Cancelling all sales to international buyers who use a USA address

[sell-more]

I am finding more & more sales where overseas buyers are using friends or relatives address & I am getting poked for international fees.     I rather lose the sale than get charged yet another fee.  EBAY needs to point blank put the load on the buyer for the international transaction fee..  Otherwise every sale will be axed and my response to the buyer will be >>  Sorry I am canceling the sale because I feel I should not get charged a INTERNATIONAL fee due to you being a foreign buyer using a USA based address.. Until eBay starts charging buyers that fee I will continue to cancel orders that pose an international fee to me which I didn't ask for.. 

[sell-more]

We shall see it seems to be averaging 2 a month and I am still here.

[itscalledapostingid]

Just raise all your prices by 2% and don't worry about it.

[monster-deals]

---

@sell-more wrote:

We shall see it seems to be averaging 2 a month and I am still here.

---

2 a month?

Your stay here may be shorter than you think.

[pjcdn2005]

Were you blocking those people before through Paypal?  They charged an extra 1.5% for international buyers... just a bit less than the 1.65% that eBay is charging.  On your $200 item the fee would be just over $3.

Just as a general fyi for those who mentioned that it was a currency conversion fee.  It has nothing to do with the currency, the buyer already pays 3 to 4% for that if they pay in a currency other than $US.  The charge comes into play when the buyer is paying from an international account.  For example, my Canadian PP accounts has both $US and $C so if I purchase from a US seller, I would pay in $US but the seller would still have the international transaction fee.

[shado-x]

Why would ebay charge an international shipping fee for a domestic delivery?

Ebay (I believe) is charging a currency conversion fee, much like PayPal does.  The buyer is using currency based in their home country, and then it is converted to the currency that the seller uses to collect.  Biggest bank racket known to man----but yeah, that's what it is, why should eBay pay for it.

[kensgiftshop]

---

@bayp26 wrote:

---

---

@dhbookds wrote:

Ebay is charging the fee as part of the money handling component......just like paypal did.........  it's really a minuscule amt......1.65%(?)......... but if you can/not afford to turn down sales because of it....certainly your choice.

I think referring to it in your listings would probably qualify the listing for getting it pulled.

---

@dhbookds

---

Why would ebay charge an international shipping fee for a domestic delivery?

---

It doesn't have anything to do with delivery.

It has to do with the buyer having a international funding source.

[slippinjimmy]

---

@shado-x wrote:

Why would ebay charge an international shipping fee for a domestic delivery?

Ebay (I believe) is charging a currency conversion fee, much like PayPal does.  The buyer is using currency based in their home country, and then it is converted to the currency that the seller uses to collect.  Biggest bank racket known to man----but yeah, that's what it is, why should eBay pay for it.

---

This issue has NOTHING AT ALL to do with Currency Conversion!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you list on .com, the listing is in US Dollars, buyers MUST pay you in US Dollars,  if the buyer does not have US Dollars THEY must convert their currency to US Dollars and pay the associated currency conversion fees.

Sellers DO NOT pay this fee, it is all on the buyer!

The 1.65% "International fee" is applied to any transaction where the buyer and seller are registered in different countries. This type of fee was introduced by credit card companies in  the early 1970's and is applied by every payment processor on the planet (at least the ones that process Visa & MasterCard payments).

Some processors charge slightly less than 1.65% some charge slightly more but it's a FACT that this is not new and not specific to eBay, it has been in place for 50 years.

If you are looking for a "dodgy scam" look no further than PayPal who charge the same fees for payments funded by a credit card (creates expenses for PayPal) as a payment funded by a PayPal balance (no expenses for PayPal).

In the early days of PayPal expense-free payments made from a user balance or bank transfer was the "secret sauce" that made PayPal what it is today.

[mrfindit]

It isn't a shipping fee.  It is a fee to basically convert foreign currency from their foreign bank, to us currency to deposit in your bank.  It's more of a currency exchange fee.  Doesn't matter where it is delivered, just how it is paid for.

[mrfindit]

On my other E-Bay accounts, ~15% of my sales are overseas.  I've never really notice the fee much.  I just switched to charging counter rates for my postage instead of E-Bay discounted rates.  Take the couple etxra dollars per US transaction there and let the international fees nibble at it.

So far it seems to work, even though occasionally when I price items by total cost vs competitor's total cost, I am probably baking that shipping discount out.

[chefd2007]

If you don't sell to Buyers outside the U.S, you shouldn't be charged an International Fee because a Buyer is circumventing the block you have on International Sales and having it shipped to a Freight Forwarder. It is no different than a Buyer circumventing the BBL (Blocked Buyers List) and opening a new account to acquire your item they were prevented from purchasing. If anything, that International Fee should be applied to the Buyer, not the Seller.

After seeing this Fee on a recent transaction as the Buyer was in Hong Kong, and the ship to address was a sketchy Freight Forwarder in New Castle, Delaware, I cancelled the order for "problem with address", as the shipping address has been flagged online as fraud related. May not have been the case, but not taking that risk and also eating that Fee as well.

I don't sell Internationally and not signed up with the GSP (Global Shipping Program) and will not eat that Fee, or raise my prices to accommodate it, which would screw Domestic Buyers, it's ridiculous. My prices are based on my costs, and International Fees are not factored into them, and never will be. A buyer outside the U.S. should be prevented by eBay from purchasing from me based on my Site Settings, it's just that simple.

[pjcdn2005]

The buyer isn't circumventing any block.  A seller can only  block shipping locations and the buyer is not asking the seller to ship to any of those blocked locations, they are asking for shipping within the US.

You would pay less than $1 extra on any of your current listings if an international buyer purchased from you.  I guess I find it difficult to understand why someone would choose to alienate buyers because of that. 

Unfortunately, sellers cancelling a sale when the buyer is asking them to ship to another site just gives those buyers a bad taste about ebay in general.

[mandy_4281]

---

@sell-more wrote:

I say its not the correct address in my reason to ebay.  My loss, their loss & the international buyers loss.   I dont look at any of that stupid metrics ebay provides -  I missed the simple old days it was so much cut & dry. they have OVER ENGINEERED everything.  An example is the  now gone CLASSIC VIEW 😞

---

That will catch up with you eventually and you'll end up suspended.

[powell-memorabilia]

@sell-more 

To each his own.  Me, I think that the extra fee is a bargain if I weight the additional sales and much better seller protection of a sale to a freight forwarder.  

[katzrul15]

We have 2-3 that buy quite a bit from us and it is shipped to 1 of 2 freight forwarders in NY.

They never haggle over price, buy multiples at a time, etc even when a Best offer feature is on the listing.  Am guessing they cannot get these items where they ultimately are (no clue where that is) and they buy in bulk to make the freight forwarder dealee work out for them.  

Many of our items say free shipping and the last time, they purchased 9 items that day.  We were delighted.  I win, they win - and someone signs at the freight forwarder for my large box and all is good.  (btw, they left really nice FB at the holidays as well).  if it gets us repeat business, YAY.  

[go-bad-chicken]

---

@powell-memorabilia wrote:

@sell-more 

To each his own.  Me, I think that the extra fee is a bargain if I weight the additional sales and much better seller protection of a sale to a freight forwarder.  

---

@powell-memorabilia 

The automatic seller protections that use to be applied when a foreign buyer used a freight forwarder no longer exist. eBay changed that around 2 years ago. 

Now in order for a seller to get protection they have to some how get the foreign buyer to admit that the item was in fact forwarded to a location outside of the USA, within eBay messages. If the buyer either chooses not to respond or is unwilling to answer the question truthfully then the seller will not receive any extra protection.