@onekiwi0 wrote:
Is the UK the only country that gets the tax people don't expect? I;'ve paid tax via ebay for overseas purchases but that is upfront when originally purchasing.
No, but the UK seems to be one of the places where the people there are more oblivious to the potential costs - their threshold is relatively low (GBP 15 for merchandise, less than $30 AUD, and GBP 20 for gifts) and it's applied rather sporadically; a buyer may purchase several qualifying items and only be asked to pay for one. That and the fact that there's a 9 GBP fee applied on top of the VAT, which is often more than the VAT itself.
Another huge problem is that the posties over there who card for it often tick the box for underpaid postage, resulting in the buyers accusing the seller of causing the problem. (If you look up a sample of the card that's delivered to buyers, there's a tick box for underpaid postage and directly underneath that is another tick box for VAT charges, which is supposed to tell the recipient why they are being charged money before they can collect the package - why they tick underpaid postage so often is a mystery, but an infuriating one, especially given eBay's MBG policies).
If you ever need to field an angry message from a buyer accusing you of underpaying postage on an international package, you can advise them it's not actually possible for an international parcel that has arrived at its destination to have underpaid postage, due to the UPU agreement. (The UPU agreement dictates that all postal services keep the money paid to them for international parcel services, and the receiving country deliver it with no additional charges applied, so even if a package didn't have enough postage on it somehow and still makes it over to the other country, it's the original postage service's problem and there's no further postage charges that can be applied).
In your case, I would refund less all costs incurred.
