BEWARE eBay charging hidden fraudulent fees

[difficult_elk]

All sellers beware.

Under eBay’s new policies, eBay will charge a fee that you will not be able to see unless you scrutinise your fee breakdown. 

The fee is known as an “International Fee” and it is charged if the Buyer simply has a shipping address registered with eBay that is based overseas.

This fee will be charged even if:

1.Your listing was set up not to allow International bids
2. The Buyer provided a domestic address for shipping;

3. You post the item domestically;

4. The Buyer simply has an overseas address registered with eBay. 

How is it relevant to me as a Seller what addresses the Buyer registers with eBay?

How is this legal? I suspect it’s only legal because we agree to it when signing up to the new payment policies.

Any request for a refund will be denied and you will be directed to the policy page.

[gutterpunkz05]

Well for starters, they obviously have not made much of an effort to hide the fee, and I don't know how you conclude the fee is fraudulent.  Where the buyers account is registered, is the sole point relevant to the fee and the shipping address is of no consequence.

[jellybirddesigns]

The fee is a bit ridiculous, but it has been around for a long time, so it's not a new policy.

I think it was even part of Paypal transactions, although at a slightly different rate.

It works both ways though - a seller based in the USA will also get charged the fee when shipping to a buyer registered in Australia, even if they are living in the USA, for example.

If you're only shipping domestic, you won't encounter the fee terribly often as there's not a huge amount of people who registered overseas, but are now based in Australia. I've only come across a handful of them in over 5000 transactions.

[difficult_elk]

Alright sheep. Just pay fees as a seller based on info the Buyer registered with eBay. 

[jellybirddesigns]

If you don't want to pay the fee, your only option would be to cancel the sale and hope that someone else comes along to purchase.

[imastawka]

The fee is 'tuppence'.

I had one a while ago - delivery address was Australia, but they were registered in NZ.

It really wasn't worth working up a sweat over.

Not a hidden fee at all.

International sales fee

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)

This fee is calculated as 1.1% (incl. GST) of the total amount of the sale (including postage and handling, and any tax or other applicable fees) and is automatically deducted from your sales proceeds.

If your registered address is not in Australia, please refer to the fee page for your country or region of residence for your international sales fee information.

[difficult_elk]

Just because it’s minor it doesn’t mean you should just accept it. All adds up and eBay is finding more and more things to deduct funds from sellers profits for. It’s embarrassing how much eBay users blindly defend it. Perhaps they should have a fee for commenting.

[jellybirddesigns]

Smart sellers know to account for all fees and charges in their pricing structure.

Just saying.

[davewil1964]

Nothing to do with being sheep. Everything to do with understanding how eBay works. As mentioned, it's not new. Paypal charged an additional 1% on fees from foreign-based accounts.

if you think, as you stated, that it's fraudulent, contact the relevant authorities. Which the member to member eBay discussion boards aren't part of.

[imastawka]

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@difficult_elk wrote:

Just because it’s minor it doesn’t mean you should just accept it. All adds up and eBay is finding more and more things to deduct funds from sellers profits for. It’s embarrassing how much eBay users blindly defend it. Perhaps they should have a fee for commenting.

And what would you have us do?     

Ebay's rules.  Abide by them or don't sell.

This fee hardly raises it's ugly head for every transaction.

As said, know your fees and incorporate them into your pricing.

I bought for $1 and sold for $50 -  not bothered by the 'tuppence' fee one tiny bit.

edit:  Forgot the link for my previous post

Selling fees without an eBay Store | eBay

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