Selling on ebay and shipping clothing internationally - Customs & Duties?

Question

I sell clothes on e-bay and recently started offering international shipments. I have a customer in England who clais that her Post Officce told her that I should be paying customs for the clothes that I send her. My Post Office has never mentioned anything about paying customs on any of my international packages. I was under the impression that any duties or customs charges are the responsibility of the recipient. Does anyone know anything about this? Thanks a lot!!

Sorry for the typos - clais = claims Officce = Office

Answer 1

I sell on Ebay as well. I have been shipping internationally for years. You are shipping it to their country, when the recipient recieves it she is accepting it into her country and she pays the duties and fees not you.

ALWAYS cover you butt in your auctions with the legal spiel....things like, You are responsible for the customs in your country. I am not resposible for postal delays or loss. (Actually you are, but by saying that if may release you from some liability depending on your laws. )

I personally hate all that crap in auctions and people with nasty attitudes due to a few bad apples, I dont buy from anyone who appears to have a snippy attitude. However, you really need to nicely state the rules!

Anyway, another tip dont use global priority, it seems to be a nice option, but you cannot insure it and there is NO WAY to track it if it is lost! I think they loose them on purpose! I mean geesh isnt that why they ask you for detailed info on the customs form about what is in the package??? LOL

Also dont mark it as a gift, it can hold up the package for a long time, they have a right to open it, if they see an invoice, your in trouble! The price you list is what you sold it for.

I hope all this helps.
If you have specifics most of it is answered in the Ebay community itself, just dig into the archives etc.

Good Luck!

Answer 2

It is the buyers responsiblity. You have to watch out on ebay.20% of ebayers are fraud. They are just trying to get you to send them money. This is why I NEVER send out of USA. Not because of the bidders but because I have never had anything to any country get thru customs and then when it doesn't...they can still do a chargeback thru paypal and get an automatic refund because the tracking number place on it will show it was Never delivered. You have no item and you have no money.
Always make sure you have a tracking number so you can prove you mailed it.

The lower your number is on your feedback the more people will take advantage of you because they know you are just learning.

If you think this person is trying to get you in fraud, go into stie map and find safeharbor security and forward them their bidder's name and the auction and let them know they are trying to get money out of you.
If that person has enough complaints about them, ebay will throw them off ebay.

Good Luck and I hope this helps.

Answer 3

Your buyer is giving you a bunch of baloney. It's the buyer's responsibility to pay customs. Also, if they ask you to mark the customs form as "gift", tell them "sorry, I can't". It's illegal, dishonest, and can get you kicked off of eBay.

Best of luck. Most international buyers are fantastic, so it was a good business move to ship internationally. Think of the increased exposure.

Answer 4

Duties are the buyers problem. Mention it in the auction. It's an 'import' duty, not an export duty.
Their post office employees would be no experts and are just shooting off their mouths. Typical!

Answer 5

Generally, it is the buyer who will be responsible for paying the customs/duty fees when the item is shipped to them (they would have to pay the shipper to clear customs). However, depending on the type of electronics (i.e. computers), there may be US federal restrictions as to exporting technology to certain countries.