Locked
Discussion interactions are currently paused.
Australian buyer wants to buy UK postage item. How to agree and say within the rules.
I have an item for sale for UK delivery. I specified in the description "Overseas buyers will be considered but postage outside of UK will almost certainly attract customs duty and/or VAT in your own country so unless you state clearly that you will take responsibility for any such charges I will not post outside of the UK. If I do it will be with tracking and insurance at the buyers expense"
I have now received a good offer from Australia for the item and the buyer specifies "I am an overseas buyer (Australia) and will pay postage, duties, etc. With thanks, Sean" He has a good feedback profile and I believe the offer to be genuine.
However, eBay will not now allow me to revise my ad to include international shipping and to make use of eBay's own Global Shipping service. If I make a counter offer which includes the cost of shipping directly through UPS (at a cost of £ 65 including full insurance) eBay automatically specifies in the counter-offer "Offer price does not include postage and taxes".
So my question is.. If I go ahead as outlined above am I working within eBay's guidelines? Or do I have to create a new ad that includes international shipping from scratch for us all to be protected?
Any input gratefully received.
tommystrezures
Mentor6 months agoWhat is the value of the item as sales to Australia at checkout does include sales tax or ABN the number shown once your buyer has paid needs to be clearly marked on the package. The agreement on de minimis between the uk and Australia is $1000 aud . But gst/sales tax as I previously mentioned are collected by eBay.
crogal
OP6 months agoThat's tricky. The item is priced at £650: the Aussie buyer offered £550 excluding postage and any taxes which he confirmed he is willing to pay. The counter-offer I have made is £630 including approximately £65 in shipping fees (UPS tracked, insured and signed-for) so a little above the Aus$1000 tax free exemption. But if the buyer accepts and is happy to pay the Australian taxes all well and good. I'm not interested in under-valuing it to save money in taxes as that involves under-insuring but the buyer seems keen enough.
Incidentally this is all on the eBay UK site so I'd be interested to know if there are any circumstances where eBay would pursue me rather than the buyer for Australian GST? I'm rather assuming UPS would collect the tax on delivery.
Thanks for your interest and advice.
crogal
OP6 months agoThank you, but I don't understand what you think I should do in this case... I assure you I'm not trying to make up rules but I do want the buyer to be aware that they are likely to be charged import duty, and I'm certainly not going to send an item untracked or uninsured. As I said before, eBay will not let me add international postage to the advert at this point (which seems odd to me).
red_magpie
Mentor6 months agoPlease don't try to make up your own rules on eBay, it's a recipe for disaster!
eBay itself already has rules governing the payment of import taxes by buyers. Tracking and postal insurance are for your protection, not the buyer's. If you send an iten untracked, you will not have the proof of delivery that eBay requires and would have to refund the buyer in full if they claim not to have received it. If an item is damaged in transit you will be responsible for refunding the buyer in full. If you send it insured, this is at your risk, not the buyer's.
By the way, Australia has an unbelievably long list of items that are prohibited from being imported. It would be a good idea to check this before offering to deliver there.
**peaseblossom**
Mentor6 months agoWhat you plan is fine. You're still keeping it on ebay but you may find your buyer is blocked. If so try putting their ID on your exemption list to remove the block:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/bmgt/ExemptBuyers
crogal
OP6 months agoThank you for your help!