Paid more at customs then I did for the actual game !!!!

[Mr.Faxanadu]

Hello,

I live up here in Canada eh? And I think it’s an absolute travesty that on top of having to fork out extra money due to currency exchange we also get dinged with custom taxes and fees. Here’s what kills me! I won this old Intellivision game for $9.99 US. With shipping and currency exchange this comes out to C $18.24. Now for the best part - The seller for some unknown reason put the games value at $50 on the customs declaration form :angry: . I was charged an extra $14 in taxes and fees !!!! so for a $9.99 game it cost me $C 32.24. :angry:

QUSTION – does this mistake from the seller justify a NEGATIVE FEEDBACK !! I have never given one and am wondering if I should ????
:angry:

[Mr.Faxanadu]

Actually I just thought about it and I guess the currency exchange is not that bad. All those sweet deals I find at garage sales I can sell on ebay and get some cold hard US currency. :D but i still hate customs :angry:

[Keir]

QUSTION – does this mistake from the seller justify a NEGATIVE FEEDBACK !! I have never given one and am wondering if I should ????
:angry:
I would definitely contact the seller first and politely explain what happened to see how they respond. Leaving a negative without trying to contact the seller first almost guarantees (and in most cases deserves) a retaliatory negative and you don't want that.

They certainly shouldn't have listed the value as any more than what you paid for it so if they aren't willing to work something out then it would be fair to leave a negative.

[SegaAges]

yeah, definitely contact the seller first. you never know, it never hurts to discuss it first dude

[Mr.Faxanadu]

I will contact him.... I'll let you guys know....

[StartTheBiddingLow]

When I have a foreign auction winner or buyer I email him to ask "I'll write '$x US / $x Can / £x UK / whatever' on the customs label - is that OK?".
No misunderstandings or errors then.

[tholly]

I will contact him.... I'll let you guys know....



you should have just not accepted the package....returned it to sender, and had him resend it with the proper customs value....or, ask for a refund

[suppafly]

That has hapenned to be before. A quite difficult situation. Let the seller know what hapened and maybe he will offer a partial refund

[Griking]

If you ask me its not the seller's fault that your custom's dept charges you a tax based on the item's value. You could have always refused delivery and then asked for a refund when it was returned to him.

[Ed Oscuro]

Wow, yet another eBay issue!

Hmm...refunding delivery and immediately contacting the seller while the package is sent back sounds right.

NO WAY I'd pay double to get some cheap game.

[sisko]

If you ask me its not the seller's fault that your custom's dept charges you a tax based on the item's value.

That's not the point.

He's mad that the seller said the package had a $50 value, when it only was a $10 value. Thus, he had to pay way more in customs than he should have.

[Iron Draggon]

I'd ask the seller to write on there that the game is a gift, then you don't have to pay customs on it at all. Most sellers would probably do it for you, if you explained to them why you wanted them to do it. I would do it for you.

[LiquidX01]

I just traded someone on here a game who lives up in Canada. I wasnt quite sure about what to mark on the customs form since I had never shipped out of the states before, so the post office dude explained to me the different customs issues and told me that my best bet was to mark it as a gift. Also, I did not know that they actually opened up the packages to see whats inside. F*ck That!!!

Im just glad I live in the states and I dont have to pay for that shit, especially with my online buying habits.... :)

[farfel]

Seller deserves a negative for putting "$50 value" on a $10 item. Dumb. And "I didn't know the speed limit was 55" never works in traffic court. Ignorance is no excuse.

Give him an option:
- pay the customs fee he incurred with his "$50 value" lie
- or he getts negged

[SamuraiSmurfette]

We had a recent rant about this over at the Canadian Gamer's forums:
http://www.cgcc.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3134

[Mr.Faxanadu]

Well I just read the CCGA post and have learnt some things

Apparently customs can open a package and assign a value to it !!! I was not aware of this.
POST:
I actually had that happen to me last week.
I had a box of used PS1 games, and Disgaea (bought for $5 at CC)
and the sender put a value of $20 on it.
Customs opened it, thought the games were worth loads more,
and put a value of $150 on it!
So....to make a long story short, here's what you do.
Fill out the back of the customs form,
claiming reason "improper value assessed"
and put in the value it should have been.
(Items marked as gift can be duty free if they have a value of $60 or under.)
Mail it to one of the addresses on the bottom.
Include proof of value if need be (ie. print out of ebay auction)
and wait.
If your case is valid,
They will refund you the difference on the duty you paid on the improper amount, to the duty you should have paid on the proper amount.
So, in my case, I can get a maximum $17.25 back on the duty of $32.50 I paid.
But, it's better than nothing.

I will have to wait for the reply to see if the seller was the one who assigned a $50 value on it.

Also, many Canadian buyers in the ccga post explained how they get the US seller to simply mark the parcel as a gift. One buyer asks that the buyer marks the games as electronic scrap because “old video games are electronic scrap to %98 of the public”) I think I could get my girlfriend to agree. LOL
Anyway, I will definitely have to learn more about this. Sorry to bother all of you….

[SoulBlazer]

In the past, I've always just written 'Used Game -- $10', regardless if it was a PC or console game and how much it was actually worth. Never had a problem with it. I don't like to mark as 'gift' because that's REALLY pushing things and might cause customs to open it. :)

[16-bit]

Here is an interesting (and heated) discussion on customs fraud on the ebay forums:

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jsp?forum=31&thread=410305790&modified=1097893087922