International shipping
Summary: A participant inquired about international fee charges related to buyers using freight forwarders and asked for experiences with eBay's international shipping program. fullers_uk sought clarification on who was requesting additional fees, while monroe67 and eoma689485 explained that eBay charges a 1.65% international fee for foreign buyers, which is waived when using eBay's International Shipping program. mudshark61369 added details about the fee being a selling fee under eBay's Managed Payments and suggested further discussion in the Mentor lounge. kensgiftshop noted that buyers might still use freight forwarders despite the shipping program, with no way to block them. emptynest15 thanked contributors for their insights.
I have recently discovered several international fee charges for buyers that have used a freight forwarder. Is there any way to block these buyers?
Also, I'm considering just joining ebay's international shipping program to avoid these fees, although I have heard many complaints about buyers wanting partial refunds after items are shipped internationally because it is too expensive to return item, and buyers complaining about tariffs and customs fees.
I know that theoretically I would not be responsible for any item after it reaches the US shipping hub, but does this really work in practice? Please comment with your experiences with international shipping program. Thanks!
kensgiftshop
·1 week agoEven with the International shipping program, buyers can still use their freight forwarder and you'll still get the fee's.
No way to stop them from using a freight forwarder.
emptynest15
OP1 week agoThank you for your comment
mudshark61369
·1 week ago@emptynest15 , @eoma689485 ,
The 1.65% fee is not a currency conversion or transfer fee. Conversion fees are paid by the buyer and there is already a fixed .30 or .40¢ transaction fee. The 1.65% fee is a selling fee and can be found in ebay's Fee information
"International Fees: An extra 1.65% applies if the buyer's registered address is outside your country".
In the past the fee was charged by PayPal before ebay started Managed Payments now it is ebay's Managed Payments charging the fee.
There is a discussion going on in the Private Mentor lounge about the fee, and it has been suggested that the buyer should be paying the fee, since there is no BBL option for
Block buyers who: Are registered in other countries but use U.S. based freight forwarders to have items shipped to them".
As for using eBay International Shipping, Scroll down this page and look in the Related Discussions for Anyone had a good experience using EIS and click on it. You can also search online for eBay International Shipping, reviews.
emptynest15
OP1 week agoThank you!
eoma689485
·1 week agoIf you are a U.S. seller and a foreign buyer pays for your item, eBay will tack on an extra 1.65% international fee on top of your normal final value fees. It's basically a money transfer fee as the funds are coming from a foreign country - the banks actually charge it and eBay passes on the fee if I remember correctly.
If you use eBay's eIS program - eBay waives the fee.
As for"does this really work in practice?" - yes, it does
emptynest15
OP1 week agoThank you!
fullers_uk
·1 week agoSo the buyer buys an item from you, there ebay address on checkout is a US based freight forwarder, who is asking you for more money after you have sent it to a US address? the buyer, the freight forwarding company or ebay?
monroe67
·1 week ago · Edited"So the buyer buys an item from you, there ebay address on checkout is a US based freight forwarder, who is asking you for more money after you have sent it to a US address? the buyer, the freight forwarding company or ebay?"
To (try to) answer the question underlined above,
when the seller is registered with a USA home location and is selling on eBay's USA site (ebay.com),
and the buyer is registered with eBay in a nation other than the USA,
eBay retains an additional 1.65% of the total paid by the buyer.
Regardless of the shipping address. Even when the shipping address is in the USA.
This is eBay's International Fee on the USA site, ebay.com.
It means eBay "asks" for more money from the USA seller.
More than "asks", actually. "Asks" seems to suggest that a seller may have the option to refuse to pay that extra fee. We don't.
eBay simply takes and keeps an additional 1.65% of the total paid by the buyer
(in addition to eBay's regular Final Value Fee, which is 13.6% for most items).
BTW -- it may be interesting to note that Canadian eBay sellers, who sell on the Canadian site, ebay.ca, are subject to similar International Fees, but their fee for selling to people whose eBay registration is in the USA is a tiny, minuscule, paltry 0.4% of the amount paid by the buyer.
That is not even one-half of one percent. It is "only" four-tenths of one percent.
When Canadian eBay sellers sell to people whose registration is in a nation other than Canada or the USA, their International Fee is 1.0%.