eBay has a hidden foreign transaction seller fee due to programming conflict.

[danl001]

I block all foreign buyers through eBay and do not ship outside the US.  Issue is that a buyer with a registered address in a blocked country can still buy my products if they have a US address for delivery purposes.  The seller is assessed a foreign transaction fee in this instance even though it is not an international shipment.  

This is due to a programming conflict.  On the one hand, eBay blocks buyers based on their "physical delivery address".  On the other hand,  eBay assesses foreign transaction fees based on the buyer's "address of record".  They are using two different databases to address the same issue and this creates a conflict where a seller is charged foreign fees even though they do not ship internationally.

Solution is for eBay to either block buyers with a foreign address of record AND/OR with a foreign delivery address or eBay should only assess foreign transaction fees on shipments that are actually shipped outside the US.

There is no record of this hidden fee anywhere on eBay that I have found.  I have called eBay on this numerous times and they always admit it is a glitch and they always waive the fee and they always claim to elevate the issue but  they never fix it.

Does anyone know how or who to contact at eBay to get this addressed

[rfmtm]

This is not a glitch, this is the way it has always been.  Sellers have been complaining about it for years.

The same problem happens as a buyer.  The shipment may be from the USA, but if the seller payments go out the states then buyer is hit with an additional fee that there was no warning about.  So buyers too have been complaining as well.

Sorry, but ebay seems to be just ignoring both sellers and buyers on this issue.

[lacemaker3]

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@danl001 wrote:

I block all foreign buyers through eBay and do not ship outside the US.  Issue is that a buyer with a registered address in a blocked country can still buy my products if they have a US address for delivery purposes.  The seller is assessed a foreign transaction fee in this instance even though it is not an international shipment.  

...

There is no record of this hidden fee anywhere on eBay that I have found.  I have called eBay on this numerous times and they always admit it is a glitch and they always waive the fee and they always claim to elevate the issue but  they never fix it.

...

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@danl001 ,

Sorry, but in spite of what you were told, this is not a glitch. This is how it's supposed to work. Here's the information about the international fee:

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/selling-fees?id=4822#section8

[danl001]

It is still a glitch and it is still a hidden fee.  I am not questioning the fee.  I am questioning the assessment of the fee to sellers who exclude international buyers.  (That scenario is not addressed in the link provided, nor is it addressed anywhere else that I have found.)

It is a glitch in  the sense that sellers who exclude international buyers cannot exclude buyers with a foreign registered address.  That is a programming error.

It is a hidden fee in the sense that the sellers who do not ship internationally do not expect to be assessed this fee and, as such, cannot determine it ahead of time and and adjust for it as a potential cost of sale.  1.65% of a total sale that includes shipping and sales tax can mean the difference between profit and loss on low margin products. 

There are two possible solutions.

The quick and easy fix is for eBay to co-ordinate the two databases (physical address and registered address) so that sellers who choose not to do business internationally can exclude both.

The trickier fix is for eBay to develop an option for sellers to assess a surcharge to buyers with foreign registered addresses and recoup the fee.

[lacemaker3]

@danl001 , you completely missed the point of my response.

1.  This is NOT A GLITCH.
   
   
2. This is how IT IS INTENDED TO OPERATE.
   
   
3. eBay has no intention of "fixing" this, because it is working as they intend it to work.
   
   
4. eBay has no intention of allowing you to transfer this currency-conversion fee to your buyers, because that would discourage buyers from making purchases. You need to include it in your selling price, like all other fees.

Historically, payment processors have always assessed an International Fee when the payment account was in a different currency than the transaction currency. eBay's algorithm for assessing the International Fee is pretty accurately identifying when the payment is likely to be in a different currency, incurring a currency conversion fee, and then they assess the International Fee.

All payment processing fees are always paid by the sellers, because they are receiving the payment. The seller has to set their prices so that all potential fees are included. Standard rule of business.

There is no point in arguing about this. eBay does as eBay wants to do, and they  aren't going to change that just because you don't like it. 

If 1.65% is enough to remove your profit margin, then you're not sourcing your products at a profitable price. Most successful sellers target selling items at more than 4 times their purchase price, and I have hard sellers state they target a selling price that is at least 10 times their purchase price. At those levels of profit margin, 1.65% is nothing.

[danl001]

eBay allows sellers to opt out of international sales, partly so that the associated costs can be avoided.   The issue is that eBay IS NOT allowing sellers to completely opt out of international transactions because of the loophole associated with buyers who have US delivery addresses and international registered addresses.

I believe this is a programming glitch and, each and every eBay representative (and their supervisors) with whom I have spoken has agreed with me.  I have made multiple calls on the issue and none - AS IN NONE - of the eBay reps have taken the position that this is business as normal or business as it is intended to be.  Indeed, each and every one has immediately waived the fee and stated they would elevate the issue. 

If this was how eBay intended it to be, eBay would have placed some sort of disclaimer or explanation on the page that allows sellers to opt out of foreign shipments to let the seller know they could still be liable for international fees in certain situations – but they do not.  (That makes it a hidden fee, by the way.)

