International shipping questions, discussions, fees, cost (eBay and non-eBay)

[justafrog]

Dallas, I'm not picking on you specifically because so many new sellers do this, but the time to figure out how you're going to ship something, domestically or internationally, is BEFORE you offer it up for sale in a given market.

 

That scolding out of the way...

 

You can send it first class package for the rate quoted and with some countries that will include a tracking number (E-Del Con) that will sometimes actually be tracked and shown as delivered, either on the USPS.com site or the individual country's postal site. It is, however, hit or miss for most countries and I wouldn't rely on it.

 

There are a number of label-printing services (endicia.com, stamps.com, etc.) that offer third party insurance if you wish to purchase it, and it will be much, much cheaper (and generally easier to file a claim for) than USPS.

 

For this one, if it's not much money, I'd send it first class package and hope for the best. Then I would change my bricklink settings to US shipping only UNTIL you have educated yourself on all the ins and outs of international shipping.

 

Good luck! :-)

 

(Edited for my usual hilarious typos.)

[Dallas20]

I usually got stuff from US at 6.55$ for figures etc.... had no problem in my hmmm 20 orders from the States. to Europe so far.

Thanks...I thought the $6.55 may be fine. I guess the ridiculous $22.45 extra just to have it insured was what took me my surprise.

[Dallas20]

Dallas, I'm not picking on you specifically because so many new sellers do this, but the time to figure out how you're going to ship something, domestically or internationally, is BEFORE you offer it up for sale in a given market.

 

That scolding out of the way...

 

You can send it first class package for the rate quoted and with some countries that will include a tracking number (E-Del Con) that will sometimes actually be tracked and shown as delivered, either on the USPS.com site or the individual country's postal site. It is, however, hit or miss for most countries and I wouldn't rely on it.

 

There are a number of label-printing services (endicia.com, stamps.com, etc.) that offer third party insurance if you wish to purchase it, and it will be much, much cheaper (and generally easier to file a claim for) than USPS.

 

For this one, if it's not much money, I'd send it first class package and hope for the best. Then I would change my bricklink settings to US shipping only UNTIL you have educated yourself on all the ins and outs of international shipping.

 

Good luck! :-)

 

(Edited for my usual hilarious typos.)

Thanks for your input! I will definately check out those 3rd party insurance options. To be honest I didn't expect anything to sell on bricklink yet... I'm still in the process of loading the store. I currently have less than 100 items for sale(I'm sorting through about 10,000 used pieces I bought in bulk at a garage sale) and I was just adding them as I found the part number.

 

Finding the part number seems to be the hardest part..this lot seems to be from the late 90's early 2000's with some really odd pieces. As this is just a hobby and not a full time project I've been taking my time loading parts.

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

So I may have made a mistake, or maybe not.

 

Back when I first started selling, and selling internationally, I had someone in Canada that bought a large item from me, a 41999 (sold it for a friend).

 

He sent in the offer and asked if I could use his FEDEX account instead of calculated like Ebay and sending it my own way ebcause he had a major fedex discount. This made sense to me: I work at a company where we do tons of shipping and commonly we use our FEDEX accounts to ship stuff for people because we get like half off.

 

I assumed it was the same for him. This proved to be it as well as when I printed the label and everything I saw it charged his account about 60% of what it would have charged through its normal calculator.

 

Fast forward - I got a letter from the Canada Import people today telling me that the buyer has never paid their import duties and multiple tries to reach them have failed. They said if they don't get them soon, they will bill them to me (77$) as the shipper.

 

So I am confused about a couple of things:

 

1. Can any Ebay International buyer do this? Just buy something and not pay the duties and have the shipper get in crap for it? I would assume it hurts them as well?

2. Did I make a mistake - was it because I used his fedex account?

3. What will Ebay do about this? The transaction was quite a while ago?

4. What are my consequences if I don't pay them?

[gregpj]

Who are the Canada Import people you speak of? Is it the Canada Border Services Agency? They are the only legitimate people who collect duties and taxes.

