Seller refused delivery and asking to resend to different address

[kulecollectibles]

I'm located in canada I sold an item to a buyer in brasil.  Once it had reached Brasil, the buyer had refused the delivery.

Now he is asking me to resend it to him, but to an address in the US.  He's also asking me to declare the item with a $10 value (The sale was $850).  

In addition, he's asked me several times to contact him on Instagram (which I did not).

It sounds very fishy to me.  Is this likely a scam of some sort?

[brettjet38]

Make sure all contact is on eBay

What does the tracking show for the package when you look at it? Does it say refused?

If he has refused the shipment, you are protected, and he loses any claim rights.

Read the details in the Seller Protections and eBay policies.

I will post links here later today.

Make no arrangements other than say the item has not been returned as of yet & I doubt it will be returned.

Do not agree to make any false declarations; remind him it is illegal to ask a Seller to falsify documents and values.

And yes, this sounds very fishy, very....

[marnotom!]

Brazil hits personal imports with some pretty extreme import charges. I would imagine that your buyer would be looking at almost $200 in charges for an $850 item.

Your buyer likely refused the item because they didn’t want to pay those charges and wants the item sent to a different location with a lower declared value to hide their tracks from anybody who knows that they buy stuff from out of the country.

Shipping items with declared values that are less than the transaction value won’t get you into trouble with Brazilian authorities but it may cause problems if you need to make an insurance claim. Also, shipping items to addresses other than the one provided at Checkout will invalidate what fraud protections eBay provides.

For a $50 sale, I wouldn’t be too concerned. An $850 would be a different kettle of fish. Did you ship the item with signature confirmation purchased?

[marnotom!]

Sudden thought:  Has the buyer already provided you with the US address they want to use?  I'm wondering if a forwarding service may be located there.

[brettjet38]

Once it had reached Brasil, the buyer had refused the delivery.

The BUYER has lost all claims against the item.

The first thing is to wait for the item to return and prevent any false claims.

The OP needs to protect themselves from an iffy transaction to an iffy country, from an iffy Buyer who refused the package. A package may NOT get returned to the Seller.

My concern is with the Seller; the Buyer is the issue and may try to scam the Seller. This is an expensive item.

[femmefan1946]

You don't owe him a penny.

Even if Canada still had pennies.

https://www.ebay.ca/help/policies/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy?....

A Refused item is considered Undeliverable and eBay does not require refunds for Undeliverable items.

Now most sellers will refund, on return receipt, the selling price of the item, less any applicable fees, but not shipping costs.

NO is a perfectly good answer.

[mrdutch1001]

This whole scenario has red flags all  around it...As others have already indicated, you have every right to be concerned...this situation is on the buyer and you owe that buyer nothing, other than perhaps taking pleasure in adding that buyer's name to a blocked buyer list.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

A few things to consider. 

1. If they refused the package, they no longer are eligible for buyer protection. This means that eBay won't refund them if they claim the item was never delivered. While you might have different civil liabilities to consider, eBay is no longer going to support the buyer. 
2. You should verify with eBay directly that the buyer protection is no longer active. Use the AskeBay Twitter or Facebook account. If you don't have Twitter, you can create a dummy account to message them.
3. You ALWAYS need to send to the exact address on the invoice. If you do not do that, you are not covered by ebay. This means that if you send it to a different address, the buyer can open an item not received cause, get a refund, and keep the item - even with tracking. With that said, if the buyer protection has been voided, you can technically send to a different address since eBay is no longer covering the buyer.
4. In all likelihood, the buyer was hit with an import fee and rejected the package because of this. You are not responsible for import fees. This would not have been a valid reason to refuse the package.
5. Don't falsify customs information. That is illegal.

How I would resolve this would be that I would verify with eBay that the buyer protection is void. I would then offer the buyer a refund minus your unrecoverable costs (original shipping, return shipping) and a reasonable restocking fee to compensate you for the time the buyer wasted by refusing the package. (This wasn't a postal error, the buyer refused it.)

I would be apprehensive to engage any further with this buyer, more so because they seem like a handful. I don't think they are scamming you, because a scammer would have known that refusing it voids their protection - but I think they are ignorant to refuse the package and think that re-shipping it with falsified customs papers is a reasonable request. The only possible solution that would meet the needs of the buyer would be if they had someone domestically in Canada that could accept the package for them. If you re-ship it to the USA or another country, I would declare it properly - I would also request that they buyer pay you for your unrecoverable costs related to the original shipment, and for another label. They almost certainly won't want to do this.

