A Canadian question why pay tax after confirm purchase

[cnetseller]

Here we go, its REALLY hurt our sellers in having this kind of eBayer in our community.

A Canadian blast about sales tax at the end of checkout and yet confirmed transaction and paid for it, claimed it should have been informed before commit to buy. Seller takes the blame with a NEGATIVE feedback.

eBay system allows seller to setup tax rates and is clearly stated in all listings, it is buyer's choice to pick seller and check with details including final payment amount before submit purchase order.

eBay should step up their punishment to this kind of behavior within the community, we, the seller work so hard to please buyers and yet a few of these bad apples ruin our credit rating due to this ridicules reason.

Regards,

Samson

[momcqueen]

If you want a buyer to be able to see the sales tax changed on an auction by adding to cart, the auction would also have to have a Fixed Price option allowing the item to be added to cart. Beware the Fixed Price upgrade for auctions is a fee-based listing service. It's not free.

[hold-my-chawowah]

Instead of getting upset over the FB, listen to what the buyer is telling you.

Buyers do not appreciate getting hit with taxes when buying on eBay BECAUSE IT IS NOT THE NORM AND it IS ALMOST ALWAYS UNEXPECTED and NEVER APPRECIATED.

Absorb the taxes on your items and stop penalizing your Canadian buyers.

[cnetseller]

We came across buyers DO NOT look and yet still hit the "confirm" button to pay for the transaction, it is only after the fact that issues started to boil.

The CONFIRM button is there for a reason, buyer should be responsible to check all is good before proceed with purchase. The key to a transaction are final amount charged, deliverable mailing address & correct item.

My understanding is the body of the listing should be more related to the item and leave the standard procedures to the system to handle.

If a buyer cares to look in details of the transaction, he/she will pick up along the way before paying.

[muscoviteman]

"

Instead of getting upset over the FB, listen to what the buyer is telling you.

Buyers do not appreciate getting hit with taxes when buying on eBay BECAUSE IT IS NOT THE NORM AND it IS ALMOST ALWAYS UNEXPECTED and NEVER APPRECIATED."

EXACTLY!!!!

Either absorb it (if you can) or indicate clearly that you do charge tax.  

If I bid and am willing to pay $200 for an item I bid $200 less shipping and less taxes to be incurred.  I don't want a nasty surprise when I go to pay!

[muscoviteman]

"My understanding is the body of the listing should be more related to the item and leave the standard procedures to the system to handle."

My understanding is that you are perfectly free to put that you charge tax in the body of the listing and that is where I always check. I am sure I am not alone.

Anyhow while I would have not been so harsh as to leave the negative I think the buyer as a legitimate right to express  their dissatisfaction with the clarity of the transaction.

[ricarmic]

There are two parts to the negative feedback.

Dissatisfaction with the taxes aspect.

Dissatisfaction with how they were communicated with or to.

I wasn't there, but my "read" from the feedback is that how the conversation went may have helped create the negative feedback as much as the taxes aspect.

It is hard to tell much from an 80 character sentence, but it is always in ones best interest to keep conversations 3rd party as much as possible and non confrontational as possible, regardless of what one received. (What I personally do is create or keep form letter like responses so I answer with something I wrote when I was calm when I respond to frustrating requests, notes, messages etc instead of what I feel like writing when they come in).

[ricarmic]

Hopefully a call to ebay will get the negative zapped.... let us know what happens if you do call it in!

(In my (stamps) world buyers expect sellers to absorb the taxes, this has been the case for the 40 years I've been selling so it isn't a new issue in my selling world).

[reallynicestamps]

 I now include the tax in the price and I do mention in my listings that I pay the tax for Canadian buyers.  -- ypdc-dennis

This is the best suggestion.

Make the problem (sales tax) into a benefit for the buyer.

Smoke and mirrors.

Obviously, just as with Free Shipping, the buyer is still paying.

Which is cheaper?

A $10 item with $1.50 tax and $5 shipping?

 Or a $16.50 item with no added tax and Free Shipping?

