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I am going to use some fake math to try to explain this. It is so convoluted.
For some reason ebay.ca does not have set fees in Canadian. They are always converted from US fees. So in my case they were doing this thing where the US store fee of $50USD was converted to the Canadian equivalent of $60CAD. They would then mix them up and that would become $60USD, which they would again convert into CAD, so I would actually be charged $70USD for the store. I know it is hard to follow because it makes no sense.
The other issue is that Canadians are charged 15% tax on their invoices. I can never get this reimbursed because it is so hard to explain this concept to customer service. So with that $350.00 fine I have never been able to recoup the full amount or the $52.50 tax.
Seeing how convoluted this all is may explain why I want my past invoices fixed. I may be losing even more money than I originally thought.
Hi everyone, thanks for the advice. Hopefully what I have written below will clarify.
To clarify, the issue seems to be with me being Canadian. So I have a yearly subscription, which I bought on ebay.com. I figured why not, my income in is USD, I sell only in USD, I have a USD bank account, I buy my gas groceries, etc, in the US. It is just easier. However, as a Canadian you are not supposed to do this. So basically, what they told me they were doing was and this is confusing, converting the amount that the fees would be into the Canadian amount, then charging that amount in USD and then converting it back to CAD. It is all terribly confusing and hard to figure out. For example, for a premium store in August they charged me $91.91CAD. After much complaining they reimbursed $23.38CAD on my September bill, but it was just listed as “invoice credit.” Aside: at this time they were not willing to bill me in USD, even though I am in my other store. This has since been corrected, but was, again, listed as a cancellation, though it was not.
So every invoice has a different “invoice credit” because all of my invoices from day one have been wrong. I just want someone to go back and review and correct my invoices so I have accounting that makes sense. I want it stated exactly what these “invoice credits” are for.
I will try facebook. It never occurred to me because I do not use facebook. Hopefully that will get me somewhere.
Thanks again!
Jay, in order to change our shipping to Canada Post rates we would have to relist all of our inventory on ebay.ca. Currently we only list on ebay.com. To eat the difference, we might actually lose money on some items. I set the store to 30 days shipping and handling, but it looks like that may not be enough with the current talk I am hearing.
Winchester, we cross into Maine. That is a great idea about the postmaster, it is awesome how friendly and accommodating they are. The only issue is we tend to sell large, clunky items. We sell the items that are too awkward for others to bother with. IF we sold smaller items…
We got across okay on Thursday. The US side said “no problem” the issue is that the Canadian border told us to self isolate. I guess we can try again Monday. I really want to, my husband wants us to close the store, he feels defeated. The province said they are planning on taking legal action against those not self isolating. I just don’t know if we fit into the category of “trucker” which exempts us. Do you consider yourself a “trucker”? We cross through trucking lanes and pay our $13.40 crossing fees.
Well, it looks like we are closing up. We will do one last run tomorrow and then call it a day. They just made a new announcement that says industry and essentials can cross in border, otherwise it is closed. Not sure we are big enough to be called industry. They say it is for a month. I hope that is all.
We cross commercially. We fill out all of the relevant forms. It is perfectly legal. If they decide to make it more difficult for Canadians, my husband is American.
The issue with Canada Post is not import fees. It is very expensive to send things within Canada also. For example, a simple stamp is $1.07.
Canada has partially closed its borders. It has not closed its borders to Canadians (me), Permanent Residents (my husband), Americans (also my husband) or Caribbeans. Also, both borders are not shutting down for commerce. We cross the border commercially. We are a tiny Civic flanked by Logging trucks.
This was our conundrum. They say they don’t want people to go out, except for work and they want non-service industry types to keep on working. So, in that regard, it seems we should continue, but there certainly is a lot of pressure to stop. Our biggest fear is that this is not ending soon. We can close our store for a couple of weeks no problem, but they are predicting this will go on into the summer and beyond. We cannot withstand that.
For now we have increased our handling time, so we only go once a week and will play it by ear.
I see you are in NJ and may not understand the cost difference. For example, something that ships for $3.20 USD first class will cost me $16.00+ CAD to ship. Buyers won’t buy at that rate and I can’t afford to cover the difference, so Canada Post isn’t an option. Also, my sales have not dropped off and this is how I make a living.
I understand the importance of the situation. Still, it seems kinda pointless to throw everything you have worked for away when you live in a small border town with no cases and would be going literally across the street to a small border town with no cases. We would be at a safe distance from border guards, then to the post office and back again. I want to do the right thing, but financial destruction is a high price to pay.
Conundrum!
Thanks for your response. I am still learning. I spent yesterday breaking up items and making sure as many things as possible weighed under 1kg. We are going to try to stay under 1kg and see how that goes for us. Larger items we will hope for a Canadian to buy.
Jay, we are considering reshippers, but we don’t have enough sales yet to justify it. I guess once we change our shipping costs we may have more buyers.
I am really hoping there are some Canadians, far from the border, who are successful at this. Our dream is to sell our house and move to Nova Scotia and do this full-time. Then we would be very far from a border and likely re-shippers.
Dragon13x, can I ask if you are doing this full-time or part-time?
We are in Toronto, so we can make it to the border, but if we only have a couple low value items we would lose money in gas. Still, it is something we are considering. My husband is American and likes to cross the border as much as possible.
