eBay

wellingnorth · ‎15-01-2025

I've just had an item not received case opened for an item I sent to Brazil via Royal Mail tracked
When I look at the tracking it says the following:

"Necessidade de informar CPF/CNPJ do destinatário de Unidade de Logística Integrada, Curitiba - PR"

My understanding now is that the Brazilian customs require the recipients CPF / CNPJ numbers and I assume may have contacted the buyer about this.

Searching on google I turned up this page which suggests the buyer should have provided the numbers as part of their address:

https://pages.ebay.com/shipping/latam/brasiltaxid/index.html?_trkparms=%26clkid%3D825244696364730050...

The tracking says the parcel is being returned to me, but I was looking for advice on the correct course of action for me to take now regarding the open case? (Please resolve this request by 18 Jan 2025)

*vyolla* · ‎15-01-2025

Good bit of research.

Problem here is, if the buyer has opened an item not received claim, without proof of delivery eBay will likely just go ahead and refund them.

There is an exclusion for buyers under eBay's Money Back Guarantee:

Not covered:

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

You may need to contact eBay and explain what's happened here and that the buyer should have provided the correct address information. How this will go, I couldn't tell you.

wellingnorth · ‎15-01-2025

@*vyolla* wrote:
There is an exclusion for buyers under eBay's Money Back Guarantee:

Not covered:
The buyer didn't pay applicable customs fees or duties for any other reason

You may need to contact eBay and explain what's happened here and that the buyer should have provided the correct address information. How this will go, I couldn't tell you.

Thanks for this, that's helpful. For now I've replied to the case asking the buyer if they heard from customs at all (their email and phone number were provided when I booked the parcel). I guess if I don't hear back I will contact cs on friday as you suggest. They're a zero feedback buyer so I can imagine they may have been unaware of the CPF / CNPJ requirement and also that ebay may not have communicated this to them at checkout!

*vyolla* · ‎15-01-2025

I don't think that there will be a prompt at checkout, reading that link you provided it appears that the onus is on the buyer to update their address details and add it for international purchases.

akemp1 · ‎15-01-2025

I can't help you with this issue but it for future listings it's a lot easier to have a policy of only using ebay's global shipping programme rather than get involved in international paperwork and taxes. I know the buyers pay more for items sent this way so it might slow down your sales but it's so much easier as a seller to just post to a UK address ebay provide and let them and their suppliers deal with all this stuff.

wellingnorth · ‎15-01-2025

@*vyolla* wrote:
You may need to contact eBay and explain what's happened here and that the buyer should have provided the correct address information. How this will go, I couldn't tell you.

So I spoke to customer service on chat this evening and they said to escalate the case when that option becomes available and that I should win the case at that point having sent the item to the correct address.

I expressed my concern that ebay would allow a Brazilian buyer to place an international order without providing the number/s given that ebay have their own page from 2020 explaining that it's necessary and a workaround for it. Clearly by now a system should be in place to cater for this. They could see my point and suggested that as the buyer may not be at fault they should be able to appeal the case and receive a refund as well (a courtesy refund I suppose - the amount is about £60)

I understand that customer service has a reputation for telling people what they want to hear sometimes, but it seems worth a try, with my only other option at this point to refund in full.

@akemp1I know what you mean about GSP but I prefer to use normal post and maybe sell a few more things with the reduced cost even if it means hitting something like this once every year or two. I will certainly consider using GSP if I get another order to Brazil though! I did once try and get GSP up and running alongside normal shipping and gave up in the end, it was quite hard to see if it was working / what rates were being shown. I also read about rejected parcels being destroyed or sold on rather than returned to sender which I don't really like the sound of even if you don't end up out of pocket.

vintage-emporium-jedburgh · ‎15-01-2025

Escalating a case is not a wise move for a seller

twin--turbo · ‎15-01-2025

its why i only send with GSP overseas. Its not my problem .

akemp1 · ‎15-01-2025

@twin--turbo wrote:
its why i only send with GSP overseas. Its not my problem .

Yup I send around 1 in 15 of my items, circa 2 a month, to a GSP shipping center and I never hear anything more about what happens to them other than buyers leaving positive feedback. I presume that if the buyer raises a case for a delivery issue then maybe ebay intercept that and I wouldn't be involved. If they ever messaged me I would ask them to raise a case.

From my perspective GSP gains me sales rather than loses them as otherwise I would only sell within the UK as I am just not setup for the complexities of international shipping forms and taxes its so complicated. I'm just someone trying to clear their stuff. I know my limitations and ultimately it's the buyer who pays if they really want my item enough.

twin--turbo · ‎15-01-2025

i had one recently wher buyer said they were in hospital i told buyer multiple times it was ebay he needed to deal with ( which he would not listen to ). GSP final mile agent tried 3 times and gave up. buyer sent me thrats of police action. I contacted ebay gsp , case closed, no foul on my part....

akemp1 · ‎15-01-2025

@twin--turbo wrote:
i had one recently wher buyer said they were in hospital i told buyer multiple times it was ebay he needed to deal with ( which he would not listen to ). GSP final mile agent tried 3 times and gave up. buyer sent me thrats of police action. I contacted ebay gsp , case closed, no foul on my part....

Sounds awful. I must have been very lucky to have had my ebay account nearly 25 years and never had to deal with that kind of abuse from a buyer. The worst I have had is buyers being rude before buying stuff as some kind of counterproductive haggling technique that just makes me want to hold the original price and hope they go away.

wellingnorth · ‎22-01-2025

So a quick update on this -

I escalated the case when the option was available and after a couple of days ebay adjudicated and found in my favour, but they also refunded the buyer out of their own pocket. That was the result I was hoping for so that's all good.

If the item comes back to me I'll list again for the buyer but would probably try and use GSP to avoid a recurrence of whatever happened with customs. As some of you on the thread have experience of GSP it seems worth asking here, does turning GSP on for a single listing work okay? Do I need to specify parcel size and weight for it to determine the correct cost? And is it possible for me to see the cost shown to the buyer?

Finally it's worth adding that I found that the information about the CPF number is on the Royal Mail 'Postage to Brazil' page so if I get another order from a country I haven't sent to before I'll certainly look up the country on there first

https://www.royalmail.com/sending/international/country-guides/brazil

eastern-lights · ‎22-01-2025

@wellingnorth wrote:
And is it possible for me to see the cost shown to the buyer?

Find your item in your active listings. Click on the picture, the listing will open as if you were a potential buyer viewing it.

On the right is a bit about postage, it'll read something like

"Postage: Free Other courier (3 to 5 days). See details"

click on "see details" to open the postage window, It'll currently show Delivery to United Kingdom. Change that to Brazil or where ever. Click on update. It'll now show you the shipping charge someone in Brazil or where ever will see.

IMPORTANT: Change location back to United Kingdom and click update before you come out, or you can see some odd effects when you next try to buy something!

bloggsco · ‎10-04-2025

Brazilian Customs authorities are a nightmare.
I just had 2 CDs that I sent in September 2023, returned with import fees FOR ME TO PAY! Just WTaF?
I lost over £25 on the whole thing. It's now April 2025.
On top of about 10 items over the last few years simply disappearing - tracking notwithstanding - I have had enough. I no longer ship to Brazil. Not worth the considerable hassle. I feel sorry for Brazilian buyers but their country needs to sort out its postal service and its customs rules.