Ebay again

[R1VTR]

One for Gem maybe.
I recently won an Iphone on ebay it says the item is located in the UK using a UK account  so I paid expecting to get item, I waited a few days nothing so decided to email the seller said he posted it 2nd class Royal Mail(as stated in listing) and takes a few days, so few days passed still nothing then I opened a Paypal dispute only to find out now the phone is coming from the U.S.!!! as he has put a united states postal service tracking number in the dispute tracking number section!

What should I do from here? Do I escilate to a Claim? Wait till phone comes?

I checked tracking and says phone has left the states and is on the way but will it even work in the UK!?

If the listing had stated phone was in the U.S. and not Solihull Uk as listed I would never have bought it.

thanks  

[Lingham]

email him and say why is it coming from the states not solihull - please do not send as you have mis-sold me

[R1VTR]

Well I been screwed and the phone is on the way according to tracking, sent him an email, just not sure where to go from here

[Gem]

email him and say why is it coming from the states not solihull - please do not send as you have mis-sold me

it has already been sent

[Gem]

you\'re brave buying something that expensive off ebay!

thats naughty him pretending he was in the uk. tis against ebay rulez

hmm, well i presume you did an item not received claim? you will need to get that changed to an item not as described once you get it if it doesn\'t work. don\'t change it before you get it. \'cos if it doesn\'t turn up then you need to keep it as an item not received claim.

you might be able to jailbreak it to get it to work, is is the 3g/3gs? i don\'t even know if you can jailbreak them, i\'m not as clued up about iphones as i used to be. (thats if he has even sent an iphone, you might get a brick in the post yet)

hope you don\'t get caught for customs tax, thats gonna be a hefty bill if you do.

basically, you can\'t really do anything at the mo, you need to wait to see if it turns up.

report him to ebay for location misrepresentation though

[R1VTR]

The phone is 3g and already unlocked. Whether or not it even has an english plug!? do US phones work ok in uk?

yup did it as an item not received, so may have to change that if it turns up to item not as described like you say, but what if it does work, is the U.S version ok in the UK? inferior?

well if its sent as a gift then it will be ok tax wise.

[R1VTR]

ok so this is what he had to say;

 started this auction in the UK, I own the Beeches bar and grill - www.thebeecheshampton.co.uk


Now I had some bad news while the auction was on, I had to rush to Boston, as a my sister in law had been in a serious car crash, I am still in Boston till Thursday,

Here below is a copy of the shipping for your convenice,

The Shipping came to $38.13 (22 pounds!) which includes insurance.


Now I would of normally cancelled the auction as I was in the US, but I just took the hit and felt obliged to come to the table with my agreement to sell the item. (Otherwise this would of upset you)

The Item was sold via USPS Priority International - (5-8 Days!)

I am sorry that this has happened, but with the Paypal payment under review, I could not risk sending the item, I send this Item first thing this morning, When I got your email I rang up USPS and asked if i could pick up the item, they said it had already gone on the truck and was at the airport already.


I hope you can understand, I have taken this as a major loss, already going less that what I wanted, and then coffing up more for shipping, anyways below is the reciept and customs decleration to show proof of delivery to you!


Item should be received in 5-8 days, and you will be a happy customer, I put in two cases for you, aswell as Box, earphones, Manual, USB cable, Power etc


Once again sorry for all the confusion, I hope this all makes sense now, if you give me a contact number I am more then happy to call you, So you can hear me and Ill explain all this again, (or I am on skype - andrew.stacey1986 ) (I can even pass on a copy of my passport to confirm me, to show you I have nothing to hide) as I am no dodgy asian working in Hong Kong, I am just the usual working guy, thanks again for your understanding, and look forward to hearing from you


Please let me know if you want me to contact you v

What you think?

[neil_g]

well if its sent as a gift then it will be ok tax wise.

in theory. however customs are wise to this get-around.