Here are my concerns:

- There are no duties on toys. No matter where they are made.

- Taxes are the responsibility of the buyer, not the shipper.

- eBay can't legally do anything to you because it is the buyer's responsibility. If you filled out the paperwork legally (i.e. didn't falsify the amounts) then you've got nothing to worry about.

 

Tell them to stuff it up their holiday christmas tree. You may want to provide the buyer's name & address if you still have it, but beyond that, don't do anything.

[asharerin]

So was the item delivered or is it being held in customs?

 

If it is being held in customs it will be returned to you if the buyer refuses to pay the customs charges. In that case refund his purchase price less shipping. If he opens an INR claim then you will have to refund shipping as well. In theory you cannot file an INR if you refuse a shipment but in the real world the buyer always wins these cases as delivery is being refused and not shipment.

 

How long ago was the transaction? If the buyer paid by Paypal using a credit card they have 180 days to do a chargeback.

 

Lastly please post the buyers ID so we can all add it to our BBL.

[gregpj]

So FedEx appears to have some convoluted wording on their website regarding taxes and duties:

 

http://www.canadacustomer.fedex.com/ca_english/customsguide/understanddutytax.html

 

Under the Understanding Duties and Taxes section:

Please note: As per the contract of carriage with FedEx

[gregpj]

Ok, a little more ... about duties. Apparently, as the shipper you are jointly liable for duties to be paid once it has been released to the buyer (you are not liable if it is still being held by customs or the shipping company):

 

http://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-52.6/page-12.html#h-18

 

Crooks.

 

Now, toys are 100% duty free (http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/media/release-communique/2011/2011-11-21-eng.html) - search for toys. So what does the invoice you got from them say?

 

This has nothing to do with tax and fees though. I just can't find good material about the tax liability.... But I stand my earlier statement that tax is their responsibility. Fees charged by FedEx - i.e. brokerage fees .. well, that's not regulated at all.

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

When I get home I am liking all those posts Greg - like a freaking research facility.

I managed to get the buyers number and turns out he said he didn't even know - FedEx should have just debited it.

I am sending him the email I got and he is gonna figure it out.

Can I just say- people make jokes about Canadians being nice - it is true. You all literally rock. I work with a lot if people from Toronto and its amazing the difference in personality to most of us jackasses in America. No offense to myself and others. Lol

You are the man greg

[jaisonline]

Consider yourself lucky your Canadian buyer isn't a hoser, eh?

[gregpj]

I'm glad to hear the buyer isn't being a douche.

 

I have purchased plenty of items from the US (shipping and driving across the border) so like to be familiar with the rules. I also hate the GSP program as it costs way more than USPS/Canada Post. Canada Post charges a $5-$8 brokerage fee where FedEx and UPS charge based on the value of the good starting at $35.

 

The more us Canadians can help out those of you across the border who do get better deals on lots of stuff, the less likely you guys won't ship to us! Which makes me sad when I see a good deal from a US seller only to see they don't ship to Canada or that my Import Duties are $50 on a $200 purchase (not including shipping).

 

I will say though, the company I work for has an office in Dallas and Irving and generally find that most Americans don't fit the stereotype Canadians like to stick to you guys. (most, not all, hahaha... but don't worry, there are plenty of people in Canada I wouldn't do business with either)

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

So I sold a Dragon Mountain to an International buyer. He opened a case today saying he hasn't received it. Shipping info says it left the distribution center in Miami (where international normally goes) and nothing past that (it wouldn't show until it makes it through customs and gets to his country).

 

So the buyer starts off with this message:

 

"I did not receive my item. The post office stated that the seller used a tracking number for letters and so customs did not process the shipping. They said the item will be sent back to the seller."

 

I am not sure what he means. I used First class international. The shipment was under 2 pounds (limit is 4) and within the size limits (they scanned it in).

