eBay refund refusal for VAT paid twice via FEDEX | News for professional and private sellers

goutox · 2025-03-17T22:18:49.669000Z

Hello, I placed an order on the 1 December 2024 for a total amount of 296.35 USD including 49.39 USD import VAT. For information, the item was delivered from Japan. So I paid the VAT to eBay. My order was delivered on 20 December 2024. Later, much later, on 25 February 2025, I receive a letter from FEDEX asking me to pay VAT as well as other fees for a total amount of 80€ including 55€ of import VAT. After some research, I see that eBay seems to be handling the issue and offers a refund. So I pay FEDEX, trusting them, telling myself I would be reimbursed by eBay since clearly the VAT had not been declared as paid on their side. I then start the process with eBay to get reimbursed on 4 March 2025 via the following link : https://ocswf.ebay.fr/mudcwf?deptName=CollectRemitRefund I provide all the useful evidence, etc. And there, I receive a response from which here is the useful excerpt... : "After reviewing your purchase, I see that the item was purchased on (date 2 December 2024). Unfortunately, the deadline to request a VAT refund is 90 days from the transaction date. Since that period has passed, we recommend that you contact customs directly with the eBay tax invoice and the customs invoice showing the double payment of VAT. They may be able to help you request a refund. Please understand that due to the elapsed time, we are unable to process the refund on our end. As an online platform, we must follow specific policies to ensure fairness for all our users when handling refund requests." This mention of 90 days is not made anywhere, obviously. And I am told that it is a matter of how long it takes to update the site, etc. And even so, in principle it must be working days, so that makes it less than 90 days. I explain all that to them, especially since it is not my fault if FEDEX “wakes up” so late. Anyway, several email exchanges later, I finally get ghosted and all I receive are emails asking me to wait. Their reply will probably never come.So I’m taking the liberty of reporting their practice here for the information of all of the internet, at least French-speaking. Next, I will now make a report to the DGCCRF and I encourage you to do the same if you have suffered the same thing. Here is the link to the terms of use https://www.ebay.fr/help/buying/paying-items/payer-les-taxes-sur-les-achats-effectus-sur-ebay?id=477... In the DGCCRF report, apparently you have to classify this under "online purchase" then "the website itself" and "absence of mandatory information before ordering" I’m also going to make a report to https://signal.conso.gouv.fr/fr and I also encourage you to do so.

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eBay refund refusal for VAT paid twice via FEDEX | News for professional and private sellers | eBay France