Global Shipping Program charges only disclosed after committment of purchase made during check-out.

[junge48]

Purchased item from U.S. seller today, but inadvertendly overlooked and omitted to question item in description called "Import Charges".

These charges only appeared after purchase commitment had been made. Seller refers to new "global shipping program" by

which they mail item to EBay Kentucky. Assumed Canadian

import duties and other "handling charges" are pre-collected

by EBay/Pitney Bowes who will look after on-carriage from Kentucky to Canada.

Consider these hidden charges as regular shipping cost to Canada are listed and paid for separately in item's description.

Also these import-charges only pop-up on your PayPal invoice after purchase has been made.

To the best of my knowledge Canadian import customs duties

are only assessed upon arrival of item in Canada and are

collected by Canadian Customs directly from the consignee

of the shipment.

Any other EBay buyers affected?

Thanks,

junge48

[reallynicestamps]

Is the item you are buying over $20?

If so you are responsible for brokerage /service fees, duty if any and sales taxes.

What is happening here is that the seller is shipping with a service that will prepay these. so that you don't get a shock on the doorstep.

The service is provided by a courier (probably) . EBay/Paypal/Pitney Bowes are handling the paperwork and processing the payment.

If this were sent "bare", the courier would charge you, in addition to the shipping fee you paid the seller (and he gave the shipper) a customs brokerage fee of $25 or more, duty if any and PST/HST/GST. And you won't get the parcel until you cough up.

BTW, if you ever order from LLBean or one of the many Christmas catalogues that popup from US companies they use the same system, prepaying some charges to simplify the buyer's experience.

[s_j_hart]

I just had this problem too.  Canada Post only charges a $5 or $7 fee for collecting HST and the money stays in Canada. I don't want to change to paying a fee to a company in another country.

If the shipper was UPS then it would be worth it because they charge $40 or $50 to collect $3 of HST. If the shipper is USPS then it is better to let the receiver handle it.

[luv24x4fish]

I too had the same issue. I did not notice the tiny little " import charges to be calculated at check out". Then the amount they applied was far greater than what Canada Customs would charge. The seller was not willing to remove and revise their price. This fee is processed by Pitney Bowes, not Ebay, and your personal information can be shared with all of their companies and subsiduaries world wide.

I found a way to avoid this automatic duty charge. I ship to my, USA, Point to Point address and the fee goes away. I pick up or have a family or friend pick up and pay them back for any duty fees. Just thought I would share.

[marta4638]

I just purchased an item costing $13.99 for shipment to western Canada. The shipping charges using the Global Shipping Program were $44.00.  The seller charged $22.00 to ship to Kentucky from Ohio (completely the wrong direction).  Then Global Shipping tacked on another  $22.00 as well as an additional charge for Brokerage fees clearing Customs and taxes, duty etc.

This was completely bogus as the item was used and of low value.  The post office would have landed this with no fees at all.  If sellers are going to use this so called 'convenience' they are going to lose all business in Canada.  We don't accept shipments from UPS for that reason.  They charge exorbitant fees.  If sellers want to do business with Canada they are going to have to make a trip to the post office and fill out a small Customs Declaration form and mail it themselves.

I informed the seller what happened and was refunded $7.50 from the sellers portion of the charge. 

I certainly won't be dealing with anyone else who uses Global Shipping.  It should be called Global Shafting because that's what it is.

[bbagnall]

I just got hit with this surprise charge too. My item was only $41 with $14.95 shipping listed, and I received an additional charge of $17.18 once I hit the checkout! Strictly speaking, yes, the rule books say you get charged taxes if it is above $20 or some fee, but in reality I've had purchases of over $40 ($44 was the most recent) that did not get hit with import fees. I would much rather take the chance that I get the fee and pay if they decide to collect this at the border (happens maybe 20% of the time for me), than pay the fee 100% of the time beforehand! This is a scam pure and simple--eBay looking to collect more fees by partnering with various blood suckers. I was hoping eBay would be fighting the tax man, not colluding with him.

[bbagnall]

One thing I was going to ask, I can log into either ebay.com and ebay.ca with the same ID for my eBaying. This time I was logged into ebay.ca, but if I am logged into ebay.com when I make the purchase, perhaps it doesn't automatically collect the import fee?

[frugal54mark]

These charges are illegal, and therfore cannot be added. I have asked for the email address for pitney Bowes as it is not included on the PayPal invoice. It was never provided, or was a phone number.
I suggest keeping a copy of said invoice and contact border services and let them investigate. The whole thing is a scam. Mark.

[earl5705]

For sure! Most US sellers don't realize that this charge is illegal and an insult to our intelligence. On preowned items specifically their is not even duty, let alone tax. Correct me if I'm wrong, have been buying on ebay for years on a regular basis and am very offended by this. Goodbye ebay, hello amazon

[kh-leslie]

Please post all questions about the GSP here: Questions about the Global Shipping Program

Please post all comments about the GSP here: Comments about the Global Shipping Program