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

[jonel2]

The solution to that is for eBay to charge the international fee to the buyer not the seller. I feel that the buyer is using deception to purchase from the US when the seller does not ship internationally. I don't like being surprised with that fee when I print out all of the supporting documents for each sale.

[donsdetour]

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@jonel2 wrote:

The solution to that is for eBay to charge the international fee to the buyer not the seller. I feel that the buyer is using deception to purchase from the US when the seller does not ship internationally. I don't like being surprised with that fee when I print out all of the supporting documents for each sale.

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seller in these case do not ship international: they ship in country.

Fee is due to the buyer is of course in different country.

I do agree we sellers should be allowed to block this:

Yet eBay point of view its a sale and they make money.

[vamp-revamp]

I submitted this to the FTC just now as a complaint, and I urge you to do the same. Feel free to copy and paste.  https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/#/

eBay is charging international shipping fees without providing sellers with the ability to see beforehand what those fees will be.

1. eBay buyers' profiles show "United States" as their location.

2. Goods are shipped to a United States address.

3. The buyer's registered address is in another country, but the seller cannot see this anywhere.

4. There is no way to stop buyers with registered addresses outside the USA from bidding on eBay items, even when the seller's international settings indicate no international shipping.

5. The only time the international fees are evident is after the buyer pays for the item. The additional fees then show up on the transaction.

This is a classic bait-and-switch tactic. If eBay lists "United States" as the buyer's location, then there should be no international shipping fees at all. If there are going to be international shipping fees, then the seller must have transparency up front so they can decide themselves whether they are willing to pay those fees, as the fees might sometimes be more than the item is worth.

[umccars]

It's on the fees page. 1.65%. It's there in black and white. You can see where a buyer lives by looking at their profile. Almost everything you're saying is wrong. It does not say the buyers location is the US if it isn't.  Goodluck with that.

[kh-stanley1]

Hi everyone,

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

Thank you for understanding.