[Gem]

well if its sent as a gift then it will be ok tax wise.

nope. that only covers you up to £36.

[Gem]

The phone is 3g and already unlocked. Whether or not it even has an english plug!? do US phones work ok in uk?

yup did it as an item not received, so may have to change that if it turns up to item not as described like you say, but what if it does work, is the U.S version ok in the UK? inferior?

do you know if it is a US or UK phone? If it\'s a US phone I\'ve no idea if it will work in the UK, if its unlocked (and jailbroken?) then you might be ok.

If it works then thats great, still wouldn\'t be entirely happy that its been sent from the US and taken longer than expected to receive

[R1VTR]

I think its a U.S. phone as the plug is a U.S. type according to what he says above. It is unllocked but like you say its still item not as described.
How does it work? When/how does the tax get paid?

[Gem]

His story sounds fairly genuine, but you don\'t know for sure until it turns up.

If it were me, I\'d be requesting his contact details from ebay and giving him a call to speak to him in person and/or phoning the beeches bar and grill and asking to speak to Andrew Stacey and see what they say. See if his story adds up.
 
Either way, you should be protected by paypal for item not received if it doesn\'t arrive or item not as described if it doesn\'t work, but for the latter you\'ll have to pay to return the phone by a trackable service (Royal Mail Special Delivery or courier)

[Gem]

How does it work? When/how does the tax get paid?

if it gets caught in customs then royal mail pay the tax on your behalf and then you\'ll get a card through the door asking you to go to the delivery office to pay the tax plus an £8 handling fee, then they will hand the phone over.

If its valued at £500 or something, they you could be looking at £100ish tax. it\'s different rates for different types of items (usually 5-9%), plus i think 15% vat. so you\'d be looking at 20% or so of the total value.

[Gem]

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content1?catId=400044&mediaId=400362

ftp://ftp.royalmail.com/Downloads/public/ctf/rm/customs_guide.pdf

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageVAT_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_001454&propertyType=document

The DHL handling fee won\'t apply, as it will be delivered by Royal Mail, but theres a good guide here

http://www.dhl.co.uk/publish/gb/en/information/shipping/about_duty_and_vat.high.html#aPar0005

[R1VTR]

Have to wait and see then. Bought stuff from the U.S. before without paying tax, does it depend what value was declared when it left the U.S.

Another lesson learnt! Il let you know if/when it comes

thanks for your help

[Gem]

Have to wait and see then. Bought stuff from the U.S. before without paying tax, does it depend what value was declared when it left the U.S.

Another lesson learnt! Il let you know if/when it comes

thanks for your help

anything under £18 is fine, anything up to £36 is fine if declared as a gift. He might have marked it as a gift and put a value of £36 or less on the box, but if customs open it up and see an iphone they\'re gonna know its worth more than that. then they will value it themselves and work out the charges.

you\'ll usually get away with cd\'s and dvd\'s for example as they are usually worth less than £18. we used to buy xbox games from play asia but the last one had a £4 charge plus £8 handling fee, i guess it prob said it was a game on the customs sticker, so it got checked as likely to be worth more than £18 and not marked as a gift. so not bothered buying from them since.

[Gem]

how much did you pay, just out of interest?

[R1VTR]

£220

Bit cheaper than going rate but might not be after tax!

[Gem]

yeah that does seem cheap, i guess its the 3gs that are going for like £400-£500ish then

fingers crossed it turns up, works and for no tax then

if he put the correct value of £220 on it then you\'d be looking at about £50 in charges

you could still do an item not as described claim, and state that it was meant to be sent from the uk, but since it was sent from the US you incurred £XX in charges and ask for a partial refund of that amount.

if he is a genuine decent guy and realises he has screwed you around them hopefully he would pay up.

[R1VTR]

Yea 3GS are quite a bit more.

Great, Plus Il have to buy a UK plug charger so will have to try and get a partial refund to cover all this.

Lets hope he is I wont hold my breath.