Monthly Chat - March 8th at 1:00 pm PST

[devon@ebay]

Come chat with the International Shipping team to discuss our new eBay International Shipping program. Get all of your questions ready for the team, so we can make the most out of this month's chat on March 8th at 1:00 pm PT!

Thanks for joining us for the Monthly Chat with eBay Staff and the International Shipping team.

The chat thread will remain open until 2 PM PT at which point we'll close it from additional responses. After that time, we'll continue to work on responding to any queries that might still be unanswered.

To post your question, click Reply in the lower right corner of this post, type your question, and hit submit between 1-2 PM Pacific Time. The format of our chat mirrors the format of our Community Discussion Boards, where each post will appear in the thread chronologically. The taxAct and Community Team will review each question as it comes in, and will quote the original question in our reply. This quote and the reply will appear later in the thread, so just keep scrolling down to see our answers.

As a reminder, we want the eBay International Shipping team to be able to get to as many members as possible during the allotted hour, so we have a few things to ask of you:

• Keep on topic
• Scroll through the list of questions to see what has already been asked to decrease chances of redundancy 
• Keep the message/question simple and no more than one to two items. If you include multiple questions in a post, please be aware that they may not be addressed during the chat and (specialist name) will do their best to follow-up with it after the chat has closed 

Missed the chat? Send your questions to the podcast by calling 888-723-4630 or email us at podcast@ebay.com and maybe your questions will make it on the air! Or listen to past episodes while you wait for next month!”

[mam98031]

That is another important change to EIS and it wasn't announced to all sellers.  This post doesn't need a reply.  I'm just making a point.  Ebay really needs to give us a daily or weekly update to changes.  Weekly is likely to be great.  But there is important info getting lost here on many different subjects, not just this policy.

[devon@ebay]

Thanks for joining the chat this month! It's closed from further replies but we'll keep working through to make sure that questions are addressed.

[shipscript]

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international_shipping@ebay wrote:

The current value limit through the program has been increased to $2500 for most counties. We are working to increase this to other countries depending on US exports requirements.

Is there a list of limits by country? Or is it too dependent on the item type (harmonized code)?

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international_shipping@ebay wrote:

Duties and Taxes and VAT if required are collected at the time of checkout when the order is a Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) or are assessed by customs to the Buyer with the order is Delivered Duty Unpaid (DDP). The Seller is not responsible for the collection and remission of these required fees.

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I've only seen examples of DDU. Is DDP currently active, or is it price dependent?

[anasazirose]

I understand the EIS protects sellers from losing a sale and ebay refunds the buyer with problems.  What is ebay doing when buyers leave an item sit in customs until the time has passed, then they get a refund THEN pick up the item?  There was a seller on the boards the other day who had to refund the buyer. Then the buyer picked up the item.

[international_shipping@ebay]

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@mam98031 wrote:

"FVF is NOT charged on the calculated international shipping. FVF is charged only on item price + sales tax + cost of shipping from seller to the domestic shipping hub.

If a seller provides free domestic shipping, the seller pays FVF only on item price and sales tax.  If the seller does not offer free domestic shipping, then FVF is charged on item price + sales tax + cost of shipping from seller to the domestic shipping hub."

Just for clarity.  In EIS, sellers pay for shipping only to the shipping hub?  We don't pay for the international shipping?  

So this works as it does for anything else that was sold internationally BEFORE EIS.  FVF is on product, sales tax & domestic shipping, unless it is free shipping domestically, then the FVF is only charged on product and sales tax.

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You are right about FVF on international shipping costs. However, with eBay International Shipping FVF is not charged on VAT, while it is applied to VAT when you ship on your own. Apart from that, the international selling fee is eliminated with EIS as well.

[mam98031]

devon@ebay 

The Chat is still open to replies.

[international_shipping@ebay]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

How is this situation handled? Seller sends item to the ebay center, ebay opens package, decides it was damaged during transit to the center...what happens at that point? 

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The Seller is responsible for the item for the domestic leg of transit to the US Hub. If the item is damaged in transit, the Seller will be notified and will be responsible for issuing the refund to the Buyer.

Sellers can then open a claim with their carrier and/or insurance.

Here’s the link to learn more about ShipCover insurance: https://www.ebay.com/sellercenter/shipping/smart-ship-tips/shipcover-insurance

[devon@ebay]

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@mam98031 wrote:

devon@ebay 

The Chat is still open to replies.

