eBay

cybaflea · ‎09-10-2025

Hi,

I need advice and to know what my rights are in this situation.

I have a buyer that is threatening not to accept an item I have shipped to them because he may have to pay a tariff or duty on the item.

I am located in Canada and have shipped a model car. It's country of manufacture is USA, and I have stated this on the customs form.

If he refuses to accept the item and it gets returned. I will have to pay a huge shipping fee as it costs alot to process returns from US to Canada.

The auction cost was $75 so now under the new import laws, I am not sure what he will pay.

Can I just refuse his return and will eBay remove the inevitable negative feedback that will come?

bonanza125 · ‎09-10-2025

Well as far as the negative if they leave a negative feedback I would say appeal that if it comes your way cause the buyer refusing to pay tariffs has nothing to do with you as a seller. That's an uncontrollable issue. Yes you will have the huge shipping cost if it got returned and have to refund the buyer.

heckofagame · ‎09-10-2025

In this case, the buyer will not be covered by the money back guarantee as is was refused.

dhbookds · ‎09-10-2025

Check the rules for Canada......here I see:

Yes, you’re covered by eBay Money Back Guarantee if you’ve paid import fees and your item doesn’t arrive, is delayed due to customs processing, or arrives not as described. However, if you refuse the package because of import fees or shipping carrier charges, eBay Money Back Guarantee does not apply.

from this page

https://pages.ebay.com/tariffs/#ac-2

lacemaker3 · ‎09-10-2025

@cybaflea,

Was this for the 1/25 scale Chevy model?

https://www.ebay.com/bin/purchaseHistory?item=334995596612

How did you ship it?

The listing says it was located in Toronto, but would be shipped by USPS Priority Mail. Did you ship it by Canada Post, or by Chit Chat or Stallion (which could be shown as USPS)? With any of those, the duty/import fees would have to be paid when you purchased the shipping label.

It's important to know how how you shipped it ... I'm not aware of any shipping method from Canada, where the buyer would have to pay any import fees on delivery at the moment ... but I might not have thought of something ...

So there should not be any issue with this, the buyer should not be charged anything.

tapi-szem · ‎09-10-2025

I may not be 100% correct, but if the country of manufacture is the US, then no extra tariffs should apply.

This is from experience with shipping goods to the US - if they are made in the US and packaged separately - no tariffs, made elsewhere - tariffs.

cybaflea · ‎09-10-2025

I shipped it via Chit Chats and this gave me a label of USPS.

There was some extra costs to pay, but I paid these (about $5).
Merchandise Processing Fee
Shipment Items Fee

Which I've never had to pay before. I haven't shipped anything to the USA since the de minimis exemption was dropped.

lacemaker3 · ‎09-10-2025

@cybaflea wrote:
I shipped it via Chit Chats and this gave me a label of USPS.

There was some extra costs to pay, but I paid these (about $5).
Merchandise Processing Fee
Shipment Items Fee

Which I've never had to pay before. I haven't shipped anything to the USA since the de minimis exemption was dropped.

@cybaflea

I believe those fees were what Chit Chats charges as a handling fee, for processing the DDP shipment, meaning it was shipped Delivered Duty Paid.

As far as I know, since Aug 28, Chit Chats only accepts DDP shipments to the USA, so you would have paid the duty on your buyer's behalf. Hopefully, you had enough from the US$18 shipping charge to cover it.

They should not be asked to pay anything when the package is delivered. You should not have a problem.

sin-n-dex · ‎09-10-2025

@cybaflea wrote:
Hi,

I need advice and to know what my rights are in this situation.

I have a buyer that is threatening not to accept an item I have shipped to them because he may have to pay a tariff or duty on the item.

I am located in Canada and have shipped a model car. It's country of manufacture is USA, and I have stated this on the customs form.

If he refuses to accept the item and it gets returned. I will have to pay a huge shipping fee as it costs alot to process returns from US to Canada.

The auction cost was $75 so now under the new import laws, I am not sure what he will pay.

Can I just refuse his return and will eBay remove the inevitable negative feedback that will come?

Did you ship UPS or FedEx?

You have big problems if you did (and right now I think those are the only options that would cause a US buyer to pay a tariff, other services like Canada Post require you to prepay the tariff before shipping).

If the buyer refuses it, you will be on the hook with your carrier for return postage, plus the carrier will come after you for the tariff the buyer refused to pay (whether or not you want the item back, that doesn't matter).

Come join us in the Canadian eBay Forum, lots of other sellers there share your problems with shipping from Canada.

C.

sin-n-dex · ‎09-10-2025

@cybaflea wrote:
I shipped it via Chit Chats and this gave me a label of USPS.

There was some extra costs to pay, but I paid these (about $5).
Merchandise Processing Fee
Shipment Items Fee

Which I've never had to pay before. I haven't shipped anything to the USA since the de minimis exemption was dropped.

Relax, if you shipped it Chit Chats they take care of the border crossing and charge you tariffs up front. (I ship with Stallion which does the same thing).

Your buyer will not have to pay tariffs, the item will come as a domestic shipment.

C.

lacemaker3 · ‎09-10-2025

@sin-n-dex, I believe I already said that.

It's best to read the whole thread before you reply.

sin-n-dex · ‎09-10-2025

@lacemaker3 wrote:
@sin-n-dex, I believe I already said that.

It's best to read the whole thread before you reply.

I would (read the whole thread) but sometimes they're long if there's gaps in my reading and I haven't been around... I try to not post a reply to post #3 when there's 100 posts after it.

C.