eBay

please_dont_scam_me · ‎11-07-2013

I recently paid for a Brother 2340CV sewing machine (from the US seller) as a gift for my mother. I thought the total would be $437.67 US ($329 US for the sewing machine, $58.26 US for shipping and $50.41 US for import charges), which is the amount I paid in checkout with PayPal. However, upon looking at the Order Details of the purchase I noticed that there is an Ontario Sales Tax of $95.41 US that I have yet to be charged. That is a 29% tax!!! This tax was never stated in checkout, nor was it clearly shown on the product's page and none of the emails that I have received from eBay, PayPal and seller indicate that I will be charged an additional $95.41 US.
The order has since been shipped and it originates from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
My questions are:
1. Why is an American seller, who only has stores in the state of Louisiana, charging me a Provincial Sales Tax?
2. Why is it a 29% sales tax and not a 13% sales tax (the normal rate for Ontario residents)?
3. Who will be charging me? The delivery man?
4. Can i fight this charge?

Any answers would help a lot. Thank you.

pierrelebel · ‎11-07-2013

"$58.26 US for shipping and $50.41 US for import charges"

Yes, that is exactly what I see.

"which is the amount I paid in checkout with PayPal."

I do not understand what the problem is.

If you paid exactly what was shown in the listing ($58.26 + $50.41), what is the problem? Where does that $95.41 come from since you only paid what was shown?

"Ontario Sales Tax of $95.41 US that I have yet to be charged."

Where - exactly - do see that? What do you think it means?

please_dont_scam_me · ‎11-07-2013

I hope this clears up any confusion.

pierrelebel · ‎11-07-2013

Where exactly do you see those numbers?

please_dont_scam_me · ‎11-07-2013

I clicked on My eBay -> Purchase History -> More actions -> View order details

pierrelebel · ‎11-07-2013

Your "my eBay" does not show that extra charge.

I would not worry about it at this time.

You paid and the seller will ship.

Eventually you will receive the goods and, at that time, you may want to question eBay about it.

please_dont_scam_me · ‎11-07-2013

I really appreciate your replies, but I would love to nip this problem in the bud before possibly having a delivery man at my door asking for nearly $100.

pierrelebel · ‎11-08-2013

"before possibly having a delivery man at my door"

The point of using Global Shipping Program (GSP) is to have Customs clearance done ahead of time and taxes and fees prepaid by the buyer, eliminating the need to have the delivery man (Canada Post or whoever) collect at the door at time of delivery.

Unfortunately, we see that problem from time to time when the American seller screws up: sells through GSP but ships directly to the Canadian buyer instead of shipping to Pitney-Bowes in Kentucky as requested by the program.

As long as your seller ships as instructed, there should be no problem.

You may want to confirm with your seller when and how your purchase was shipped to eliminate that question mark.

The alternative of course is to contact eBay Customer Support (link on top of this page at right) so they can look into the situation.

marnotom! · ‎11-08-2013

I agree with Pierre. Confirm what you can with your seller as soon as possible.

Scrolling through the seller's phone book sized terms of sale, they claim to ship UPS internationally whenever possible. This may be an instance where the seller doesn't realize they've listed with the Global Shipping Program or else they don't fully understand how the program is supposed to work.

please_dont_scam_me · ‎11-08-2013

According to shipment details the carrier is PBI and according to FedEx tracking my package has been delivered to Hebron, Kentucky as of 11:11:53 AM today. What happens to my package now now that FedEx is done with it? I don't believe I've ever dealt with such a process before, so I'm at a loss here.

(I've sent the seller a message, just waiting for a reply now)

marnotom! · ‎11-08-2013

Once FedEx has delivered the package to the Global Shipping Centre in Erlanger KY (a Google Maps search suggests that it's about ten minutes away from the FedEx Shipping Center in Hebron), your item will be processed by a logistics company and--we believe--sent out as part of a cargo freight shipment to Canada and added to the shipping manifest (list) of items that are part of that shipment for use by Canada Border Services.

Once the container reaches Canada and clears customs, the items within the container will be separated and your sewing machine will be forwarded to you by another carrier (or two).

