Ebay DOT com is putting a warning on Canadian listings

[rdemaree]

So apparently ebay .c om is putting a warning on Canadian listings saying tariffs will be due for packages going into the USA pon delivery.

There are many things wrong with this.

1. This completely sidesteps CUSMA compliant listings (which I have been approved to sell via a customs broker). This warning basically assumes everyone is selling things made in China via UPS or Fedex. Its lazy and will hurt Canadian sellers.

2. This isn't how it works for postal shipments. For postal network shipments the tariffs must be paid up front and for CUSMA there are no tariffs.

Are we just toast until October when they get the international seller program up or until Canada Post re-enables shipping to the USA and ebay lets you get Canadian labels again?

I just think Ebay's approach is a broad brush and lazy approach.

I have jumped throgh hoops and went through hours of classifying my items and being approved by a broker for CUSMA rates and then I see this warning about tariffs on all of my listings. 

This will no doubt siphon hundreds of dollars or even 1K+ out of my pocket until they get their act together. 

[mrdutch1001]

As an infrequent/casual seller for the past many years, I have never experienced what you are relating to ...for several years, I had been alternating listings between .COM and .CA...Sales on.CA were just as good or better than when I listed on.COM...

"There are more ways to skin a cat",  as they say...Canadian eBay sellers can open up business on other selling sites>there is no need to rely solely on eBay. 

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@byto253 wrote:

How do you flag a post for a review by ebay?  Is it @ Devon ?

I can understand highliting potential charges to buyers, but that banner is incorrect as it statese

"Due to US policies, import fees for this item will need to be paid to customs or the shipping carrier on delivery." 

The bold is mine, as that is false part as the policy for shipments is for to be prepaid for mail.  That statement should not read "will need to be paid" . At best it should be "may".

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devon@ebay 

[cottagewoman]

devon@ebay
Transcript of a chat via messenger regarding the warnings being shown to US buyers:

Me:

Hello - I am setting up shipping policies to deal with the new US reality. I have a valid policy setup on my .ca listings, but the banner is displayed telling customers they will have to pay duties when their package arrives when viewed on .com with a US address. This is impossible since duties must be prepaid. Can you let me know why this is happening? It will most certainly drive away customers, I'm adding in the duty to my item price so I can prepay it when purchasing my shipping.

The information page shows USPS will collect duties on arrival. This is 100% incorrect for shipments sent from Canada by Canada Post.

eBay rep:

I understand how important it is to set clear expectations for your buyers. While some carriers do offer the option to prepay duties and taxes at the time of shipment, this isn’t available in all cases. Because of this, buyers may still be responsible for duties or import fees when their package arrives, depending on the carrier and the shipping method used.

That’s why the banner appears, to make sure buyers are aware they could be charged. We understand this may seem confusing since you’re including duties in your item price, but the system has to account for situations where duties are not prepaid.

You’re doing the right thing by adjusting your pricing to help cover these costs, and you can also consider clearly noting in your listing description that you prepay duties when possible. This helps reassure buyers and may reduce concerns.

I do hope this helps to answer your inquiry, and we do appreciate you taking the time to contact into eBay. --Rachael

Me:

I feel that a solution should be put in place that if in the shipping options Canada Post is used (as I am) then the warning information should not be displayed. If UPS, FedEx, etc are chosen in the shipping options then it could be displayed. Or give us an option in our shipping settings to note DDP (delivery duty paid) with a check box.

[cottagewoman]

It's actually worse than they are stating - my listing shows in the banner the buyer WILL have to pay duties on arrival, and if you click on the link here, you'll see the buyer is told in a nice big graphic they'll have to pay the duties to the carrier.

[sapphyres-designer-jewellery]

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@cottagewoman wrote:

devon@ebay
Transcript of a chat via messenger regarding the warnings being shown to US buyers:

Me:

Hello - I am setting up shipping policies to deal with the new US reality. I have a valid policy setup on my .ca listings, but the banner is displayed telling customers they will have to pay duties when their package arrives when viewed on .com with a US address. This is impossible since duties must be prepaid. Can you let me know why this is happening? It will most certainly drive away customers, I'm adding in the duty to my item price so I can prepay it when purchasing my shipping.

