Postal authorities threaten sellers with customs fines
When you're mailing a book to an overseas buyer, what do you write in the "Value" box on the green customs declaration form, Postal Service Form 2976? It asks for an amount in U.S. dollars, and I've got to admit -- I've fudged it a few times.
I remember when I was a new seller, and this came up on the Amazon discussion board. One of the old hands advised, "We write $2 for the value of all our books -- that's what we pay for them." But the value written on the green form is supposed to be what the customer paid.
Writing a low dollar amount in that box keeps your customers from paying high duty fees, and keeps the package from looking attractive to thieves. And I can say from experience that if you mention something over $20 in that box, it's much more likely to be stolen.
But it looks like a crackdown is on the way. Postal administrators in several countries have complained to the U.S. Postal Service that the stated value of packages isn't matching the invoices included in the packages.
Apparently the Postal Service is leaning on eBay, which put out this announcement this afternoon:
The correct value of each item is required on customs forms as it helps determine the proper duties and taxes, and whether they should be applied. Some countries will soon begin taking steps to address this issue, such as levying fines on the addressee when the declared value is determined to be lower than the invoice.
Ouch! I can see the negative feedback now: 1 out of 5: Seller falsified the customs form and I WAS FINED 50 POUNDS!!! NEVER AGAIN!
This is just about the final straw for international shipments as far as I'm concerned. I've already eliminated it on most of my books. I like having my listings available to every buyer possible, but I'm no longer willing to put up with the headaches.
The eBay announcement doesn't address the common practice of indicating that a package is a "gift." But I've heard it's best to avoid this -- that customs officials expect a gift to be giftwrapped, with a card, or something that makes it look like a gift. I've gotten the request from overseas buyers a few times, requesting that I mark the form "gift." It makes me a little queasy -- I think I'm being set up.
What's your take on this?
posted by Steve Weber at 8/22/2006
13 Comments:
hmm
I live in Australia and we often have a hankering for some good old English sweets (my family moved here seven years ago).
One time a friend sent us a large box of celebrations worth about $15AUD. As they did not write the word 'gift' on the customs tag, customs seized the chocolates and claimed we had to pay $40 in taxes in order to receive them. We let them keep the choccies, but it was very annoying!
Generally customs doesn't really care if it's gift-wrapped or not... If they do start checking, claiming that you met the person online and were sending them a birthday present should be enough. I exchange unwrapped Christmas presents with a friend in Singapore, so it's certainly not that uncommon :)
Hope I was helpful... ish.
I usually don't include invoices and packing lists with my orders. I just email a copy to the customer, nothing inside to compare the customs form to.
Ever since the postal rate increase, I have moved out of international alltogether, except for the occasional sale which is basically an accident. It is simply not worth the trouble and the return is bad, in both feedback and pay. Amazon pays us $8.75 (correct me if I am wrong), we pay $9.50. The customers all expect Global Priority, although Amazon says 4 - 6 weeks. We get negative feedback for items held up in customs (happend to me last week), for dues customers had to pay, for expensive items being stolen, for long delays over Christmas, for items being damaged in transit, for misinterpretations of item descriptions due to English not being the customer's native language, etc. etc. And moreover, I often have the feeling that other cultures don't believe in the idea of giving perfect ratings (I am German, so I speak with experience when I say that Germanss do not believe in perfect ratings and neither do the French), so most of my international feedbacks are usually a 4 star. Whereas my American 4 star ratings usually get removed if I explain the situation nicely, the international ones never do. Probably a language or culture issue? So unless Amazon starts paying what I consider a correct amount to adequately compensate us for the manyfold troubles of international shipping, I will stay out of that business. It is a real loss for international customers and I have told Amazon so many times.
Our biggest problem has not been with what value to put on the customs forms. It's been getting the buyer to give us a phone number so we can complete the form online instead of by hand.
We figure, it doesn't increase our costs to make the item available to international buyers on eBay, and if the buyer wants to pay US$4.95 to ship a US$0.99 item, that's none of our business. Ditto the customs declaration.
You're getting out of international shipping because you have to fill out the customs form correctly? Sounds like you were never really in it anyway.
I did neg one ebay buyer because he asked me to lie on a customs form. Turns out that was just the beginning of problems with him (as I expected).
