Absurde shipping fees

[mimo2011]

I can't believe how freely some of the sellers are overcharging for shipping. I was lucky I did noticed the shipping fees from this seller in England. I was shocked to see how much she charged for a painted glass fragment when usually most of the sellers are very low. Got full stained glass windows fro England and paid at the most $25...This seller for something like 5" × 5" is charging 45/48 GBP. Why you guys...Ebay are allowing these things to mess around like this? Also even the global shipping program itself it's a real off ...

[reallynicestamps]

There are a couple of things to note here.

Sellers pay the same fees on shipping as they do on sales.

So while many years ago, some sellers would move part of the cost of the item to the shipping cost to reduced their fees, this no longer applies. Your seller is either badly out of date or is getting bad advice from one of those YouTube videos. In either case, he should be avoided.

The cost of shipping also depends on weight, dimensions, and destination as well as the level of service. Tracked shipping is more expensive than untracked, air mail more expensive than surface.  The seller chooses the level of service to protect his business investment.

Got full stained glass windows fro England and paid at the most $25...

I find this hard to believe.

I'm not sure if this will show the way I filled it out, but cost for a five kilo parcel valued at under £100 to Canada range from £71 to £94 by the Royal Mail.

https://www.royalmail.com/price-finder

However just as some sleazy sellers used to move the cost of the item to the shipping to avoid fees, many move all or part of the shipping cost to the selling price (Free Shipping) because buyers like it.

And the GSP adds an import fee to every shipment to cover the cost of Canadian duty and Sales Taxes as well as a small (~$5US) service fee for brokerage. 

TL/DR  International tracked shipping is expensive.

[mimo2011]

I wish I could post the pics of all the antique glass I collected through Ebay to show you

[marnotom!]

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@mimo2011 wrote:

I wish I could post the pics of all the antique glass I collected through Ebay to show you

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I'm not sure what that would accomplish.  Let's stick to your concerns for now.

What shipping method shows up for that listing with the £45-48 (Why is it a range?) shipping charge?  If it's the Global Shipping Program's "International Priority Shipping" which you're also expressing concerns about, it helps to recognize that the GSP is a forwarding service, so you're actually paying the seller's charge for shipping the item to a centralized forwarding centre as well as Pitney Bowes' charge for getting the item from there to you.

Also consider that Pitney Bowes' portion of the shipping charge for a GSP-forwarded item is done by a bot, not a human being.  If the seller of the item doesn't give the bot proper information to work with for calculating a shipping rate, it has to guess or apply a charge based on an average for the category in which the item is listed.

Knowing this may not make the charges any easier to digest, but at least they make a bit more sense.

[mimo2011]

Hey the shipping isn't listed through the global program, she just use her own way.....I did try to bring her down about a decent charge but she just dismissed me in a very bad attitude way. I keep also share with Ebay my unhappiness with the global program especially when they include....customs fees....and honestly I got charged only once by them because the amount passed the $400 Canadian...I wish I could post pics in here to show some of the glass I got under $40

[reallynicestamps]

The duty free allowance is $20Cdn and even on duty free items, sales tax is payable.2

CBSA/Canada Post tends to ignore low value and small items under $100 or so, on the basis that the money they could collect is less than the wages they would pay the collectors.

But couriers like Pitney Bowes/GSP can't do that.
On the other hand their actual shipping charge seems to be quite low, since they ship in bulk using a manifest until the shipment hits Canada, when Canada Post (usually) takes over.

[esclyons]

if the seller, can't lower shipping, after your request, than i recommend searching out other seller's..

[mimo2011]

Believe me, already done with her....hehehe

[marnotom!]

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@mimo2011 wrote:

Hey the shipping isn't listed through the global program, she just use her own way.....I did try to bring her down about a decent charge but she just dismissed me in a very bad attitude way. 

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Okay, but what was "her own way"?  Was it stated in the listing, or was this listing for an item that didn't ship to Canada and you had to ask the seller if she'd ship to you?

The reason I'm asking this is because from all the years I've been following these discussion boards, I get the sense that some--if not many--sellers from the UK are thrown off by the Royal Mail website.  The last time I used it (which, admittedly was some time ago), I found that it was very difficult to find small packet rates on it.  Some UK sellers seem to be stating much more expensive parcel post rates for items that could ship as small packets.

If you're buying a lot from the UK, I would suggest familiarizing yourself with the Royal Mail website and how to find mailing methods and shipping rates on it so you can help your sellers find the most appropriate and cost-effective shipping methods for their items.  Try not to dictate.   (Memories of Hitler are still strong.)   Try to "casually" mention that you've been on the Royal Mail website and you've found that it costs "X" quid to send a 1 kg piece of glass to Canada by small packet, and see where things go from there.

[mimo2011]

Hey.....her own way was basically... take it or leave it, wich in the end I did. I didn't try to dictated ....hehehe.....She had few bumps on her back with other buyers for what I know now. I would suggest maybe cheap ways but she just dismissed me.....I just got a painted fragment (a face) from an old church window and the shipping costs 10 GBP... I guess I was lucky

[marnotom!]

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@mimo2011 wrote:

.....I just got a painted fragment (a face) from an old church window and the shipping costs 10 GBP... I guess I was lucky

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Sounds as though you found a seller who knows what they're doing and figured that sending the fragment by International Standard. (this appears to be Royal Mail's new name for "untracked small packet") would do just as well as sending it by some shipping method that was tracked and signed up the wazoo and cost four times as much.

And in the grand scheme of things, wouldn't you rather deal with a seller who knows what they're doing than one who doesn't?  

ADDENDUM: Doing a bit of poking around online, I suspect the problem is that UK sellers overcharging for the shipping of small items by post are checking the Parcelforce website for parcel rates rather than the Royal Mail website for oversize letter rates.