Help! Customs Fees and an angry customer

[Former_Member]

I ship international fairly often, and have never run into someone being charged "customs fees" until today. My items are generally under $40, and I fill out my customs labels correctly. So today, I get an angry email from a customer who says they are being charged $12 (Euro) to get their package and they want a full refund. In my policies I state that any fees or delays caused by USPS or customs are out of my hands and will not be refunded. The customer was kind enough to post on my facebook page that I am a con artist for not paying this fee for them. I stand by my policies, and it even states on the customs website that the buyer is responsible for any import fees incurred. I know I am going to get negative feedback for this transaction, as this customer is already trying to spread mean things about me. (This is a custom made item, which I charged $30 for.) Does anyone have any advice????

[WithLoveFromLucille]

You run a business. As long as your comfortable, you can email her back saying that if she read your policies (as buyers should and usually do) she would have read it. That's what I would do. We have our policies for a reason.

In the future, for international orders, when you send an email saying thanks for your purchase or shipping notification...make sure you add your international policies. That's what I do.

A LOT of people run into this that's why policies ARE important!

Good luck to you!

[Former_Member]

Oh my goodness! Anyone is Europe should know about the customs fees; it seems like that's a pretty regular thing there. And, especially since you have it in your policies, and certainly should NOT be aggressive or awful toward you--I'm so sorry!

I think what you should do it report THEM to Etsy, especially before they leave you negative feedback.

[Former_Member]

Bad feedback is worse than losing some money. Unfortunately, if the customer wants trouble then just issuing a refund doesn't guarantee they won't still leave negative feedback. I would stand by my policy until they left the feedback, then I'd offer a full refund to 'kiss and make up' because in order to do that they HAVE to change their feedback to positive. OR I'd cancel the order outright. They would get a full refund and no feedback would be left. Or, you could just send them the $12 for fees and hope that satisfies them. The problem with shop policies is that they're great to have and all- but in a lot of cases people don't read them and just don't care anyway. Hope you can sort it out.

[Former_Member]

Thank you both, I think from now on I will include my policies in my thank you note. I do refer people to my policies page, in fact it is in my shop announcement! Sadly, not everyone takes these things into consideration when they order. It is stressful though. I will contact Etsy and see if I can avoid the negative feedback, and I've blocked them from my FB page.

[CaseyHPerez]

Wow, I need to add that to my policies! I had a woman once ask if I could mark it as a gift so that they could avoid the custom fees. So there are people who do expect that those responsibilities fall on them and not the seller. Sorry for all the trouble this is causing you!

[rusticcraftdesign]

I had an outraged customer a couple weeks ago that had to pay over $44 to pick up her $80 item...of which she already paid $30 for shipping!

UPS charged over $34 in 'brokerage fees'.

Never ever ever using UPS again.

**Refunded $34 to appease the customer

[Former_Member]

I've never heard of someone being charged for custom fees before...and I get a lot of international orders! I will definitely be updating my policies now...thanks for the heads up! And good luck with the customer, I wish I could help! :/

[Former_Member]

That is really outrageous and I'm so sorry for you!

As a European: yes, we are used to customs fees when ordering from outside EU, and I have never before heard of anyone (buyer) who didn't think the fees are on their own responsibility. I've stumbled upon countless discussions on blogs and forums about this, but never that anyone thought the seller should pay or issue a refund! Mostly people are just annoyed in general when they didn't remember the extra fees...
I guess usually the seller don't know anything about the customs fees, because the buyer (knowing or not knowing about it in advance) just pay them as they are supposed to, I mean it really doesn't have anything to do with the seller. (Still, also I have in my shop policies that customs fees and similar are on the responsibility of the buyer. Unfortunately it seems like very few buyers read the policies, apparently)...

I don't know for every European country, but for example here in Finland we have to pay customs VAT when the amount we have been shopping for is over about 30€ (the shipping costs are INCLUDED in that price, so this is not only the price of the item counted), BUT the customs don't charge amounts less than 12€ (apparently they don't want small money) so in practice the minimum amount for for example clothes is about 44€ from where we have to pay.

[ElectronicGirl]

eek. thats a tough one.
did they pay with PP?..cuz if they did, they might be able to fight you with that and get their money back anyways. its a nasty loophole for sure.
if you decided to keep the money..be ready for a possible fight.
not cool at all.
:(

[SesenDesign]

I haven't had that issue in over 2 years here. The closest I got was someone asking the item be marked as gift. I realize why now. Plus ive just gone and added that to my polices.

[Former_Member]

I know customs will always be the same, but I have heard UPS has additional delivery fees, and for international USPS is the best, no additional charges.

[Former_Member]

My concern with situations like this is that once a customer sees that you violated one of your policies for them (in their favor), they see no reason to adhere to any of your policies and will therefore expect you to buckle like a belt the next time too. You can say "if they were this unhappy, they won't buy from me again" but sadly, some customers use dissatisfaction as a bargaining tool.

This also makes me wonder why we bother writing out thoughtful policies when they really grant us very little protection.

ETA: apparently, I'm in a cynical mood today. LoL

[DarkRide]

These are not 'delivery costs', they are taxes and tariffs that are imposed by the buyer's country, and the buyer is responsible.
Someone raised this issue in the forums just yesterday. A number of folks responded to say that etsy will remove negative feedback about shipping and taxes and tariffs. One of the posters provided a link to the TOUs on this issue and an email for contacting etsy.
Here's the link http://www.etsy.com/teams/7722/business-topics/discuss/10842242/page/3 The info you want was posted by GoTo on page 3.

[MyHobbyShop]

I would absolutely not refund the money. We are in no way shape or form responsible to pay for custom fees for our customers.

If she leaves a negative comment it is not the end of the world. Report it to Etsy and see if they are able to remove it. Especially since its over something you have no control over.

I also don't see a customer filing a PP claim over it either, especially since custom fees are the customers responsibility, again if they do, let them.

I feel its important for you (us) to stick by our policies. You are not at fault in this situation.

[Former_Member]

Australia is about the only country I mail to. So, many fees associated with customs. Especially our neighbor's Canada, my first few sales delivered there and I had no idea they charged a 'brokers' fee for delivery of anything other than USPS Ground.

Some international folk will ask you to "mark" gift on the parcel so they don't pay fees........................that's a huge NO-NO.

[WolfandFirefly]

They should know there are duty fees, and I do believe it is illegal for you to pay them. They are the responsibility of the buyer! I would report them to etsy.

[Former_Member]

Hi Team,

I'm really sorry to hear about this issue regarding an order, Danielle. It seems as though the team has offered some helpful advice, however, I need to close this thread because it goes against Etsy community dos and don'ts on these points:

*Specific transactions and/or feedback should not be discussed in public community spaces. Instead, contact Support privately if you need help with a transaction.
*Do not publicly post another person's private information without their explicit consent (for example: email, Conversations, letters, phone numbers, addresses, full names or business transactions).

You can read the full dos and dont's here: http://www.etsy.com/help/article/483.

I highly recommend that you contact support for more help at support@etsy.com.

Best,
Sara