Negative feedback for unspecified customs/import problem.

[greenriverrecords]

I have received a negative feedback, in Portuguese, for an unspecified "Customs problem" with a shipment. That's all the comment says (in Portuguese): Customs problem.

The shipment already sat in customs for over a month - the buyer never contacted me about any problem, until today 50+ days after the sale, I receive this negative feedback.

I fail to see how this is at all my fault. The customs form was straightforward. Buyer even paid VAT upfront.

And in fact it seems to be one of the technical issues "beyond my control" that eBay policy indicates should warrant negative feedback removal.

But after requesting negative feedback removal, I've been informed the removal was declined. Huh? I did nothing wrong. Zero. Standard shipment. What gives?

[reallynicestamps]

Did the customer ever pick up the purchase? If not the item would be considered Undeliverable and should they try an Item Not Received dispute, you would win and would not be required to refund a single penny.

At one time eBay gave us some boilerplate about Import Fees and how we are not responsible for them.

"Import duties, taxes and charges are not included in the item price or shipping charges. These charges are the buyer's responsibility. Please check with your country's customs office to determine what these additional costs will be prior to bidding"
I still have that in my Terms of Sale.

You might try appealing the Feedback to the actual employees who are assigned to social media,not the bots who run most Disputes nor the phone sub-contractors.

https://www.facebook.com/ebay— Message button in upper right on landing page.

https://www.instagram.com/ebayforsellers/


https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/How-do-I-contact-Customer-Support/m-p/32016431#M1783851 -> Automated Assistant, type AGENT -> enter. You will then get more options.


The social media Chat accounts are covered by trained eBay employees with some authority.
And you get a transcript so you can compare what you heard with what you were told.

Be ready with a Google Translation of the Portugese. It's not a commonly known language in the USA.

If all else fails, add the above boilerplate as a Response to the feedback. Usually leaving Responses is a Bad Idea, but if you make it calm, professional, and short, it can be helpful.

Remember the audience for a Response is your future customers, not the aggrieved buyer, other sellers, or eBay.

[greenriverrecords]

Thanks for the reply. It appears they never picked up the shipment from customs and that it was deemed undeliverable - 10 days ago, even. But they didn't file any sort of dispute, just left me extremely vague negative feedback today,  in Portuguese. Yes, Google translate is the only way I could read it myself.

In the past I've been able to call eBay and they immediately removed feedback such as this. But now I can't seem to get a phone number. I can't even get an agent in the chat. I will try reaching out on Facebook.

Very unfair and frustrating. Have been an eBay seller for 25 years and maintained a 100% feedback rating for at least 2 to 3 years in a row. Very unfair to receive this feedback and to be given the high hand from eBay support thus far.

Thanks for the advice.

[gamersbaystore]

Just more proof ebay cares nothing about their sellers, and like usual, refuses to enforce their own policies.

Had your buyer paid the import fees, they would've received the package. According to ebay's policies, the buyer is responsibility for all related shipping costs, including any import/tax duties.

The feedback should be removed in my opinion.

[chapeau-noir]

If you used eBay's eIS program for delivery of this (it sounds like it when they paid VAT already), I thought you would be able to have this FB removed. eBay doesn't care how long any of us have been here, feedback percentage, etc., it does no good to frustrate ourselves with that, but they do have some pretty cut-and-dried rules about their eIS program. If you're not using this, then never mind...but...

Benefits of eBay International Shipping

As well as making your items available to buyers in over 200 countries, there are several other benefits to using eBay International Shipping:

• When you ship internationally using eBay International Shipping, you're responsible for sending the item your buyer purchased safely to the US shipping hub. If a buyer reports that an item was lost or damaged during international shipping or it is damaged at the hub, we'll work with the buyer to resolve the issue. You're protected from:
  • The obligation to refund the buyer
  • eBay Money Back Guarantee cases
  • Payment disputes
  • Open 'Not as described' returns in your service metrics
  • Negative or neutral feedback related to item handling during international shipping

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/shipping-items/setting-shipping-options/ebay-international-shippin...

If so, I would pursue this.

[greenriverrecords]

I did indeed use eIS, and they paid VAT upfront.

I heard from the buyer - they wrote in Portuguese, but using Google translate I was able to understand that there was a problem with the "information on the package" and that they are still resolving the problem with customs by submitting an invoice. But I can see from the tracking information that it is rather late for them to be doing this. The package arrived in Portugal customs in mid-March.

The information on the package is another issue beyond my control. I filled out the customs information as usual. Nothing complicated.

But I used eBay International Standard Delivery - so the shipping label provided by eBay was to one of their shipping centers here in the USA. The customs information I provided, which should have been affixed to the package, should have been handled by eBay at that point.

I am trying to reach an actual human being at eBay. The automated support chat just gives me the option to send an email. I am trying to chat with somebody via the Facebook page but the chat just sits there with no response.

