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EIS Buyer is double charged VAT tax & cannot reach eBay CSR's

I have been in EIS 2 months & have had numerous sales with no problems, until yesterday.  Lovely buyer says she was double charged VAT tax b/c  "you forgot to put the VOEC number" on the pkg confirming that she'd already paid VAT.   She also sends a Customs form as proof. 

 

I called a Conceirge CSR, who said, what I already knew, that this is not something I can do anything to help her with & she must contact eBay CSRs.  I explain that to the buyer & tell her that with EIS eBay handles the packaging, the Customs forms, the collection of tax, etc. & that that money never even comes into my hands, so I can't refund her, I don't even have that money. 


This AM I wake up to 9 messages of screen shots from her, all showing that CS is closed & she has tried multiple ways, but all the screen shots show dead ends to reaching a CSR in any way shape or form.  This is not surprising, as she is halfway across the world.  Luckily, she does seem to speak English, as her notes are very understandable.  

 

bburke@ebay.com   devon@ebay  elizabeth@ebay  kyle@ebay 

 

My question is two-fold, 1 - how do I get this buyer help?  It looks like she may be telling the truth & even if she could reach Customer Service, I have no confidence she will even get someone who knows what EIS is.  How do I get her help on an intricate detailed problem that will require someone who knows EIS very well?   

 

My 2nd question is on a broader scale - EIS has a lot of safeguards built in for the seller, which is great, but how are buyers/sellers to get help when those safeguards need to be invoked?   My buyer can't even reach a CSR due to them not being open during her daytime (at least that appears to be the problem) & also, many of these buyers may not be able to speak English well?   Has anything been put in place to assist with these cases?  

This one goes to Eleven - Nigel Tufnel
eBay Community Mentor
Message 1 of 14
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13 REPLIES 13

EIS Buyer is double charged VAT tax & cannot reach eBay CSR's

Adding deb@shipping in case she's able to help with this.

GLORIOUS!

March shipping tip: Size matters. Enter accurate package dimensions on the listing form and the shipping label.
Message 2 of 14
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EIS Buyer is double charged VAT tax & cannot reach eBay CSR's

The board reps have said that a buyer can contact ebay to receive their VAT if they were charged upon payment and again when the item was delivered.  I'm not sure if there was a particular way for them to contact cs but you could suggest that they send a message at ebayforbusiness on Facebook

Message 3 of 14
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EIS Buyer is double charged VAT tax & cannot reach eBay CSR's


@pjcdn2005 wrote:

The board reps have said that a buyer can contact ebay to receive their VAT if they were charged upon payment and again when the item was delivered.  I'm not sure if there was a particular way for them to contact cs but you could suggest that they send a message at ebayforbusiness on Facebook


Thank you for that @pjcdn2005  , I was directed by someone else to an old thread that said something similar & even had a form to fill out, but the thread pre-dated EIS, IIRC & I didn't want to send her to something that may not work since it was old & she is already VERY frustrated.  I'm not going to publish that b/c it IS old & I have no idea if it works & neither does the person who sent it to me.   Based on the 9 messages she sent me with screenshots on all, contacting CS from another country is not working, at least when she tried to do it, I do not want to send her on another wild goose chase. 

 

I may need to ultimately send her to FB or Twitter, which I am loathe to do as FB is not a safe website on a variety of levels.  I'm hoping that someone paged will chime in here soon.   In the meantime, I have let her know that I'm doing everyhting I can to get her help & that I need some time.  

The sad part of this is she was a great buyer & it appears to me, that she may be telling the truth & she deserves to get help, not repeated dead ends. 

This one goes to Eleven - Nigel Tufnel
eBay Community Mentor
Message 4 of 14
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EIS Buyer is double charged VAT tax & cannot reach eBay CSR's


@simply-the-best-for-you wrote:

I have been in EIS 2 months & have had numerous sales with no problems, until yesterday.  Lovely buyer says she was double charged VAT tax b/c  "you forgot to put the VOEC number" on the pkg confirming that she'd already paid VAT.   She also sends a Customs form as proof. 

 

I called a Conceirge CSR, who said, what I already knew, that this is not something I can do anything to help her with & she must contact eBay CSRs.  I explain that to the buyer & tell her that with EIS eBay handles the packaging, the Customs forms, the collection of tax, etc. & that that money never even comes into my hands, so I can't refund her, I don't even have that money. 


This AM I wake up to 9 messages of screen shots from her, all showing that CS is closed & she has tried multiple ways, but all the screen shots show dead ends to reaching a CSR in any way shape or form.  This is not surprising, as she is halfway across the world.  Luckily, she does seem to speak English, as her notes are very understandable.  

 

bburke@ebay.com   devon@ebay  elizabeth@ebay  kyle@ebay 

 

My question is two-fold, 1 - how do I get this buyer help?  It looks like she may be telling the truth & even if she could reach Customer Service, I have no confidence she will even get someone who knows what EIS is.  How do I get her help on an intricate detailed problem that will require someone who knows EIS very well?   

 

My 2nd question is on a broader scale - EIS has a lot of safeguards built in for the seller, which is great, but how are buyers/sellers to get help when those safeguards need to be invoked?   My buyer can't even reach a CSR due to them not being open during her daytime (at least that appears to be the problem) & also, many of these buyers may not be able to speak English well?   Has anything been put in place to assist with these cases?  


