eBay

zee-chan · ‎01-29-2022

Now that we're in 2022, just curious how everything is coming along for sellers selling to Europe? eBay is still collecting VAT at point of sales. Are your buyers still getting double charged on VAT upon arrival? Anyone with experience selling to France lately?

Thanks in advance 💛

intimewithmusic · ‎02-08-2022

Hi. I haven't had any problems with shippo labels. There is one thing. You have to copy the IOSS number from the Sales record over to Shippo's customs form and deposit it into the proper space in a drop down menu. As most sellers attest it's also important to use an external packing slip on the outside that shows VAT has been paid and eBay's IOSS number . Shippo provides this form with the label.

intimewithmusic · ‎02-08-2022

Hi. Not sure about Canada Post. Shippo has a place to manually deposit the IOSS number after the label info is imported from eBAy. I assume this info is provided electronically. It doesn't physically appear on the label. I will ask them next time I have a chance.

darak10 · ‎02-09-2022

thats very strange....too bad I deleted my screen shot of it, I could have pmed you that.

Thats the same form everyone uses. There is no line for VAT/Tax ID #, they did not think far enough ahead to include this, so you have to improvise and use what they give you. I put the VAT number in the address line 2 (optional) field. Thats where it appears on the label, its embedded in the address field so it doesnt go missing, the schmoes on the receiving end all see it, as its included in the address they cant miss it, and all because Canada Post has not included a field for it on its own....I used to work for these guys many moons ago but it appears their leadership team is just as clueless as it was when I was there. But anyways thats how the form can be hacked, as it were.

ricarmic · ‎02-09-2022

@darak10 Hmm that is very weird.

With the OLD system, it put everything I had in the online form on the actual label.

With the new system, it comes up with its own autolookup address unless the PM overrides it then it will take what I have from the online form (she has to do this for the wild zones like Latin America and Asia where the auto lookup just won't find the address).

I will have to ask her if she can override the address for ones it can find the autolookup address for, however I'm already leery of that because I'm already known in the wee village of 350 as the guy who creates the lineups....because of how slow the "new" process is with the new system and I send a lot of small packets anymore....the overrides take longer.

I'll report back when I have news, won't be until next week now, have a fill in on Friday.

darak10 · ‎02-11-2022

thats too bad, I dont have an answer for you. There's two possible answers, either your guys had their system installed improperly, or the folks here were lying about it being the new system...who knows. All I know is I now try not to use CP whenever possible for anything other than domestic lettermail because other services (Chit Chats) provides better quality service for cheaper prices. If it ends up doing that here too, then I'm just going to use CC for all parcel mail intl and domestic and only use CP for domestic lettermail items. I cant be bothered to waste my time like that, I used to be *that guy* too haha until I started using chit chats. CP complains endlessly about losing money, then they cause problems that drives away revenue when trying to improve things. Reminds me of some other company I heard about recently, I cant remember the name of them at the moment.

ricarmic · ‎02-14-2022

@darak10 I got a chance to talk this over with my PM today, there is a way for them to "override" the autolookup so that it just uses exactly what I've put into the online customs form, so yes I should be again able to sneak it in the address the way eBay does. The PMs had to do the override for challenting countries like ones in Asia or Latin America anyway because their addresses won't autolookup. The override isn't really able to be done for USA which I don't care about anyway since at this point its only the European or Oceanic countries causing a problem.

Our test will start on Wednesday assuming I have VAT/Oceanic small packets. I'll report back on results when I have some.

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-14-2022

Australia and the UK have required ebay to charge VAT for quite a while. I haven't heard of there being a problem with those countries ever doublecharging. As far as I know the only problems have been with some of the EU countries which started collecting VAT much later than in the UK. I know that I have sent packages to both of those countries with the VAT number on the enevelope and didn't have a problem.

I could be wrong but the way that I understand it is that for the EU the information has to be sent electronically, that they won't accept just the VAT number on the package as proof that it has been paid. At first there was a problem with the information being sent or being received. I think that it did take Canada Post and the USPS a while to set it up at their end. I don't know if there was or still is a problem at the some of the delivery locations.

I think that I mentioned earlier that I still see the odd complaint from some EU buyers on the US boards but I don't know exactly what the problem is or if it specific to their countries. Perhaps some countries are just being less particular and allowing the VAT number on the envelope to be enough. It's all very confusing. I hadn't been selling a lot overseas so when the VAT problem started happening, I blocked most countries so can't speak from current experience.

ricarmic · ‎02-14-2022

At this time I only have 2 experiences of "feedback", the return to sender parcel to UK that looked like they were going to charge him taxes despite the VAT number in the address (tag not the PO one) and a recent long drawn out INADish experience with a fellow from Italy very irate that he had to pay customs. In the Italy case, it wasn't paid via eBay and eBay never provided a VAT in the address anyway.

So far I haven't had any "valid" complaints of double charging either, which is good, but I'm wanting to take as many reasonable steps as I can to mitigate risk.

As far as I know I don't think Canada Post has implemented anything correctly yet in terms of electronically submitting it. Us sneaking it in the address isn't really electronically submitting it, presumably someday they'll have a "tax field" on the customs form for it to be entered properly. Given they're still implementing the "new system" across the country, I'm assuming the real solution will be a ways off yet....

ricarmic · ‎02-17-2022

I've mentioned earlier that I had an item returned to sender back to me from the UK because it was sent to the wrong address and it looked like it was being assessed VAT.

I resent that item again and have been watching its progress. AGAIN it looks like it is being assessed VAT, at least thats what it says on the Royal Mail update is it needs to be paid.

As a note, this was sent without the VAT number on the electronic form, it was ONLY on the extra address label I attached.

I've talked with my PM and we're going to try the override option to sneak the VAT number into the electronic address on the electronic label as it is done in the eBay address.

I have noted that sometimes the UK stuff does show taxes being kept back by eBay but especially for the UK it is not being taken off for the majority of them. This fellow's was not taken off. I don't know if they have special rules in the UK as to what should/n't have it added. I have had some folks buy multiple items separately and some have VAT paid, some don't. I see no rhyme nor reason as to what causes the "nots"....

ricarmic · ‎02-23-2022

An update, my PM was able to do the "over-ride" thing to stick the VAT paid info in the address on the electronic label, as it shows in the ebay address. As discussed earlier in the thread I had to manually add it into the autolookup after the autolookup in the online Customs form.

Now whether it makes a difference or not, I'm not sure I'll know from customers, nobody has complained yet. I might watch a tracked one and see if the customs stuff pops up when it gets to GB (you have to look on the Royal Mail site to be able to see the customs payment waiting notice, doesn't show on CP).

darak10 · ‎02-25-2022

oh thats good to hear. I did try it from another post office for another German item and that place printed out a sticker instead of a printed form - the sticker itself was smaller and the format was completely different from the printed form they put in the plastic sleeve at my usual PO - I dont know if this is the "updated system" or not, but I filled out the form the same way I described and it printed the VAT number right in the middle of the address like it did on the other (old?) form.

maybe thats what the problem is - the autolookup function. Ive noticed on chit chats they have alot of gaps in Australia and alot of continental europe. The addresses just dont exist in their system, or contain strange characters that cant be directly translated onto our system, and so you get error messages. Its common to have n with a hovering small o above and to the right for many south american addresses, basically our equivalent of # or the very old school (common in the 80s and earlier) "no" with a period following it to indicate number. But how do you directly transcribe this onto our system? There's no direct way, and CP will need to develop a patch to make oddball international addresses identifiable to our system. Its become an IT issue really. Before when things were hand written there were no issues other than legibility, now theres making an entire computer network able to identify it.