stuck with Buyer's Custom's charge?

[bill989]

The Buyer was responsible for shipping on my sale, which I shipped from the US to Canada via the Buyer's chosen method. But weeks later UPS shocked me with a bill for customs charges (US$76.44) which eBay did not show in the Shipping cost the Buyer was charged.

Half my profit disappeared due to this and the fact that UPS took weeks to bill me for these surprise charges. How can I handle this, please?

I see on https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/posting-items/setting-postage-options/international-postage?id=418... that Buyers are responsible for shipping, but now that I've shipped it I can't actually enforce that.

But I guess I could ask.  I see I can mark the sale unpaid...can I then bill the customs charges?

[sg51]

can I then bill the customs charges?

I'm not sure that the effect is different, but this was not a customs charge.

It was a UPS fee.  They charged a fee to facilitate clearing customs.

You selected UPS, and while ebay or someone else could have warned you about shipping to Canada with UPS, your issue is with UPS, and how you set up the shipment, not with ebay.

I shipped a machine part to Canada once, off ebay, by UPS. Buyer had a UPS account which was charged, but I was shocked to see that shipping came to about $200 (I'd sold the part for about $150).  That included the brokerage fee.  It did not include any customs fee paid to Canada.

[bill989]

Amazing.
Maybe this explains why they gave me a $10 off promo code on the shipping.
I'm totally off shipping UPS to Canada now; I think I might have done it before (but maybe not since I never heard of this issue) but I don't want to again!

[chapeau-noir]

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@bill989 wrote:

Amazing.
Maybe this explains why they gave me a $10 off promo code on the shipping.
I'm totally off shipping UPS to Canada now; I think I might have done it before (but maybe not since I never heard of this issue) but I don't want to again!

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In my experience asking to ship UPS in those circumstances is rare - in fact, I've shipped to Canada since 1999 (selling elsewhere), sometimes in quantity, and have never had anyone ask once.

Glad it worked out!

[dabunk2000]

Actually it is not Customs fees. That is what they charge you to do the Customs paperwork Huge ripoff for years. We had a friend leave his camera in our house in Belize. Had a company Fedex account so we shipped it back on his account. He got a bill for more than the camera was worth just for the paperworkThere were no customs fee at all.

[go-bad-chicken]

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@bill989 wrote:

They paid the invoice.  I feel very lucky, I feel like they're a saint, I feel like my ignorance dodged a bullet, and I feel like I can't begin to properly praise them in an 80-character eBay Feedback (but I'll do my very best!).

Thanks to every one of you for the education and wisdom.  I needed it desperately, particularly in the current void of eBay support.

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I happy to hear that this worked out for you. The world is filled with people who will usually take the high road if just given the opportunity.