Buyer opened a payment dispute after refusing to pay import fees

[robin_vught]

I sold an item for £550.

Got a message from the buyer saying he received an invoice from Parcelforce of £108.36 for Import VAT and that he was not planning on paying these costs, asking me to pay them or the item would need to be returned as not described/undelivered.

I answered him that I couldn't help him with that because buyers are responsible for paying any import fees, not sellers.

He has now opened a payment dispute, reason buyer hasn't received their item yet.

I of course challenged the dispute and added documents of:

1 The original shipping label with declared value

2 Tracking info showing the package is awaiting payments of customs charges

3 The buyers message showing he is refusing to pay the import fees

4 The invoice the buyer received (and sent to me) explaining the costs

Should I be worried about losing this dispute?

I assumed I would be covered by the fact that the buyer has admitted he doesn't want to pay for the import fees and the tracking proves this but apparently this only applies to a case that is opened through ebay and not a payment dispute?

If the buyer does somehow win the dispute, is there any advice on what else I can do?

[plpmr]

these are the UK boards and you are in Netherlands, best log into your designated site - https://www.ebay.nl/

[robin_vught]

The item was listed / sold on Ebay UK.

[douglaspuglas]

I think the buyer refuses to pay import duty or refuses delivery  they negate the eBay money back guarantee.

But you might have to point out the policy to eBay.

The poster on this thread had a similar problem.

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Member-To-Member-Support/Buyer-refused-to-accept-delivery-requested-... 

[*vyolla*]

Is your buyer in the UK?

If so, I guess he didn't bother to check the item location. An easy mistake though. However, I would include a line in your listing descriptions pointing out that the item is being shipped from the Netherlands so will be subject to import fees.

If you scroll down to the section entitled "Exclusions and special coverage when the buyer doesn't receive an

item" you'll see that your buyer isn't covered by eBay's Money Back Guarantee:

Not covered:

• The buyer didn't pay applicable customs fees or duties for any other reason

Taken from this eBay guidance page:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy/ebay-money-back-guarantee-poli...

However, if he's aware of this and has opened a not received claim with his payment provider I couldn't tell you how this will play out. You've pretty much provided everything you can.

[*vyolla*]

Actually, it is pretty obvious that the item was being shipped from the Netherlands.  If he was searching for those headphones then they would have come up in a search and looked like this:

[fargvs]

If using a UK Registered account ??, to sell and deliver items from (EU Zone) Nederland ... UK site Default rules on paying 20% Import VAT and any Customs Duty will be applied on all Sales made to any UK Buyers.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/buying/paying-items/paying-tax-ebay-purchases?id=4771&st=12&pos=3&query=...

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-and-overseas-goods-sold-to-customers-in-the-uk-using-online-marketpl...