Sold an Item to US Buyer. Ebay Won't Create Invoice, or allow Buyer to Check Out

[westcoastart2]

Problem with the Ebay Invoice System

I've been using Ebay full time for 18 years.     I've sold thousands of items for millions of dollars.  I know the Canadapost size, weight and destination limits (and all my listings are within the size/weight limits for the mail options offered)

Earlier today I sold item 282742038307 to a buyer in California, USA

Earlier today (prior to the sale obviously) I did the suggested Shipping Rate Calculator workaround by removing Canadapost Air Parcel as a mail option.

This left three international Canada Post mail options, set out in the following order.

Expedited mail USA

Tracked Packet International

Xpresspost International.

Earlier today all three were working.   Not now.

For any US address, the shipping calculator gives

"Shipping cost cannot be calculated. Please enter a valid postal code."

There is no shipping rate anywhere - that means not below the above message, not in the listing, not anywhere.

The buyer can not use the Cart to Check Out.    There is no shipping info there either.

The buyer wrote to me asking for an invoice.

I tried to give a manual invoice.    The manual invoice wanted to use Canada USA letter post with a zero mail fee (that option was not one of those in the listing, and this is not a free shipping item).    The invoice had no shipping rate.

I had to look up the shipping rate manually on the Canadapost web site, then create an invoice.    I had to select Expedited Mail USA, and enter the shipping cost I obtained manually from the Canadapost web site.   I was able to send that invoice to the Buyer - time will tell if he can pay it.

I took the oportunity to see how the shipping rate calculator worked for other International Countries.    I selected UK, for which I should have got two mail choices as per my listing (Tracked Packet International and Xpresspost).    Ebay omitted Xpresspost, and only gave the Tracked Packet International rate - earlier today it was doing the oposite.     The Tracked Packet quoted rate was exactly right.

The take away here is

1.  Removing the Air Parcel option, worked this morning, but doesn't work for this item now.

2.  The Add To Cart feature doesn't add the shipping rate as has been claimed elsewhere.

[momcqueen]

The problem with Invoicing (Send Invoice) is not precisely the same as the problem with the Calculated Shipping tool. I reported the 'zero-cost lettermail' phenomena to ebay Staff person Tyler at the Weekly Chat last month. It's message two of ten, last point, and his response is further down the thread. It happened to me once.

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Weekly-Chat-Session/January-24th-2018-Weekly-Session/m-p/392389

You may want to visit the next Weekly Chat and report your experience to him.

[momcqueen]

Also, as you know, removing Air Parcel from my listings (only Auctions were done) has worked for me, as has advising Add to Cart for Fixed Price. Without fail. 

If you're looking for assistance with troubleshooting, you'll be asked to provide screenshots of the errors that you're seeing and the specifics of fields of data embedded in your listings. I'm not planning to return to this thread, but other users coming to offer assistance would need more data with which to work. Unless your point with this topic is not to ask for help but state you have a problem. 

[ypdc_dennis]

For your www.ebay.ca/itm/282742038307

I see 2 rates for Canada and just Tracked Packet International for those countries that have it.

Congratulations on getting a buyer.

...

I did notice a different problem with: Seller charges sales tax in multiple provinces.

Tax rates for 3 provinces seem to be out of date.

HST for NB and NL was raised to 15% in 2016 from 13%

HST for PEI is 15% -- is your item exempt from the provincial portion?

-..-

[reallynicestamps]

For #282635105757 (Early Inuit Carving...)

I get Shipping cannot be Calculate AND a n ExpressPost price to the USA. and an Expresspost International price to the UK.

Do you usually have multiple shipping choices for your items?

Have you considered folding shipping into your asking prices and using Flat Rate/Free Shipping?

• As in Free to the USA and Canada, with an International Flat Rate discounted by the amount of shipping you added into your price.

[avionsunantiques]

What you see is what I said existed - thanks for confirming that.

Not sure why you are asking about sales tax. Of course my sales tax charge is correct. It is updated when ever provincial sales tax rates change.

FYI, items are only exempt from the provincial sales tax, when there is a separate provincial sales tax, and its in a province other than your own.

And yes, I get my sales tax information directly from the Revenue Canada by asking them to refer me to the specific relevant section of the Tax Code to be certain I am getting correct information.

[avionsunantiques]

This shows just how screwed up the Ebay shipping rate calculator is, in that it gives different results at different times.

This has a direct affect on the ability to pay the invoice, or have an invoice. Obviously if Ebay's software can't calculate shipping, then it can't make an invoice.

[avionsunantiques]

As for bringing this up at a weekly session, that seems to be how ebay responds to site issues.

Ebay should be reading this section on site issues to see what's going on.

From a quick look at ebay employee reports online, it seems that ebay responds to software bugs by scheduling a meeting to talk about creating a team to work on the problem.   Those team then schedule their own meetings to talk about the schedule for working on the problem.

The end result is ebay's software people have lots of meetings and agree to bring up site issues in future meetings - all instead of fixing the problem.

[ypdc_dennis]

---

@avionsunantiques@  avionsunantiques wrote:
... And yes, I get my sales tax information directly from the Revenue Canada by asking them to refer me to the specific relevant section of the Tax Code to be certain I am getting correct information.

---

So why did the listing have the 2013 rates showing?

...

from the Canada Revenue Agency website:

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/gst-tps/rts-eng.html#rt

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/gst-tps/rts-eng.html#rt

versus tax rates used in the listing:

-..-

[avionsunantiques]

Thanks for pointing this out - I'll change it back, and see if it sticks this time!

[avionsunantiques]

Its pretty messed up to see that table revert back. I've corrected it. Will be interesting to see if it stays corrected. Fortunately PEI, NL and NB don't seem to want buy from us.

Sales tax seems to be another thing Ebay is messing up. As I mentioned elsewhere, a few months ago, Ebay also messed up their sales tax charge on my ebay seller fees. Their invoice said they were charging 5% HST (which is the right charge), but the actual amount they took was about 8%!