eBay issues - Global Shipping Program & Overseas Customers

[Liberace]

This is kind of long story, but I'll try to keep it short.

A buyer over in Europe asked me to relist an item for him. I relisted the item through the Global Shipping program on Ebay. The item was purchased and the buyer asked for the invoice. When I went to send him the invoice, the Global Shipping program did not come up as an option.I thought I must have erroneously excluded his country, France. I asked to cancel the transaction so that it could be listed correctly and then contacted Ebay to explain the issue. I was told that the Global Shipping program was listed as an option in error, because the item apparently did not qualify under the program. I was told any final value fee would be credited back to my account.

At this point, I think the transaction is canceled. However, the seller refused the cancellation request, and I was notified by Ebay that the final value fee of $154.00 would not be credited. I'm thinking this is crazy.

Given the possibility of losing out $154, I tried working this out with the buyer. I offered to ship the bike to France in two boxes through USPS at a cost of $275.00 and provided a delivery date range.

The buyer started challenging the price of the item, the shipping costs and the delivery date range. Remember, he still has not paid a dime at this point. I stood firm and he seemed to relent, because I think he really wants the bike and the price was good.

After assuming everything had been dealt with reasonably and he would pay, I get an email from the buyer with a custom's invoice form listing an extremely low value for the item that he wants me to stamp with my information. I responded that I am not comfortable with this form.

Immediately after sending him that email, I get the payment and a reminder to stamp his doctored form. I refunded the transaction with a note again stating I am not comfortable with what he is asking me to do.

Is this typical? Do I have any recourse with Ebay?

[jmoore]

With as much mess as goes on with ebay transactions, I'm surprised people even try to sell there anymore.

[tuscanyswe]

Wow. So to clarify.

Even if you said to ebay the item is no longer available for sale (broken or for whatever reason) they would still not credit you with final value even if no payment was made? Or made then withdrawn?

Reg the customs form.. I usually ask ppl to put a low value on the items as its approx 33% on listed value to pay extra here to the customs upon arrival, even the 275usd shipping in this case would have the extra 33% on top. It gets expensive pretty fast so i can c why he would want you to do that.

On the other hand i would never assume someone i dont know would be willing to do that. I personally have no problem doing that for ppl but id certainly understand if someone else would..

Is this (custom value) perhaps a legitimate reason to get out of the deal or rather making the buyer want out?

[R3awak3n]

/\ I sold about $2000 worth of stuff about 2 months ago (and it was not a bike, a bunch of parts, probably like 25 things) and had 0 problems. Also got good money for those parts and it was pretty stress free sales. Ebay can be great but I understand your point.

One thing I do not do is, ship international because of stuff like this. Also its hard to communicate with people that do not speak English fluently (I had this problem, even sending stuff in the US).

More on topic. What he is asking you to do is illegal and its great for you because you can tell ebay what is happening and they will probably side with you due to what he is asking you to do. I would contact ebay and let em know

[SlackMan]

This is kind of long story, but I'll try to keep it short.

A buyer over in Europe asked me to relist an item for him. I relisted the item through the Global Shipping program on Ebay. The item was purchased and the buyer asked for the invoice. When I went to send him the invoice, the Global Shipping program did not come up as an option.I thought I must have erroneously excluded his country, France. I asked to cancel the transaction so that it could be listed correctly and then contacted Ebay to explain the issue. I was told that the Global Shipping program was listed as an option in error, because the item apparently did not qualify under the program. I was told any final value fee would be credited back to my account.

At this point, I think the transaction is canceled. However, the seller refused the cancellation request, and I was notified by Ebay that the final value fee of $154.00 would not be credited. I'm thinking this is crazy.

Given the possibility of losing out $154, I tried working this out with the buyer. I offered to ship the bike to France in two boxes through USPS at a cost of $275.00 and provided a delivery date range.

