As Canadian buyers, what can we do to pressure US sellers to opt out of Ebay's Global Shipping?

[greerjohnston]

Hi, folks. I'm a Canadian who buys mostly from US sellers.  If I find an item that I want but the seller is shipping via Global Shipping, I always ask for a direct shipping option.  If the seller refuses, I'll usually buy the item from another seller and tell the one I've refused why I'm not being from him. Unfortunately, so many US sellers are opting into Global Shipping that this is becoming more difficult to do.  

Global Shipping overcharges international customers on import taxes and duties and significantly delays delivery -- it's awful.  Recently, I've begun leaving negative feedback for sellers who use Global Shipping. This seems to be the only way to pressure them to ship directly to international buyers. I hate to penalize otherwise decent business people, but  sellers who opt for Global Shipping, are making a choice that penalizes their international customers, so the negative feedback seems justified. If we all start doing this, maybe we can reverse the trend. 

Does anyone else have any other ideas?

Greer

[reallynicestamps]

The GSP is not set up to help buyers.

It is a Seller Protection program which prevents (often unwarranted) complaints about non-delivery by allowing a US or UK seller to prove delivery to the GSP plant at cheat domestic rates, after which the GSP takes responsibility for delivery.

It also allows sellers to have negative feedback based on GSP delivery removed, which makes your negatives moot.

As far as I can see, your feedback revenge would have the effect of making US and UK sellers decide not to ship outside their borders at all.

As a Canadian seller, I welcome this.

Buy CANADIAN!

[luv4orphans]

If a seller is now enrolled with the GSP they no longer have the option of being able to bypass the GSP and ship directly to you like they did in the past. I found this out the hard way. Some sellers have no clue what this program is costing us. I usually stayed clear of sellers using that program but really wanted something and the seller agreed that she would send it to me directly without the GSP. That is no longer feasible.  Ebay has closed that option.

[silverdreamfilm]

If a seller is now enrolled with the GSP they no longer have the option of being able to bypass the GSP and ship directly to you like they did in the past.

Not true, I just purchased an item a few days ago that was originally listed using the GSP and the Seller removed it for me mid auction (there were no bids as of yet). 

[femmefan1946]

Some sellers have no clue

That's a lot of the truth.

Some sellers are flexible enough to set up a private listing for a customer who doesn't want to use the GSP. Some don't know how. Some can't be bothered.

Sometimes the value of the sale is high enough for the seller to make the new listiing for their foreign customer.

But those are the listings where the price may be high enough to alert CBSA who assess the duty and more importantly sales taxes that make up most of the GSP charges.

GSP is run by Pitney Bowes and like all other private shippers, they are legally required to assess and collect duty and sales taxes on imports valued over $20 CDN (~$16USD).

[ypdc_dennis]

That is true ONLY if the item has been bought. A seller can change the listing before it ends to remove Canada from the GSP shipping list and substitute another shipping method for Canada, The info is in the eBay.COM help files (and even uses Canada as the example country).