Author Topic: Ebay global shipping - Pitney Bowes scam?  (Read 13374 times)

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Offline Howardlong

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Re: Ebay global shipping - Pitney Bowes scam?
« Reply #50 on: February 18, 2018, 12:26:51 pm »
“they optimize their taxes” - you mean they offset someone else’s VAT payment against theirs? If so, that is definitely something HMRC should be looking at, I’d love to be able to do that fiddle!
No I don't  :palm:. Don't put words in my mouth.
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“Few people” - there are tens of millions of VAT registered entities.
Yeah, and absolute majority don't care buying on ebay, especially buy something expensive using GSP. Don't assume that every company needs used T&M equipment which is scarcely available in EU.
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“It’s not posssible” - and yet other shippers can?
If you dare to care reading what I wrote previously multiple times, there is an answer why. Including this very sentence of mine which you cut off second part from.

I posed it as a question, I didn’t put words into your mouth, I asked if that was what you were saying, and you denied it as is your right, it’s just a misunderstanding. You yourself stated “I’m sure they optimize their taxes”, why would you make such a comment if you yourself weren’t questioning the legitimacy of the transaction? That is why I asked if that was what you were saying. Perhaps we will never know now.

Anyway, look, wraper, I’m honestly not here to argue with you, I am merely putting forward how I, and I am sure many others who are VAT registered in the EU, view the PB set up.

In particular I’m trying to let sellers know that they are at a competitive disadvantage by only offering GSP to EU businesses. If that is one of their target markets, I’d imagine they’d like to know about that. Certainly if they are offering 4 or 5 figure TE, for example, where businesses are a key target market, I would imagine that could be quite enlightening: most sellers want to maximise their sales after all.

You are very welcome to your opinions of it and I am very glad it’s working out for you, but please understand that GSP is not working out so well for some others, buyers and sellers alike.

I hope that makes sense, can we be friends now?

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Will you make your process 5x more complicated to get 5% more customers? Where additional expenses will eat all of additional income and likely even much more.

For high ticket items such as TE, yes. You may not have read the whole thread, or know my situation, but I make several thousand international shipments each year, as a one man band, and exactly as you say, you want to minimise complexity. I am pretty sure I already addressed that point. As such I only use Fedex for international shipments, except to Brazil and Russia where I use standard signed for postal services. Fedex deals with the taxes for me, except inside the EU where for businesses I have to manually register VAT numbers and not charge VAT. Except for the UK where I do charge VAT to businesses.... yes, it is already over-complicated, yes I agree you want to minimise complexity, but if I am to increase my sales figures by 20% by offering an alternate shipping method I may well consider it. That is why I am trying to let sellers understand the potential implications of GSP to their bottom line.
« Last Edit: February 18, 2018, 12:30:48 pm by Howardlong »
 

Offline wraper

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Re: Ebay global shipping - Pitney Bowes scam?
« Reply #51 on: February 18, 2018, 12:58:31 pm »
You yourself stated “I’m sure they optimize their taxes”, why would you make such a comment if you yourself weren’t questioning the legitimacy of the transaction? That is why I asked if that was what you were saying.
Almost any large company optimize their taxes. That does not mean it's illegal. It means they do things like paying taxes on their profits offshore and similar. Say, apple barely pays any taxes compared to some mom and pop store.
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You are very welcome to your opinions of it and I am very glad it’s working out for you, but please understand that GSP is not working out so well for some others, buyers and sellers alike.
I understand it very well, I have VAT registered business myself. I'm not a fan of Pitney Bowes, I'm just saying there are some good reasons why then don't provide you an invoice which you can use to claim your VAT back. While others are yelling "fraud" without ever trying to understand how things work.
 

Offline Towger

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Re: Ebay global shipping - Pitney Bowes scam?
« Reply #52 on: February 18, 2018, 03:07:57 pm »
Back to the original topic.

I emailed PB asking for a 'copy of the invoice' for the Invoice ID quoted by PayPal.  On I got a reply that they will send me one with just the Duty and VAT paid, but they had to retrieve it first.  I'll see what arrives in the next few days.
 
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