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@mam98031 Thank you for letting me know! We have it open for a few more minutes to allow our Shipping team to post responses to questions that came through during the live hour. Normally we close it and then open it but since there are a handful left we figured this would be easy for them to do it this way! 

[international_shipping@ebay]

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@michigancolor wrote:

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international_shipping@ebay wrote:

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

Some items, including certain brands, can be imported into certain countries but not others. If I list an item that is, let's say, prohibited by the UK, but all other countries permit it, does ebay remove the UK from the list of countries it shows on my listing?  

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Yes, that’s correct. eBay follows international import regulations and buyers from UK will not be able to purchase the item if it is restricted . This ensures a better buying experience for both the Buyer and the Seller as it reduces the number of items that cannot be shipped through the program that would require returning to the Seller or liquidating the item.

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This -- require returning to the seller or liquidating -- is the complete opposite to what elizabeth@ebay posted in this thread at 01:19 PM PST.  So, it can be returned to the seller?  When the seller can't exclude listings that they know can't be shipped to certain countries?  If this happens, will eBay compensate the seller at all?  Like at least cover the shipping to eBay, since the seller had to fulfill the order since they can't cancel an order without getting their performance hit, and because they couldn't opt out a specific listing?

And what about eBay giving policy violations for import/export violations, when the seller had no choice on the listing?  Again, as I said, I got one of these through GSP when eBay said they handled all of that stuff.

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If eBay had not implemented the restrictions, eBay would be required to liquidate the item and the Seller would keep the original sale, additionally, the Buyer is refunded from eBay.

The only scenario in which the item will be returned to the seller, is if the seller cancels the item before it reaches the shipping hub or in instances of possible fraudulent items (i.e. iPhone XS purchased and an iPhone case was shipped). In these cases, the Seller is responsible for issuing the Buyer the refund and the item is returned to the Seller.

[mam98031]

Sorry devon@ebay .  Your post I was replying to said you were closing the Chat to more replies but that there will be more answers posted.

[devon@ebay]

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@mam98031 wrote:

Sorry devon@ebay .  Your post I was replying to said you were closing the Chat to more replies but that there will be more answers posted.

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@mam98031 No worries and thank you as always for keeping me on my toes! 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Since you guys are now handling international shipments, maybe you could provide us sellers with data about which items/categories are popular export items, so we could try to stock those items?

[international_shipping@ebay]

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@shipscript wrote:

Based on the estimated delivery times, it appears that eBay International shipping service uses surface transport. Instead of arriving in a week to 10 calendar days, we are seeing delivery times in weeks. Are there any plans to offer a more expedient service?

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Surface transport is utilized on certain lanes from the US Hub (i.e. Canada) and via air for overseas deliveries. The transit days are currently in line with standard times via other eBay programs (eISD, GSP, etc.). Depending on the shipping type (DDU vs DDP) these times can be slightly longer depending on customs requirements and processing. eBay is currently working to add additional international carriers into the program to assist with regional deliveries into rural outlining regions and improve transit times.

[international_shipping@ebay]

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@maxoptical wrote:

Hello,    I am confused by Jamie Iannone statement last week  "eBay used AI to figure out shipping times with more accuracy, and we were able to take 1.5 days off of shipping times on the platform and about two days off for an authenticated item."       

How does AI take off shipping times?  Why doesn't eBay use the APIs from the shipping companies to calulate real shipping times?  

Here is his quote.    https://seekingalpha.com/article/4584959-ebay-inc-ebay-presents-morgan-stanley-technology-media-and-...

Thanks,

John Norman

eBay seller Maxoptical

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We are using AI to improve our accuracy based on past/similar transactions, and not just rely on the information provided by the carriers to calculate the estimated delivery date.

[international_shipping@ebay]

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@shipscript wrote:

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international_shipping@ebay wrote:

The current value limit through the program has been increased to $2500 for most counties. We are working to increase this to other countries depending on US exports requirements.

Is there a list of limits by country? Or is it too dependent on the item type (harmonized code)?

---

international_shipping@ebay wrote:

Duties and Taxes and VAT if required are collected at the time of checkout when the order is a Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) or are assessed by customs to the Buyer with the order is Delivered Duty Unpaid (DDP). The Seller is not responsible for the collection and remission of these required fees.

---

I've only seen examples of DDU. Is DDP currently active, or is it price dependent?

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Most of the countries went through the price limit increase to $2,500. We don’t have the country list published but will add this information to the eBay International Shipping FAQs.

DDP is live, it is dependent on a combination of an item price and a destination country.