Be aware re items over $30 to UK & Europe

[rose-dee]

I don't know how many sellers are aware of this, but I was recently informed by a buyer (after he left neutral FB due to Customs charges!) that items over $30 going into the UK and Europe are subject to outrageous Customs duties. 

The item in question sold for $57, and my buyer paid $40 in duties, taxes, etc.  I completely sympathized with him, and after an email exchange he revised his FB to positive, but he was hopping mad and looking for someone to spew on (that would be me :|). 

I should have heard alarm bells on this subject when an earlier buyer (in Norway) asked me to state the value of a $100 item as $30 for customs purposes, which I refused to do. 

I simply wanted to flag this issue for others who may be selling to the U.K. and Europe frequently -- buyers may punish sellers in FB/DSRs for shockingly high Customs charges on mid-priced items.  Often they don't realize we have no control whatsoever over these things, and I doubt buyers read the disclaimers I put in my listings.  Although the disclaimers may protect me in a FB dispute (eBay wants them to be in the top 1/3rd of the listing in order to be valid, which ruins the look of the listings), I really don't know what else I can do.

It just adds another layer of difficulty to the whole shipping/customs scenario.  Anybody have any insightful ideas on selling to Europe, other than only selling items under $30.00?

[pocomocomputing]

eBay no longer requires the disclaimer as of last year 2012 Spring Seller Update if I recall correctly.

Members of the European Union have a 22 Euro duty free import limit which is around $30 Can or US. It varies with the exchange rate.

Here is a web site that tells you what the import rules are for each country. I do not know if it is accurate because I only discovered it a couple of days ago. I did check Portugal, Germany, UK, Australia, USA, Canada, Japan (I knew the rates for these countries) and it appears correct for these countries. Perhaps someone else can review countries they know and confirm if the site is accurate.

Now I only used the countries list. There are other tools on the site that I did not explore yet. There is an eBay look-up tool. But this site is a payfor site for the tools and the monthly rates are high. Hopefully the countries list will be free forever.

Here is the country info on the UK

http://www.dutycalculator.com/help_center/Import-duty-taxes-when-importing-into-the-United-Kingdom/

[cumos55]

Books... Duty 0 %

VAT 5 %  

for many European countries checked

Not all sales are created equal

Right now international sales are mainly  (or only to) European countries 

[rose-dee]

eBay no longer requires the disclaimer as of last year 2012 Spring Seller Update if I recall correctly.

Thank you, this is the best news I've had all month!  I'll review my 2012 Seller Update and see if I can locate it.  I'll post another note here if I find the specifics.  I would love nothing more than to get rid of those ugly legal disclaimers at the top of my listings - it's basically a sales killer for anyone outside Canada.  I do still have the disclaimer wording in my "Shipping" section further down, for CYA purposes (I use Auctiva so I've set up boilerplate for text that's repeated in each listing).

And many thanks for the information and link on import rules.  Although I worked in the legal profession for many years, I probably don't have the time or inclination now to become fully informed on international trade, so I'll just leave the buyers to (hopefully) scroll down my listings and read.

Many thanks for your input!

[rose-dee]

eBay no longer requires the disclaimer as of last year 2012 Spring Seller Update if I recall correctly. 

Hello again - actually I think eBay has created a confusing situation on this policy.  I've found the original reference I was trying to recall:

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/policies/feedback-removal.html 

On this page, under "Feedback Removal Due to Customs Complaints" or similar wording, there is a list of requirements by eBay for removal of FB due to customs issues, most of which deal with where and how the disclaimer must be displayed.  So the ugly up-front disclaimers have to stay if I want to protect myself from unfair FB.

I also located the policy change you referred to in the Spring Seller Update, under "Safeguards for Your Hard-Earned Performance Record".  It says:

"Earlier this year, eBay started displaying an automatic message regarding customs-related delays, duties and taxes on the View Item page of cross border items on eBay.ca and eBay.com.  Because of this, any Feedback from international buyers that only references customs issues will qualify for Feedback removal". (my emphasis).

I'm not sure how to reconcile these two apparently contradictory statements! 

Does "will qualify for Feedback removal" mean FB will be removed automatically upon seller request?  Or does it mean, without actually saying so, that it qualifies provided the conditions set out in eBay's feedback removal policy are met?  Also, note that phrase "only references customs issues".  If the FB says anything else, apparently you're sunk.   

By the way, I'm darned if I can actually find the display message they refer to -- maybe it only shows up when viewed from eBay.com.  And does "cross-border" include overseas? 

These are serious concerns for the type of items I sell, and not at all clear to me.  I've learned there's no use calling eBay on these sorts of issues - the people in the call centre just don't have the depth of knowledge and judgment to deal properly with such issues, let alone speak fluent English.  Sorry, I'm ranting...

If any Canadian seller has a clear understanding of this apparent discrepancy, I'd be very happy to hear it (or if you've actually had to request removal of such FB by eBay).