International Fees charged to sellers

[nancyc5581]

I am fed up with being charged international fees because someone from another country bought something from me. I clearly state that I do not sell outside of the USA but eBay now has US hubs all over that buyers from other countries can have things shipped to so they think it's okay to buy.  It is not good enough, you have to be BASED in this country to not have the fees charged to the seller so maybe getting an additional account to buy in the US is an answer for the buyers to not upset the sellers or get their orders cancelled.

Sellers get charged an international currency conversion fee because someone is based in another country.

Just today I tried to get the $15.18 Int. fee refunded to me but I was told that I had it refunded on 4 other items on items that were sold to foreign buyers in the past and they cannot refund this amount. So I guess 4 refunded fees is the limit before they say tough luck to you. That would have been good to know so I wouldn't have wasted a call for a 38 cent refund on one of those times.

I am so upset.

If any fee has to be charged make the buyer pay for it not the seller especially since I clearly state I don't sell outside my country.

eBay said they cannot do anything about this. They cannot block people based  from other countries from buying. They cannot charge the buyers this fee either evidently.... why the heck not?

Totally not fair to the sellers at all.

[janet9988]

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@nancyc5581 wrote:

I am fed up with being charged international fees because someone from another country bought something from me. I clearly state that I do not sell outside of the USA but eBay now has US hubs all over that buyers from other countries can have things shipped to so they think it's okay to buy.  It is not good enough, you have to be BASED in this country to not have the fees charged to the seller so maybe getting an additional account to buy in the US is an answer for the buyers to not upset the sellers or get their orders cancelled.

Sellers get charged an international currency conversion fee because someone is based in another country.

Just today I tried to get the $15.18 Int. fee refunded to me but I was told that I had it refunded on 4 other items on items that were sold to foreign buyers in the past and they cannot refund this amount. So I guess 4 refunded fees is the limit before they say tough luck to you. That would have been good to know so I wouldn't have wasted a call for a 38 cent refund on one of those times.

I am so upset.

If any fee has to be charged make the buyer pay for it not the seller especially since I clearly state I don't sell outside my country.

eBay said they cannot do anything about this. They cannot block people based  from other countries from buying. They cannot charge the buyers this fee either evidently.... why the heck not?

Totally not fair to the sellers at all.

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No you don't.

There is no way to avoid those fees. Those fees are clearlyy shown to you in ebay policies.

[nancyc5581]

There should be a way to NOT sell to people not based in the USA. This is a crappy policy and not fair to the sellers who DON'T want to deal with international buyers or anything.

[fern*wood]

You called for a thirty eight cent refund?  Are you having problems with these sales?  Are they not profitable?   Thankfully, most of my international sales are through the ebay international shipping program and they waive the fee.  I do get one occasionally that goes through a forwarder instead, but the fee isn't much.  So unless I have problems with returns with them, it's not too bad.

[nancyc5581]

It's the principle of the thing with me. Had I known about their 4 refund limit I would not have called about the stupid 38 cent fee. Like I said it's the principle of the thing and I don't think it's fair to the sellers. What should I do raise all my prices on everything just in case someone based in another country buys from me. Do I not have a choice in the matter as to who can buy from me???

[dbfolks166mt · Accepted solution]

     A couple of points of clarity.

I am fed up with being charged international fees because someone from another country bought something from me. I clearly state that I do not sell outside of the USA but eBay now has US hubs all over that buyers from other countries can have things shipped to so they think it's okay to buy. 

     You can only block countries that you do not SHIP TO .  EBay does not give you the ability to block countries you don't sell to. EBay does NOT have hugs all over but there are a LOT of buyers that utilize the commercial service of freight forwarders (FF's) to consolidate their international shipments. 

It is not good enough, you have to be BASED in this country to not have the fees charged to the seller so maybe getting an additional account to buy in the US is an answer for the buyers to not upset the sellers or get their orders cancelled.

     You do not have to be "based" in the US for a seller to be charged the international feel. There are two cases where the international fee is charged. 