Hi @simply-the-best-for-you. Thanks for working so hard to get your buyer help. Ultimately, she will have to reach out to our agents, as they have a process in place to help with that refund. Since she is running into issues over the phone, I'd recommend our Facebook or Twitter agents as they are very knowledgeable regarding the EIS program and processes. Your concerns regarding the safety of social media is valid, however, we have a strong security system in place to provide safety measures for our members. 

Elizabeth,
eBay
Message 5 of 14
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EIS Buyer is double charged VAT tax & cannot reach eBay CSR's

I assume that EIS relabels the packages in Illinois.  If they aren’t transferring the VAT information to the label that  could be a problem. 

Message 6 of 14
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EIS Buyer is double charged VAT tax & cannot reach eBay CSR's


@pjcdn2005 wrote:

I assume that EIS relabels the packages in Illinois.  If they aren’t transferring the VAT information to the label that  could be a problem. 


Yes, they must & possibly a mistake was made during that process or perhaps she's mistaken, IDK.  She definitely did pay SOME VAT, as it's on the Order Detail screen.  She specifically mentioned the VOEC box needed to be checked.  That means nothing to me.  Only eBay can resolve this.  

This one goes to Eleven - Nigel Tufnel
eBay Community Mentor
Message 7 of 14
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EIS Buyer is double charged VAT tax & cannot reach eBay CSR's

elizabeth@ebay  Thank you Elizabeth.  Just so you know, the country in question is a very advanced Eurpoean country & I have 9 messages worth of screen shots showing that she is unable to get through to C/S, by following any Help menus.   She tried 4-5 different ways, all winding up in dead ends up to & including a red message saying "We are not able to process your request right now", which is ambiguous, but I'm guessing means they are closed.   She tried for 2 straight days!  

 

But there is some good news, as my posting resulted in someone from the EIS shipping team reaching out to me by email & letting me know that they would be contacting my Buyer directly to resolve the issue, so I am VERY MUCH appreciative of that & have informed my buyer.   

 

If this does not occur or my buyer's have issues in the future, I guess I'll have to have them reach out via Facebook or Twitter.  While I understand that eBay's site is "safe", with all due respect, there is nothing eBay can do to make Facebook "safe", as the FB site itself is the problem.   

 

Regardless, I appreciate everyone's help & I do appreciate the Rep who reached out to me & is going to reach out to my buyer!   If the rep is able, I would certainly love to hear the general outcome, as I am somewhat curious as to whether my buyer was really double charged or not, just so I know if I have to bolo for this with other buyers.  

 

 

This one goes to Eleven - Nigel Tufnel
eBay Community Mentor
Message 8 of 14
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EIS Buyer is double charged VAT tax & cannot reach eBay CSR's


@simply-the-best-for-you wrote:

But there is some good news, as my posting resulted in someone from the EIS shipping team reaching out to me by email & letting me know that they would be contacting my Buyer directly to resolve the issue, so I am VERY MUCH appreciative of that & have informed my buyer.   


Hey, that's great news! Thanks EIS team for stepping in when the buyer was hitting CS roadblocks.

 

For whatever it's worth, it's correct that this issue needs to be resolved between the buyer and eBay.

 

https://www.skatteetaten.no/en/person/duties/purchases-from-abroad/refunds-of-overpaid-value-added-t...

 

You made an online purchase, and VAT was imposed at the time of purchase. VAT was also imposed when the goods were imported to Norway because the shipment was not labelled with a VOEC number. The VOEC number has 7 digits, and starts with the number 2.

 

In order get a refund of VAT, you must contact whoever sold you the item (online shop) and request a refund.

GLORIOUS!

March shipping tip: Size matters. Enter accurate package dimensions on the listing form and the shipping label.
Message 9 of 14
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EIS Buyer is double charged VAT tax & cannot reach eBay CSR's

That’s interesting as I was told that the number must be sent electronically for the EU.  I’ve heard of buyers being charged twice when it was on the envelope but wasn’t sent electronically   Since Norway isn’t in the EU they might just require the number to be just on the package.

Message 10 of 14
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EIS Buyer is double charged VAT tax & cannot reach eBay CSR's

I don't know PJ, but that's for EIS to manage. Whether it has to go electronically, get physically printed or both I'm sure they'll make any adjustments needed.

 

Semi-adjacent topic: There was a situation shortly after marketplace VAT collection went into effect where info was being sent electronically but the receiving country (Ireland / An Post) didn't set things up on their end to receive/process that data, despite the long lead time they had to make changes, so they were rejecting packages en masse and returning to sender. Remember that?

GLORIOUS!

March shipping tip: Size matters. Enter accurate package dimensions on the listing form and the shipping label.
Message 11 of 14
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EIS Buyer is double charged VAT tax & cannot reach eBay CSR's

VAT slaves.   Why are US sellers involved in any way with European VAT protocols?   Did any of us vote on that one?  Did our elected reps make us responsible for VAT for Europe?

Message 12 of 14
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EIS Buyer is double charged VAT tax & cannot reach eBay CSR's

I remember that well. There were problems with quite a few countries at first.

Message 13 of 14
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EIS Buyer is double charged VAT tax & cannot reach eBay CSR's

It has nothing to do with your elected reps. I believe that the EU and a few other countries require ebay and other large marketplaces to collect VAT.

Canadians have to collect sales tax from American buyers too.

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