The information page shows USPS will collect duties on arrival. This is 100% incorrect for shipments sent from Canada by Canada Post.

eBay rep:

I understand how important it is to set clear expectations for your buyers. While some carriers do offer the option to prepay duties and taxes at the time of shipment, this isn’t available in all cases. Because of this, buyers may still be responsible for duties or import fees when their package arrives, depending on the carrier and the shipping method used.

That’s why the banner appears, to make sure buyers are aware they could be charged. We understand this may seem confusing since you’re including duties in your item price, but the system has to account for situations where duties are not prepaid.

You’re doing the right thing by adjusting your pricing to help cover these costs, and you can also consider clearly noting in your listing description that you prepay duties when possible. This helps reassure buyers and may reduce concerns.

I do hope this helps to answer your inquiry, and we do appreciate you taking the time to contact into eBay. --Rachael

Me:

I feel that a solution should be put in place that if in the shipping options Canada Post is used (as I am) then the warning information should not be displayed. If UPS, FedEx, etc are chosen in the shipping options then it could be displayed. Or give us an option in our shipping settings to note DDP (delivery duty paid) with a check box.

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You were talking to an AI Bot.

There was no human at the other end of your chat.

C.

[movie_galaxy]

There should be an exemption, aka De Minimis, as before. Maybe not $800 USD as it was, but I would think an exemption of say............ $200 USD would be acceptable to many. That way, small business sellers wouldn't be punished and tariffs would more often apply to larger, more established businesses that could handle customs more affordably because they are moving larger quantities of goods into the country.

With the De Minimis amount gone, any US buyer who places an international order - even for items that are low dollar amounts and not produced by anyone in America - will have to deal with customs charges. And since there isn't any factory producing those low cost items inside America, there is no option for the buyer to buy Made In America even if they wanted to.

Moreover, it's unlikely that tariffs would make most overseas factories move to the USA because it costs multiple millions to move production from one country to the other and American trade policy is likely to be adjusted as time passes. Very few businesses are going to want to move production to the USA if those tariffs are going to change after they move - it would make the move a huge financial loss. 

[cottagewoman]

Ah ok. That explains the quick answers and then the hours of nothing before someone else with skin responds.

[movie_galaxy]

Another issue is that some couriers want me to upload item particulars - in spreadsheet form - for each product I sell on Ebay. That would mean that every new movie title or every new tool I decide to sell on Ebay would need a separate approval from my courier, so as to make the customs process more stream-lined.

If I only sell wallets or belts, it won't be a problem as they are classified as all the same pretty much. But for anyone that sells 1 of 1 items, they will have alot of work to do just to make each individual sale. And used items will be even harder to sell because manufacturer data will be harder to discover or prove to a courier company who wants all the cross-border data filled out before hand.

[easoss]

I don't think it has as much to do with factories moving but you as a seller becoming an American aka the 51st state argument he uses. Basically it's a form of siege tactics, starve a country economically until they submit to the wishes of the USA. 

[cottagewoman]

I flat out stated in the chat via Messenger with eBay for Biz that they are lying to our potential customers. Got another , what I imagined, polite AI bot response.

[sapphyres-designer-jewellery]

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@cottagewoman wrote:
Ah ok. That explains the quick answers and then the hours of nothing before someone else with skin responds.

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AI has a behaviour of flowery prose when it replies to a customer's concern... AI coaches us on how to talk to customers on the phone when they call in (and our chat bot responds the same way).

AI replies on FB as well, but I haven't contacted eBay on FB since they took away the business page.

You would almost do better calling (as bad an idea as that is), they have scripted responses but sometimes I can get them to listen and have a real conversation.

C.

