Simply-the-best-for-you Volunteer Community Mentor
mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
I think there's a lot of replies making this more complex than it really is (and several that don't understand the question). See @stainlessenginecovers answer. You can charge whatever you want or nothing at all, for the domestic portion. The buyer isn't really going to know the difference, as what they see does NOT break out the domestic portion of the shipping. Stainless is correct, that the only way they would know is if you told them or if they actually went in & changed the shipping location to the US to see, which I don't think most buyers would even know how to do.
I also second that if YOU decide to do that, remember to change it back! I changed my location to Switzerland the other week & a few days later, couldn't figure out why a domestic shipment on an item I wanted to buy was going to come EIS. Duh. I forgot to change myself back to USA.
I've been using EIS for months now, though I don't offer FS for the domestic piece, but I have checked what the breakdown is that the buyer sees, several times & I have never seen it broken down between domestic/international, though VAT is separated out.
@junkforjoysc wrote:Will sellers be able to offer free shipping to domestic buyers and have international buyers pay shipping? As a US seller I offer free shipping to US buyers, but international rates can be all over the place, depending on what country the buyer is in.
We have always been able to do that and we can continue to do that with EIS.
The simple answer to your question is yes especially as it relates to you offering free domestic shipping. With regards to international shipping I took a look at a couple of your listings and it looks like you have been transitioned to the EIS program. However, during the transition and the unilateral conversion of the international shipping methods on your listings to the EIS program not all of your items may have been converted to EIS. The EIS program has a number of restrictions on what can be shipped via that program that are related to size, weight and type of item.
For those items that have been converted to EIS the seller does not have to worry about setting the costs for the international shipping leg as the EIS program does that for you based on where it is shipping to. I do not use the EIS program so I am not sure if EIS sends the invoice to the buyer as the GSP program used to or if eBay sends it as though it appears to be coming from the seller with the EIS shipping cost included in the cost to the buyer. I would assume that that international shipping cost is retained by eBay when the buyer pays, similar to the way they retain sales tax they collect from the buyer, and those funds are sent to the EIS contractor. The seller never purchases or pays for the international shipping leg the EIS program handles that. The seller pays for and creates the label to get the item to the EIS shipping hub(s). I am also not sure if eBay applies FVF's to the international shipping leg costs but maybe some of the sellers using EIS can comment on that based on items they have shipped.
The sticky wicket may be those items that were not transitioned to EIS during the transition. You may need to check those to make sure they were not altered or changed during the conversion process and if they were what they were changed to especially if you were using GSP prior to the transition. The GSP is going away at some point. At present EIS does not collect VAT, customs or taxes from the buyer in advance the way GSP used to so some buyers may be hit with those costs when the item arrives in country but the EIS professes some pretty good seller protections that should eliminate issues related to customs scams, returns, refunds............... Following is one of your currently listed items that has been converted to EIS. Note the international shipping cost EIS incorporated for the foreign shipment.
EIS is at the account level, not the listing level. It is all or none at this point. It is a change that they are working on, giving us the ability to turn off listings as we desire so they are not in EIS.
@dbfolks166mt FYI, EIS at times DOES collect VAT tax. I've had it on several sales & the TOS says they may. It's not necessarily consistent, so you can't predict which shipments they will & won't, but I've had several shipments where they've collected it & I know I even posted one in a thread where someone had some specific questions about VAT. Also, I had a huge problem with one of the buyers b/c Norway then ALSO collected VAT tax & she was not happy. Ebay eventually refunded her the dup VAT, but it took a lot of effort to get to the right people to do that within Ebay.
@dbfolks166mt wrote:@dbfolks166mt FYI, EIS at times DOES collect VAT tax. I've had it on several sales & the TOS says they may. It's not necessarily consistent, so you can't predict which shipments they will & won't, but I've had several shipments where they've collected it & I know I even posted one in a thread where someone had some specific questions about VAT. Also, I had a huge problem with one of the buyers b/c Norway then ALSO collected VAT tax & she was not happy. Ebay eventually refunded her the dup VAT, but it took a lot of effort to get to the right people to do that within Ebay.
Great sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. I remember your post but I don't believe I got the impression that EIS had collected the VAT up front. At least the buyer caught it so they didn't have to pay twice. The inconsistency with the VAT, Tax or Customs fees may drive more than one buyer and seller nuts. However, this does not surprise me eBay does not have a solid track record when it comes to implementing change and the EIS sub-contractor is fairly new to the logistics game so it will be interesting to see how all this plays out.
I am watching from the sidelines and would really like to get back into international shipping, I quit when they announced the transition from the GSP to EIS, but the program simply had to many inconsistencies when they announced it and there are currently too many restrictions. The international market accounts for over 50% of eBay's business these days so it is a viable growing marketplace.
@dbfolks166mt I was simply addressing your comment that they don't collect it, not what they should or shouldn't do or anything else about the 'inconsistency'. To my understanding the 'inconsistency' is that each shipment is considered individually & the country & carrier & other factors are taken into account, so there is no hard & fast rule. As a seller, that doesn't bother me. The whole point is for them to handle the logistics.
In my prior post, absolutely it was an EIS sale & absolutely VAT was collected, here's the proof. This happens to be the one that was refunded. I've had I think around 15 EIS tx's now & this one was the only one with an issue (though I've had others where they collected VAT). But again, I'm not debating whether they should or shouldn't, just pointing out that sometimes they DO 🙂
You knew what meant. But your need to always on the prowl for a disagreement is just silly really. And what you said above still does not change what I said.
EIS is at the account level. Sellers currently do not have the ability to turn off EIS on specific listings. That all remains the TRUTH. But yes, Ebay can turn off specific listings that they deem do not qualify for International shipping. Are we all better now?
@dbfolks166mt wrote:@dbfolks166mt I was simply addressing your comment that they don't collect it, not what they should or shouldn't do or anything else about the 'inconsistency'. To my understanding the 'inconsistency' is that each shipment is considered individually & the country & carrier & other factors are taken into account, so there is no hard & fast rule. As a seller, that doesn't bother me. The whole point is for them to handle the logistics.
In my prior post, absolutely it was an EIS sale & absolutely VAT was collected, here's the proof. This happens to be the one that was refunded. I've had I think around 15 EIS tx's now & this one was the only one with an issue (though I've had others where they collected VAT). But again, I'm not debating whether they should or shouldn't, just pointing out that sometimes they DO
Thank you for the reminder and the screen shots. Glad to know that you, the buyer and eBay/EIS got this situation worked out but I for one don't have the time or inclination to deal with the issues that may pop up under this program. This is one of the reasons I quit selling internationally when they announced the EIS program, I used to use the GSP. As a seller I am just the opposite with regards to consistency. I want the EIS to not only handle the logistics of the transaction but to do it in a consistent manner. The inconsistency is exactly what I was expecting to happen with the EIS program given the lack of an established track record for the contractor that is running the program. I suspect that the sub contractor had only a minimal idea of what they were stepping into.
@dbfolks166mt Gotcha. Time will tell. I guess I can understand why each situation would be different, but I also understand why a seller may want consistency, so they can let their buyers know what to expect. It's an imperfect system for sure, but so was GSP. So, all we can do is make our own choices. I'm not trying to sway your decision. This is the only problem I've had with it so far. If I start having regular problems with it, I'll have to reevaluate. I had to stop GSP for awhile, during the pandemic, b/c items were sitting at the center for 3-4 weeks & while I know it wasn't GSP's fault, I wasn't comfortable with it. We all have to choose what we're comfortable with. For me, it's so far, so good on EIS. I totally get that others may have a different comfort level.
