eBay International shipping won't send my item because they said it can't be exported

[scoobadivr]

I recently purchased a vintage (1980s) computer disk drive from a seller in the US.  It was handled by eBay's international shipping program and went to an address in Illinois.

Today I received notification that I received a refund because the item cannot be exported.

I have made similar purchases through the old GSP and never had an issue, so I do not see how a piece of vintage computer hardware can be restricted.  How can I have this appealed?

Customer service told me that the seller will receive an email with options, however he hasn't, so I need to know how to have this escalated to someone who can intervene and correct this.

Any ideas?

[marnotom!]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

In the EIS information that came out when the progran was first announced, they did say that an item that could not be exported may be sent back to the seller or would be liquidated and sold by a proxy for the EIS.  I don't remember the post that you are referring to @marnotom!  but it does seem that all or most of these situations have resulted in the item being kept by EIS, just like they did for the GSP.   That's got be frustrating for both buyers and sellers.

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And of course I can't find the post now, either, so I'm thinking I may have misread or misinterpreted something.

[chriluh0]

Hi:

I found this on reditt

"Hi Everyone,

I'm rather confused, you see, I am reminded from time to time that there are computers, and network equipment, which are for sale online but include an import charge into Canada. From what I've gathered from this: https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/travel-voyage/dte-acl/est-cal-eng.html there is no duty on Computers from the US to Canada.

And yet, many switches, servers, and even little 1L workstations seem to have them.

This was the post. I looked up import fees on the customs Canada website and found the same information that computers were exempt from import fees from the USA. They can be exported to Canada. Will look for the post and copy & paste below.

"I called Canadian customs: 1-800-461-9999 about 4 different times asking them the same question:
'I am going to bring over a laptop that I purchased from US, it is made in China. Will there be any duty?'
And their response was the same everytime, 'NO DUTY ON LAPTOPS that you have purchased in the US and are bringing over to Canada REGARDLESS of origin. You only pay HST.'"

This is from a reditt forum found when I searched for CUSTOMS FEES ON COMPUTERS IMPORTED TO CANADA FROM THE USA. Sorry I can't copy the link. I am using my iPad and have to leave this site to switch to another every time I copy & paste.

[marnotom!]

@chriluh0, did you mean to post on this thread?

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Community-eBay-Site-Issues/they-wouldn-t-be-able-to-Import-Duty-Fees-on...

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@marnotom! wrote:

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@brettjet38 wrote:

Ahhh!, the darn...

...gets them everytime. And its all in those Terms and Agreements we all just click "Accept"

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One thing I find interesting (if you want to call it that) about EIS is that, unlike the GSP, sellers are bound by a set of terms and conditions as well as buyers.  The GSP had a few warm and fuzzy FAQ-type pages for sellers, but I think the only thing they actually had to agree to was the use of the program, and even then we've seen cases where bewildered sellers have found themselves enrolled.

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@marnotom! 

@brettjet38 

Currently running gem from the dot com discussion board. There are a few others not so happy with the new program and discovered glitches.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping/How-to-get-GSP-back-to-replace-Ebay-International-Shipping/m-...

-Lotz

[marnotom!]

My guess is that the problem that most of them are describing is difficulties the site is having getting former GSP-users fully migrated to EIS.

[mc-bain]

Im having the same problems, I was buying cellphone on ebay since 7 years ago and since 2-3 months almost all of them are not exportable, just normal iphone and samsung. And no ones have answers, even one seller was blaming me...I cannot believe ebay cannot gives an answer, I see smarts watches are not exportable from ebay but cellphones are no on this list.

[marnotom!]

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@mc-bain wrote:

Im having the same problems, I was buying cellphone on ebay since 7 years ago and since 2-3 months almost all of them are not exportable, just normal iphone and samsung. 

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My guess is that the issue is the batteries, which are considered “dangerous goods.” eIS forwards to twice as many countries as the GSP and some of them may not be able to accept shipments of cellphone batteries.

Employees may be making a judgement call here rather than investigating each country on its own, or the forwarding company may have quietly issued a blanket prohibition to make things simpler for them.

I hope this gets sorted out as I suspect mobile phone sales make up a significant portion of international sales on eBay.

[fergua3]

For the first time in i don't know how many months, there are actually purchases i was considering making on Ebay, from the US.  Three of them.  But after reading this thread all are on hold now.  No way am i going to put up with ebay's muck.   Another laughable rollout.  

I don't blame the other buyers on this thread for being upset.  I would be too.  Ebay eliminates a working system and replaces it with something that has loads of glitches and nobody even seems to know how it works.   Sound familiar?

And just because Ebay's fine print says it's ok for them to confiscate whatever they want, doesn't mean EIS is an ok shipping program, or eventhat  it's a reasonable thing to do.  FIne print doesn't equate to clear thinking.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@marnotom! wrote:

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@mc-bain wrote:

Im having the same problems, I was buying cellphone on ebay since 7 years ago and since 2-3 months almost all of them are not exportable, just normal iphone and samsung. 

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My guess is that the issue is the batteries, which are considered “dangerous goods.” eIS forwards to twice as many countries as the GSP and some of them may not be able to accept shipments of cellphone batteries.

Employees may be making a judgement call here rather than investigating each country on its own, or the forwarding company may have quietly issued a blanket prohibition to make things simpler for them.

