evilBay (FAQ on negative policies, etc.)

[SBell]

But only if you are in the US...shipping to Germany will be three times as expensive as the figures themselves.

its almost $30 to ship to Canada too...

and then theres the possibility of eBay sticking extra "import charges" on it, as they have been doing frequently with packages entering/leaving the USA

Ebay doesn't charge import fees--they are just the meeting place for the auctions. It's either the seller charging an international handling fee, or Canada Customs brokering GST before it reaches you (depends on the amounts and the goods).

[stargatedalek]

I guess you didn't hear about this yet, its pretty recent

eBay themselves have started charging "import fees" on parcels entering or leaving the States
there never used to be ANY "import fees" listed on eBay itself, its eBay who are charging them
not only that but parcels will be delayed because they go through some weird "eBay shipping center" now

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Buying-on-eBay/Is-ebay-now-charging-import-tax/qaq-p/108777
http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Buyer-Central/New-compulsory-quot-Import-Fees-quot-from-USA-to-Canada/td-p/71379
http://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-International-Trading/Import-charges-What-the-hell/td-p/2845101

this is why I've stopped ordering packages from the States if I can help it

[SBell]

I guess you didn't hear about this yet, its pretty recent

eBay themselves have started charging "import fees" on parcels entering or leaving the States
there never used to be ANY "import fees" listed on eBay itself, its eBay who are charging them
not only that but parcels will be delayed because they go through some weird "eBay shipping center" now

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Buying-on-eBay/Is-ebay-now-charging-import-tax/qaq-p/108777
http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Buyer-Central/New-compulsory-quot-Import-Fees-quot-from-USA-to-Canada/td-p/71379
http://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-International-Trading/Import-charges-What-the-hell/td-p/2845101

this is why I've stopped ordering packages from the States if I can help it

I need to look into it more. It appears that it may be something at the discretion of a seller. Either way, it is going to hurt US sellers because who in their right mind would order from someone that charges that?

Some things sound strange--like parcels 'going through an ebay shipping centre'? That tells me that there is something optional happening.

Anyone here receive a US parcel though ebay recently? Can you somehow show a breakdown? I just realized that I haven't ordered from the US in many months.

[tyrantqueen]

I don't have any problem with eBay charging the import fees. They'd have gotten charged at customs anyway. At least if I paid them through PayPal they won't get held up and ransomed at customs. I hate customs charges as much as anyone else, but at least eBay make it a little easier to deal with.

Btw, there weren't any extra steps I had to take when paying the charge. It was just added to the rest of the bill when I paid for my item. Nothing else was different.

[SBell]

I don't have any problem with eBay charging the import fees. They'd have gotten charged at customs anyway. At least if I paid them through PayPal they won't get held up and ransomed at customs. I hate customs charges as much as anyone else, but at least eBay make it a little easier to deal with.

Btw, there weren't any extra steps I had to take when paying the charge. It was just added to the rest of the bill when I paid for my item. Nothing else was different.

I saw some complaints that some people were still getting hit with import costs when they came into the country--in other words, whoever is doing the collection on the US side is not remitting the fees properly. Or the sellers are unable to label the parcels properly.

Either way, it appears that Ebay is going to find itself less popular.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

I don't have any problem with eBay charging the import fees. They'd have gotten charged at customs anyway. At least if I paid them through PayPal they won't get held up and ransomed at customs. I hate customs charges as much as anyone else, but at least eBay make it a little easier to deal with.

Btw, there weren't any extra steps I had to take when paying the charge. It was just added to the rest of the bill when I paid for my item. Nothing else was different.

I saw some complaints that some people were still getting hit with import costs when they came into the country--in other words, whoever is doing the collection on the US side is not remitting the fees properly. Or the sellers are unable to label the parcels properly.

Either way, it appears that Ebay is going to find itself less popular.

Ebay is consistently losing market share to amazon and has been for years. Their policies become more and more ridiculous as time passes....ie requring they be paid a portion of the funds for shipping, that sellers can be rated with at least nine more levels of feedback than a purchaser, etc. There was a time ebay represented a friendly world market of people selling items. Now it has become a massive cash hungry ogre that seems intent on alienating its sellers just to make a buck.

