Purchased new item with free postage but ebay are charging me $25 postage

[austin_88]

Purchased new item with free postage but ebay are charging me $25 postage plus import duty. The latter I'm OK with but the postage fee I am not. In an earlier message the seller said he would cover both.

Response from the seller:
"Hi thanks for providing ! I did not charge you shipping.
your package is ship through eBay Global Shipping Program(GSP). When you buy the item i will send it to eBay GSP location in Kentucky. eBay will take posession of the item and then send it to you.
The part where i send to eBay GSP i did not charge you shipping. However eBay did charge import fees and other shipping charges which i have no control over. This is why you need to talk to an eBay specialist who can investigate this for you."

So I need to contact ebay to communicate with a person (preferably by messaging rather than phone) however I can't see a way to do this. The Contact approach either takes me to a bot or a list of endless FAQ's.

[papermoon.lady]

After clicking on "Contact Us", you have to select several options, and it does not really matter if they are not perfect for your case, just select the most appropriate options, and after you have selected the most appropriate options a live chat window will appear. Select to talk to an agent when the live chat window appears.

[countessalmirena]

@austin_88, you haven’t understood how the GSP (Global Shipping Program) works.

It’s not the seller charging you for postage… It’s Pitney Bowes. Obviously this is an item in the US. The seller (equally obviously) offers free postage - WITHIN THE US. The seller sends the item to the address they are given … which is not your address in Australia. Rather, it’s to the PB warehouse hub where the goods are received, unpacked, checked to see that it’s not a prohibited item, repacked (not always carefully - but that’s another story), paperwork for international delivery is filled out, and then eventually the item is despatched by PB on its way to the airport. Finally off it goes… and it lands in Australia… More delay… It is at length delivered to your address.

The international shipping cost is not free. That portion of your payment goes directly to PB. The seller is not involved in that.

One more point; unless you bought something for $1000 or more (AUD), you weren’t charged customs or duty, but you would have been charged PB’s fee for preparing the paperwork, PB’s international shipping charge by weight/dimensions, PB’s fee for collecting GST on the item and shipping and so on to render to the ATO, and GST on PB’s fee for collecting that GST.

[papermoon.lady]

Were you looking at the US site when you saw "free shipping"? Or were you using the eBay app? I have never used it, but apparently some people see "free shipping" when it is not really free.

I always see what PB charges if I find an item on the Australian site using my laptop (not the eBay app). I have never seen "free shipping" for PB.

$25 is not that bad for PB though, even if you have to add import duties.

[springyzone]

You're not going to get free international postage, not if the seller is using GSP.

Possibly the item had free shipping within USA, but that's a different matter.

Before you get onto ebay chat or whatever, you need to make a decision as to what you actually want.

I understand you're disappointed at the extra cost for shipping, which you didn't expect.

I wasn't sure if you had paid or not yet. You say 'purchased', but a lot of the time that just means clicked to buy.

*If you have not paid yet

..... are you prepared to pay the extra postage cost if you have to, in order to get the item?

Or would you rather the seller just cancel the sale?

Or you could just let it time out and wear an unpaid item strike.

* If you have paid and you're expecting ebay to make the seller cover the costs of the GSP, I think you will be out of luck. Technically, the seller is not charging you for postage. 

.

[gutterpunkz05]

If it relates to the seller , who last gave you FB,  then all their listing show international postage via GSP with estimated costs shown.

[daydreams_12]

I am sorry and I dont mean to be rude but why would you expect someone to send something to the other side of the world for FREE.

If you were a seller would youi

[ratman0100]

Some do.

[papermoon.lady]

When they do and they are in the US, like the seller the OP bought from, the price of the item is usually quite high if the item is not tiny enough to fit in an envelope because postage is actually included in the price. 

Economy from China is another matter of course.