Buyers cancelling because of sales tax :(

[3islanders]

I'm losing 2 sales, totalling ~ $2000, because the buyers don't want to pay tax.  One paid, and THEN messaged me saying he didn't have enough money and wanted to cancel.  The other hasn't paid yet but has just messaged asking why he has to pay tax on a used item, and please cancel his order.

I don't want to deal with difficult people and would just as soon not give them these items that have family history, so I'm OK with cancelling and being rid of the buyers, but -- what recourse is there and what can we as sellers do, to avoid this time-wasting nonsense??  😞

[flipistics]

I'd just include it as part of your description if you're having issues. I have a section specifically stating that eBay now handles all tax and receipt requirements and sellers no longer have control over it. Buyers will get used to it pretty quick anyway, so it's probably only going to be a short-term problem.

I'd also recommend cleaning up your descriptions a little. Make them a little more structured, which will make it much easier to read, easier to add boilerplate (such as a tax section if you wish), etc.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

In situations like the one above, buyers don't do their full research or read all the fine print of an auction. That's what causes the problem in the first place. Your advice isn't bad at all, I just don't think it will realistically stop the "why u charge tax on used item bro?" question.

My advice would be to list as BIN w/ Best Offer. Auctions have a much higher failure rate than BIN with buyers who do not pay, or who cancel. If your item was bid up to $2000 at auction, it will almost certainly sell for that, or more as a BIN w/ Best Offer.

The only advantage to auctions is that it sets an end date, which creates urgency for people to buy your item. Collectors or hobbyists tend to behave a bit differnetly than average eBay buyers, they have eBay alerts, or they search daily by newly listed. So if you list something BIN, it usually either sells right away, or it takes weeks or months to sell. The upside is that you will usually get a higher price via BIN since auctions rarely reach the upper end of the market value. 

[3islanders]

Hmmm.  I suppose it's worth considering.  I just don't know what price to put on items.  I guess I figured things in demand might sell for more because people get carried away with last-minute bidding, and you don't get that with BIN.  You might get less than you "could".  Or else you price it too high and like you say, it doesn't sell for ever.

"why u charge tax bro" made me chuckle.  People don't READ things -- even when you tell them to.  Long experience with signs at markets.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

I am not familiar with the type of items you sell, so I am only speaking in general. 

Sometimes, that does happen - but usually auctions go for less than what something is worth if you wait it out at BIN. Think of everything that is working against an auction. Enough people who want it, have to all see it when it is up. They all have to have money and be prepared to make a purchase. People also snipe auctions, and don't put in their absolute upper bid. They usually put in something high relative to whatever the bid is at the time, but not their top bid. Because people snipe auctions, it is common for people to forget or miss the end of an auction. 

If you have had more success with auctions than BIN, you should keep going with auctions. But as a general rule, I think most people will tell you that BIN listings usually realize higher selling prices at the expense of a sale taking much longer to happen. 

[mrdutch1001]

if buyers are not familiar with the requirement "to pay tax on a used item", then they simply do not know the laws that have been inplace for years regarding taxation on most used goods....

buyers are so used to not having to pay taxes for online purchases & that is what has caught them off guard....but as buyers come to realize that these taxes apply to other online selling sites, not just eBay, things will likely settle down just as they did for the USA buyers and other countries for which similar taxation laws have been implemented...

[femmefan1946]

Is that two cheapskate scofflaws out of two or two out of 500?

Some sales are not worth having.

You are right that these are going to continue to be problem buyers and you will be best off cancelling.

The US  Internet (state) Sales Tax has been in place for about three years and the Canadian one since July 2022.

The canard about used goods keeps going around, like the one about income tax being illegal. Nothing you can do to change those closed minds.

what can we as sellers do, to avoid this time-wasting nonsense??  😞

Cancel and refund as Buyer Request.

Add the cheapskates to your Blocked Bidder List.

It's business, not personal.

[femmefan1946]

I just don't know what price to put on items.

You know what the winning bids were on those items?

Were you happy with those prices?

There's your price.

Were they lower than you wanted?

You can list at a higher Fixed Price.

BTW- on Fixed Price items you can also add Best Offer, which allows a customer to make offers (duh!) until the two of you come to a meeting of minds.

