Buying on ebay

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car

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Anyone know if theres duties applicable when buying a new item on ebay where the originating country is switzerland?
Money converting from swiss franc and getting a bargain but dont want to get hit with extras I didnt know about.
 
No, Switzerland is a member of the EFTA, so no duties are charged on imports into the EU with the exception of some agricultural products I believe.
 
Rang revenue as well to confirm this and its true, if the originating country for the item is Switzerland, or any one of the EFTA countries, there are no duties payable. Ordered the item last week, just got a call off UPS, while the item shipped from swizerland, it turns out the country of origin is Japan. 260e extra please. :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:
 
Quick follow up on this and a nice ending.
I paid the duties to UPS on the item last week and received same within an hour of paying. I forgot to leave the seller feedback on ebay, so he mailed me this morning to ask me would I do same and that he had another couple of those items for sale if I knew anyone interested.
I gave him the story about the duties and how, while not being his fault, it ended up costing me more then 100e more then if Id bought it in a shop here so it wouldnt be worth while buying again. So, without me asking for it, the guy refunds me 100e to my paypal account to make up the difference as he didnt want me feeling bad about buying from him. Some good guys out there.
 
I thought that eBay sellers listed the country from which the item ships on the auction/sale page?
 
Quick question - why aren't import duties payable when the goods are received in Switzerland ?
 
Presumably because they never go to Switzerland. The seller is located there but the goods ship from the Far East. This is not that unusual especially with eBay sellers. And, obviously, is perfectly legitimate.
 
I just double checked the ebay page and its has item location as "Lucern, Switzerland" on it.
Theres a big "Made in Japan" sign on the packaging, nothing else to say where it came from but all the invoice documentation is from switzerland so UPS must have made the decision that country of origin was Japan. Im wondering if the "Made in Japan" bit was covered would it have made a difference?
 
car said:
Im wondering if the "Made in Japan" bit was covered would it have made a difference?
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Not really - if it's coming from Japan then import duties apply.

If the seller is stating that the goods are located in Switzerland but they actually ship directly from Japan to the buyer then they are not being honest.
 
I'm still confused - I get that if the goods are shipped direct from Japan to Ireland then duty etc is payable but car said
...just got a call off UPS, while the item shipped from swizerland.....
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I thought that Vat / duty etc was payable in the country where the goods are initially landed - ie they are imported into Switzerland and THEN sent to Ireland - I thought the only way to avoid paying duties was to hold the goods in a bonded warehouse (which could have happened here I suppose) - is it possible that UPS got it wrong or is there some standard international shipping agreement that allows "ship through" ?

Just wondering
 
Oh, right. This does not make sense to me either:
just got a call off UPS, while the item shipped from swizerland, it turns out the country of origin is Japan.
Click to expand...
I still suspect that the seller is based in Switzerland but the goods shipped directly from Japan to Ireland. Maybe I'm wrong?
 
I reckon you're probably right but it would be interesting to clarify just in case I was ever in a similar situation buying something off the internet / ebay
 
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