Be aware of International Sales Fees and non-local eBay Accounts - we were overcharged in fees

[kumbiabooksau]

Hi folks,

I'd like to inform you about International Sales Fees and how deceivingly eBay are. We recently discovered that if an eBay buyer had an international eBay account (for instance a UK or US) but listed an Australian delivery address in their order, we were still charged with "International Sales Fees" despite the order being sent to Australia.

We unfortunately found out that we charged all these fees for the past few months and were charged in excess of a few hundred dollars. We contacted eBay and had to go through each of these transactions one by one to get our fee credited back to account. 

So just be careful whenever you spot a UK or US account despite the buyer being in Australia. You will mostly likely be charged with this "International Sale Fee"

[jellybirddesigns]

The international fee has been around for a while and is clearly outlined in the Seller Centre:

If your registered address is in Australia, you pay an international sales fee when either:

• The delivery location for the item (entered by the buyer during checkout) is outside Australia, or
• The buyer's registered address is outside Australia (regardless of the delivery location for the item).

The fee is 1%, so on a $20.00 book, that equates to an enormous 20c. 

You would have had to sell at least 500 books in this manner alone just to get $100 in  international fees.

[jellybirddesigns]

Just to clarify - the international sales fee is 1% of the total value of the order, not just the item.

Regardless, the fee is not hidden and I'm not even sure why Ebay are refunding you a fee that was chargeable and in the first place. If you had just gone to look at the Seller Fee structure you would have seen there is an international fee and you wouldn't be spending all your time trying to recoup a fee you agreed to when you signed the T&C's.

[sugar249]

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@kumbiabooksau wrote:

Hi folks,

I'd like to inform you about International Sales Fees and how deceivingly eBay are. We recently discovered that if an eBay buyer had an international eBay account (for instance a UK or US) but listed an Australian delivery address in their order, we were still charged with "International Sales Fees" despite the order being sent to Australia.

We unfortunately found out that we charged all these fees for the past few months and were charged in excess of a few hundred dollars. We contacted eBay and had to go through each of these transactions one by one to get our fee credited back to account. 

So just be careful whenever you spot a UK or US account despite the buyer being in Australia. You will mostly likely be charged with this "International Sale Fee"

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So what part is deceiving if it's in the T&C's as mentioned above.

But your comment that you were owed 'a few hundred dollars'' sounds a little deceiving 

[jellybirddesigns]

Yes, they would have had to sell several thousand books to non-Australian buyers alone to incur hundreds of $$ worth of international fees. Not saying it's not possible, but perhaps unlikely.

[roaminghigh]

I've just had a bunch of these international fees credited back to me by ebay. They were charged on purchases made by buyers with a registered ebay address outside Australia, who had nominated an Australian address for delivery.