 

I wrote back to him and told him that the only thing I could think of was that maybe my USPS scanned it in but it was too big or something.

 

He wrote back:

 

"I don't have a PO box and so I always ask for a tracking number to be able to collect my item from the post office. I also ask for a tracking number because if a shipment is without a tracking number (or a tracking number as letter) is received, it will not be processed and WILL AUTOMATICALLY be sent back to the buyer."

 

What is he talking about? I don't understand "tracking number as a letter". I have sent 40-50 packages first class international with no problem.

 

If he is rejecting it and didn't specify how it should be sent in the first place, thats on him right? Maybe someone international can help out with that.

[justafrog]

What country? If it's one of those that you get E-DELCON service from USPS for FCMI packages, you can check the tracking number on the country's postal site (example: Canada Post http://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/track/personal/findByTrackNumber?execution=e1s1  ) and that will sometimes give you additional tracking information beyond what you can find on USPS.com.

 

If it's a country not supported by USPS for E-DELCON and you did not get an actual tracking number, OR if neither USPS nor the other country's postal website shows a delivery scan, eBay and PayPal will always side with the buyer and you will be refunding him in full.

 

Part of the cost of doing business, I'm afraid. In future you can protect yourself a variety of ways:

 

1) Start a self-insurance fund (add a handling fee to your international shipments on eBay - there's a field for it on the listing form - and hold that money aside to cover these types of refunds.

 

2) Insure international packages over your pain point with a third party insurer or USPS (I recommend the former).

 

3) Ship FCMI only to countries that have E-DELCON and that reliably track E-DELCON -- I have had great results with the UK, pretty good with Canada, bad with Australia, etc. For countries without E-DELCON, use only trackable means like priority (non-flat rate) or Express.

 

4) Use the Global Shipping Program and let eBay take these risks.

[DoNotInsertIntoMouth]

What country? If it's one of those that you get E-DELCON service from USPS for FCMI packages, you can check the tracking number on the country's postal site (example: Canada Post http://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/track/personal/findByTrackNumber?execution=e1s1  ) and that will sometimes give you additional tracking information beyond what you can find on USPS.com.

 

If it's a country not supported by USPS for E-DELCON and you did not get an actual tracking number, OR if neither USPS nor the other country's postal website shows a delivery scan, eBay and PayPal will always side with the buyer and you will be refunding him in full.

 

Part of the cost of doing business, I'm afraid. In future you can protect yourself a variety of ways:

 

1) Start a self-insurance fund (add a handling fee to your international shipments on eBay - there's a field for it on the listing form - and hold that money aside to cover these types of refunds.

 

2) Insure international packages over your pain point with a third party insurer or USPS (I recommend the former).

 

3) Ship FCMI only to countries that have E-DELCON and that reliably track E-DELCON -- I have had great results with the UK, pretty good with Canada, bad with Australia, etc. For countries without E-DELCON, use only trackable means like priority (non-flat rate) or Express.

 

4) Use the Global Shipping Program and let eBay take these risks.

 

I use 1) at the moment so I am pretty good either way. From reading it looked like Ebay would side with the buyer. I hope I at least get the item back so I can cover some of my loss. lol.

[justafrog]

If the buyer is telling the truth and it's a customs problem, you will likely get the item back. Don't hold your breath on it, though - these can take months to be returned from some customs departments. The last one I had took 8 months - customs isn't in a rush to get these back to the sender.

[Guest TabbyBoy]

This is the sole reason why I don't ship large/expensive items outside of Europe.  I self-insure on the smaller items and UK Royal Mail covers you for a minimum of

[Brick625]

What country? If it's one of those that you get E-DELCON service from USPS for FCMI packages, you can check the tracking number on the country's postal site (example: Canada Post http://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/track/personal/findByTrackNumber?execution=e1s1  ) and that will sometimes give you additional tracking information beyond what you can find on USPS.com.

