incorrect info on customs form costing customer

[duncan-7843]

Why did eBay list my trading card as “metal” on the customs form and cost me an additional $50?

There is no metal in a hockey card. Literally zero reason or logic to list a non metal item as metal. Now it’s a huge problem to get reimbursed and will be months if ever.

[brettjet38]

What was the declared value of the Trading Card you purchased?

What was the shipping method?

EIS?

Well...

You can expect the $9.95 charge from Canada Post (which was expected to happen with this EIS service being used).

You can expect taxes to be charged and collected for any item $40.00 or over (they used to be collected by GSP until it was canceled by the masses who hated it, I wonder what they think of the replacement).

You can expect to pay Duties and Taxes charged for any item over $150.00 (Canada Customs are now mandated to collect the duties & taxes and not turn a blind eye, the GOV needs MONEY).

Fed Ex and UPS are notorious for their "Brokerage Fees" upon delivery (and have been for decades).

I have completely stopped buying from any Sellers using EIS-listed items, I do not even bother asking the Seller if they ship USPS.

I shop elsewhere, locally, or pass...

I posted last year about EIS when it was announced and said this would be an issue, Buyers not knowing or informing themselves about the IMPORT costs of shopping out of the country. 

Ignorance is bliss until the package and fees arrive at your door & you have to cough up...

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Items delivered to a Canadian address

Some items are subject to duties and/or GST when imported into Canada from the United States or from other countries.

Whether or not duty and tax is applicable is dependent on a variety of factors, including item type, value, and the country where it was manufactured or produced.

Sellers have no control over this, and as the rules are quite complex, will often not be able to tell you whether or not duty will apply to the item they are selling.

It is the buyer's responsibility to ensure the item can be legally imported into Canada, and, unless arrangements have been made to the contrary in advance, to pay any taxes and duties that might be assessed at the border.

The manner in which duties and taxes are collected varies:

• If your item is shipped by mail, you'll need to pay your letter carrier or the post office before your item will be released to you.

• If your item is shipped by courier, you'll need to pay the courier company directly, or you might be invoiced by a customs broker.

• If your item is shipped by truck, you will be invoiced by a customs broker, or by the trucking company directly.

• If your item arrives by courier or truck which has a working relationship with a customs broker, you will typically be invoiced after your item arrives. Otherwise, duties and taxes on your item will be treated as COD by the courier or trucking company.

• Accepted payment methods will vary.

• Depending on where you live, you may be required to pay sales taxes directly to the government.

For more information about importing goods into Canada, visit the Canada Border Services Agency Website which has extensive sections on importing and exporting.

https://www.ebay.ca/help/buying/paying-items/paying-tax-ebay-purchases?id=4771

The simple truth of the matter is that when you are shopping out of the country you become an Importer of goods, and therefore have to follow the rules of importation.

[duncan-7843]

None of that applies to my scenario. My issue was a duty being applied specifically due a mis-categorization of my item. Specifically by EBAY only. The seller filled out the proper information. Ebay international shipping decided a trading card was "metal"

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@duncan-7843 wrote:
Why did eBay list my trading card as “metal” on the customs form and cost me an additional $50?

There is no metal in a hockey card. Literally zero reason or logic to list a non metal item as metal. Now it’s a huge problem to get reimbursed and will be months if ever.

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@duncan-7843 

Is it possible the term "foil package" was in the description? That is the only reason I can see that happening. Most of everything ebay does is automated. They don't physically see the item and mistakes happen. You can try to submit for a refund with customs if this is for a purchase.

-Lotz

[duncan-7843]

You may be onto something here but it’s still a stretch to figure out what the system did. The words “gem” is in the item description.. so maybe eBay thinks gems are metal? What would confuse me even more if that was the case though is that the words “guns” and “auto” are also in the item description but eBay obviously didn’t think it was a firearm.

those words are only in the "title" of the item as well.. in the "about this item" section where it list the categories there is nothing that could be confused as metal.

 

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

AI tends to flag everything looking for content. Not always correctly. It's reported for something being pearl in colour vs a pearl. Same goes for anything ivory. All you can do is submit it to canada customs and hope for the best.

[mrdutch1001]

I do believe it is the seller's responsibility; not eBay, to fill in the correct customs information...

