Pricing errors when selling to Northern Ireland from England

[pinkham99]

I am listing an item on ebay at £107 (buy it now) with free postage.

I am located in England and was contacted by a potential buyer in Northern Ireland who wants to buy it.

They are telling me that they see the price on their computer as 131.61.

I don't understand what's going on. 

I've sold to Northern Ireland before and never had any problems at all.

Any ideas what's gone wrong?

thanks in advance

Jane

[tressygirl]

Are you using a courier,  for example Evri?  Couriers tend to place surcharges for certain places in the UK.

If you use Royal Mail there is no extra charge.

Check the weight and size of the item against RM's postage price list online to make sure those comply to a standard rate.  You can then, if the buyer has purchased and not paid,  send them a revised invoice with the RM's postage charge for them to pay.  Explain this will now be a Royal Mail service.

To send a revised invoice,  go right of the item sold to More Actions, and select Send payment Details, amend the postage there to that required,  but do not click on reset.  Check it is correct,  and send .

If you are on the Seller Hub,  you click on the item in Orders >>  Awaiting Payment,  then top left you will see send Invoice,  follow the above instructions.

You will need a laptop / PC for this not the app or mobile browser.

@pinkham99 

[papso22]

For some reason ebay has added 20% VAT. 

Does the buyer actually see the higher price at checkout when they go to pay?  It usually sorts itself out at that point.

[pinkham99]

Thanks for your email.
I can't find out exactly when the problem is occurring as I suspect the
buyer is not very experienced with ebay.
I have asked the potential buyer to get in touch with ebay to help them
sort things out.
I've just had a message from someone else in Northern Ireland and they are
seeing the correct price.
Regards Jane

[pinkham99]

UPDATE -

I contacted Ebay and the reply I got is - that since Brexit, they treat customers in Northern Ireland as being outside of the UK and so purchases are liable to VAT.
This is all news to me. So it appears that I would receive £107 less ebay fees and someone else (UK or Other Government) would receive the VAT of £24.61.
This is the first I've heard of this.

It is very confusing to me that I can send a private parcel to NI without having to complete a customs declaration, but when selling privately through Ebay I am crossing a customs border.

This only came to light as I originally listed the item as "collection only" from my home address in England. When the buyer from NI contacted me, I added to postage cost to the buy it now price and offered "free postage" included.

The buyer then saw the price increase again. Ebay added VAT as they now detected me shipping from England to NI.

If I offered shipping from day one, the NI buyer would have only seen the price including VAT and buyers from England Scotalnd and Wales with no VAT charge.  

[pinkham99]

Thanks for your reply. You're right about VAT. 

I've posted an update with the reason.

[john1297576]

You might like to read this, if written in understandable terms - 

https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/trading-and-moving-goods-and-out-northern-ireland#:~:text=a....

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-on-movements-of-goods-between-northern-ireland-and-the-eu

[*vyolla*]

Is there import VAT payable between Northern Ireland the UK now though? 

I thought it had been done away with.

A CN22 is no longer required.

[pinkham99]

I'm not entirely sure how the regulations apply to a company like Ebay facilitating a private sale between two individuals.

The buyer has just completed the transaction and I have received £107 (less Ebay fees) that I had expected.

[*vyolla*]

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@pinkham99 wrote:

I'm not entirely sure how the regulations apply to a company like Ebay facilitating a private sale between two individuals.

The buyer has just completed the transaction and I have received £107 (less Ebay fees) that I had expected.

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There's been an ongoing glitch with import VAT at 20% being shown as added to some listings, when it shouldn't be - I suspect that your listing fell into this category.