@conventinn wrote:
Has ebay business drop off from Canada? Because I will not buy anything that has the import fee put on by the seller. It is a rip off because I have never been charged import when thing are shipped by mail. Also thing are really slow when the fee are included. I now shop amazon or Canadian sellers .
Read some of the threads on the "Global Shipping Program" that are tacked to the top of this discussion board. This program, initiated by eBay and PitneyBowes, is a forwarding program that appears to be used largely unknowingly by sellers who would normally ship within the United States only. The import charges are levied by the program, not the seller.
Items shipped by mail with a declared value of over CDN$20 are also subject to tax charges plus a $9.95 fee by Canada Post, but right now it rarely gets charged. When my wife and I first started purchasing items on eBay back in the late 1990s, about half the items we purchased that were worth that much were taxed and charged by Canada Border Services and the post office. Now I can't remember the last time that's happened.
Buyers need to decide if the total overall cost of an item shipped through the Global Shipping Program (as well as the various potential hassles and missteps) makes the purchase worthwhile. There are similar programs out there that serve various eCommerce retailers and they tend to bury the additional charges with the item and/or shipping price. I recently compared the same mobile phone sold by the same seller on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com and the price on the Canadian Amazon site was considerably more than the American listing price, even though there was no mention of "import charges".
Buyer beware.