I have been an eBayer almost from the get go (22+ years).  I have found it to be a professional organization that tries to play by the rules.  I believe that, if this issue could reach the right department (or person), it would be addressed.  My goal on posting to this forum was not to get into some fruitless debate with a member, it was to see if anyone might know of another path to elevate technical issues with eBay.

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On profit margin.  I know eBay wants to be another Amazon and encourages store type sellers.  However, there are still some of us who deal in hard-to-price, limited collectibles and rely on the auction format to generate sales prices.  (The only way someone could price a collectible at four times the money is if they stole it in the first place.)

Item price = $ 100.00

Shipping =    $  30.00

Sales tax  =   $      9.10

Foreign fee   $    2.30

Assume a 10% net profit (after normal fees) on the sales price of the item (not including shipping, which should be a wash) and that unexpected 1.65% foreign transaction fee just ate up 23% of the profit.

[dryophelia]

@danl001 

Sellers are not required to ship internationally. They are able to block buyers with an international shipping address. 

eBay does not allow blocking of international payments. 

When an international customer wants to buy from a USA seller, all that is required is a USA shipping address. That address could be a freight forwarding company or a friend or their Aunt Penny. As long as it’s a USA address. 

Because of this, sellers must add a small percentage to their selling price for each item to cover the cost of when it happens. If you list the $100 item for $101 and the $200 item for $202, and you sell 1 in 10 items to a foreign user, your foreign transaction fee is covered. By that extra $1/$100. 

[klhmdg]

Well, then … Nope! No one knows how to bypass this “technical issue”

 Mostly because as you have been told, there is no way to block buyers that have foreign addresses and payment in another currency but ship to a US address.

[danl001]

"eBay does not allow blocking of international payments."

Hi,

Appreciate the response.  Where did you find the above?  I have had multiple discussions with eBay support on this issue and none of them has indicated this is a policy.  Rather, all of them seem to think it is some sort of error in the system and that the seller should be able to block international transactions since the seller can block international shipments.  (It would be a simple matter of allowing the seller to exclude foreign registered addresses AND foreign shipping addresses.)

Thanks

[dryophelia]

@danl001 

I don't know where that reference is, I just know THAT IT IS.

eBay has never had the ability to block international buyers. The block was actually a setting in PayPal. Once PayPal was no longer involved, the LACK OF THIS BLOCK took effect.

CS reps will say anything they think will make you feel better. There does not have to be truth to it.

[dryophelia]

@danl001 

The link below will show you what eBay allows as far as blocking bidders.
Buyer requirements. 

Nowhere is the option to block international payments, only blocking buyers in locations you don't ship to. If you ship to USA, you can't block bidders with a USA shipping address.

[danl001]

Thanks,

I am aware of all of those things as are the eBay reps I speak to.  In other words, "I know how it is".  The question remains, is that how eBay intends it to be or, as I suspect (along with all of the eBay reps I have spoken to), is it a glitch that needs to be corrected. 

eBay has no problem with being direct in its policies.  I suspect that, if it was an intentional  policy that a seller could not block foreign "payments" but could block foreign "shipments", that it would be clearly stated somewhere.  Since it is not, I strongly suspect it is an unintended effect of how the international block is handled at a programmatic level.  When the block was set up using the "shipping address" as the sole criterion, the fact that the "registered address" could be problematic was just missed.  Happens all the time in programming.

I certainly could be wrong about that, but I want to hear that from eBay.  Let's face it.  My opinion, your opinion, and the opinion of anyone else not associated with eBay, is just that - opinions.   eBay is not clear on this and that is just not their style.  My guess is they will clear it up one way or the other if the issue reaches the right people.

Again, my overarching question is, does anyone know of a more direct path to elevate potential technical issues with eBay? 

[dryophelia]

@danl001 

Try eBay weekly chat https://community.ebay.com/t5/Weekly-Discussion-with-eBay/bd-p/weekly-chat

They open a new thread on most Wednesdays at 1pm California time. 

You have to realize though, it is not a glitch, no matter how many reps tell you it is. Since many of them may not speak English as their native language, they may not even be able to define what a glitch is. It’s just a word they have been given to appease callers. 

[annadryl]

This fee is just the standard currency conversion fee and is not just an ebay issue, it's part of commerce. Many have brought this up in the Crusade Against Managed Payments. They were never even aware that Paypal was taking that cut too. Even though you shipped to a US address, you were paid in foreign currency which had to be converted to US$ for you.

(Programming conflict???)

[friskya]

The whole problem has a simple solution. It was even mentioned above...

PayPal™ gave sellers the option of refusing foreign currency payments. Adyen does not.

Unless (or until) eBay instructs Adyen to make the same option available to sellers, the problem will continue to exist. This is, of course, unlikely in the extreme, as eBay has no doubt made the decision on a corporate level that listening to a few unhappy sellers is far more profitable than giving them the option of opting out of sales that generate several million in additional fees yearly.