Seller overvalued purchase by 10x and I was charged a heavy import tax of 2x the buy price

[clubdavis88]

Hello,

I am looking for any kind of advice anyone can give me on this issue.

I am in Canada and the labels on the US side are even incorrect. I have spoken with customs / owner of a post office and it was confirmed that it was on the seller's end, but they refuse to take responsibility.

I purchased 10x units of an item for $2.99 USD each and where the individual unit price is, the seller wrote in the TOTAL price, so instead of it being 10x items for $2.99 USD EACH, it was 10x items for $29.90 EACH. This obviously changed the total price to $300 USD value instead of the true $29.90.

The Canadian border charged me $52.35 on taxes because of this. If this incorrect information was not entered by the seller, I would have not been charged this otherwise. There's nothing like being screwed and paying $52.35 ontop of $29.90 + $13 shipping. Overall, for a purchase that should have been $43 USD total, including shipping, I was charged $95.35.

I am in the middle of a move and there's just so much going on, if my head was in the right place I would have just denied the package altogether.

I have included a scan of the USPS label to show what I am referring to.

Thank you for your time,

cd88

[toby_le_pue]

There should be a white paper you received with the customs charges on it. On the back there will be a box where you can fill out for a reassesment. Print a copy of your paypal receipt showing how much you paid and fill in the correct box and send it in to the address on the bottom. You will still be charged for any amount over $20.00 Canadian and a $9.95 service fee but you should get reimbursed for the balance. Good Idea to make copies of all the papers before you send them in. It normally takes about a month for a refund to come to you.

[femmefan1946]

I sympathize with dealing with problems like this, since I am in the middle of a move myself.

You will get the money back from CSDA eventually, but you should also let the seller know about the problem and ask how he intends to remedy it.

If he is not helpful-- and if he sells a lot of low value stuff he may not care much-- then you have two tools.

First, feedback. The most effective feedback is calm and factual. "Incorrect customs form cost me $52.35 in import charges. No help given." for example.

Second, Detailed Seller Ratings. These are much much more important than feedback. If a seller's DSRs drop below 4.3 his ability to list and sell on eBay is greatly restricted. The normal Rating is Five Stars. The lowest rating is ONE star. No stars is a free pass.