Shipping listed as EMS but seller used DHL instead

[towa-7019]

I live in Canada and purchase from international sellers quite often. I know that courier services like DHL, UPS, and FedEx charge ridiculously high "brokerage fees, " so I only buy from sellers using EMS or regular mail. I don't care much about items arriving quickly.

A Japanese seller I recently purchased from wrote in the description that "we ship via EMS or e-packet", but decided to ship through DHL without notifying me. The total brokerage charge was almost 30 dollars for an item with 4 dollars tax. EMS/Canada Post brokerage fees are only around 1/3 of that. When I contacted the seller, I was told "EMS and DHL cost the same to ship and DHL is safer and faster", but they neglected the buyer's fees.  They cited the blanket clause that "import charges, taxes, and fees are the buyer's responsibility". From the reviews, it seems they sell to international buyers quite often and should be well aware of high courier brokerage charges.

I don't want to use the money-back guarantee because it's a small business. But I feel cheated, I'm paying 20 dollars extra in fees just because the seller decided to ship with another method for some reason. I'm not sure what I should do in this case. 

[marnotom! · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the eBay Canada discussion boards, @towa-7019.  Most of us are from Canada, too.  😃

You may not want to go through the Money Back Guarantee, but you might have grounds for negotiating a partial refund from the seller if you file a "not as described" case.  Your case would be strengthened if the seller stated the actual shipping method in the "shipping" section of the listing instead of a generic description, but I have a feeling this is very unlikely as there's no eBay Japan.

In fairness to the seller, they probably see very few shipments to Canada as our population is so small so they may not be aware of the antiquated way taxes on casual imports are handled here. Most buyers from western industrialized nations now have the sales taxes for most imports they make through eBay charged at checkout (the way we Canucks are for sales from Canadian eBay sellers) so there's no need for the carrier to get involved in collecting them.  Canada is behind the curve in this respect.

I would suggest contacting an online eBay agent through Facebook or X/Twitter (see links at the bottom of this page if you're using a desktop/notebook computer) to get their take on the situation.  Avoid the phone reps as they don't have a very good reputation.  Keep us posted!

Edited to add:  Double-check the listing description for your item.  One of the Japanese sellers who recently left you feedback states in the one listing that I checked that they use "Japan Post / FedEx or DHL."

[towa-7019]

Hey @marnotom! thank you so much for your reply. I have contacted them via X as you suggested, and hopefully, I can work something out with the seller.

Since I opened the case, the seller updated the description to "we ship by DHL". Sneaky move, but luckily I saved a screenshot of the original description as attached.  

As for the Japanese seller who recently left me feedback, I contacted them directly before purchase and asked if they could ship via Japan Post, they agreed and I was able to avoid the high courier fees.