Packlink customs forms trouble and buyers bypassing GSP

[the-gasman-cometh]

Hi

I recently sold an item on a FVF promo and which had discount shipping with Packlink.

The item was bought by someone in Russia, even though I'd enabled GSP.  I was surprised at this but more on that later. So I got a quote via ebay's print label service with Packlink (who used UPS) and the invoice was paid.

The trouble started with Packlink's customs form which mandates the receiver's tax ID - https://support-ebay.packlink.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360006638399-Customs-invoice-and-how-to-complete...

They also say that 3 copies of the 2-pager forms plus another two papers i.e. 8 pages in total have to be in the package's adhesive plastic envelope ... hmm I don't think so.

The buyer was adamant that this was not required with sub 200Eur items but the Packlink instructions said it was mandatory otherwise it would be stuck in customs. I queried this via chat and they confirmed it. It's odd since Royal Mail's customs form is a simple half pager with much less detail.

So why is Packlink's customs process so much more onerous?

Either way I'm going to cancel the transaction as the complexity of all this is a hassle, and it doesn't augur well just in case anything goes wrong. I can see the case for GSP removing all of this complexity from sellers, even though I understand it has its faults.

And as for why a Russian buyer was able to bypass GSP, Ebay support took some time to say that this was possible if the buyer had a UK address defined, and that I had to explicitly block Russian buyers in future ...

[pburn]

Since you are an ebay.co.uk member, you might want to check the UK discussion boards to make sure procedures for ebay.co.uk are the same as they are for ebay.com.

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Discussion-Boards/ct-p/13

[marnotom!]

Russia is one of the 100 or so countries that are served by the Global Shipping Program, although there may be restrictions on the item’s value. 

Items shipped through the Global Shipping Program are sent by the seller to a warehouse in Kentucky who then forwards it to the destination country.  You don’t need to deal with customs forms because all the pre-clearance stuff is handled by the GSP.

Why didn’t you just send the item to the Kentucky warehouse?  Are you sure you’re using the GSP?

EDIT:  As a UK seller, you would be shipping your item to a location in the UK.  Your responsibility for the item’s safe passage ends once the GSP accepts the item there.

https://sellercentre.ebay.co.uk/private/global-shipping-programme

[marnotom!]

Okay, just read that page I linked to and—surprise!—Russia isn’t supported by the UK GSP.  Learn something new every day.

Since you don’t specify shipping to Russia in your listing, I would have asked the buyer to provide a UK address to have the item sent to.

[the-gasman-cometh]

Yes good idea in case it happens in future, but for now I'll just try to remember to block Russia on any listings. 😉

[reallynicestamps]

If GSP doesn't cover the destination, but you don't actually Block the destination, the customer can still buy.

The difference is that instead of paying duty and sales taxes (VAT) upfront, he will be charged on delivery to Russia.

The buyer was adamant that this was not required with sub 200Eur items but the Packlink instructions said it was mandatory otherwise it would be stuck in customs.

I suspect that the 200euros is the Russian duty-free allowance.

The buyer is wrong. Customs will want to know what is in the parcel, so they can agree that there is no duty.

Packlink understands this.

So why is Packlink's customs process so much more onerous?

Because they are a company that has to pass copies of all the forms in eighteen different directions.
They likely have the same directions for all countries, because it's simpler to go with the most complex situation than to have 178 different sets of instructions.

Couriers work under a very different set of rules than postal services, who only have to deal with the Universal Postal Union.

I'd cancel too, but mostly because the buyer is trying to make up his own rules about shipping.
The seller must control shipping.