Netherlands Buyer Refused Shipment Due to Customs Charges

[MikeysGrrrl]

It's unusual for the custom fees to be equal to or more than the cost of the item, so I'm kinda confused on that. Unless that differs country to country.

[ponylady]

I believe in some countries that it is unfortunately possible for items to cost more after import/customs/admin fees than the original item cost.

If its Royal Mail thats a £8 admin fee [you will pay more admin fees if it comes with a different courier - normally £12 can be higher]  If the item is worth more than £15 on the customs form then in addition to the £8 handling you have to pay a percentage of the total value. So you can get pretty close to paying the same in import/admin. fees as you can for the original item. This is how it at least plays out for folks in the UK. I am not entirely sure on other countries. I am assuming it most likely is very similar though.

[MikeysGrrrl]

Wow, that's quite a lot. I think the most I've ever paid for customs/duties/taxes etc was $23 on a pair of Dr Martens coming from the UK to Canada. So they were expensive to begin with, I expected to have to pay something when they came into the country lol.

[partypony566]

Pony lady is correct

I am always stunned at people who think they can get away with not paying customs charges. It's pure idiocy. You can't avoid tax!

[Vintergatan]

Actually, you can, depending on the country I suppose. Getting the sender to mark the package as a gift is one way. Getting them to write a lower value on the envelope also helps. Plus, it's not really tax, it's more like you getting ripped off when someone sends you a free bait and the state wants to charge you $10 for "importing" it, but I digress.

It is 100% buyers responsibility to anticipate tax and to deal with it, and it sounds to me like this buyer knows it but still wants to try to come on top in this situation. They had no right to demand you do them any favours regarding this AFTER they bought the item, that is something that needs to be done before bidding. If I'm not mistaken, eBay rules say as much, so you really don't need to go out of your way to please this buyer.

[hokuspokus]

wow, so the custom charge ($40) is even higher than the value of the item ($35)?

anyway the buyer is the one in the wrong here, i guess. I'm kinda wondering who it is now, or if i know them.

[kakenterprise]

I know you said you would not report the buyer but this is exactly why I won't ship internationally on ebay. 

I hope in the end it all works out and it looks like you really went above above and beyond.

Does anyone know ebays policy on refusing an item because of custom fees?  Does ebay stand by this or is the buyer out the money normally?? 

[LittleSpiffy]

eBay stands buy the seller on this.  If the buyer refuses the item, the buyer is out the money.  It's the buyer's responsibility to know (or at least figure out) what the customs fees will be. 

When I talked to customer service, they said that I shouldn't refund his money until I get the item back.  If I don't get it back (i.e. lost in the mail), it's his problem*

*note: rep didn't say "it's his problem," but that was the idea...she said some sort of long customer-servicey gobbledy gook that I can't remember.

I was told that if he leaves negative feedback for me, eBay will remove it.  After all, he violated eBay's TOS just by requesting that I change the value on the customs form.

[partypony566]

Actually, you can, depending on the country I suppose. Getting the sender to mark the package as a gift is one way. Getting them to write a lower value on the envelope also helps. Plus, it's not really tax, it's more like you getting ripped off when someone sends you a free bait and the state wants to charge you $10 for "importing" it, but I digress.

It is 100% buyers responsibility to anticipate tax and to deal with it, and it sounds to me like this buyer knows it but still wants to try to come on top in this situation. They had no right to demand you do them any favours regarding this AFTER they bought the item, that is something that needs to be done before bidding. If I'm not mistaken, eBay rules say as much, so you really don't need to go out of your way to please this buyer.

Getting people to write a lower amount is fraud plus then in the case of loss, everyone loses out.

I don't mean you can't avoid it by putting lower amounts and committing fraud, I meant that if you buy things online from overseas you have to expect to be charged and sometimes it's more than the value of the item, be ause here they factor in the postage cost also.. Customs and excise in the UK is HMRC. It's the government.

[NoDivision]

One of the things I like about ebay is that when you sell on there and buy your postage through there, it fills out the customs form for you with the exact amount the buyer paid. It's a great defense against things like this, because you can just tell your buyer "I have no control over that, ebay fills out the form automatically with the exact value." (Of course you can get around it, but it's nice in this instance to be able to fall back on ebay.) I have an absolute zero tolerance zero wiggle room policy when it comes to international sales through ebay - I ship priority mail or higher, and I mark as goods with exact value - because far too often it's the seller who gets burned.

[Darian]

I am quite happy to pay import tax on items I buy new from the US (like my welovefine order).  However, I think paying expensive import duties on secondhand ponies is a bit silly.  I got burned once when I had to pay more import fees than what I paid the seller!  So I'm very happy when a seller offers to label items as a gift.  Course I check before I place a bid. 

I would hardly call it fraud...  Someone sends me a free bait pony and I have to pay € 10 import fees?  Now that's stealing! 

The buyer in this situation here is in the wrong obviously.  It's his/her responsibility to know about import fees.  And it's poor form to shift the blame to the seller AND want money back.  That's just rude.

[NoDivision]

I would hardly call it fraud...  Someone sends me a free bait pony and I have to pay € 10 import fees?  Now that's stealing! 

Well in an instance like that it wouldn't be fraud to mark the item as a gift, since it actually is one. But if you have purchased an item it is fraudulent for the seller to mark it as a gift. I think it's silly too, the kinds of taxes and fees that have to be paid on used items, but that's the law and whether or not the fees seem fair it is illegal to lie to try to get around them.

[Sebby6]

What is actually the consequence of lying on the custom form and getting found out?
Has it ever happened?

[NoDivision]

I don't know of any specific cases personally, but from what I can gather, for items shipped from the US, if the form is falsified, whatever penalties may occur will fall on the recipient because once it's left the country it's no longer under US jurisdiction/the receiving country has no way to exact penalties from the sender. So it would vary by whatever country it was sent to and what their laws are regarding the matter.

According to the USPS "The sender’s failure to complete the form properly can delay delivery of the item or inconvenience the sender and addressee. Moreover, a false, misleading, or incomplete declaration can result in the seizure or return of the item and/or in criminal or civil penalties." I know it would certainly slow down the receipt of the package. I imagine if the customs form is found to be false, the person receiving the package would have to pay whatever customs fees are associated with the package in the first place, and possibly have to pay additional fines on top of that depending on the receiving country's ruling. Which would certainly defeat the purpose of lying on the form in the first place.

[Mnemiz]

In Denmark.......

If I buy a pony from the US, let's say 5$
-then add 15$ (at least - and that's for one small item) for postage.
Then, in Denmark, I have to pay costum 25% of the 20$ (yes, we pay costum for the shipping price aswell) PLUS some % on top of the 25% for handling in Denmark.

So here, all in all, ONE 5$ pony will normally end up in 35$ for me '