[sapphyres-designer-jewellery]

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@movie_galaxy wrote:

Another issue is that some couriers want me to upload item particulars - in spreadsheet form - for each product I sell on Ebay. That would mean that every new movie title or every new tool I decide to sell on Ebay would need a separate approval from my courier, so as to make the customs process more stream-lined.

If I only sell wallets or belts, it won't be a problem as they are classified as all the same pretty much. But for anyone that sells 1 of 1 items, they will have alot of work to do just to make each individual sale. And used items will be even harder to sell because manufacturer data will be harder to discover or prove to a courier company who wants all the cross-border data filled out before hand.

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If you use Stallion, you can just create one SKU for DVDs and put the description and price be overriden (where you can put in what sells and for what price when you ship). I sell coins, and there are a lot of 1 of 1 items in my inventory. I created one SKU for all coins issued by the Royal Canadian Mint, they all have the same HTS code and COO, so I just update the title of the coin when I go to ship.

C.

[movie_galaxy]

If that works, that would help me alot. Thank you.

Now if we can get Ebay to remove the warning to US customers that they must pay tariffs on all international orders, we might all be on the road to recovery.

Or we could just wait for U.S. judges to finally strike down the tariffs as unconstitutional - I suspect that will happen in the next 60 days. There is no way the President has the authority to tariff every item that enters the country for the entirety of his term.

[movie_galaxy]

I sent an item to the USA via UPS that crossed the border after the Aug 29th deadline. No customs processing fees were charged by UPS because the selling price was under $20 USD and the origin country is the USA. Here is the tracking.

 

[byto253]

devon@ebay   US listings for items being shipped from Canada currently have this warning up as a top of the page banner:

""Due to US policies, import fees for this item will need to be paid to customs or the shipping carrier on delivery."  As shown in the picture below and circled in red. 

While understanding the heads up to buyers for potential fees, this warning is incorrect as it flat out states to potential buyers that they "will need to pay import fees for this item will need to be paid" .   That is wrong, as the US policy is for fees to be prepaid (PPD) up front by the seller.  In the majority of cases the buyer will not incur any extra fees.

As well, many items being sold from Canada are Made in the USA with no tariff or customs duty owed.

Canadian sellers are already getting hit hard with the change in policy and this incorrect warning is killing sales due to false information.    

Ebay needs to look at this and at a minimum change the wording from "will need to pay" to "may need to pay".  Given the impact of the banner, having it dropped completed would be the best route.  Previously a warning about potential charges was with the shipping information. 

Appreciate your attention to this matter, as it is having a severe negative impact on Ebay sellers.

 

[rdemaree]

I wish eBay would listen to sellers on this matter. They will lose money too because of it.

I have went through the trouble of getting all of my handmade stuff CUSMA registered with a broker and the non CUSMA stuff I’ve just increased the shipping price whixh even if I didn’t I’d still have to pay the tariff regardless when buying a shipping label because that’s US policy right now.

There is almost literally no way for anything to enter into the USA without DDP and thus most customers pay nothing extra.

They need to figure fhis out before the Supreme Court rules and even before the EIS program rolls out because if they don’t September will be a graveyard of small businesses.

[maximus7001]

Most Canadian buyers do not know about the dot ca ebay and just use dot com. The pre installed bloatware link in new computers landed on dot com for decades for Canadians.

[packagedealvintage]

I wish I could believe that Canada and International sales could make up the 75-80% of my sales that used to go to the US, but that's never going to happen. I'm cooked. I haven't shut down operations as of yet - I'll hold out to see what happens with EIS in October. But I haven't been putting much time into my business because right now it feels like working for free and if I'm going to go unpaid then I'd rather be hiking in the mountains. 

[**klondikemike**]

mmm ... not seeing this warning on my listing. I'm frustrated as much as everyone else. I started an e-commerce site on Shopify years ago so relying on e-bay for sales is minimal.

[dinomitesales]

It's possible you have your location set to a Canadian destination. The message will only show if you change your location on eBay.COM search results to "United States" (which, everyone in the USA will already have by default).

I don't get the message if my location is set to Canada with my postal code. But this is what your listing looks like if I change my location to USA.