eBay

cabbagesque · ‎07-22-2017

So, this is sort of hypothetical so far since I haven't received my item yet but here's what happened:

I bought an item (worth roughly $35 w/ $3.50 shipping) from a seller a few days ago who claimed the item location as being Toronto, ON (I'm located in Toronto as well) in the listing. However, I noticed today when the item shipped that it was sent via DHL Global Mail and is actually coming in from the US.

While time isn't such a big issue for me, my problem is that the package will most likely end up incurring customs duties due to it's over $20 CAD value. The main reason I'd bought the item from this seller was because they were located in Canada and I wanted to avoid any customs fees (which I ended up having to pay on my other US package that I got several days ago). Now, though, it seems I won't be able to avoid them after all.

I'm just wondering though what I should do in this case? I don't want to accept the package if there's customs taxes to pay especially since I can get it off another seller who'll be a little more expensive but ultimately not as much with the customs fees. However, I'm not sure how eBay will handle this case? The item description didn't state anything about duties or taxes either, so would I be able to get my refund if I refuse to accept the package? I definitely don't want to be accepting the package and footing the return shipping cost either because it's a bit of a heavy item and Canada Post costs an arm and a leg. Any advice?

reallynicestamps · ‎07-22-2017

First I would contact the seller and tell him that Location is supposed to be the location of the item not the location of the seller.

Second, I would ask for a cancellation of the purchase.

If that can't happen, and he probably can't recall a shipped item, especially since he is dealing with a wholesaler who has thousands of customers, you have to make a doorstep decision.

First - the parcel is not assessed for duty and Sales Tax* or a shipper's fee.

It happens and DHL is a little better than some companies. Although that seems to be when the item is shipped from China.
You can leave appropriate feedback. "ships from USA not Canada"
CBSA does tend to ignore shipments if the item is under $100 and not bulky, .

Second- the parcel is assessed for duty, Sales Tax and shipper's fee**. The carrier will not turn over your item before he is paid.

You can pay him.
You can then ask the seller to reimburse you for the unexpected costs. Not likely , but worth a try.
You can leave FB about the false (and expensive) location
You can Report the seller for false location.

You can refuse to pay him
The item is returned to the shipper.
You can open an Item Not As Described dispute and claim a refund.
Note the reason for the dispute. It was delivered, so don't even think about a Not Received dispute.

This is starting to look like a Choose Your Own Adventure book , isn't it?

*More likely than duty, BTW.

** Which can be $25 or more.

View solution in original post

reallynicestamps · ‎07-22-2017

First I would contact the seller and tell him that Location is supposed to be the location of the item not the location of the seller.

Second, I would ask for a cancellation of the purchase.

If that can't happen, and he probably can't recall a shipped item, especially since he is dealing with a wholesaler who has thousands of customers, you have to make a doorstep decision.

First - the parcel is not assessed for duty and Sales Tax* or a shipper's fee.

It happens and DHL is a little better than some companies. Although that seems to be when the item is shipped from China.
You can leave appropriate feedback. "ships from USA not Canada"
CBSA does tend to ignore shipments if the item is under $100 and not bulky, .

Second- the parcel is assessed for duty, Sales Tax and shipper's fee**. The carrier will not turn over your item before he is paid.

You can pay him.
You can then ask the seller to reimburse you for the unexpected costs. Not likely , but worth a try.
You can leave FB about the false (and expensive) location
You can Report the seller for false location.

You can refuse to pay him
The item is returned to the shipper.
You can open an Item Not As Described dispute and claim a refund.
Note the reason for the dispute. It was delivered, so don't even think about a Not Received dispute.

This is starting to look like a Choose Your Own Adventure book , isn't it?

*More likely than duty, BTW.

