Ebay shipped 14 small items separately, had to pay customs charge 14 times instead of one package

[taxman690]

Ebay shipped 14 small items, that were bought at the same time from the same seller separately. I had to pay customs charge 14 times instead of one package

What stupidity!!   

Ebay so called customer service is a joke,  there is none!!!

[pjcdn2005]

Were the items shipped through eBay's International Shipping program? Were they payed for all at once or separately?

It was my understanding that although EIS doesn't have combined shipping right now, if the items are put in the cart and paid for as one order that they can shipped together.   Did you pay  14 separate shipping charges too?

[femmefan1946]

All the items were purchased from the same seller?

EBay is "just a venue". Basically eBay is hosting millions of independent sellers and sells nothing itself.

But it would be stupid of a seller who got 14 orders not to combine them into one package if at all possible. 

I suspect your seller was dropshipping, which means they don't have the items in hand but pass your orders to one or more suppliers,often overseas, who then ship to the customer. 

You can leave appropriate feedback.

The most effective feedback is calm and factual.

"Fourteen items ordered on  May 7th. This one was delivered May 10th"

"Fourteen items ordered on  May 7th. This one was delivered May 11th"

"Fourteen items ordered on  May 7th. This one was delivered with another May 9th"

etc.

The duty and sales tax situation is complicated.

From the USA we have a duty -free allowance of $150. If each of your 14 items were $10 you would pay no duty. If each were $20 you would pay duty on a single import of $280.

Similarly we have a tax -free allowance of $40. Each $10 item would be duty free, but a combined $140 package would be charged sales tax.

If your purchases were coming from overseas, the duty and tax free allowances are $20. So no duty or tax on those 14 $10 items but both on a combined package.

What you are seeing is likely the "customs brokerage fee" of the private carrier. Those can seem outrageous to those  used to Canada Post's $9.95 fee, which is usually ignored by both CPO and the CBSA on low value imports, but cannot be by private couriers.