I recently bought three items (sewing patterns) from a seller. The shipping costs for each item were added together and I was charged nearly $60 to ship three sewing patterns. This is egregious and outrageous. I asked the seller if he could give a partial credit because the shipping should have been significantly less. He tried and said he couldn't because the items were shipped through eBay's International Shipping system and the charges were set. I contacted customer service to see if they could help, and the agent kept me on the phone for an hour talking alot but saying nothing of substance, and I finally put it to him and asked if he had a solution and he didn't. Nice! After wasting an hour of my time. He said he would send a message to his colleagues to see if they could help, and someone should come back to me in a day or two. That was about a week ago and nobody has contacted me. In addition, since the beginning of this year, eBay began adding VAT on all purchases at checkout. I have no issues with this, but it appears that the customs authorities in my country are not being informed because I have received additional invoices from customs charging me VAT and fees on nearly every purchase I've made with eBay this year. I have taken the matter up with eBay and they have refunded me for the double payments, but I've told them they need to coordinate with Customs and get their act together so we aren't forced to pay VAT twice for the same purchase and then have to waste time requesting reimbursements for the overpayments. I've been an eBay member for 26 years and I think I've reached the end. UPDATE: I finally got a response from eBay's customer service today. I had exchanges with three different people who all basically repeated the same thing: they listed a few possible reasons why my three items weren't combined into one shipment (I got one packet with two items and a second one with the third item) despite my putting them in the cart and checking out at the same time. NONE of those reasons were applicable to this purchase. Listing irrelevant possibilities without specifics is meaningless because such vagaries allow eBay to justify its actions without any accountability. And they repeated that they don't give refunds for shipping. The International shipping center can set whatever extortionate prices they wish to ship items without rhyme or reason. Is it any wonder sellers and buyers are leaving eBay in droves?