What The Hell Is The International Fee For Private Sellers?

[fallen121]

I admit I must have been living under a rock or something, but I was under the impression that when eBay 1) Removed fees for private sellers and 2) Brought in the "Buyer Protection Fee" to try and claw some of this back. But the justification was always that I the seller derived a benefit in terms of I get to keep the exact cost that I am asking for my item. Which as a private seller doesn't really involve any level of profit.

What I DIDN'T know was that if I offer a book for sale for £12.99 and I buyer who just happens to live in Australia decides they want to buy it, I am charged an "International Fee" of 2.5% not just on the £12.99 price of the book but the £15.74 charged to the buyer for the book plus postage. This fee, currently 39p, is then subject to VAT of 8p, making a total cost to me of 47p because my buyer happens to live outside the UK, something which I did not know and have no control over. Well yes, I suppose I could limit my listings to UK only, but my understanding is that my next to negligible chances of making a sale are further reduced if I try to limit my market.

On what level is this even fair, WHAT EXACTLY AM I BEING CHARGED FOR in terms of an additional service to me (I presume as I am paying a fee I should derive some benefit?) and why is this fee never quoted during the listing process?

[for-your-home-and-garden]

Im businesses seller i sold 3 items to US

Buyer paid £190 and eBay took £35 off me for fees that's 18.5% .. if I was private seller I hardly paid any fees 

[thessc]

Well we all no Feebay love to take a cut. Which I guess is ok when they are up front about it.

My problem here is when someone makes an offer on an item, I don't get to know they are overseas until the deal is done. If eBay flagged that it was an international buyer and how much extra would be knocked off my cut then I could adjust the offer price accordingly.

As it is now, I suddenly get stung for more fees without prior knowledge and that is not acceptable.

[studiomaster_uk]

International Fee - to all intents this is nothing other than theft.

Ebay state it is free to sell on ebay for private sellers, they do not clearly state this is limited to UK or that it is free to sell except not internationally.

This fee did not exist at the outset - it has been surreptitiously introduced.

No additional costs are involved for ebay, this is simple profiteering.

If it is 'switched on' by the selection of the Global Shipping Program (or other similar function), there was no 'warning' when it was introduced, there still is no warning within listings, there was no 'reset' of parameters to require a user input. The effect seems to be that it has just been thrust on sellers.

As others have commented, one does not know (in advance) when an international buyer is interested in an item. There is no possibility to pass this cost to the buyer, or for the buyer to pay the 'surcharge' on seller request.

This cost, if it needs to exist which I'd suggest it really doesn't, should be paid buy the buyer (perhaps as part of the buyer protection fee) - it is not the seller (alone) that is benefiting from this 'introduction' it is ebay and, to the greater part, the buyer. The buyer is provided greater access to product(s) and greater access to competitive pricing. This benefits the buyer - if it didn't, they would not buy.

When using the Global Shipping Program and ebay's enforced use of 'Simple Shipping' ebay are still charging the seller a fee (+VAT) on the Simple Shipping cost. This is the same 'domestic' Simple Shipping which provides delivery to a UK address, in this case ebay's chosen shipping centre for international forwarding. The seller has no margin on Simple Shipping, levying a fee on it suddenly makes it a negative benefit feature for sellers where there is no difference in service, domestic or international. This should never be so.

Sellers should be able to choose the price at which they sell an item (inclusive of any selling costs) - this international fee negates that seller right.

Proposal: Scrap this fee and refund sellers to correct this injustice. That would be the honourable thing to do.

[cobwebcottage]

Have you ever heard of an exchange rate? If you don't want to pay it then don't use GSP.  

Strong words, honourable, theft, injustice, when you have a private account and an awful lots of brand new knickers to sell.

[jckl1957]

The charges are listed on the fees page and are not hidden.

So, now you have 'prior knowledge' you can list items for sale in the UK only.

International fee

If your registered address is in the UK, we charge an international fee of 3% if the delivery address for the item (entered by the buyer during checkout) is outside the UK.

This fee is calculated on the total amount of the sale and is automatically deducted from your sales proceeds. The total amount of the sale includes the item price, any handling charges, postage, and any applicable taxes.

If you don't want international buyers to purchase your items, you can learn how to exclude international delivery locations in our International selling policy.

[a45heaven]

@jckl1957 

Sorry I thought he question was for  which function is this fee collected by ebay, rather what it is. - Kinda like the Regulatory Fee which is never revealed which regulations they are collected against.

International fee

If your registered address is in the UK, we charge an international fee of 3% if the delivery address for the item (entered by the buyer during checkout) is outside the UK.

This fee is calculated on the total amount of the sale and is automatically deducted from your sales proceeds. The total amount of the sale includes the item price, any handling charges, postage, and any applicable taxes.

[sml192]

The International Fee has been present ever since the introduction of Ebay Managed Payments and was part of PayPal's fees before that.  It relates to payment processing costs.  All payment providers, banks, Mastercard, Visa, etc. charge extra for handling international transactions in addition to any exchange rate fee.

I like the idea of adding it to the Buyer Protection Fee but that would only work for items purchased on ebay.co.uk as the Buyer Protection Fee doesn’t apply to purchases made on other eBay sites, such as ebay.com, even when it is from a UK seller.