You can simplify this by using parameters for Acceptable and Unacceptable offers.

And those parameters can be a penny apart.

EG- You want at least $100 for something.

You list it for $125 with Best Offer.

You set an Acceptable Best Offer as $100. You set an Unacceptable Best Offer as $99.99.

Any offer of $100 or more is automatically accepted and billed.

[byto253]

A lot of people are not frequent eBay buyers and only use it for specific items that are hard to source any where else.  It could be that their buying experience pre-dates the HST tax scooping so it was a surprise.

I actually got caught in this, bought something but forgot about the tax and got a bit of a jolt when I saw the total.    

[3islanders]

I will have a look at the BIN and best offer options… Need to learn more about how they work as I have never used either. I’ve only sold a few low-priced items in the past.
It’s kind of a lame reason for auctions but I like having an end date so I don’t have to keep listings going over a longer term.
The third of five “buyers” has also decided he doesn’t want to pay sales tax because it’s over his budget for the item. Messaged me saying if I would accept $XXX he would pay today, then messaged again that he meant another price $20 lower. Dude, the auction is over. You bid with one second to spare. Even if that was acceptable practice, how the heck would I even do it? Duh.
He has zero feedback and probably zero clue about how eBay works. This is going to be another cancellation. I can’t believe it. Once I get rid of this guy I might consider taking these items to a camera forum instead if they don’t sell here on another round.

If I am 3 for 5 with cancellations because of sales tax, I wonder how many other buyers are trying to get out of purchasing since this tax thing started? 😞

[3islanders]

Same… Thought I was avoiding the GSP charges by buying something in Canada, then “oh bleepin bleep, there’s tax.” I do however understand that a bid is supposed to be a contract to buy so I sucked it up and paid.

[recped]

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@3islanders wrote:

If I am 3 for 5 with cancellations because of sales tax, I wonder how many other buyers are trying to get out of purchasing since this tax thing started? 😞

---

Not that many, I have always (since 1999) charged GST/HST to my Canadian buyers, in 23 years and well over 50,000 transactions I can count on one hand the number of times buyers have complained.

[femmefan1946]

If I am 3 for 5 with cancellations because of sales tax,

 I haven't had anyone cancel for sales tax.

I have had non-payers on Best Offers.

And non-payment on Auctions (BO is a sort of auction, if you hold your lips right) is rife.

So are you 3 for 5 with taxes or 3 for 5 with auctions.

[3islanders]

>>So are you 3 for 5 with taxes or 3 for 5 with auctions.<<

Eh? 

3 out of 5 auctions that ended with bids this weekend resulted in "buyers" wanting to cancel because they didn't want to pay the tax.  They "forgot there was tax" or "didn't know there was tax" or some such variation of I-don't-want-to-pay-more.

Well aren't you both lucky not ever having had anyone cancel for sales tax.

I rarely sell things, and this is reminding me why I don't like spending wasting the time on it.

It parallels selling things locally on my local community facebook buy/sell -- I'd say 3/4 of the people on there that say "me please" fail to follow through.

[byto253]

That is really weird, and I think and hope an anomaly.  I have never actually had that happen.  Using auctions for quick sales and to better control shipping timing is something I do at times as well.  I think you just hit a batch of bad luck.  

[3islanders]

Just an update for the record... I filed an unpaid-item cancellation for bad bidder #3, who after making offers of $120 and $140 below his winning bid, didn't communicate further.

What a waste of time.   😞

[marnotom!]

I'm thinking these bidders may be using the "new" sales tax as a convenient excuse to get out of paying for their purchases after bidding more than they were comfortable with paying.

[femmefan1946]

Well aren't you both lucky not ever having had anyone cancel for sales tax.

Possibly lucky, but more likely that my customer demographic runs to people who can read (books) , like having things in order (stamps) and enjoy following instructions (sewing patterns).

The difference would be if you had 10 sales of which five were unpaid auctions or 10 sales of which five were unpaid with tax as the excuse. Maybe I'm the only one who sees a difference.

[3islanders]

Well, it was 5 sales of which 3 were cancelled with tax as an excuse, and a fourth cancellation for tax in a previous round.
I’d have thought that people spending hundreds of dollars on vintage camera equipment would also be reasonably able to read and pay attention to details… Ha ha!