Help with polite response needed

[purplemon18]

I got this message tonight:

Customs Charges

Hi there,
hope you are well.

Quick check: I've been charged for customs, see attached photo, for 12.95£. How do we go about refunding this?
These charges would either have to be listed up front or be paid for by the sender. It's not for me to stomp up for upfront undeclared charges.
Please issue a refund for 12.95£.
Best wishes,

someone

I found this on ebay.co.uk:

Maybe I'm tired, but I can't come up with a polite way to explain that it's not my responsibility, it's theirs.

Can someone lend me a hand please?

[djavusydney · Accepted solution]

Custom charges wasn't collected when the buyer pays for the item from you. It is buyer's responsibility to pay for the import charges to get item released to you for international purchases. I include the wording to all my listings, if not mistaken buyer should get warned somewhere in checkout. eBay should have this written somewhere too about import charges.

[kopenhagen5 · Accepted solution]

Dear buyer,

It has always been the buyer's responsibility to know their own local laws as a seller cannot be expected to know the laws of 200 countries around the globe.

The eBay site stipulates that a buyer may incur import duties or custom clearance charges upon purchasing from outside of their own country and the buyer should check with their local customs office before the importation.

This has been the rules of trading on eBay since it's inception in 1995.

Along those lines, keeping it professional of course.

[countessalmirena · Accepted solution]

Dear [buyer]

Thank you for getting in touch.

We know that it can be disconcerting when one is charged for custom or import costs. That's why eBay discusses these charges in their Help pages, to ensure that buyers are aware about whose responsibility such costs will be. On eBay's International purchases and postage for buyers page, it states:

❝When you buy from an international seller, you'll often have to pay import charges. These charges are generally based on the item's price, weight, dimensions, and country of origin, as well as any taxes, duties, and fees of the destination country. It’s your responsibility to check which import charges may apply, and to pay them.❞

This is also covered in

• eBay's International trading policy page, (❝Import tax: If you are ordering goods from abroad you may need to pay UK Customs Duty, Excise Duty and/or import VAT. You can find more information on Gov.UK's Bringing goods into the UK page.❞),
• eBay's Taxes and import charges page (❝Buyers are responsible for paying import fees, usually as part of clearing their parcel through customs, or when they receive their item❞), and 
• eBay's Paying tax on eBay purchases page (❝If the item's being sent from outside the EU, the recipient may need to pay VAT and customs duty. These may not apply in the UK if the order's under £15, but the threshold varies between EU countries❞).

There is helpful information available on the https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad page: it specifically addresses situations where you buy a new or used item online. Quoting: ❝You may have to pay VAT, Customs Duty or Excise Duty on goods sent from outside the European Union (EU) before you can collect them.❞ As Australia is not part of the EU, that will apply to purchases that you make from Australian sellers.

Friendly regards,

[seller]

[chameleon54]

Hi Kopes SNAP....... there was nothing in the Kudos box when I clicked and then instantly two kudos. My first thought was I had made some kind of error and exposed one of my selling ID,s by mistake. ( My computer locks up and plays games sometimes when I am changing between id,s )

[lm-entertainment]

it's also common knowledge in the UK that people have to pay taxes on anything they receive from an international destination over (correct me if i'm wrong someone) £15. some individual websites may charge this from the buyer upon checkout, but it's widely-known that most people in the UK get hit with the import taxes and aren't able to receive their item until it's been paid. 

[springyzone · Accepted solution]

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@purplemon18 wrote:

I got this message tonight:

Customs Charges

Hi there,
hope you are well.

Quick check: I've been charged for customs, see attached photo, for 12.95£. How do we go about refunding this?
These charges would either have to be listed up front or be paid for by the sender. It's not for me to stomp up for upfront undeclared charges.
Please issue a refund for 12.95£.
Best wishes,

someone

I found this on ebay.co.uk:

Maybe I'm tired, but I can't come up with a polite way to explain that it's not my responsibility, it's theirs.

Can someone lend me a hand please?

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I think you have already answered your own question here.

You can phrase it however you want but the buyer will probably still be suspicious and inclined to think you are not telling the truth, trying to dodge your responsibility.

So........what I would do is exactly what you did here.  Start by Including the screen shot of the ACTUAL EBAY policy from ebay UK, that you posted above. They can't argue too much with that.

THEN, write a short note to say you are sorry but your price was for item & postage only and does not include customs charges, these vary from country to country and as they can see, it is a buyer's responsibility to pay for those.

[purplemon18]

Thank you all for your responses. It has helped immesurably. Every time I tried to craft a reply it came accross as condecending. I just needed some help getting the wording right and I appreciate the help.

If I hear any more about it I will let you know.

[purplemon18]

Wow, it's been a month already. I just heard back from my British Customer tonight

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Hi,
sorry about delay. We were on holiday.

I followed up and it appears you are correct.
I'm quite shocked and surprised but that is very clearly the ebay approach to this & I withdraw my request for refund of the import tax.

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction!
Best wishes from London,
----

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[countessalmirena]

That's a nice response from your buyer.

It stands as a reminder that any of us can make a mistake and act upon that mistaken conviction... but ultimately what matters is how one responds to correction (with links to the correct information). Your buyer has been gracious in acknowledgement.

You were clearly on the ball in the wording that you ended up using!