Incorrect Shipping and tax for an order. How to get support?

[gooddealeo]

We had an order today where the shipping price charged was not the shipping price required to buy the label through ebay. I went back and checked and nothing about my shipping set up was incorrect as far as I could see. This was a best offer purchase and to my knowledge a buyer cannot change their shipping address after the purchase. Looking back I see the customer was charged CT taxes, but the person was in CA. Likewise he was charged a shipping amount consistent with shipping to CT from here. But the actual shipping address was CA which was a 45% increase in the shipping costs.

This seems like an error in the system.  Phone support is not available and there doesn't seem to be an option in seller help.

As to not delay the customer I went ahead and shipped but really would like to hear from ebay, I want to understand this issue.

[disneyshopper]

to my knowledge a buyer cannot change their shipping address after the purchase

A buyer can change the SHIP TO address when s/he makes payment.  Therefore, buyer can live in CT but have the item shipped to CA.  In this case, CA sales/use tax would be charged.  Does the ship to address include the + 4 after the zip code?  If not, then the amount of the tax might vary since every county has a different tax rate.

[gooddealeo]

Hey thank you for the reply. I know they can have the different shipping address but like you say, it should calculate based on the ship to. It did have the +4 but this is genuinely the difference between CA and CT. The invoice shows "6.35% CT Sales tax:" with shipping equivalent to what I paid for the same package to the same zone recently. The ship to address was CA and the amount we received was not adjusted. So I am trying to figure out how to avoid this and how to reach out to ebay about it.

[lacemaker3]

@gooddealeo, did you send an invoice for this purchase before the buyer paid?

I haven't run into this since eBay started adding the sales tax ... but before that, if you sent an invoice to the buyer, it would lock-in the shipping cost, at the cost to the buyer's primary shipping address. If the buyer changed the shipping address when they paid, they would still pay the original shipping cost, no matter what the actual cost was to the new address. This is a very good reason NOT to send an invoice, unless it's absolutely necessary.

I don't know how this would affect the sales tax, but it sounds like it would explain the shipping charge discrepancy.

[gooddealeo]

Yes I sent an invoice. It was a Best Offer purchase. Unless misunderstood something, I  have to send an invoice for best offer, right?  I would have thought the rules would be the same as a normal purchase. That really seems exploitable.  I went ahead and shipped but guess I should have pressed back for more shipping or canceled and refunded. But we are so new to selling I didn't want to generate any negative feedback. If it generates positive feed back it's probably worth the money lost but still that's a bit frustrating.

Thanks for the info.

[slippinjimmy]

It was the sending of the invoice that locks in the tax and the shipping to the eBay "Primary Ship To Address". when the buyer goes through checkout they can change the shipping address on the PayPal side and it will not change the shipping or tax charged on the eBay side.

There is no need to send an invoice for a Best Offer that is accepted, I'm pretty sure the buyer gets a notice of acceptance that includes a Pay Now button.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@gooddealeo wrote: ... . Unless misunderstood something, I  have to send an invoice for best offer, right?  I would have thought the rules would be the same as a normal purchase. .... .

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No, you do not have to send an invoice for an accepted Best Offer, nor for a regular purchase..

[gooddealeo]

Oh, OK Thank you all very much. It seemed like the site says next thing to do after accepting is to send an invoice. So that's what we were doing. I'd rather not do the extra work and eliminate the risk.