A few days ago, I dispatched an order to Italy, for which the customer had already paid extra shipping fees, resulting in a loss for me. Now, the customer is requesting a return because the delivery company charged her an additional €16.40 as a customs fee upon delivery. I contacted Royal Mail, and they confirmed that they have no control over customs charges.
I need advice on how to handle this situation, as covering the return shipping label would further increase my losses. How can I tackle this issue?
It’s your decision whether to sell internationally and if you do, your prices should include any additional shipping costs and also customs fees and you should send the item duty paid.
The customer must not pay anything extra to receive the goods.
So you can either pay for the return label, you should ask the customer if they are happy for you to pay the customs fee for them.
Sadly, this is all your fault as you have not followed Amazon policy. You should put the financial loss down to experience.
It’s your responsibility to pay those customs charges, not the customer’s. Unfortunately, you’ll need to process the refund, but only for the amount she paid through Amazon. There’s no need to refund the customs charge, as she had the option to decline payment.
Next time, use a shipping company that handles parcels with customs prepaid.
My advice is to refund him, including the delivery charges. Next time, use Hermes for international delivery. In case the product is lost, you can claim the product price and delivery charges as well. They will reimburse you.