If you want to throw in Cookie Jar Insurance too, you could charge $16.99 and, quite seriously, still have a happy customer.

At 18 cents a minute (BC minimum wage), you could have refunded the sales tax for eleven minutes of your time.

How much have you spent on this instead?

[pjcdn2005]

---

@ypdc_denniswrote:

---

@pjcdn2005wrote:

... You can only charge pst if you have a physical presence in those provinces.

---

That's confusing optional with required to collect.

You can only charge PST if you are registered to collect PST for that province.  Physical presence is only used to determine if you must collect PST -- the provinces are not going to turn down someone volunteering to collect tax for them.   Although, most sellers would wonder why someone would volunteer to give away a competitive advantage.

I did mention in my first post that you are not allowed to collect pst  unless you were registered to do so in those provinces but perhaps I wasn't clear.  I'm still not clear if the op is registered in each pst province so that they are allowed to collect pst.  I am getting the impression that they think they should collect pst just because they have a gst number.  Perhaps I'm wrong.

Question...If a business does register in each province and is legally allowed  to collect pst, is the money collected submitted by the business to each province? Or is it submitted to the federal government along with any gst/hst funds collected?

[kawartha-ephemera]

Separate registrations = separate accounting and reporting / remittance for each registration.
The main purpose of enacting HST was / is to streamline tax collection and administration. Makes total sense to businesses and governments... too bad all provinces haven't reformed their sales tax collection methods but the uninformed public hears the word tax in a sentence and goes berserk!

[pjcdn2005]

lol Well I'm in Alberta so yes,  if provincial tax or hst is mentioned..yes people would not react well.  I don't  really want to start down the road of debating which is the best way to go but I am guessing that the general public end up paying more with hst because pst does not apply to services. But...I'm not in a pst province so I don't know a lot about it.

[kawartha-ephemera]

Oh boy... I can only imagine the uproar if Notley floated a new PST tax lol. There were plus and minuses with PST vs HST but a lot of services were already subject to PST before the change.

[katlover1952]

FYI the sales tax in Manitoba is 8% & has been for a number of years now.

[femmefan1946]

buyer should be responsible

Meh.

Drivers should be going 30kph past my house because we're in a school zone.

The 'pot shop' down the road should not be in business at all.

EBay clothing sellers should include actual measurements in their descriptions, not just manufacturer's sizing.

Canada Post should introduce a confirmation of delivery barcode that is as cheap as USPS.

Have you had any luck with phoning Customer Support and getting the neg removed yet?

[momcqueen]

---

@katlover1952wrote:

FYI the sales tax in Manitoba is 8% & has been for a number of years now.

---

Are you referring to the chart on the p1? It's a GST chart, and Manitoba is not part of the Harmonized Tax collective so the provincial sales tax is not relevant in that respect. A seller is only required to collect PST if they have a physical presence in the province in question. 

[katlover1952]

Ah thanks MJ did not read that close enough obviously.

[cnetseller]

Yes, finally got time to call eBay customer support to report this buyer as well as the negative feedback removed.

Thanks for all the advises .........

[vintagetonow2134]

why not have them in the price instead of extra? for example. instead of say 2+ tax. 2.50 tax included.

[komics4sale · Accepted solution]

You put my thoughts into words exactly as I feel regarding ebay sales taxes.

Not a problem.....IF it is actually stated somewhere in a seller's listings ahead of time.

A potential cause for concern if not.

For Auction Items (Not Cart Items) , a buyer will not know until they have committed to purchasing by winning the auction/auctions.

Why give your sellers a chance to have a negative feeling about their new purchase, especially after they've won your auction.

[groove_27]

It's because they don't show the full price on eBay, to Canadians. We as buyers have to go off-site to calculate what we MIGHT have to pay ontop of any shipping. Including duty, import fees, handling or ROD fee for FedEx shipments, and then of course taxes, on top of the various exchange rates offered by the different payment methods at checkout...buying is just as complicated as selling these days. This can make a 100$ (Cad) purchase cost more close to 160$ cad.