[SBell]

I don't have any problem with eBay charging the import fees. They'd have gotten charged at customs anyway. At least if I paid them through PayPal they won't get held up and ransomed at customs. I hate customs charges as much as anyone else, but at least eBay make it a little easier to deal with.

Btw, there weren't any extra steps I had to take when paying the charge. It was just added to the rest of the bill when I paid for my item. Nothing else was different.

I saw some complaints that some people were still getting hit with import costs when they came into the country--in other words, whoever is doing the collection on the US side is not remitting the fees properly. Or the sellers are unable to label the parcels properly.

Either way, it appears that Ebay is going to find itself less popular.

Ebay is consistently losing market share to amazon and has been for years. Their policies become more and more ridiculous as time passes....ie requring they be paid a portion of the funds for shipping, that sellers can be rated with at least nine more levels of feedback than a purchaser, etc. There was a time ebay represented a friendly world market of people selling items. Now it has become a massive cash hungry ogre that seems intent on alienating its sellers just to make a buck.

I just looked it up--apparently, it is a program that sellers opt into. The parcel is sent to a distribution centre, all fees are assigned, and then it is sent off (this is where it is up to them to clearly mark that brokerage has been handled). A buyer can also opt in, so it would go to the centre before being mailed to them.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/shipping-globally.html

Don't get it, exactly, why this is advantageous. Unless you ar emaking very large or commercial-size purchases, you are often exempt from the taxes/duties, etc. But if you do use this, you WILL pay every fee, plus I'm sure a lovely surcharge (I think they got the idea from UPS international).

So just don't purchase from sellers that use it. Eventually it will go away, or ebay will make it mandatory and no one will use them anymore.

[Seijun]

I don't have any problem with eBay charging the import fees. They'd have gotten charged at customs anyway. At least if I paid them through PayPal they won't get held up and ransomed at customs. I hate customs charges as much as anyone else, but at least eBay make it a little easier to deal with.

Btw, there weren't any extra steps I had to take when paying the charge. It was just added to the rest of the bill when I paid for my item. Nothing else was different.

I saw some complaints that some people were still getting hit with import costs when they came into the country--in other words, whoever is doing the collection on the US side is not remitting the fees properly. Or the sellers are unable to label the parcels properly.

Either way, it appears that Ebay is going to find itself less popular.

Ebay is consistently losing market share to amazon and has been for years. Their policies become more and more ridiculous as time passes....ie requring they be paid a portion of the funds for shipping, that sellers can be rated with at least nine more levels of feedback than a purchaser, etc. There was a time ebay represented a friendly world market of people selling items. Now it has become a massive cash hungry ogre that seems intent on alienating its sellers just to make a buck.

I just looked it up--apparently, it is a program that sellers opt into. The parcel is sent to a distribution centre, all fees are assigned, and then it is sent off (this is where it is up to them to clearly mark that brokerage has been handled). A buyer can also opt in, so it would go to the centre before being mailed to them.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/shipping-globally.html

Don't get it, exactly, why this is advantageous. Unless you ar emaking very large or commercial-size purchases, you are often exempt from the taxes/duties, etc. But if you do use this, you WILL pay every fee, plus I'm sure a lovely surcharge (I think they got the idea from UPS international).

So just don't purchase from sellers that use it. Eventually it will go away, or ebay will make it mandatory and no one will use them anymore.

Most sellers were "opted in" to the Global Shipping Program without them even knowing it. I believe it was through accepting one of the terms of service that ebay occasionally throws at you? Our company's ebay account was opted in, and I didnt even notice until a buyer complained to me about why the shipping was so expensive. The option to opt out is hidden deep in ebay's seller settings, and it was only through searching the ebay forums that I figured out how to opt out. The complaint I heard often was that the fees charged by the GSP can be much higher than what a customer might have had to pay normally, and that they were sometimes charged customs anyway. There was also a lot of concern over what would happen if the item was lost or damaged after leaving the Global Shipping Center or while in their "care".