It is ironic because whatever the import fee might have been, losing out on your unrecoverable costs, along with paying for another label will likely cost more than just accepting the package would have. This person is living in a dream world where you're supposed to lose out on what I assume is 100+ in shipping costs and also commit a crime so that they can avoid paying an import fee.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

If it was a scam, they would have asked them to ship to a different address originally. That way, the OP would not have seller protection.

Is there potential for OP to get scammed if they engage with this person? Yes. But my guess would be that it is more ignorance than maliciousness. They ordered something, were hit with a big import fee, and now want OP to jump through hoops, spend money, and break the law to ensure they aren't hit with the fee again. 

In OPs shoes, I would likely just refund minus all the unrecoverable costs, and block both the buyer and country. OP shouldn't have to lose $100 in shipping or whatever it cost because the buyer refused the package. If they very badly need the money and think the item won't sell ever again, they can try to work with the buyer. Working with the buyer is always the best way to resolve things, but a buyer who refuses a package and then requests that you falsify customs documents isn't someone who is going to be reasonable to work with. There is no good ending to this.

[marnotom!]

I agree with @ilikehockeyjerseys belief that the buyer is unlikely wanting to scam the seller, although the request to communicate through Instagram messages is a bit weird.  The buyer probably doesn't want some sort of record on eBay of them wanting to avoid taxes and duties on the item.

For what it's worth, from https://zonos.com/docs/guides/country-guides/brazil :

Brazil’s import duty rate usually varies between 10-35% for commercial imports, whereas postal imports have a duty rate of 60%. The value for duty on goods imported into Brazil is calculated using the CIF value of the import.

My estimate of $200 for the duty charge was probably on the low side, particularly if insurance and shipping charges are factored into this charge as well.

[mrdutch1001]

I never indicated that it was a scam, I said "red flags", and that the seller had "every right to be concerned"

These are all things sellers should never do after  "the buyer had refused the delivery." >>>>

1."asking me to resend it to him, but to an address in the US."

2."asking me to declare the item with a $10 value"

3."he's asked me several times to contact him on Instagram"

[recped]

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@marnotom! wrote:
Brazil hits personal imports with some pretty extreme import charges. I would imagine that your buyer would be looking at almost $200 in charges for an $850 item.

Your buyer likely refused the item because they didn’t want to pay those charges and wants the item sent to a different location with a lower declared value to hide their tracks from anybody who knows that they buy stuff from out of the country.

Shipping items with declared values that are less than the transaction value won’t get you into trouble with Brazilian authorities but it may cause problems if you need to make an insurance claim. Also, shipping items to addresses other than the one provided at Checkout will invalidate what fraud protections eBay provides.

For a $50 sale, I wouldn’t be too concerned. An $850 would be a different kettle of fish. Did you ship the item with signature confirmation purchased?

---

On a declared value of $850 the import tax would be in the range of 60%, below US$50 the rate is just a "paltry" 40%. In some situations the rate can be up to 90%.

The rules are somewhat complicated....

https://equalocean.com/news/2024110821181

[recped]

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@kulecollectibles wrote:

I'm located in canada I sold an item to a buyer in brasil.  Once it had reached Brasil, the buyer had refused the delivery.

Now he is asking me to resend it to him, but to an address in the US.  He's also asking me to declare the item with a $10 value (The sale was $850).  

In addition, he's asked me several times to contact him on Instagram (which I did not).

It sounds very fishy to me.  Is this likely a scam of some sort?

---

It is a "scam" but not a scam against you but rather a scam against the Brazilian government by the importer.

Even before these rules shipping to Brazil was dodgy, after these policies were instituted Brazil became the first and only country I had ever blocked (used to do some good business with Brazil 20+ years ago).

Subsequently (during Covid) I blocked all of South America, for some countries it was because of the extreme import duties and for others it was the unreliability of successful deliveries.

I still have some good customers in Chile but they all use US based forwarders.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

We are both pretty much in agreement. I am not looking to start an argument here. Only looking to provide helpful info for the OP. 

All the best.

[john_koenig99]

It's pretty clear. Buyer refused delivery, so the ball is in his court. He is at the losing end. 

Like others have said, keep all the contact through eBay. No IG, no FB.