I hope this gets sorted out as I suspect mobile phone sales make up a significant portion of international sales on eBay.

---

Besides any issuesthat may include lithium batteries there also seems to be an issue with anything oversized. I was researching something I was interested in purchasing. Package size should be approx 32" in length. On the majority (90%) of the listings I checked most did not have shipping to Canada. The ones that did had crazy shipping costs. I had to open listing by listing to confirm.  From a Canadian perspective there really needs to be some sort of a filter for Canadian buyers so they can easily determine reasonable shipping costs and the the actual method in play for shipping.

-Lotz

[fergua3]

well, there is Lotz, sorta.  Just use 'price plus shipping lowest first' and look for the items that are within your price range...anything with stupid high shipping will be at the bottom of the search and you won't even look at them.    If you don't get the results you like on ebay.ca then also search on ebay.com the same way.  I find there are slightly different results sometimes.

As far as the shipping method,  you'll have to open the listings to determine that but at least you should only have to open one or two (presumably the cheapest ones).  

[danzimskind]

Same thing just happened to me with a golf shaft and no explanation given.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@danzimskind wrote:

Same thing just happened to me with a golf shaft and no explanation given.

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@danzimskind 

Most likely your golf shaft was stopped due to package length. There are surcharges for anything super long or heavy. Had this happen to me in the past trying to order a roll up map with GSP. Same surcharge.

-Lotz

[fergua3]

so, is ebay eating the cost of all these nonshipped/confiscated items?  The buyer is getting a refund and the seller is not being dinged, so they must be.    At what point will it start hurting enough that they improve this new system of theirs?

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@fergua3 wrote:

so, is ebay eating the cost of all these nonshipped/confiscated items?  The buyer is getting a refund and the seller is not being dinged, so they must be.    At what point will it start hurting enough that they improve this new system of theirs?

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@fergua3 

This is a tidbit from the eBay announcement on EIS. See highlighted part. Does seem a bit unfair for Canadian sellers who don't have that option.

-Lotz

[reallynicestamps]

And their response was the same everytime, 'NO DUTY ON LAPTOPS that you have purchased in the US and are bringing over to Canada REGARDLESS of origin. You only pay HST.'"

I suspect many importers/buyers don't make a difference between duty and sales taxes.

With the GSP these were lumped together as "import fees". How do the two EIS programmes describe such fees?

This is a different question than that asked by the OP, for which I apologize.

[reallynicestamps]

@lotzofuniquegoodies 

There is the DIY method:

https://postcalc.usps.com/?country=10440

😉

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

@lotzofuniquegoodies 

There is the DIY method:

https://postcalc.usps.com/?country=10440

😉

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@reallynicestamps 

If you process parcels at CP there is a checkbox for shipping tubes. eBay Labels and Shippo never added in that feature after numerous requests to do so. If you ship with those services you would get billed the extra charge after the fact. 

-Lotz

Would be interesting to find out exactly what rates are based on for anyone that still did use USPS to ship to Canada vs any of those programs. Do US sellers have access to volume discounts? Is their calculator based on counter rates???

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@fergua3 wrote:

so, is ebay eating the cost of all these nonshipped/confiscated items?  The buyer is getting a refund and the seller is not being dinged, so they must be.    At what point will it start hurting enough that they improve this new system of theirs?

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@fergua3 

I believe if the program catches something that isn't supposed to be shipped before it is shipped then the seller refunds to the buyer. (As per the program fine print.) If it reaches the sort centre then it is whole different can of worms. Same question for if something reaches the buyer and it's INAD. Does it go back to a sort center or is it just refunded willy nilly?

-Lotz

[marnotom!]

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@fergua3 wrote:

so, is ebay eating the cost of all these nonshipped/confiscated items?  The buyer is getting a refund and the seller is not being dinged, so they must be.    At what point will it start hurting enough that they improve this new system of theirs?

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The GSP did the same thing as well, and it appears that eIS is dealing with it the same way so far.  In the terms and conditions for sellers it states that by using the service, sellers allow its operators to dispose of or liquidate any merchandise that the service is unable to forward.  Additionally, some of the mark-up on the shipping probably goes towards a contingency fund of sorts.  Teething pains are typical for new ventures such as this.  I suspect that a few things were learned from the GSP and appropriate plans were made, and improvements will be made as time marches on.

[marnotom!]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

I suspect many importers/buyers don't make a difference between duty and sales taxes.

With the GSP these were lumped together as "import fees". How do the two EIS programmes describe such fees?

This is a different question than that asked by the OP, for which I apologize.

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We are getting off-topic, but it's a good question to pose.  Last week, I found a listing for an item shipped through eIS that had a field for an estimate for "duty" in the area near the top of the listing page where the shipping information is also stated.  I can't remember what the item was, but I'm pretty sure it was not subject to duty.  I wondered if it was taxes and the descriptor was merely wrong, but I couldn't make it work mathematically and the amount didn't change when I changed my shipping location.

I'm guessing that field was intended for shipments bound for countries that have eBay calculate and charge taxes at checkout but where a charge for duty would have been incurred.  For some reason it showed up on a potential shipment to Canada as well.  The somewhat cryptic thread I linked to earlier in this thread about unwarranted duty charges on eBay purchases is starting to make a bit more sense to me now.