Comments about the Global Shipping Program

[kalvin@ebay.com]

Feel free to share your thoughts about the Global Shipping Program here. 

A few questions to get the ball rolling:

• What has worked well for you with the Global Shipping Program?
• Any ideas to help improve the experience for Canadian buyers?
• What has deterred you from buying items offered using the Global Shipping Program?
• How have you managed to search for items outside the program?

Please try & keep the comments constructive 🙂

If you have any questions about the program, please post them here.

[pjwlk]

As a Canadian I will never use the Global shipping program for a purchase. There is absolutely no benefit to me at this time. When I am required to pay importation fees I simply pay the mail man when he comes to the door. It's that simple. Canada Post charges me a whole $9 for brokerage fees, plus tax. Pretty tough to beat that eBay...

[marnotom!]

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@00nevermind00 wrote:

If the buyers were informed, they wouldn't be on the Answer Center asking what to do.

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I guess I'll have to be more pointed in my question.  Section 4 of the GSP terms and conditions for buyers deals with "Lost, damaged or undeliverable items."  Buyers presumably agree to those terms and conditions before committing to purchasing a GSP item.  Why are they still uninformed if they've read the T&C? 

[mater721]

"Why are they still uninformed if they've read the T&C?"

Ever hear of legalese?  You seem to have a lot of free time on your hands.  Kinda explains...

[walker0017]

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Marnotom! wrote:

I guess I'll have to be more pointed in my question.  Section 4 of the GSP terms and conditions for buyers deals with "Lost, damaged or undeliverable items."  Buyers presumably agree to those terms and conditions before committing to purchasing a GSP item.  Why are they still uninformed if they've read the T&C?

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I think with specific sections that are written fairly clear most is understood but some of the other stuff they have put into the T&C you almost have to have a 4 year law degree to understand it. I get the impression with this legal document that eBay wanted to ensure that nothing could come back to haunt them or PB for how the program is administered, fees assessed and such, and as near as I could tell trying to read through the whole thing as some parts made no sense  to me at all, this is a risk free program for them in that if I read it correctly they cannot be held responsible for anything bad what so ever. Or am I reading too much into this? All I know is that reading this gave me a headache but maybe that was the point so that buyers and sellers get frustrated reading it as just ignore it and wonder later why it is such a pain in the butt to work with. 

[afantiques]

Why do you suppose the GSP terms and conditions page for buyers isn't informing buyers?

How many buyers don't have the reading and comprehension skills, and attention span to read all those conditions. It took me half an hour to read and understand all of it.

Judging by the literacy of some complainers, the chances of them even beginning to plough through the grown up writing version of the T&C are minimal.

[mater721]

Parts of the T&C are as clear as MUD.

[ewal8534]

I COMPLETELY agree with most of the comments.

Transactions now cost an average of about $30 more for me. And import charges are often almost 50% of the price. Plus the exchange rate is getting worse, and all of these extra charges are in US dollars.  I will stop shopping on ebay if more sellers switch to the program.

But the other issue I have that isn't mentioned yet, is that Pitney Bowes ships with private shipping firms like CANPAR. They will not leave packages with my building manager. They attempt to deliver twice Mon-Fri 9-5 when I am never home. I can then pick up the packages from their office outside of the city I live in, which takes an hour on public transit each way, or for an extra $10 they can deliver to my workplace which is awkward because I am often in meetings, and if I am unavailable, it will cost another $10 for them to reattempt.

So not only have I paid WAY MORE for the shipping service than I used to pay, but I also usually have to pay again or spend two and a half hours going to pick it up, when there is a post office a block from my appartment.

I hate it. I hate it so much. I think ebay is loosing a previously enthusiastic customer.

[ubid-ikill]

This Global Shipping Program is a scam. The cost of this only adds to the overall cost of an item and offers no better protection against loss or damage then shipping through the postal system. It is also fraudulent in that the import fees charged indicate it covers the cost of customs duties and additional taxes. This is NOT TRUE. I recently received a package from a US seller through this GSP and I paid the import fees thinking the customs duties would be taken care of. They WERE NOT. I still had to pay customs duties, and additional taxes along with exchange rate. In the end, I was charge fees that were collected fraudulently. The seller was not allowed to offer me an option to use the USPS. THIS IS WRONG. Ebay yet again is forcing sellers to conform to a system that is seriously flawed just to gouge them with fees to steal more of the money they get for the goods they sell. Pretty soon sellers here will get absolutely nothing for what they sell as every cent they make will go to the pigs at Ebay. If all the sellers on Ebay were smart, they'd rise up in protest and smack Ebay down. Time for the greed here to stop. The executives at Ebay must be Nazi's. There is no choice being allowed by sellers. So much for democracy.

