Buyer refused to accept delivery, requested a full refund and eBay have found in his favour

[vetare]

Hi

I'm a UK seller, buyer is in Italy. As the UK is now out of the EU, any items sent into the EU are subject to import duty; sometimes you get away without paying, sometime not. The buyer paid for the item plus P&P plus VAT and I duly sent with tracking. No word from him. Then I get the item returned with a label on it that the buyer refused to pay import duty. Then a request for a full refund, including P&P. I refused, saying that I had paid for postage, had sent, delivery was attempted but he refused to pay import duty. His reply was that he didn't see why he should have to pay more (meaning that delivery *was* attempted as how else would he have known that there was import duty to pay) and that it was my responsibility to tell him that he was going to have to pay more and he wanted a full refund. I declined and raised with eBay via the online messaging. I have the transcript where the agent accepted my explanation and said that he would ensure that I was not out of pocket for the transaction. Now the seller asked eBay to intervene as I had not issued a full refund and eBay have just decided in his favour ie a full refund inc P&P. They say that it's because I couldn't prove that the item had been delivered; how the **** am I supposed to do that in a different country? If they read his comments it's obvious that delivery was attempted, he refused to pay so the item was returned. I've got the item back so I can resell it, but I'm down the price of P&P (not inconsiderable as the item was reasonably large). I've contested the adjudication, but what hope is there of them changing their decision and only awarding him the price of the item?

[plpmr]

" buyer refused to pay import duty."

According to eBay T&C refusing to pay import duty voids a buyers eBay buyer protection and will not get a refund.

[john1297576]

How much was the value of this item? I cannot seecsny recent sales which would have incurred Import Duty, only VAT which ebay would have collected, on behslf of the Italian Tax Authorities.

If ebay collects VAT, you can see this in the psyment details, then as part of the address, you have to add the tax details, some thing like this - VAT PAID IOSS followed  by a Number.

If you failed to add this to the address, then buyer would be asked to pay on delivery, so would be rather annoyed if he had already paid.

As said refusing to pay tax voids the money back guarantee, BUT IF EBAY can see they collected the tax, then buyer is not required to pay again.

[vetare]

eBay collected VAT, but I guess it depends on what the item is as to whether or not the buyer is asked to pay import duty. He was definitely asked to pay as the packaging has labels to the effect that import duty was required and his comments in messages to the effect that 'he didn't see why he should have to pay more' indicates that he was asked. I have spoken to eBay customer services (Ireland based) and they tell me that because he raised the dispute in Italy, it's Italian customer services that are dealing with it. They might agree that his refusal means that delivery was attempted and that I shouldn't have to refund postage, but it's down to the Italians to change their decision.

[vetare]

I didn't realise this otherwise I would have raised it with customer services. Apparently they have already issued the buyer a full refund and my account is now negative as they have taken the full refund from it. Even if they change their decision I was told that they cannot now take the money back from the buyer (who, incidentally, is a seller on eBay Italy so why wouldn't they be able to recover from his transactions?)