Whassup with e-bay?

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Have they added new things to enhance your 'experience'?

I bought a $26 US item with free shipping which should cost me $26 converted to Canadian (and we aren't doing very well on that right now). The e-bay listing showed an estimated shipping (pre-calculated as they often do) and an estimate of import fees (thanks, but that's between me and the Canadian customs people). When the deal was done, e-bay automatically added these extra amounts to the $26 adding another $20 to the total. No matter, I'll just have the seller adjust as I've done in the past. No can do, and what's 'better' is that none of the e-bay 'shipping' charges makes their way to the seller. So e-bay scoops this? Likewise I have no idea where the import charge portion is supposed to go. Has e-bay made some kind of a deal to collect duty (for a fat fee of course)? As-is many parcels arrive across the border with no duty collected so such a partnership between e-bay and customs would benefit them both.

Can't send electronic payment outside of e-bay/paypal because e-bay snips e-mail addresses out of e-bay seller/buyer communications...even if you disguise it with 'dot' or 'at'. Darn, they're good.

Is this the new normal? If so all you remaining bidders will have one less competitor.