Taxes paid twice
I recently purchased an item from Japan and paid VAT to eBay at checkout.
When I received it, I was charged VAT again, calculated on the price of the item including the VAT I had already paid and increased by the fact that FEDEX had had to advance it since the seller had not attached proof that the taxes had been paid previously.
I contacted eBay by phone, who referred me back to the seller, who told me that "taxes have to be paid" and that they wouldn’t do anything.
I tried to submit my complaint here... but I’m worried it may be a page that is no longer active since I didn’t receive any notification that the shipment had been sent.
https://ocsnext.ebay.it/ocs/mudcwf?deptName=CollectRemitRefund
Can someone tell me whether it still works or, if not, where I should go?
Thanks for the help.
elenahun
·2 years agosika700
·2 years agoIf you have a Fedex document that clearly shows the double payment of VAT, you can request a refund from ebay:
https://ocswf.ebay.it/mudcwf?deptName=CollectRemitRefund
Best regards.
evrivoltell-0
OP2 years agoPartly. Ebay refunded me the VAT paid to them... but not the extra paid to FedEx or the VAT increase because it’s now calculated on the price plus the VAT already paid.
sika700
·2 years agoYou can't ask for anything else.
Best regards.
heavenwelkin
·2 years agoGood morning evrivoltell-0
Usually couriers (including Poste Italiane) charge a fee for the service of handling and collecting import costs.
FeDex charges something like 15 euros....
It happened to me to receive a package from the USA worth $40 (the item $25 + shipping $15) and to have paid FeDex 25 euros in import costs .....
If you choose Poste Italiane, you will definitely pay less, but the customs of Poste Italiane are a masterpiece of inefficiency and inadequacy (if possible, it’s better to avoid dealing with them).
With UPS, DHL or TNT you should pay a little less, but often shipping costs are higher than FeDex, so in many cases it still makes sense to use FeDex.
Best regards.
evrivoltell-0
OP2 years agoGood morning.
I’m aware that couriers charge fees for paying VAT in advance. The point is that HAVING ALREADY PAID the VAT, there should not have been any additional handling cost for a new VAT payment, and that the new payment happened because of a failure on the seller’s part that created an unforeseen extra cost for me.
And ebay does nothing to protect us from this kind of cost (they even deleted the negative review I had left for the seller about it!), not to mention the hassle one has to go through to get the documents, which are already easier to retrieve from FEDEX (but ebay still took issue with the ones they had already given me, so I had to call FEDEX, who told me that those are the documents and if ebay has a problem they can call them, exact words) and now I’ll have to go through another hassle to get them back from poste italiane, which is worse than pulling a tooth out with your own hands.
And the irony of it is that this time I had asked the seller to make sure to include the IOSS and he told me that he contacted ebay and there was no need to write it because it was already in the label they provided him, except that no, it wasn’t.
Unfortunately, moreover, I don’t even choose the shipping method myself, the seller does... and honestly all this seems to me like an ebay move to push people to choose those who use their eBay International Shipping which actually doesn’t cause these problems....
Sorry for the rant but honestly I’m very bitter.
heavenwelkin
·2 years agoGood evening evrivoltell-0
I understand your frustration, but we could look at the matter from a diametrically opposite point of view.
First of all, the seller should be thanked for, despite their inexperience, being willing to ship outside their country with all the risks involved.
Honestly, I don’t understand why leave negative feedback for the seller.
eBay prepares the order details and then also adds the "print invoice" where the costs relating to the VAT already paid by the buyer are also shown.
Was the buyer aware of the risk of paying VAT twice?
Because in case of doubt, the buyer can always contact the seller and ask them to print the order summary/invoice and include it together with the item’s customs declaration.
The buyer can also ask the seller to attach a declaration specifying / highlighting that the import costs (VAT) have already been paid on eBay.
Surely next time you’ll have more experience and achieve better results.
In my view, the important thing is that the item arrived and matches the description.
Kind regards.
evrivoltell-0
OP2 years agoFirst of all, no seller has ever claimed to be inexperienced; the first one, in fact, was described as experienced by eBay and personally insisted that he was experienced. A professional, to be exact.
Second, a professional seller decides to sell abroad because they think they can make a profit from it, not to do buyers a favor; precisely because they are a professional, they make sure they don't end up at a loss but rather benefit by expanding the number of potential buyers, and in that calculation they factor the risks of shipping abroad into the price.
Third, it is the seller's job to ship the package correctly. A professional seller charges for that work too; they don't do it at cost.
If a professional seller does not properly do part of their job (including the IOSS is an obligation) and therefore causes damage to the buyer, it is the buyer's right to complain about it.
We are not talking about a shipment that was lost because Italian Post got distracted or because a plane crashed.
We are talking about a shipment that was sent with incomplete documentation due to the seller's negligence.
So yes, for me the seller deserves a negative review because they did not add something that it was their duty to add.
Paying VAT twice is not a risk if someone doesn't add the IOSS, it's a fact, a certainty; that's why the seller MUST add it.
I would also add that, after the first time, the undersigned contacts sellers who claim to be experts and certified by eBay as experts and reminds them to do it because apparently many of these expert sellers have no idea and no customer asks for it or complains if they don't do it.
Some of them reply that they know what to do, reconfirming that they are experts, that they heard from eBay, and then surprise... the IOSS is not included and there is money to pay.
Now if you want to say thanks even though you paid extra, that's your decision. I'm sorry, but I still see it as seller negligence, so the seller does not deserve a positive review.
heavenwelkin
·2 years agoI was referring to any negative feedback left for the seller, but I see that on your profile there is no negative feedback, so either the feedback was removed or I didn’t understand where you sent this negative review of the seller.
Kind regards.
evrivoltell-0
OP2 years agoThanks to both of you for the reply. There were no customs duties, it was an item under 150 euros so no duties.
technopartsbay
·2 years agoHowever, one thing still needs to be clarified: with eBay you could have paid only the VAT in advance, not the customs charges (though everyone incorrectly calls them "customs clearance fees") and any applicable duty.
These two items are required by FedEx independently of VAT, which is something else and makes up the third item of a product's "import fees".
heavenwelkin
·2 years agoHi technopartsbay
You inspired me to add something else in response to user evrivoltell-0 .......
If the seller shipped with FeDex, then you almost certainly did not use an eBay shipping manager.
So if the seller forgot to indicate that the taxes were already collected by eBay, it happens that the customs clearance cost charged by FeDex will be higher than what you paid on eBay.
On eBay you only pay 22% VAT.
On FeDex you also pay the customs clearance fees / commission that FeDex takes (which should be around 5 to 15 euros)
And then depending on the cost of the item, you pay more as well...
So if on eBay you paid (for example) 10 euros in VAT and on FeDex (for example) 25 euros
It should happen that eBay only refunds the 10 euros you paid.
But I wouldn't bet my house on that, and if you'd like, let us know if that's how I’m hypothesizing it is.
Best regards.
heavenwelkin
·2 years agoGood evening evrivoltell-0
Since you received the item with FeDex, you shouldn’t have any problems providing proof that you had to pay upon receiving the purchased item, because FeDex usually asks for payment to be settled online before the package is actually delivered.
So provide what’s requested along with a brief description of the problem and send it to the address you attached.
Yes, the link is the right one.
Yes, the link is active and working.
Kind regards.