[duncan-7843]

Normally I would agree with you but in this case it appears the seller did fill out all the correct information. At least from what I can tell. So they put together a package with a description on it then I guess that package gets sent to EBay’s International Shipping (or something, exact wording is in one of my other comments here). And then it appears that EBay shipping put that correctly labels parcel into a new bag and slapped a customs form on it deciding it was now metal. The package inside this bag though has its own label with all the information saying it’s a trading card so I can’t really see what else the shipper could’ve done for their part in this.

[pjcdn2005]

@marnotom! 

When the EIS is used and customs fees are not prepaid and are due, I'm sure that there is a customs form on the package.  I do recall someone mentioning that they had to pay the $10 processing charge to Canada Post when they paid tax on an EIS package so I'm sure that there was a customs form on the package.

[pjcdn2005]

The customs form on your package should have info on how to appeal on the back of it.  It does look as if trading cards aren't subject to duty so you should be able to get the duty portion refunded but but you won't get the gst/hst portion back.

It is frustrating though that you do have to do that.

In case Customs Canada asks you for the correct  HS code it is 4911.91.00.30 for trading cards

[reallynicestamps]

Under CUSMA/nafta we had a duty free allowance of $150Cdn. And a tax-free allowance of $40.

Then Canada Post charges a service fee of $9.95*

What was the value of the card that it attracted $50 in import fees?

* Under the older, now defunct Global Shipping Program all "import fees " were charged before the seller was told to ship.

With the newer eIS, and the short-lived eISStandard, those import fees are now charged by the final shipper on the buyer's  doorstep.

And private couriers like UPS have "customs brokerage fees" that start around $25.

[savagemadman]

Odd how I keep reading remarks like that yet Canada Post just charged me $6.44 duty (plus $23 other) on delivery of a Canadian made plastic car trim part delivered from the US.

[marnotom!]

This is interesting.  Why do you think it was eBay who declared the item as "metal"?  Was this card shipped through the Authentication Program?  What shipping company was used?  What was the declared value of the card?  

To be honest, I'm thinking it was more likely the item's value that triggered that charge than the "metal" description.  What's the $50 charge for, exactly?

[duncan-7843]

So it was shipped via the “eBay Global shipping center” according to the seller. On the customs form the exporters name is listed as “EBay Inc” and not the sellers name or username so that’s why I think it was eBay. The cost is triggered by the item being listed as “metal” which automatically has a duty associated with importing metal items. Of course my item is a hockey card which is paper and cased in plastic so there is zero metal and no duty should’ve been applied, just the taxes I hadn’t yet paid (PST and GST in Canada)

edit: to be clear it is the duty charge specific to a metal item I have a problem with.. this duty is specifically listed on the form as a 7.01% duty for metal. It is not triggered by the item being an amount but by being metal. There are also taxes listed separately which I was expecting. I have imported more expensive hockey cards than this one recently so it's definitely not a cost being triggered by the total dollar amount. 

[marnotom!]

Thanks for the additional information, @duncan-7843. While I've purchased items that were handled by the now somewhat-defunct Global Shipping Program and one item through the new eBay International Shipping service, I've never had one that had a customs form on it. Can you go back to the listing and check to see what service was used here? I'm thinking it's possible that it was yet another program that eBay's trying to wind down called eBay International Standard.  Was the shipping handled by Canada Post within Canada?

If it was one of these eBay services that ended up producing the customs documentation, I'm suspecting that the process is pretty automated and based on the information the seller included on the listing page.  Is there anything in the title, description, or "Item Specifics" section of the listing that could have led to the term "metal" being used on the customs form?  Was the hockey card a Skybox Metal Universe one, perhaps?

[femmefan1946]

How infuriating.

If you don't contact CBSA for the refund, you will never get one at all.

The contact information should be on the parcel.

However, this would be a good time to send the Seller a Message noting that a mistake has crept into his listings.

Tell him how it cost you money, and that he is leaving himself open to Not As Described claims if other errors are still in his listings.

If he doesn't react at least politely, a neutral FB would be the least you can do.

[pjcdn2005]

The op stated that the GSP was used but. I’m sure that it was the EIS. Either way, the seller would not have been the one to fill out the customs form.