Global Shipping Program items are supposed to have tracking, but reports on the discussion boards suggest that this tracking is far from real-time so I wouldn't be too concerned if you're unable to track it. What's more important is whether or not you have your item, anyway, so I would wait about ten business days before starting to worry about its whereabouts.

Is that any help?

please_dont_scam_me · ‎11-08-2013

Yes that helps a lot. Thank you 🙂

I only inquired about the $95.41US provincial sales tax, so it seems that they ignored my question.

aqyera · ‎11-08-2013

Serger $329.00

Shipping $58.26 - This amount includes seller specified US shipping charges as well as applicable international shipping, handling, and other fees.

Import Charges $50.41 - This amount includes applicable customs duties, taxes, brokerage and other fees.

The quotes come from little questionmark in the listing.

50.41 is 13.02 % from (329+58.26), which is exactly HST. GSP program fees must be included in S/H portion.

$95.41 charged as ON HST would be from subtotal $733.92, so that receipt is bogus.

You are fine.

And finally I know how this dreaded GSP works thanks to this example. Considering how bulky that serger is with $33 domestic ground ship inside USA and $58 door-to door priority ship to Ontario including brokerage is not bad.

marnotom! · ‎11-08-2013

@aqyera wrote:

50.41 is 13.02 % from (329+58.26), which is exactly HST. GSP program fees must be included in S/H portion.
$95.41 charged as ON HST would be from subtotal $733.92, so that receipt is bogus.

What I suspect the deal with the invoice(?) for Ontario HST is is that the seller's got some sort of invoicing routine or program that calculates the taxes and customs-related charges that UPS would levy since the seller has set up their listings with UPS international shipping. For whatever reason, it that routine hasn't been removed by the seller.

@aqyera wrote:

And finally I know how this dreaded GSP works thanks to this example. Considering how bulky that serger is with $33 domestic ground ship inside USA and $58 door-to door priority ship to Ontario including brokerage is not bad.

I actually see a US$27.50 ground shipping charge to Erlanger on the listing, which means that the rest of the shipping charge (i.e. about $30) would be the cost of getting it from Erlanger to the buyer. Assuming that there's no duty and just tax on the serger, the taxes (i.e. 13% HST) would be $42.77 and the brokerage/clearance/processing/whatever else you wanna call 'em fees would be less than eight bucks U.S.

I agree, that seems like a fair deal in my books.

As for how the GSP actually works in the shipping program, it's really just an educated hypothesis largely cribbed from what more experienced users of cargo freight shipments (AFAntiques and Recped) have stated elsewhere. We really can't say with 110% certainty what's actually going on, but there's a lot of evidence that seems to support their hypotheses.

please_dont_scam_me · ‎11-08-2013

I hope you're right about import charges covering taxes :s
But the $95.41 comes from a 29% sales tax on $329.00

please_dont_scam_me · ‎11-08-2013

I was reading a separate thread about a similar problem to that of which I'm having right now:

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Canada-Town-Square/sales-tax-can-a-USA-seller-charge-sales-tax-to-Canadi...

However, in that case, HST was shown in checkout and at the correct rate of 13%.

marnotom! · ‎11-08-2013

@please_dont_scam_me wrote:
I hope you're right about import charges covering taxes :s
But the $95.41 comes from a 29% sales tax on $329.00

That's not sales tax. It's probably sales tax plus whatever charges UPS or its contractor levies for customs clearance, tax advancement, and what have you.

If your seller is using the GSP, I wouldn't worry about it. I'm guessing you haven't received a response from the seller on this yet.

marnotom! · ‎11-08-2013

@please_dont_scam_me wrote:

I was reading a separate thread about a similar problem to that of which I'm having right now:

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Canada-Town-Square/sales-tax-can-a-USA-seller-charge-sales-tax-to-Canadi...

However, in that case, HST was shown in checkout and at the correct rate of 13%.

While the buyer never came back to the thread to let us know how things went, they did leave positive feedback for the seller. I suspect they'd have followed up if the sale were a complete disaster.

please_dont_scam_me · ‎11-08-2013

They did reply but totally ignored my question. I only asked about the additional 29% charge but their response was only about how it was being shipped (to summarize: they ship it to Erlanger, eBay is then responsible for shipping and they gave me an eBay customer service number for any further questions).