To this date, the 4 highest price books I've sold, have been overseas--with abosolutly no problems. So I still offer International shipping on higher priced items--but, then I always worry that they are going to get stolen when people see the value in the box. Someone very reputable on Amazon Selling boards said that there is a way out of this, that one doesn't not have to declare a value, but I think that would be a sign to a thief as well.
I offered economy shipping on Ebay, and made alot of sales this way, but people started eamiling me saying that it was taking 2 - 3 months to recieve their books, and as a seller, this just made me feel uncomfortable, so I dropped economy.
Perhaps the best reason for not doing as much international mail, is that I don't have to be home when the Post Office picks up my mail for the day:)
My experience with international sales has been out of about 500 only 2 have been lost or claimed to be lost. Amazon has covered me in both cases because I had proper documentation. When I send an international package I scan the finished package with the attached and completed customs form and save it on my computer as a jpg file. When I take the package to the post office they scan the barcode on the form and the code shows up on the receipt. When you do this you have enough documentation for Amazon to cover a claim against you (at least it's worked for me). Each post office sems to have its own rules about whether or not its clerks will scan the customs form barcode - I "encouraged" my post office to do so and now it do. If you have a good relationship with your post office, you can enocourage them to do it too even though it's not required by them (and no one seems to be able to tell me why they have a bar code if they don't have to scan it and it isn't used for any kind of tracking). And as far as Amazon has been with me, they have also accepted a Certificate of Mailing (90 cents) as proof that the package was shipped.
I get a lot of international sales so for the 2 losses I've had out of 500 shipments, I'd say that's enough to keep me interested in international sales. I've only had one negative comment from a buyer about an international sale gone missing but in my remarks to his feedback I explained what happened in a very polite way. Amazon covered the loss because I had documentation.
I find if you explain the circumstances to bad feedback that people take that into consideration.
There are also countries that just don't have reliable postal systems but that's a burden you have to bear. I have sent items up to $70 in value without incident. I did have one UK buyer send me a scathing email about him having to pay UK taxes on a $70 purchase which ended up making his purchase cost him $115. He was angry that I put the correct value on the customs form. When I wrote back to him in a very polite and businesslike manner, I told him I wasn't willing to be fined or go to jail for lying on a customs form, a Federal offense. I also looked up the legal blabber for customs in the UK and found that the "buyer" who is considered an importer is also responsible for the correct amount being put on the customs form and can be fined and the item confiscated if the value is erroneously stated by the seller (he did not leave negative feedback.)
The two items that went missing were both about $20 and sent to countries with less than reliable postal systems.
If you do have valuable items that you'd like to be able to ship internationally, you might want to check out an online postage company. The one I use only charges $2.00 for $100 value insurance for international shipping (I don't know if we're allowed to "plug" companies so I won't say). Of course if your margin on the item is small, buying insurance doesn't make sense.
Wow, this issue hits a nerve with lots of people.
I should have added to my original post: I do offer international shipping on my expensive books. If it's a nice sale, I'll put up with the hassles.
And Anonymous is right, lots of your high-dollar sales will come from overseas -- from people who simply can't get the book otherwise.
My lawyer has a simple philosophy. "If you don't cheat, you won't get caught."
I sell quite a few boks to Australia, Canada and the UK. I fill out the form, put in the right price and that's it. No way I am going to try to cheat HMG out of a few dollars or whatever to sell a book. If the buyer doesn't want to pay the duty, he need nmot buy the book.
I have buyers who will pay $7-9 to ship a 75 cent book. Their call, I am in business to sell books, not to deal with other peoples' morals.
After reading this and this http://www.bookthink.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2002 , I have begun the process of eliminating most of my books for international shipping. Who like to wait in line at the post office anyway.
I do a lot of international shipping, most of the items do tend to be low priced items, but some aren't. As others have said, rare items are even more rare overseas and if someone wants it, they pay. I think the solution for me is going to be just not including any more invoices for foreign orders. I've had enough problems with shortage in the USPS (I have an active investigation going) I don't want some underpaid customs agent to get into business from my items.
How would another country possibly collect a fine such as that?
Anonymous,
Most likely your customer would be fined. That "threatens" sellers because it results in customer dissatisfaction. In other words, no matter how you handle an international sale, or whatever the outcome, there's an increased risk (compared to domestic sales) of your customer being unhappy, leaving negative feedback, and damaging your reputation and ability to sell.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home