Selling an item from U.K. to buyer in Ireland - not free!

[williams64yellow]

I’m a private seller and have just sold a fairly expensive item and the buyer is in Ireland. I usually don’t ship overseas but must have overlooked the option. I guess that’s my fault although I’d argue that the default should be to ‘opt in’ to Global Shipping rather than the opposite.
 Anyway, I’ve just seen that I’m being charged £9. So after a little research selling isn’t actually free on ebay. I do feel a little bit conned here and I’m sure when I contact ebay they’ll tell me it’s all there in black and white even though it’s very hidden and it never occurred to me to that there would be charges. 
Just a heads up to other folk really and just make sure you account for the ‘hidden charges’ or remember to exclude overseas postage.

[john1297576]

If by Ireland you mean the Republic, You do not list any postage for outside the UK or any mention of Global Shipping, so how did buyer pay? If Northern Ireland it gets complicated and in my opinion best to block sales to NI.

Somewhere, not exactly obvious, sellers are told that sales outside the UK incur a fee, no doubt due to differences in exchange rates.

[williams64yellow]

It’s the Republic of Ireland and I usually uncheck the Global Shipping option but missed doing it this time. I guess that’s my error but I was surprised to see a charge of 3%. So at the end of the day, I missed the small print I suppose. Small print I wouldn’t have been looking for but it’s there and I see it now.  I still think you should opt-in to overseas shipping rather than opt out but opinions will differ.

Interesting that you can block sales to NI. I didn’t realise that was a) an option to do so  and b) there were issues with sales to NI. I have sent stuff to NI without issue in the last 12 months but I’ll look into that. Thank you for the heads up.

[john1297576 · Accepted solution]

It may not be too complicated, but it is down to UK not being in the EU. I think Customs Declarations my be required. You only need some keen official in customs to cause problems.