[stargatedalek]

I inquired to the seller I was going to buy from if they would be willing to opt-out, I don't want the Canadian government slapping crazy $100+ fees on me like they did last time (since with GSP it puts parcels "on their radar" so to speak)

[stargatedalek]

what? no not another transformers movie, the other Bay
_{that was cheesy, I'm sorry}


we were cluttering up the "new on Ebay" thread so I figured a topic to discuss about eBay and its many "hazards" was something we could use

we can discuss about known scammers, underhanded shipping policies, etc. here

[DinoToyForum]

I split the discussion from the ebay thread and merged it with your new topic. However, because the posts from the ebay thread are older, they appear first. Never mind

[tyrantqueen]

A more appropriate name for the thread would be feeBay (as my dad calls it )

[postsaurischian]

....... There was a time ebay represented a friendly world market of people selling items. Now it has become a massive cash hungry ogre that seems intent on alienating its sellers just to make a buck.

Exactly! I cannot write how I feel about eBay nowadays, because I would be banned for coarse language .
I once had trouble as a seller with a U.S. buyer and crook. I even had proof that my item arrived at U.S. customs, but eBay.com didn't even listen to my arguments and just wanted me to pay back the money (which I didn't). I told them (literally) that I won't defer to their nazi methods. I've been getting threatening e-mails from them for about two years until they surrendered.

At least eBay.com is a criminal association!!!
I had some nice discussion with eBay.de representatives who couldn't understand why eBay.com (where my item had been offered) wouldn't listen to my arguments, which is probably the only reason why I wasn't banned and could still continue my membership.
By the way, at the time when this happened I had more than a thousand positive feedbacks, not a single negative. I had been putting thousands of dollars in their mouth and this was how they treated me. The crook buyer had about 20 positives, but "this is not an argument" they said.

Since then I drastically cut back my eBay activities. I do not sell on eBay.com anymore (sellers are the most exploited people on eBay!). I only buy things that I really cannot find anywhere else. I'd even prefer buying from anywhere else if the price was higher, but believe me - in most cases it isn't .
For example: In 2009 about 80% of my collection purchases came from eBay. Now it's about 5%.

I can do this because: 1. I already have almost all of the older stuff I want, 2. I've been finding a lot of other sources throughout the years, including Japanese connections, 3. Today we have great German comic book shops who also get all the U.S. stuff (yes, I'm a comic book nerd too) and 4. (but not least) I am a member of the DTF, where there are other people like me and I love doing personal trades & commissions .

I hope I can reduce my eBay activities to 0% soon, so ... bye, bye eBay.

[EmperorDinobot]

Global shipping syster/service has many flaws and I do not like it... BUT it makes it easier on us sellers sometimes...

I sent something to this guy in June, hasn't gotten there as of today, and it is not the first time this happens. We both called ebay and stuff, and all we got out of that was a headache. Something about the code format that the buyer used for his address not checking out or something like that.


Sometimes it's cheaper to just use international shipping on several items; i.e. this frenchman who always buys things from me. Had he used the GSS, everything would have cost him like 3 times as much as it would have if I had not gone to the USPS to weigh the articles independently. $50 is a big difference from $200 in s/h costs.

[Hynerpeton]

I don't like when sellers say $.99 to buy it now and $20.00 to ship it. Here is the kicker the item weighs nothing!! And this is from a US seller i see this from. As far as ordering over seas on feepay i only buy from England. Though have not in ages.

[Paleogene Pals]

Don't need eBay anymore. I either buy directly from the artist, through DTF, or Dan's Dinosaurs. And I am, for one, glad of it.

[Hynerpeton]

Another thing that bugs me? Waiting for sellers to send a combined shipping invoice!   

[EmperorDinobot]

Another thing that bugs me? Waiting for sellers to send a combined shipping invoice!   

Hahaha at least they don't send you an invoice every 5 hours once you realize they aren't gonna pay immediately like I do  .