ebay International Shipping Ripoff

[edw605917]

ebay international shipping overcharges for international shipping and does not provide service to incorporate duty. I have to pay DHL a $12.50 fee to collect $4 in duties. Ebay needs to negotiate this egregious fee down. It kills the value. Ebay is already collecting heavy shipping fees and consolidating shipments to pocket profit. If DHL is getting ebay shipping volumes, they need to cap their admin fee.

[marnotom!]

Trust me, you’re getting off lightly with a DHL customs brokerage fee of $12.50. Have a breeze through this thread from 19 years ago, well before the eBay International Shipping system existed, and many US sellers were shipping their wares to Canada by UPS Ground:

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Buyer-Central/50-UPS-Brokerage-fee/m-p/60899

By the way, I suspect that four dollars was taxes, not duties. Unlike many western countries, Canada has yet to adopt a system where sites like eBay apply taxes at Checkout for international sales the same way they do for domestic sales.

[mrdutch1001]

"Ebay needs to negotiate this egregious fee down."

Good luck with that! eBay isn't going to negotiate anything with DHL!

[silverpinups]

"Trust me, you’re getting off lightly with a DHL customs brokerage fee of $12.50".

You are not wrong.... eIS used to use Canada Post for final delivery and it was very frustrating when it came to Canadian customs charging customs fees for the items I would purchase.

The US seller would use the title of the item in their eBay ad as the decription of goods on their package when they shipped it to the eIS hub. The eIS hub would transfer the description of goods on the customs declaration. You would think dealing with processing goods for a living, one would gain some kind of general knowledge when processing decriptions of goods (or are they using AI?).   

I've had CGC graded comic books described by customs as sporting goods and clothing to name a few. Of course with clothing or sporting goods there are substancial increase in $$ in regards to duties and taxes. Comic books have no duties charged, only GST (I live in Manitoba).

I know I can send in the customs form for reimbursement on wrongly assessed goods but it is a hassle. I would rather pay once and be done with it.    

So I am happy to pay DHL the customs fees (as they are accurate) when they request it.   

[silverpinups]

"I have to pay DHL a $12.50 fee to collect $4 in duties".

Canada customs charges 9.95 handling fee. There is a slight increase in handling fees (2.55) but DHL will accurately assess your goods for customs fees. I have no faith in Canadian customs assessing goods properly.   

[Anonymous]

Right.

Back in those days, I could clear items through Customs myself, at no charge. All I had to do was go to their depot, show them some ID, then leave with my package. This happened a lot when I was trading all over the world, and I got sick of the UPS et al trying to charge me big bucks to clear items.

Not sure how it works now.