International shipping fees?

[frankienlola]

Only shipped a handful of times internationally, when requested, so didn't spend many hours learning the ins and outs. Found this interesting though. Had a sale going to Miami from NY but incurred the 1.65 due to buyers ebay address being in Costa Rica.  Currency conversion is very expensive!

[glasser]

Yes, eBay does a bad job letting sellers know that a buyer is using a freight forwarder. Then they get hit wiyj a 1.6% international fee (which is not really a huge conversion rate).

The seller only finds out after the purchase. Plus even if you don't sell internationally, because they have a US address it still sells to an international buyer.

I have no problem with any of this. I deeply appreciate my international buyers but better information on al of this would be helpful to sellers.

[stainlessenginecovers]

I would consider $1.65 for a $100 sale to be the complete opposite of Very Expensive. 

Currency Conversion has had an additional cost to websites for decades. 

[frankienlola]

I know it's not an excessive rate, I've paid nearly 3% when abroad for face to face conversion. But this is a fee I don't believe you can protect yourself from, or can you?

[friskya]

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@frankienlola wrote:

I know it's not an excessive rate, I've paid nearly 3% when abroad for face to face conversion. But this is a fee I don't believe you can protect yourself from, or can you?

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You can't.

When PayPal™ was the payment processor you used to be able to decline any payments originated in a foreign currency. Adyen apparently doesn't have the ability to identify those. Or, eBay has instructed them to ignore them and simply process to the sellers currency. (yes, I find this explanation far more likely - gotta get them fees!)

[frankienlola]

Thanks for the input. Even with the fee I was still happy to get the sale and would take them all day long! 

I would have never thought to even go investigate this fee and mostly posted this for others who may be unaware....... not that anything can be done to avoid it apparently.

[eunster1313]

@frankienlola 

The New International Fee eBay Added Has Nothing To Do With Currency Conversion.

It's Simply A New Fee eBay Added.

The only way anybody can avoid the fee is if you can check the potential buyers user id

to see what country they are registered in (before they buy). Then you would need to put

them on your buyer blocked list before they buy.

So unless someone asks a question or sends you an offer before the sale happens you

can't avoid it.

Currency Conversion Fees If Any Are Covered Separately In This Section.

Selling fees

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/selling-fees?id=4822&st=12&pos=1&query=Selli... 

[123sharonb]

I had that happen to me once...it was shipped to NY, but his residence per ebay was in Canada.

I messaged support and they reversed it - bear in mind, mine was shipped USPS Media Mail and that option does not do international, so it was easy to prove the mistake was on their end.

[statur_3257]

I didn't really think it was much to do with exchange fees since they're electronic just like the FR adding to money supply. That's why I said sarcastically said "currency conversion is expensive!"

Thanks for the info, that's what I was really fishing around for,  I'm going to read that tonight

[greatstuff80]

If I use my credit card outside of the USA, I (the buyer), gets charged any International conversion fees. ebay has decided to stick the seller with that fee. 

[greatstuff80]

Semantics. Ebay is still sticking it to the seller when it is the buyer who should pay any extra fees for purchasing outside their country. 

[frankienlola]

Yes, but the same three or four ebay shills here that comment on every post tell you that you should feel lucky it isn't quadruple what you pay for something you have no control over. 

[wastingtime101]

It stinks that sellers have no control over it, but that's how the system is set up. All you can do is work out the amount of international fees you have per year and divide that by your number of transactions per year. Take that amount and add it to your item prices.

[slippinjimmy]

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@frankienlola wrote:

Yes, but the same three or four ebay shills here that comment on every post tell you that you should feel lucky it isn't quadruple what you pay for something you have no control over. 

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You mean the shills that know that PayPal had the same fee with a HIGHER RATE.

Or maybe you mean the shills that have had merchant credit card accounts for DECADES and have always paid a "cross-border" fee when a non-us credit card is used.

Perhaps you mean the shills that understand that a slightly higher fee is better than no fees and no sale at all.