2x cancel requests on International sales in the last week, buyers protection fee the culprit?

[siybon]

Having had these two cancellation requests in the 3 weeks, something that very rarely happens, I took a look at some listings and noted how for ones that I only have global shipping programme as the option for International shipping, if I select the country, there is no longer a quote for shipping costs.

Therefore the buyer is buying blind to a degree. In the past the total shipping costs would be shown. It's therefore not a surprise that the buyer may be be surprised to learn the total costs only AFTER agreeing to buy, and wishes to cancel.

Is this a blip, or is this something that now been adopted. Seems a very odd thing if it is permanent. 

[4_bathrooms]

What do the settings on this page show; is the first box ticked and are you opted-in to GSP?

[jckl1957]

International buyers don't pay BPF.

I just looked at one of your listings and changed the country randomly to Italy, and did get a cost for posting.

Were the buyers from countries that Ebay send to using GSP?

[4_bathrooms]

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@jckl1957 wrote:

International buyers don't pay BPF.

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I initially thought that but this is stated in the FAQ:

"Depending on the tax legislation of the country where the buyer is located or where the order will be delivered, local Value Added Tax (VAT), Goods and Services Tax (GST) or similar consumption tax might apply on the Buyer Protection fee instead of UK VAT. We will collect tax when we have an obligation to do so. Any tax collected will be included in the buyer's order total at checkout."

[siybon]

Appreciate that.

I set GSP in Europe for items over £50 (due to Royal Mail compensation limits). So the listing you used possibly was under £50 and gave you the Royal Mail price.

Intrigued to know what it would say for outside Europe.

[siybon]

Yeah I'm opted in. And I can select GSP in my listing.

Its only lately where it seems that the total shipping costs isnt displayed before purchase for a buyer who would need to use GSP.

[4_bathrooms]

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@jckl1957 wrote:

I just looked at one of your listings and changed the country randomly to Italy, and did get a cost for posting.

Were the buyers from countries that Ebay send to using GSP?

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Some of the OP's listings that I have looked at don't show any international postage/shipping even to EU countries; just a notice to contact the seller for details. The ones that do all show "Royal Mail International Tracked" which I believe is custom international postage set by the OP.

It looks to me as though the GSP option is set to opt-out or the listings don't have the GSP box checked. 

[siybon]

The funny thing is, when I go to to revise, I have to re-enter the shipping details fresh again, they arent already there. And thats revising, not relisting. So something seems a bit faulty with shipping in general.

But each time I revise, Im always making sure GSP is selected. 

Something does seem up right now. 

[4_bathrooms]

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@siybon wrote:

I set GSP in Europe for items over £50 (due to Royal Mail compensation limits). So the listing you used possibly was under £50 and gave you the Royal Mail price.

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That explains what I was seeing. I looked at the GSP's restricted and prohibited items list and the following is a restricted category: "Video Games & Consoles > Gaming & Time Cards". I realise that is not what you are selling nor the category you are listing in but I do wonder if the cards you are selling are being caught out by that restriction.

[siybon]

Thats interesting. And this is something Ive only noticed this last week or so. It could be Im getting caught up by mistake. The fact that I can select GSP when editing my listing, with the correct category chosen of trading cards, shows I should be able to use GSP at least, and as per I have been able to in the past. 

[4_bathrooms]

It might be worth clicking the opt-out link on the global GSP settings page, then opting back in and clicking the "Submit" button. Once you have done that do a bulk edit of your listings without actually changing anything. Sometimes the "turn it off and on again then do a bulk relist" solution works for issues like this.

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[siybon]

Gave that a try, but sadly no success.

Like I say, something seems up with shipping in general judging by that I have to keep inputting shipping details in, even when revising. Its been doing that for a couple of days now.

[xyz307xyz · Accepted solution]

There was another thread on here about GSP prices not showing on ebay.co.uk/foreign address but did show on any other ebay site/foreign address.

I don't know if all the US tariff stuff is sorted but try looking at your item on

ebay.com.sg / singapore address

ebay.com / greece / germany / brazil / usa address

etc. to see if prices are listed.

You don't need whole addresses, normally just the country.

[siybon]

Ah, I see the postage costs if I look at other sites!

So its a .co.uk thing specifically then.

That is a bit of peace of mind now at least.

Thanks 

[4_bathrooms]

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@jckl1957 wrote:

International buyers don't pay BPF.

Actually; this might have been the issue all along. The BPF is only applied when the purchase is completed on eBay.co.uk; if the listing is completed on an international site there is no BPF. I've just checked some of eBay's EU websites and eBay.com with a listing from the OP that is £219.95 including the BPF - I chose this listing because it is over the €150 threshold where eBay would apply EU VAT. On all the EU websites and eBay.com the price is £210.79; i.e. the OP's price with no BPF applied.

I'm guessing there has been some sort of issue with EU buyers purchasing items from private sellers directly through eBay.co.uk. This may have caused Pitney Bowes headaches with customs/IOSS declarations due to the BPF element that would have been paid by the buyer.

[siybon]

Apreciate your assistance on this 🙂

BPF was never the issue by the way. It was shipping and customs that didnt appear to be showing if I selected an International destination that should have triggered GSP.

Going onto International ebay sites showed to me that potential buyers from other countries would indeed see what their total would be before purchasing. Quite why that should be Im not sure. Especially as I can still see what an international total cost would be if I had Royal Mail as the designated shipping method and was looking at it on .co.uk.

Seems to me to be a little quirk triggered by something in the back end. Wouldnt be the first time, and wont be the last!

[avagojoe]

Hi Siybon.  See heading " Global Shipping Not Working " for numerous complaints with same problem.

This has been an ongoing problem since Feb. Still not sorted!!

[4_bathrooms]

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@avagojoe wrote:

Hi Siybon.  See heading " Global Shipping Not Working " for numerous complaints with same problem.

This has been an ongoing problem since Feb. Still not sorted!!

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That's interesting; the BPF was introduced on 4th February and your opening post in that thread suggests the problem started on the same day.

I am now pretty sure this is an issue with overseas buyers purchasing through eBay.co.uk and the BPF; i.e. eBay has removed the ability of such buyers to purchase through eBay.co.uk. My gut feeling is that it is due to the VAT situation in the EU as eBay would need to charge (3.3333% + 60p) + the buyer's domestic VAT on the BPF and remit it to the relevant EU tax authority regardless of the item's selling price. For something under €150 eBay would be remitting two lots of VAT; one for the VAT charged on the BPF and another via the EU's IOSS for the VAT charged on the item's selling price. This means eBay's VAT invoice to the buyer and the VAT declared through IOSS wouldn't tally; I'm guessing this is something eBay and/or Pitney Bowes haven't been able to resolve.

[siybon]

That could well explain this quirk I discovered. (On the back of trying to understand why I had international orders requesting cancellation, and one of the buyers actually told me they didnt realise how much to total would come to when they made their offer).

Although worth noting that in the recent past I was able to see what a potential buyer from abroad would see regards totals including GSP, using .co.uk. Certainly after early Feb anyway. So perhaps theyve taken extra steps to hide it now. 

[siybon]

I did have a global shipping programm search, but as this seemed like a recent issue for me, I only searched in the last few days. But yes, seems like people have been having issues for a bit.

Fwiw, I actually really appreciate GSP and havent had any problems with it until now.