** Which can be $25 or more.

cabbagesque · ‎07-22-2017

Thank you! The item is already on it's way so a cancellation seems unlikely at this point but I'll wait it out and see which route it goes. All my DHL shipments that were over $20 have been taxed in the past, but hopefully this one will get shuffled through without that.

jt-libra · ‎07-22-2017

@cabbagesque wrote:
Thank you! The item is already on it's way so a cancellation seems unlikely at this point but I'll wait it out and see which route it goes. All my DHL shipments that were over $20 have been taxed in the past, but hopefully this one will get shuffled through without that.

reallynicestamps has given you good advice. Hopefully there won't be an issue.

I've had two U.S. purchases shipped by DHL and, in each case, even though only the GST was levied, I had to pay that amount plus the minimum $10 that DHL charges. I learned this the hard way by not asking what shipping carrier was being used. I just wasn't thinking. If they don't use the Global Shipping Program, I always assume they ship by USPS .... and most of them do. In these two instances, I chalked it up as an error on my part by not checking beforehand.

However, you have a good case for not accepting it at all, given that you thought it was being shipped from within Canada. There are far too many sellers shipping from China but who state that the item is located in the U.S .... totally contravening eBay policy.

Let us know what happens.

marnotom! · ‎07-22-2017

The key here is the shipping method. Note the name DHL gives to this service: "Global Mail".

I recently had an set of prescription glasses shipped to me from New York state that was initially sent off by DHL Global Mail. From what I can figure out from the box and the tracking, it had a USPS mailing label slapped on it when reached Secaucus NJ and presumably it was handed off to USPS from there.

Because prescription glasses aren't taxable, I can't speculate if the package was handled/ignored by CBSA the same as any other small packet as far as assessment for taxes and duties owing is concerned.

cabbagesque · ‎07-22-2017

Huh, rhat's interesting. See, all my USPS mail whether worth $10 or $100 is pretty much ignored by CBSA too (matter of fact anything getting delivered by Canada Post is pretty much ignored even when the item value is waaaaay over $20), so if the seller had shipped it via USPS originally I wouldn't have been too concerned since chances of it getting hit were quite unlikely.

I got worried when I saw DHL but if the Global Mail service does get treated more as a mail service as opposed to a courier service then maybe there isn't anything to worried about after all?

marnotom! · ‎07-23-2017

@cabbagesque wrote:

I got worried when I saw DHL but if the Global Mail service does get treated more as a mail service as opposed to a courier service then maybe there isn't anything to worried about after all?

I'd guess that it probably depends on the nature of your item as well as its size and declared value.

When all is said and done, you'll probably owe about C$16 on the item if it's assessed and charged taxes and processing fees as a normally mailed item. I guess somebody will have to make a judgement call on that sixteen bucks.

reallynicestamps · ‎07-23-2017

See, all my USPS mail whether worth $10 or $100 is pretty much ignored by CBSA too

Yes.

CBSA has made the very sensible decision to ignore imports where the cost of assessment is likely to be higher than any duty (federal) or Sales Tax (GST/PST/HST- federal and provincial) is likely to be.

The $20 dutyfree maximum has been around for some 30 years and really needs revisiting.

jt-libra · ‎07-23-2017

@reallynicestamps wrote:
See, all my USPS mail whether worth $10 or $100 is pretty much ignored by CBSA too

Yes.
CBSA has made the very sensible decision to ignore imports where the cost of assessment is likely to be higher than any duty (federal) or Sales Tax (GST/PST/HST- federal and provincial) is likely to be.

The $20 dutyfree maximum has been around for some 30 years and really needs revisiting.

I just read in the paper this weekend (yes, I still read the newspaper) that during NAFTA discussions, the U.S. will be asking Canada to increase the maximum to $800, like it is for the U.S, bolstering trade between the two countries.

pjcdn2005 · ‎07-23-2017

A company that I used to deal with in the US used DHL Global Mail once in a while and I had to pay a brokerage fee and tax when they used it although I had to pick up the package at the post office. I can't remember if there was duty on the packages are not. Each packaged was valued at $200+ so I'm going to guess that there was duty.

musicyouneed · ‎07-24-2017

I took a look at the sellers feedback and if you look at all the 51 negative responses in the past 12 months, it says he is not in Toronto but in the US. All the buyers were complaining about the extra they had to pay. The seller is at 97.3%.