[i*m-still-here]

These questions are for Bennett.

Chances are you've identified yourself already and I missed it.

The first time I realized that there was a  formal GSP-goto-Person here was a few days ago.

Bennett:  

1).  Are you Canadian or American?

2)   Do you reside in Canada or the United States?

3)   If you reside in Canada do you buy on eBay?

4)  If you reside in Canada and have items shipped to Canada how frequently do you buy here and how long have you been a buyer?

5)   Are you employed by eBay.ca?

6)   Are you employed by eBay.com?

7)   Are you employed by Pitney-Bowes or someone else?

Thank You In Advance for your responses.

[goldengatevintage]

So many Seller choose the Global shipping but is No Good for Canada. Ex. Canada do not pay duty $30 for shoes or used shoes or other clothing items new or vintage. So many buyer are not buying from the Seller who use Global shipping. 

Let Canada to choose here at the border if the buyer have to pay or not pay for DUTY.

 GLOBAL SHIPPING IS NOT GREAT FOR A SELLER TO CHOOSE. 

 ALL THE  SELLER WHO USE GLOBAL SHIPPING IS LOOSE BUYERS and BUSINESS!!!

[pjcdn2005]

First, check with your seller to see if they sent the package to Kentucky which would mean they sent it through the gsp. If they sent it directly to you then they went outside the program which could be why you were charged customs fees twice. 

Some sellers don't even realize that they are registered in the gsp and so don't send the package the way that they should.

There should be a way to get back the extra fees that you paid but find that info out first.

[goldengatevintage]

The GLOBAL SHIPPING IS NO GREAT IDEA!! I won't buy from sellers who use GLOBAL SHIPPING!!!  THIS IS NOT CORRECT FOR DUTY for CANADA!!! SO many SELLERS put for use shoes or clothing  GLOBAL SHIPPING. WRONG!!!! WE DON"T PAY DUTY for  shoes or clothing  NEW OR USED OR VINTAGE for $30  SELLER SHOULD STOP USE GLOBAL SHIPPING BECAUSE YOU WILL LOOSE BUSINESS from BUYERS FROM CANADA!!!!!

[reallynicestamps]

You are basically preaching to the choir, here.

Perhaps you should be putting your opinion on the dotCOM Boards, where sellers have not realized that the GSP is not appropriate for low value items .

Even eBay agrees with that.

However, new or used, duty is applicable based on what the product is and PLACE of manufacture. If you bring in a used iPad from the USA, you will pay duty because it is made in China.  If you bring in  Vermont Maple Syrup, you will not pay duty.

However again, both the iPad and the Maple Syrup will be liable for PST/GST/HST no matter where it was made.

And, the maximum duty -free on purchases is $20 Canadian. If you buy something for $18 US you will be assessed for duty and tax.

[moncsicsi13]

Foe shoes up to $30 no duty for Canada.

For vintage and use clothing to put a duty is wrong. unless is a lot of money I paid for it. I understand to pay Ontario  taxes on some items but global shipping is charge more then what we should pay in Canada. Ex;. I see a fur coat for $200 and  a Global charge was $600. This is wrong.

[pjcdn2005]

I see a fur coat for $200 and  a Global charge was $600. This is wrong.

That does sound very wrong. If it does say that then there must be a glitch in the program. Do you have an item number so that we can report it?

[007steveb16]

Sellers who use the GSP are US sellers.

This is the .ca boards.

No seller you meant this for is going to see it.

[nubian_treasures]

It is not very likely that sellers who use Global Shipping will be on ebay.ca to see your post since they are in the US. You could go to ebay.com and go to the Discussion Board but that still doesn't guarantee the targeted sellers would read it.

Additionally, the Answer Centre is a place to ask questions and get answers. Do you have a question?

[moncsicsi13]

Thank you.

[bennett4612]

Here you go. Answers are preceded by >>>

1).  Are you Canadian or American?

>>>American

2)   Do you reside in Canada or the United States?

>>>United States

3)   If you reside in Canada do you buy on eBay?

>>>N/A

4)  If you reside in Canada and have items shipped to Canada how frequently do you buy here and how long have you been a buyer?

>>>N/A

5)   Are you employed by eBay.ca?

>>>Nope

6)   Are you employed by eBay.com?

>>>Yep. Well technically by eBay. (Not just semantics. I have a friend who works for WalMart.com and goes to great lengths to explain that he does NOT work for WalMart ....)

7)   Are you employed by Pitney-Bowes or someone else?

>>>See #6

[highland.2112]

I'm Canadian.

A short time ago I had over 100 items in my Watch List. I removed those sellers with GSP connections.

Now l'm down to less than 10 items.

It's a liberating feeling. And I'm not paying ebay sellers for a service I don't need. Period.