger, Kentucky (CVG Airport) shipping facility. I still insure the item for the first leg of the route to cover my six. I do not have to worry about buyers claiming the item is "missing" or complaining about duties, taxes, etc. even though I have all of that information quoted directly from ebay in the listing itself. Once you utilize this program for a respective item you can not arbitrarily decide to bypass the program and ship it via another carrier/service. In fact, as a seller, you can not even invoice the buyer as ebay takes over. I just had a recent experience with a very similar situation where the buyer's wife asked me to bypass the program and ship directly via USPS. I had to call ebay directly and have them contact her to explain I could not do that as my explanation and quoted ebay verbage was not credible enough. They did follow through thankfully. Below is exact information from ebay regarding the program (I sent this information to the buyer too) but received the following partial message..." I don't have the time to start dealing with ebay on their shipping services".

"In the listing, the buyer sees an estimate of the international shipping charges and the import charge. During checkout, the buyer sees the final charges which include the item cost, the international shipping charges, and the import charge. The international shipping charges include any US shipping, as well as program fees, third-party international shipping charges, fuel surcharges, and processing and handling fees. The import charge includes applicable customs duties, taxes, and third-party brokerage.

In addition to the final charges, the buyer sees the amount paid to the seller and the amount paid to the global shipping provider. You receive the item price and the domestic shipping and handling cost from the buyer."

I hope this helps clear up some of the misconceptions.

~Beau

Headsup to sellers who use this system. To be honest as a Canadian once I see this on a US listing no matter how appealing the price or item is I simply bypass it. These charges are for the most part totally unnecessary to the buyer especially if it can go regular USPS international. Albeit weight restrictions may force you to priority posts. If you stay under 100 mark as a gift and don't use a courier than you should avoid these charges. Simply another money grab for ebay. The reason that shipping costs are rising and people are using these services as well as USPS priority post and UPS relates to the fact that almost all paypal disputes favours the buyer. ie missing parcels, damage, delays intransit. The need for sellers to have tracking numbers and insurance is driving up the costs to the buyer....

 

[jazzeum]

I have never had a package lost on either the buy or sell side. Everything shows up eventually; this is what Shannon once said to me. On smaller packages that I ship in terms of weight and purchase price, I won't bother with insurance; just not worth it.

 

[nmrocks]

I work with foreign buyers in any way they ask, 1st class shipping, lower declared value, makes no difference to me and if it saves them some cash, I'm happy to do it.
Ebay charges a listing fee, then roughly 10% final value fee and to add insult to injury they charge nearly 10% on what the buyer pays for shipping! talk about greed! a fee on costs that are strictly between buyer and seller! Throw in paypal fees and the real cost of selling is not cheap, I can only imagine the frustration for folks that have to add a vat tax as well.

 

[Phantom Warrior]

I work with foreign buyers in any way they ask, 1st class shipping, lower declared value, makes no difference to me and if it saves them some cash, I'm happy to do it.
Ebay charges a listing fee, then roughly 10% final value fee and to add insult to injury they charge nearly 10% on what the buyer pays for shipping! talk about greed! a fee on costs that are strictly between buyer and seller! Throw in paypal fees and the real cost of selling is not cheap, I can only imagine the frustration for folks that have to add a vat tax as well.

I'm no fan of ebay management for several reasons. But I seem to recall they started putting fees on shipping because sellers were selling expensive items for cheap to save on fees and making up the shortfall with huge fictional shipping fees as there were no ebay fees on shipping back then. I am not sure how accurate that is. So they went to a fee on total price including shipping - but forgot to adjust their fees down to take into account the higher total price.

Terry

 

[nmrocks]

I'm no fan of ebay management for several reasons. But I seem to recall they started putting fees on shipping because sellers were selling expensive items for cheap to save on fees and making up the shortfall with huge fictional shipping fees as there were no ebay fees on shipping back then. I am not sure how accurate that is. So they went to a fee on total price including shipping - but forgot to adjust their fees down to take into account the higher total price.

Terry

The real problem I have is a person buys or wins several items and pays accumulating postage charges right away(not complaining about that), I'm billed at the combined postage, say 25.00 and I end up refunding postage charges often as much as $15.00, the dog and pony show needed to explain and get a refund from ebay charges is very annoying and time consuming

 

[cnq]

Thanks for the comments guys.
I learned my lesson and will never bid on anything on ebay if the seller doesn't use USPS. In this case I paid extra $14 on $51 item for import charges. $14 is not a catastrophic but I hate to pay for anything extra if I don't have to, rather to use that money towards the actual item.

 

[Alex]

I have imported hundreds of figures from either the US or Russia and all packages showed up with 99% of them in great shape. I always always ask for USPS shipping from the US... that global shipping thing is simply outrageous for the unsuspected buyer ! ... and for the seller since it will just add transit time and manipulations so you'll get a higher rate of damage, I'm pretty sure.

Thanks for the comments guys.
I learned my lesson and will never bid on anything on ebay if the seller doesn't use USPS. In this case I paid extra $14 on $51 item for import charges. $14 is not a catastrophic but I hate to pay for anything extra if I don't have to, rather to use that money towards the actual item.

 

[Alex]

I have imported hundreds of figures from either the US or Russia and all packages showed up with 99% of them in great shape. I always always ask for USPS shipping from the US... that global shipping thing is simply outrageous for the unsuspected buyer ! ... and for the seller since it will just add transit time and manipulations so you'll get a higher rate of damage, I'm pretty sure.

Thanks for the comments guys.
I learned my lesson and will never bid on anything on ebay if the seller doesn't use USPS. In this case I paid extra $14 on $51 item for import charges. $14 is not a catastrophic but I hate to pay for anything extra if I don't have to, rather to use that money towards the actual item.

 

[nmrocks]

I have imported hundreds of figures from either the US or Russia and all packages showed up with 99% of them in great shape. I always always ask for USPS shipping from the US... that global shipping thing is simply outrageous for the unsuspected buyer ! ... and for the seller since it will just add transit time and manipulations so you'll get a higher rate of damage, I'm pretty sure.

I also ship exclusively USPS, reasonable rates, always gets there and if it doesn't which happens extremely rarely there is always some recourse.