Need To Knw A Little About Ebay

alpha17 · June 16, 2014

Hi everyone,

i usually purchase small items,such as bulbs,headsets and wrist watches from ebay.but i want to buy an illuminated scuff plate set for my car.since these are large sized items ,do i need to pay taxes?or will they arrive to sl safely?or do i have to visit colombo to collect them?plz let me knw abt the method to recieve them safely.thank u.

Crosswind · June 16, 2014

Most probably u wont have tax issues. Even if u do, it will be asmall amount.

Muditha420 · June 16, 2014

think there are enough and more threads about eBay but anyways... you won't have a problem unless its under 1Kg... but then again they might think of retaining it randomly but this won;t be that sorta issue.

even if you are asked to come and collect just be kind and courteous even though u might have to stay around an hour.... be a smart ar** n reep the rewards as well

kmeeg · June 16, 2014

On 6/16/2014 at 3:52 PM, DhoRK said:
do i have to visit colombo to collect them?plz let me knw abt the method to recieve them safely.thank u.

1. You might have to visit Colombo unless the customs have any issue with your item. But very unlikely to have them for a illuminated scuff plate. The reason i tell you this is onetime multiple items (Digital camera's) were ordered by my office colleagues and a letter was received from the customs. So my friend (shipping addressee) had to visit the customs. As i can remember he did not have much problem clearing them. But i don't think you will face this cause its just 1 item.

2. Couple if times my items (small items) were lost while shipment but when i contacted the seller they sent another shipment without any hassle. Basically i never lost my money. Eg - If the item should arrive in 1 month and if you don't get it by the last estimated date contact the seller. Ideally they will ask you to wait for 1 more week. After that contact them again they will do another shipment. Sometimes they send some free stuff on the second shipment to make the customer happy. One time i got free set of dustcaps and a key tag along with the second shipment. (Note that this is not only on ebay, i have same experience with amazon also. But i got the item end of the day)

But keep in mind sometimes you will get duplicates. Eg - I got a set of duplicate headset. Make sure you check the reviews and some info about the seller. More details will be there in old ebay threads.

KMeeg.

Komisiripala · June 16, 2014

customs is funny tho. carry some extra cash. you're shipping 4 scuff plates? that's a "commercial quantity" so expect some anal damage. if they decide to walk this path. once they tried to slap me with 88,000 tax for my brake rotors. cost of the rotors with shipping was 22,000. why? because i have imported in commercial quantities. the fact that my car has four mother huggin' wheels didn't seem to matter at all.

something flashy like scuff plates. boy you're up sh!t creek without a paddle. "anae budu sir kiyaagena nawila passen passata yanna" i'm not trying to discourage you i've imported hundreds of things from ebay. but general rules of etiquette:

1. expect the worst

2. be very humble, and patient and nice to them. do NOT be a smartass.

3. calmly and firmly argue your point. i did, and tax was reduced to 10,000.

4. dont' try to fool them with fake valuations. tac is supposed to be 44% of the price for non commerical parts

Crosswind · June 17, 2014

Did the brake rotors come in 4 different boxes or just one?

The latest item I got down were 4 brake pads for the Focus (in one box), which got retained because of the weight. Told the customs bugger that it was for an old morris minor and he only charged me Rs. 120 as tax

Muditha420 · June 17, 2014

On 6/16/2014 at 4:56 PM, Komisiripala said:
customs is funny tho. carry some extra cash. you're shipping 4 scuff plates? that's a "commercial quantity" so expect some anal damage. if they decide to walk this path. once they tried to slap me with 88,000 tax for my brake rotors. cost of the rotors with shipping was 22,000. why? because i have imported in commercial quantities. the fact that my car has four mother huggin' wheels didn't seem to matter at all.
something flashy like scuff plates. boy you're up sh!t creek without a paddle. "anae budu sir kiyaagena nawila passen passata yanna" i'm not trying to discourage you i've imported hundreds of things from ebay. but general rules of etiquette:

1. expect the worst

2. be very humble, and patient and nice to them. do NOT be a smartass.

3. calmly and firmly argue your point. i did, and tax was reduced to 10,000.

4. dont' try to fool them with fake valuations. tac is supposed to be 44% of the price for non commerical parts

Couldn't agree more here, same exact advice i got from Komi... Brought my tail light down not a single scratch on it, follow the steps 1 to 4 as mentioned above got away with only 1,400/- tax

Edited June 17, 2014 by Muditha420

Komisiripala · June 17, 2014

On 6/17/2014 at 3:09 AM, Crosswind said:
Did the brake rotors come in 4 different boxes or just one?
The latest item I got down were 4 brake pads for the Focus (in one box), which got retained because of the weight. Told the customs bugger that it was for an old morris minor and he only charged me Rs. 120 as tax

they were in one big box, but each had its individual cardboard box as well. they were just being anal men. fancy looking things with slots and all no? literally "because race car"

i had to pull every stunt i knew. right down to "anae aiyye, oyath rajayae sevakayek, mama-th rajayae sewkayek!"

Hoonigan · June 17, 2014

Ebay and the sellers there are the least of your issues. You have buyer protection if you use PayPal so you will not lose any money.

The shady part is customs. I have got a lot of stuff delivered via normal post and DHL, Aramex etc. Most things that came via snail came to the house no issues. Once a tail light unit got held up at the post office. Had to pay less than 500 as taxes. Matter of fact, a set of gaskets got help up two weeks ago. Didn't pay any tax on those.

Aramex/DHL will deal with customs and will collect whatever they paid at delivery. Had the Tail lights for the Capri delivered via Aramex without issues on two occasions. I don't remember paying much as tax.

Apparently, there's a new development to apply high duties for Auto Parts. I think because of the new businessmen shipping in crap from ebay and resell with huge margines. So beware. I had a bit of an issue last week with a 15Kg shipment that had two coil springs and coilover conversion tubes.

alpha17 · June 17, 2014

Thank u everyone who replied.those information are vry useful.

Amila G · June 17, 2014

The costliest item I got via ebay was an oscilloscope worth about 50k. It got stopped by the customs and I was extra nice to customs guy saying all sorts of things like it's for education purposes etc.. so he put the values as 10,000 and taxed me for Rs.1600.

One advice is if it got stopped and you received the forms via the mail don't state the value of the item in the pink form. If you do that the customs will have to charge you the full amount. Be nice to the customs officer and let him fill that

Az · June 18, 2014

On 6/17/2014 at 6:37 PM, Amila G said:
One advice is if it got stopped and you received the forms via the mail don't state the value of the item in the pink form. If you do that the customs will have to charge you the full amount. Be nice to the customs officer and let him fill that

+1

I really don't understand the criteria for stopping the item at the customs. Once I ordered a relatively small security system siren, and they stopped it. Last month, I got down a pair of tail lights for my vehicle, a relatively large parcel, and it was delivered directly to my home without any taxes.