International fees being charged when shipping in United States

[moerum]

Good morning fellow ebay sellers.  I noticed a few months ago, that items I was selling and shipping to a United States address are being charged international fees.  I called ebay and they said the buyers were not in the United States and that is why.  I don't believe this is right, when someone purchases an item, I don't know til they pay where the item is shipping.  A couple days ago I was told by a customer service rep, to block all these buyers if I don't want to pay the international fees.  I don't believe sellers should pay, the buyer if in another country to pay.  Hope someone has some feelings about this too.

[toysaver]

If you only ship to the US an international buyer can circumvent the block and use a freight forwarding service with a US address.

I feel strongly ebay needs to address this issue.  Not only the money and fee structure changes but when shipping fragile items having them opened and repacked or inspected by customs increases the chances of damage.

[heckofagame]

It doesn't necessarily mean it's a freight forwarder.

There are many people, students for example, that live in the U.S., but are registered in their home country. 

It's a sale. Take the sale. 

[tvr-inc]

International fees are on Payments location of buyer not where its shipping to.

[lonebuck-books]

They don't add the intl. fee based on where it is shipped, they base it on where it is billed from.  If a buyer in Japan using a non US bank for payment and has it shipped to California, you will get charged the Intl. fee.  It doesn't have to be forwarded to Japan to get that fee, just billed from another country.  

Personally I think eBay should eat those fees as part of them being the payment processor and allowing those transactions to happen when a seller clearly excludes international sales but I would also love to have a million dollars drop in my lap.  Neither of those things are going to happen.

[cstpos]

@moerumCC processors have been charging a fee for international transactions for years. They used to call it a Currency Conversion fee. So it's SOP for online platforms to pass that fee along to the sellers. What is weird, is that ebay will charge you that fee, even if you have your account set to No International Shipping. I have customers who have us ship to one of their subsidiaries here in the US, and we get charged the fee for international sales. The parent company is located in Europe, so the int'l fee applies.

There is no way for any seller to know if a customer's form of payment is based outside the US, so the rep's advice is moot. Maybe other posters here will know if ebay has made it possible to block buyers based on their account location. If a buyer makes an offer, you could see where they are located, but if they just Buy it Now, I don't see how you could know the payment origin. I'm not sure if ebay will allow you to add a line to your listing notifying buyers that you won't accept/ will cancel any orders paid for with any forms of payments that are not US based.

I think the extra charged is 1.65%, so you can decide if that amount will determine if you want to lose a sale. It is aggravating that carriers don't deliver, buyers scam, everything costs more, and no one guarantees their work anymore. It's not just ebay, but it doesn't make it any easier if you're already working with small margins.

[monroe67]

"I noticed a few months ago, that items I was selling and shipping to a United States address are being charged international fees. . . .   A couple days ago I was told by a customer service rep, to block all these buyers if I don't want to pay the international fees.  I don't believe sellers should pay, the buyer if in another country to pay."

The eBay Fee Schedule spells out their International Fee very clearly:  It is charged when the buyer either (1) has a shipping address outside of the US, OR (2) has a registered address outside of the US, regardless of the shipping address.  That's pretty straightforward.  

The eBay customer service rep who told you "to block all these buyers" -- how would that be done?  You can block only specific individual bidders, and not a whole country or continent based on their registered addresses.  

I just shrug my shoulders when I have a sale to a Russian with an address in Delaware, because I know I'll be charged the 1.65% "international fee".  And I accept it.  But I also consider the fact that Delaware does not charge sales tax, which would be subject to eBay's 12.9% FVF.   

Hmm -- now I'm going to look at a few of my international sales and do some math to see if I actually am paying less in total fees when I mail to a freight forwarder in Delaware than when I sell to, say, Colorado or New York.  

[albertabrightalberta]

TBH, to me, a currency conversion fees is a small amount to pay for selling an item, having it shipped domestically (in my own case) and know that my responsibility ends on delivery to the FF! 

My own son has a Polish wife and her own accounts are Polish-based credit cards. (Joint accounts are with US banks.) They live in the United States and use their credit cards for everything. I doubt that most (or any) of the B&M or online merchants mind that she's shopping with them because they're making the sales! 

[mam98031]

When you have a buyer that is registered in another country but has a ship to address in the USA, Ebay charges an additional 1.65% FVF on top of the regular FVF on this sale.  This is clearly stated on the Seller Fee policy page and has been in place since Ebay became our Money Processor.

I find it odd that so many sellers [as there has been many other threads on this subject] have only realized they were being charged this fee since going into Managed Payments.  It has been a fee that we have always paid as PayPal charged the same type of fee when they were our money processor.  So since you just started noticing it now that you are in MP does not mean it is a new fee.

International fee

If your registered address is in the US, we charge an International fee if either:

• The delivery address for the item (entered by the buyer during checkout) is outside the US, or
• The buyer's registered address is outside the US (regardless of the delivery address for the item)

This fee is calculated as 1.65% of the total amount of the sale and is automatically deducted from your sales.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/frais-pour-les-vendeurs-particuliers?id=4822

[3diamondsntherough]

I agree - this is a fee we cannot protect ourselves from - on a larger ticket item, it can be a lot of money. Also ebay plays both sides of the street - it charges the buyer US sales tax as well - so we pay a portion of USA sales tax and a big hit for international sales - it really feels like double dipping on eBay's part.

13.25% plus plus plus - it gets close to a 20% cost to sell - ebay is making more on these items that we are.

[reallynicestamps]

having them opened and repacked or inspected by customs increases the chances of damage.

First, if the seller identifies the export correctly, there is no need for customs to open the box.

Second, the cost of doing this is very very high to the employer.  For Canada , customs agents get paid about $40 an hour, or 68c a minute.  Opening, identifying and repacking would take maybe 10 minutes? That costs CBSA $6.80.

Damage in shipment is much more likely to happen because of poor packaging by the seller.

I did have one item repacked by the GSP several years ago. It was a large book (40cmx25cmx 2cm) and came with a letter saying that it had been opened and repacked from eBay.  It was memorable because it had been repacked in a box about 60cmx30cmx10cm and the void filled with wadded kraft paper.

If you are concerned about exports being opened use the International HS codes to help the customs agent identify your shipment without opening the package.

https://www.tariffinder.ca/en/getStarted

The site is Canadian, but the codes are international.

[reallynicestamps]

But see @monroe67  's post #7.

Delaware in particular has NO sales tax, so it may be cheaper to ship to a forwarder there than to sell to a citizen in your own state.

Nevermind the increased Seller Protection which makes it safer to ship to a forwarder than to a porch in a quiet suburb.

[kh-vince]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.