The buyer started challenging the price of the item, the shipping costs and the delivery date range. Remember, he still has not paid a dime at this point. I stood firm and he seemed to relent, because I think he really wants the bike and the price was good.

After assuming everything had been dealt with reasonably and he would pay, I get an email from the buyer with a custom's invoice form listing an extremely low value for the item that he wants me to stamp with my information. I responded that I am not comfortable with this form.

Immediately after sending him that email, I get the payment and a reminder to stamp his doctored form. I refunded the transaction with a note again stating I am not comfortable with what he is asking me to do.

Is this typical? Do I have any recourse with Ebay?

Provide eBay evidence that he wants you to falsify customs document. And talk with eBay over the phone, not email. I never had an issue like this one, but I have found eBay to be very reasonable when the other party is misbehaving.

[bcroslin]

Provide eBay evidence that he wants you to falsify customs document. And talk with eBay over the phone, not email. I never had an issue like this one, but I have found eBay to be very reasonable when the other party is misbehaving.

This. Call them. And if you used Paypal call them as well.

[Steelman]

Have opted out of the global shipping program, however, have used this program successfully to receive refund of eBay sellers fees:

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/cancel-transaction-process.html

The step you are looking for is probably:

Receive a final value fee credit

Hope this helps.

[ultraman6970]

This is what I think is going on.

THe form the dude is giving you is so he avoid paying taxes... he wants you to declare less value in the customs form so he doesnt get raped by french customs. I dont blame him, he doesnt want to screw you up because at the end the transaction goes through ebay and paypal and the numbers there are right.

Every time you send overseas you have to fill up a custom form, you say if its gift or whatever, the guy wants to be sure the value of the item wont be taxable for him. Canadians have the same problem all the time, custom taxes.

Now, if you want to sell him, send the bike in two boxes (the only way) and put that each box is used stuff valued in what ever he is saying.. I imagine 50 or 100 bucks and that is a gift, not a sale. Ebay or paypal have nothing to do with how are you going to send the stuff in a matter of fact you noticed that when you called them.

Hope this helps you.

[jtakeda]

This is what I think is going on.

THe form the dude is giving you is so he avoid paying taxes... he wants you to declare less value in the customs form so he doesnt get raped by french customs. I dont blame him, he doesnt want to screw you up because at the end the transaction goes through ebay and paypal and the numbers there are right.

Every time you send overseas you have to fill up a custom form, you say if its gift or whatever, the guy wants to be sure the value of the item wont be taxable for him. Canadians have the same problem all the time, custom taxes.

Now, if you want to sell him, send the bike in two boxes (the only way) and put that each box is used stuff valued in what ever he is saying.. I imagine 50 or 100 bucks and that is a gift, not a sale. Ebay or paypal have nothing to do with how are you going to send the stuff in a matter of fact you noticed that when you called them.

Hope this helps you.

Sorry. This is wrong.

Yes it affects his import tax. But it also affects your ability to open a claim if anything gets lost or damaged in shipping.

It definitely affects you and his "cheating the system" can bite you big time.

I've called eBay about this exact thing before and they cancelled the auction.

[tuscanyswe]

Sorry. This is wrong.

Yes it affects his import tax. But it also affects your ability to open a claim if anything gets lost or damaged in shipping.

It definitely affects you and his "cheating the system" can bite you big time.

I've called eBay about this exact thing before and they cancelled the auction.

You can have an insurance value higher than the claimed value of the goods.

For instance important documents make a valid case for this, bikes not so much but still doable.

[Liberace]

Thanks for the replies. I appreciate the feedback.

[unterhausen]

I assume the reason it wasn't eligible for the Global Shipping Programs was that it was too big? Seems a little strange.

I now participate, but then again I wouldn't ship anything that big overseas. I had someone in Brazil win one of my auctions before I was aware that I had to sign up for the program. I called ebay and they cancelled the auction, refunded my fees without issue. Since this was really their problem, they should do the same for the OP. Apparently in my case the issue was that their mobile site ignores shipping restrictions