If you're not using eBay International Shipping to ship your item, we charge an international fee if either:

• The delivery address for the item (entered by the buyer during checkout) is outside the US, or
• The buyer's registered address is outside the US (regardless of the delivery address for the item)

Sellers get charged an international currency conversion fee because someone is based in another country.

     In most cases the buyer pays the currency conversion fee. 

Just today I tried to get the $15.18 Int. fee refunded to me but I was told that I had it refunded on 4 other items on items that were sold to foreign buyers in the past and they cannot refund this amount. So I guess 4 refunded fees is the limit before they say tough luck to you. That would have been good to know so I wouldn't have wasted a call for a 38 cent refund on one of those times.

I am so upset.

If any fee has to be charged make the buyer pay for it not the seller especially since I clearly state I don't sell outside my country.

     I agree with you on this one but eBay is unlikely to change the current policy they have too many other issues. 

eBay said they cannot do anything about this. They cannot block people based  from other countries from buying. They cannot charge the buyers this fee either evidently.... why the heck not?

Totally not fair to the sellers at all.

     You may want to look at the eBay EIS program for potentially expanding your sales to the international marketplace. The seller protections under EIS are better than they are for domestic sales and indications are eBay is standing behind those protections. The following explains the EIS program. There is no international fee on any international sale that goes through the EIS program. 

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/shipping-items/setting-shipping-options/ebay-international-shippin...  

[dbfolks166mt]

There should be a way to NOT sell to people not based in the USA. This is a crappy policy and not fair to the sellers who DON'T want to deal with international buyers or anything.

     You do realize you can still be charged the international fee even if your buyer is "based" in the US. If their eBay account happens to be registered in a foreign country but they are either temporarily or permanently  living in the US then you will still get charge the international fee. Examples include college students, employees working on temporary assignment for a company in the US, foreign government workers.............. 

     The same applies in reverse to US registered eBay'ers that are temporarily or permanently living or working overseas with a foreign shipping address. 

[lakefor94]

@nancyc5581  you must sell out of nearly everything right away if you are worried about an international fee.

[nancyc5581]

I'm working on it now. I see no eBay in my future sadly. Luckily I haven't had too many international sales but lately it has increased so I'm looking for other platforms to sell at that is better at protecting seller rights.

If I don't want to deal with international sales and the fees that come with it I should have that right as a seller.

Once again, it is the principle of the thing and if a fee has to be charged let the buyer pay for it not the seller.

[nancyc5581]

All these fees should be charged to the buyer not the seller.

[stainlessenginecovers]

A $15 charge means it was a $1000 sale. You mean you wouldn't take $985 for that $1000 thingy?

[robbie31415]

A Lot of the times where the 1.65% fee will be added are to places where there is no sales tax.

So if it's an $1000 item and you sell to say California with a 10% sales tax that's like 13.9% off $100. So $13.90 fee.

So most of the time it really makes no difference.

[nancyc5581]

I priced the "thingy" at spot price plus ebay fees so taking a cut because of int. fees does hurt a bit as I try to keep prices low and reasonable for sellers. I could have sold it in town for about the amount I sold it for minus the eBay fees but I'm trying to preserve beautiful things and sell them to people who appreciate their worth and beauty. I will be rethinking everything because selling and being penalized for it monitarily just is a hassle now.

Like I said a million times now it is the principle of being charged an international fee when the buyer should eat it not the seller.

[nancyc5581]

I think I'll just stick to selling the one item that has never had a foreign buyer and stop selling the other type of items that get foreign attention and just be done with it. This has just gotten too frustrating and complicated for me and doesn't make sense.

[nancyc5581]

I've never had a buyer pay that conversion fee but luckily I've only sold to foreign buyers around 5 times now.

I am going to eliminate the items that the foreign people look for and just go back to the other items they don't care about to avoid all this crap. I have had enough frustration with this topic and it's just a hobby with me so I am going to make life easier for myself and delete the stuff the foreigners like, problem solved.

Plus I didn't appreciate the attitude of the little squirrel of a guy that was a supposed supervisor at eBay I talked to today.