Ebay problem - help!

[cleo27]

Hello,

I do not sell on E-bay a lot but I recently listed a Skip Hop Dash (brand new) that I could not sell on Swap for some reason (nobody was interested). Anyway, it was only listed for about half a day and then I got an e-mail from a buyer in Sweden asking if I could ship it there and offering my "buy it now" price). I did some research (checked with my dad who does a *lot* of e-baying) and he said it should cost about $20 to ship it through USPS air letter post. So I e-mailed the girl that I would do it.

It took a little while for her to pay me, but she responded to my e-mails so I waited. Finally after receiving Paypal funds, I shipped the bag the next day. It cost $16.90 to ship it.

She sent me an e-mail today that she got a note from her post office that she had to pick it up and pay approx $27 (US dollars). My dad thinks that it is because I declared the actual value of $50 or $60 USD and they are charging some kind of tax.

I feel horrible about this and her e-mail to me today stated that she thought I somehow charged her this fee and then did not pay for the shipping (C.O.D. or something).

Is there anything that can be done? Could this possibly be a mixup with the post office? I e-mailed the USPS to see if they can figure out what's going on.

THanks for reading my long e-mail. I don't want bad feedback, but I don't want to eat this fee either. From her feedback, she orders a lot from US sellers and she never mentioned to use a lower value on the post office form.

[KBecks]

I don't know what happened, but it sounds like you shipped it with enough postage to get it there. There may have been some kind of tax on the item.

I might ask at your post office why she would have been charged extra and see what they know.

One suggestion I have is that you could split the extra fee with her, that might be a fair solution, as it seems like it's not either of your fault that this happened.

[bcky2]

if it is anything like shipping to canada then if the item is over a certain amount then they have to pay customs or something like that on it. for canada it is anything over $10.00. i would think that is it. it is not your fault by any means just as long as it isnt postage due. she should clearly be able to see on the package if postage was paid i would think.

[mamamayi]

I also think it is Canadian taxes she had to pay and you are certainly not responsible for that. I would think she would know the difference between postage due and customs due.

I have seen people write into their descriptions that they will not lie and mark the "gift" option to avoid taxes when shipping e-bay items. Apparently you aren't supposed to mark "gift" if the item was paid for and I suppose you could get into trouble if you were a big international shipper and sent a bunch of "gifts" all the time.