 

If it's a country not supported by USPS for E-DELCON and you did not get an actual tracking number, OR if neither USPS nor the other country's postal website shows a delivery scan, eBay and PayPal will always side with the buyer and you will be refunding him in full.

 

Part of the cost of doing business, I'm afraid. In future you can protect yourself a variety of ways:

 

1) Start a self-insurance fund (add a handling fee to your international shipments on eBay - there's a field for it on the listing form - and hold that money aside to cover these types of refunds.

 

2) Insure international packages over your pain point with a third party insurer or USPS (I recommend the former).

 

3) Ship FCMI only to countries that have E-DELCON and that reliably track E-DELCON -- I have had great results with the UK, pretty good with Canada, bad with Australia, etc. For countries without E-DELCON, use only trackable means like priority (non-flat rate) or Express.

 

4) Use the Global Shipping Program and let eBay take these risks.

 

Do you use 3rd party insurance? (like ShipSaver Insurance)

[justafrog]

Do you use 3rd party insurance? (like ShipSaver Insurance)

 

Occasionally. For the most part, I use eBay's GSP program. But, when we do send our own packages, if they're over $100 or for some reason my spidey senses are tingling, $50, I use the 3rd party insurance.

[Spartikis]

Its because of issue like this that i no longer ship international, less potential customers but not worth the hassle.

[Cetona]

How do returns work with the GSP? I offer 14 day returns/buyer pays return shipping with most of my listings to fulfill the top rated seller requirement for the FVF discount, do I need to change anything with the listings I offer the GSP on?

[justafrog]

You don't need to change anything - you are protected against most SNAD (Significantly Not as Described) claims through the GSP as a matter of course, and if a buyer wants to return for other reason it'll be on their dime or sometimes eBay will subsidize a good buyer's return costs.

[asharerin]

One of my fave youtube channels just did a video on the GSP. I really like Joe and watch his videos every Friday. I feel like they are a great source of unbiased information on everything ebay related. You can view it here:

 

[justafrog]

I appreciate his efforts, but he's just repeating his understanding of one seminar and some extraneous opinions based on that understanding. Hardly the person I'd "go to" to answer my GSP questions, he doesn't even use the program.

[asharerin]

My personal reservations for the program currently are the fact that Pitney Bowes opens some of your items (although I understand why they do it) and the fact that alot of buyers will automatically go back once they see you use GSP for their country because they know they are going to get stuck with the high customs duties (again I understand this reaction and would do the same if the situation was reversed). I also have no spare time whatsoever to get the negative feedback removed for the long shipping times. Hopefully they fine tune the program in the future. If I can somehow use GSP for countries I currently block such as Italy, Russia and Romania but keep my shipping for every other country I may give it a whirl.

[justafrog]

We shipped a few hundred GSP items last year and had no negative feedback at all, so there was no time involved in getting it removed. Furthermore, if a shipment is going to be slow to a particular country, that's usually a problem with the country's customs or postal services and not the GSP, so any seller shipping to those countries is going to have the risk of negatives for slow shipping, it has nothing at all to do with GSP or no GSP.

 

For GSP, the shipping times are typically incredibly quick - priority mail speed, about a week or 10 days to most countries including my media mail shipping (about 3 or 4 days) to Kentucky.

 

You CAN now pick and choose GSP countries to ship to - in fact your video guy covered that early on in his video. You can use GSP for Italy, Russia, and Romania (if they ship to all three, I know they do the first two) and keep the rest.

 

I'm not trying to say the GSP is for everyone - many sellers are quite happy handling their own international shipping - but it is a good program and the objections you raise to it have no basis in reality (other than some buyers don't like it, which is a factor for sellers who currently do their own international shipping. I have not found a decrease in international buyers, but I can't say no seller would; however, for sellers NOT offering international shipping, it's a no brainer - some sales are better than no sales).