Pays to read the feedback before you purchase.

This is a seller who should be reported for indicating the items are located in Toronto. He also doesn't ship to the US under that ID.

musicyouneed · ‎07-24-2017

I also reported them for misrepresenting where the item is located. The buyer should too and anybody else that figures out who the seller is. It is not that hard, Canada is in there.

reallynicestamps · ‎07-24-2017

DHL Global Mail once in a while and I had to pay a brokerage fee and tax when they used it although I had to pick up the package at the post office.

If the fee was $9.95 , it was probably the Canada Post service charge rather than DHL.

Some couriers (like PitneyBowes/ GSP ) charge the buyer before shipping.

Some couriers have services that prepay duty, sales tax and their service charge. I understand there is a FedEx premium overnight service that does that.

We see Canadians posting here from time to time who have hissyfits that CBSA will 'sub-contract' the assessment of duty (and Sales Tax) to private companies in the USA, without making the connection that that is exactly what UPS or FedEx is doing only in Canada and collecting on your doorstep.

cabbagesque · ‎07-31-2017

So, an update! The seller had requested for the item to be carded for pickup, and I got a slip in the mail on Thursday to pick it up at my local PO. Like expected, there was a customs charge ($1.61 taxes, $10 brokerage fees 🙄) and so I filed for item not as described on Friday after picking up the package, asking the seller to either do a return or just refund me the $11.61 customs fees.

They got back to me today and have already processed my partial refund for the fees, so things ended pretty well! They did apologize and say that there wasn't enough stock in their Canadian warehouse so they had to send it from their US one. I'm gonna take the statement with a grain of salt 'cause that's just who I am as a person, but hopefully a majority of the rest of their items ship from Canada.

Not sure yet whether I want to leave a positive or a neutral review with details of what happened, but I'm leaning a little towards the positive side.

femmefan1946 · ‎07-31-2017

($1.61 taxes, $10 brokerage fees

That $10 (probably actually $9.95?) is the Canada Post fee.

And the $1.61 is due on the import because it is over $20Cdn (~$16US) in value.

Anything that gets stopped by CBSA and assessed would have that.

Even the occasional USPS/CPO handled item.

EBay's policy is pretty blunt.

At one point they gave us this bit of boilerplate to add to our listings for foreign buyers.

Import duties, taxes and charges are not included in the item price or shipping charges. These charges are the buyer's responsibility.
Please check with your country's customs office to determine what these additional costs will be prior to bidding/buying.

Those charges are NOT your seller's responsibility or his fault.

He owes you nothing.

cabbagesque · ‎07-31-2017

First, I'm aware of where those fees stem from/why they are charged, and it was actually exactly $10 and not $9.95 since DHL was involved.

Second of all, the seller is actually responsible for them in my case since they misrepresented their location (an eBay policy violation if you're not aware) by stating that they would be shipping from within Canada. I shouldn't have been charged any customs, nor should I have expected any such charges, if they had followed what they had stated in their listing. However, since they did not, this became a case of "item not as described", and Angela, the eBay representative I talked to, assured me that the seller, rightly so, would be responsible for both these custom charges as well as the return postage fees if I choose not to keep the item. Additionally, if the seller refused to refund me those charges, I could very well ask eBay to step in and ensure those steps were carried out.

Hence, those charges were both the seller's fault and consequently their responsibility.

So, arguably, they owed me nothing except $11.61, which they have already refunded.

marnotom! · ‎07-31-2017

@femmefan1946 wrote:

Those charges are NOT your seller's responsibility or his fault.
He owes you nothing.

Even if the item's location is stated as Toronto on the listing page?

EDIT: Cross-posted. Apologies.

musicyouneed · ‎07-31-2017

I sure wouldn't give them a positive. They misrepresented themselves as being in Canada and you had to pay extra to get your item. How many other buyers will get sucked in purchasing from him and have to pay import fees and not know how to get them back. Look at his feedback. I am going to be bringing this up at the weekly talk.