eBay to Update Sellers International Shipping Settings

by: terry55

I got the email a month ago, doesn't seem to be bad but then again its ebay. I had a few countries I didn't ship to when I did international sales but if ebay covers them, even better. Plus I didn't add all the countries to my list and then couldn't find ebay's approved country list.

by: toolguy

How in the world is eBay going to do this.

I buy surplus tools from the US Government and I sign an agreement not to sell to foreign entities.

I think they are going to step in legal poo on this one!  

by: Shanna

Surprisingly, I agree with Tool. I guarantee this is what happens weekly at eBay, they have a group of middle managers fresh out of college. They meet and think about what they can improve about eBay. None of them has ever sold on eBay, or any other platform. They know nothing about the industry, or life in general. They decide eBay can make more profit if they can get sellers to sell to buyers in other countries. It has nothing to do with increasing volume of sales, but to increase the amount of postage sold. Ebay could care less about FVFs at this point, its all about pay per clicks and postage sales. And international postage is very expensive these days, if they could get buyers and sellers to buy this expensive postage, that they buy from a 3rd party at a discount, they make more back door profits.

Now selling internationally takes more than just saying you will ship internationally. What are you selling? Is that allowed to be exported, or imported into other countries? Try selling a pocket knife to Europe, or any food product anywhere. You would need an international export lawyer to work through some of the perplexities of the what and where. What about import taxes? Yes eBay says the collect them, but what if the tax is more than the item, now your FVF includes these costs.

Where are you sending it? I refuse, even with eBay's International shipping option, to ship to countries with known corrupt mail systems that will steal your package, like Mexico and Brazil.

None of these kids have any clue about any of this, because no one on the team has any real world experience. When things turn south, and buyers scam sellers by filing a claim of not received while the package is in customs waiting on them to pay their fees, and after they get a refund, they go pick up their package for a fraction of the real costs, stiffing the sellers, do you think eBay is going to eat that loss? If so, I have a bridge to sell you.

by: Paul W

I'm good with it.  Once the item gets to eBay's shipping center, it's all on eBay whatever happens.  For me it is no change at all and I've never had a problem with it.

by: critical_sceptic

My single biggest issue with the current eBay international shipping service and Global is that inexplicably items are blocked from shipping to one or more countries and customers only find out when they try to check out. If this stops my listings being displayed to buyers in those countries, that would be very helpful.

by: Gumball

I am not interested in International sales. Postage and taxes added on by various countries are too expensive to take a loss. A ten dollar item could easily cost me $40 for shipping and taxes to get the item back and $20 if I tell the buyer to keep it. A lot of buyers buy such items knowing they can get free stuff that way. Ebay states they have you covered, but I have seen lots of sellers stating that Ebay took all the charges out of their account for International Returns on various complaint forums. Also those in the European Union have two years to return an item and do not have to give a reason, and do not even have to return the item. All shipping, taxes, etc. are to be paid by seller. I imagine we are going to hear a lot more about that as sellers get docked for items they sold up to 24 months ago.  

by: Allen1853

The list of countries I do not ship to are dictatorships and bad actors. I do not ship there BECAUSE I DO NOT WANT TO! I opted out of eBay's usurpation of my free will to ship where I want to. Plus I had three packages delivered in Germany but the buyers claimed Item Not Received. Tracking showed delivered. So I refused to refund, and lost! So those became cases against me. Ebay penalized me for having so many lost cases in one country and hiked fees etc. So I just blocked Germany as a destination until the time period for penalties went away. Most of us do things for a reason. Ebay has their head up their ass.  

by: Snapped

“ Ebay has their head up their ass. ”

More like - up yours.

Again.  Making you have to Opt OUT x all your listings instead of only doing the work necessary to opt IN based on YOUR choices.

by: MilesT

Heads up, there are categories where eBay gets taxation wrong for international shipping, penalising the buyer.

A specific case in point:  Books/Magazines/printed ephemera to the UK.  

As long as the item is not especially valuable for some specific reason (e.g. signed copy, something rescued from the Titanic or similar--in which case should not be listed as Books), then import into the UK is free from duty and sales tax (VAT).  Just mark PRINTED PAPERS on the parcel and the CN22/CN23 and off you go (shipping via eBay international or directly--and with some thin/lightweight items eBay international--and previous eBay shipping programmes--is more expensive than consigning direct with local post operator)  

Ebay too often assesses UK VAT from the buyer on sale (incorrectly)--I have managed a refund of incorrectly charged VAT from eBay on one big order but not consistently when this happens, and I consider my purchases based the price being 20% higher due to VAT