I am deeply displeased with the service I am getting from eBay here. In the past, when it was possible to actually reach somebody on the phone, the issues I had were almost always handled very well. This is a total fiasco.

[greenriverrecords]

Eventually got a response on Facebook.

"I took a few moments to review the order, and I appreciate your time. I can see that the customers comment is in regard to international shipping concerns, and this order was shipped through the eBay International Shipping Program. Although we no longer have the ability to remove feedback here on social media, I will have this escalated back to our feedback teams for re-review. If anything changes you will be notified via email."

Exasperating.

Just to be clear the negative feedback is literally: "Problemas alfandegarios" = "Customs problem".

Seems pretty simple. Why in the world would this removal be denied when it was shipped with eIS? How many hoops must I jump through?

Thanks eBay!

[albertabrightalberta]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

Did the customer ever pick up the purchase? If not the item would be considered Undeliverable and should they try an Item Not Received dispute, you would win and would not be required to refund a single penny.

At one time eBay gave us some boilerplate about Import Fees and how we are not responsible for them.

"Import duties, taxes and charges are not included in the item price or shipping charges. These charges are the buyer's responsibility. Please check with your country's customs office to determine what these additional costs will be prior to bidding"
I still have that in my Terms of Sale.

You might try appealing the Feedback to the actual employees who are assigned to social media,not the bots who run most Disputes nor the phone sub-contractors.

https://www.facebook.com/ebay— Message button in upper right on landing page.

https://www.instagram.com/ebayforsellers/


https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/How-do-I-contact-Customer-Support/m-p/32016431#M1783851 -> Automated Assistant, type AGENT -> enter. You will then get more options.


The social media Chat accounts are covered by trained eBay employees with some authority.
And you get a transcript so you can compare what you heard with what you were told.

Be ready with a Google Translation of the Portugese. It's not a commonly known language in the USA.

---

If you go to Facebook or Twitter, you might consider adding that the translation is "customs problems" and buyer's responsibility. (I don't like to assume that ebay employees will go to Google translate so I like to make things easy for them!)

[kickin.assets · Accepted solution]

@greenriverrecords 

Sorry you have to through this.

Experienced this situation once before and the only option to contact them was email. Was none to happy about that at the time, so grudgingly emailed about situation.

To my complete surprise, received an email back in a relatively short time, whereas the agent was helpful, and took care of everything! Does this happen often? Can’t say. But thankful I just got over myself and sent an email.

An email also gives you more of an option to put things out there in a readable, black n white format without your emotions getting away from you, which can happen when having to speak with someone that maybe you can not understand well or who doesn’t hear what you’re saying.

So maybe don’t completely cut out the option to email them.

Hope all works out for you!!

[greenriverrecords]

Thanks Kickin! That's encouraging.

I presumed that an email would lead to a fairly rote and automated response as that's all I seem to be getting anywhere else. Also, for me, email tends to make me too verbose, too detailed, whereas being kind and patient on the phone with someone guiding me through a process has yielded good results for me in the past. But I will give it a try.

[north-by-northeast-finds]

 I generally use Ebays shipping.  The EU rules are getting complicated to keep up with. If the customer doesn't like the import fee and refuses to accept the item that's a possibility. 

[pjcdn2005]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

If you used eBay's eIS program for delivery of this (it sounds like it when they paid VAT already), I thought you would be able to have this FB removed. eBay doesn't care how long any of us have been here, feedback percentage, etc., it does no good to frustrate ourselves with that, but they do have some pretty cut-and-dried rules about their eIS program. If you're not using this, then never mind...but...

 _____

They didn't use EIS, they used EISD  (post 6) which doesn't have the same protections.  But, even if they have shipped it on their own, the feedback should be removed since sellers are not responsible for customs issues.

@greenriverrecords 

It's possible that the buyer is not picking up the package because they are being asked to pay VAT again.  That has happened in the past so you might want to let the buyer know that if they pay it again, they should be able to contact eBay to get refunded the first VAT that they paid.

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[greenriverrecords]

Hi PJCDN2005,

I actually used both eIS and eISD. I was/am enrolled in the eBay International Shipping Program. I also shipped using eBay International Standard Delivery. So I should have been doubly covered for any issues with customs.

And it seems eBay finally recognized this as well - hurray! eBay has just now removed the feedback with a very friendly message that even recognized my long history with eBay. So that was nice.

Thank you to everybody for the kind words and support, but most of all to kickin.assets for encouraging me to take advantage of the email option offered by support.

I may otherwise have never taken that option, presuming it to be duplicative of other ways of contacting support. Even though the eBay representative I talked to on Facebook said they were referring my issue for a re-review, I'm not sure if that ever would have resulted in any action or response, and I was ready to just sit here waiting for one. But it was clear in the message from eBay that the email is what provoked a response and a fix. Thanks so much, again!