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.

[dgour98]

Ok, just received my item today from my first GSP buy.  It was delivered to my door by CanPar, and left on front porch.

(rain and snow here today, lucky wind was blowing in right direction. I prefer the safety of the post office.)

All in all, very happy with my buy, with the seller, but not the GSP experience. I was forced to pay the extra $22

and use their system. Not ever doing it again. Ebay has lost my service.

I should note as well that having spoken with some sellers in the US, they are offering sales off ebay because of this.

They know we will not pay thru GSP,  but can sell from their website etc. So ebay has lost me from buying their GSP, and their own

GSP sellers are selling offline. lol    ebay gets what they deserve.

Options are, buy Canadian! (something i try as best i can all the time) or go Amazon.

[marnotom!]

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@dgour98 wrote:

Options are, buy Canadian! (something i try as best i can all the time) or go Amazon.

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Keep in mind that some Canadian sellers have to charge HST on sales to Ontario.  Of the $11.75 you paid in import charges (the balance of Pitney Bowes $22-or-so charge being for shipping the comic book from Kentucky to you), $7.66 of that would have gone toward HST.  

Not saying that some of what you were charged was a little over-the-top, but I think the shipping charge was likely boosted by the seller's own charge for shipping the item to Kentucky (about US$6.00).  HST charges for an item from the U.S., as you may know, don't always happen for items sent directly by mail, but there's nothing scammy about them.

Thanks for the heads-up on the workaround by some sellers, though.  Some sellers have figured out that sending an invoice through PayPal can bypass the GSP's invoicing system.  This is an interesting development  you're reporting.

[groupbreakhits]

I find it incredible a billion dollar ecommerce business would implement such an unfriendly online commerce tool.

Did you not do market studies in each jurisdiction that would be affected? After ten years and 1032 positive transactions, I'm throwing in the hat ---unless!!---you address this **bleep** for Canadian buyers.

I know the prevailing thought is that Canadians are used to getting ripped off for higher prices (think Target and Walmart in Canada, books, magazines, cars etc...) and that's probably why you took away our ebay bucks too, but after a while of getting beat about the head we do eventually wake up and politely say thank you, and move the heck on. Adieu and goodnight Ebay! 

[groupbreakhits]

Right on

[groupbreakhits]

Are you a Pitney Bowes troll? 2 Feedback?? Really?What would you know about eBay, and why would you care with 2 feedback?Why don't you use the service before posting. I'm actually not interested in your reply. Have a nice day!

[marnotom!]

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@timlin2carter wrote:

Are you a Pitney Bowes troll? 2 Feedback?? Really?What would you know about eBay, and why would you care with 2 feedback?Why don't you use the service before posting. I'm actually not interested in your reply. Have a nice day!

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I have no idea what specific post you're replying to, anyway.  Obviously, it's not one of the several that I've posted where I've referred to a purchase I've made through the program.

[mwc1942]

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"I have no idea what specific post you're replying to, anyway.  Obviously, it's not one of the several that I've posted where I've referred to a purchase I've made through the program."

Believe timlin2carter is referring to "marnotom!

                                                                (2)

                                                                View Listings" 

That's what show when you do a posting, shows you have only purchased 2 items since 2004 hence the feedback comment. 

[damirk]

This is a JOKE ... seriously.  I will tell you...I have avoided MANY purchases on eBay that use this means as it is a better value to go through the manufacture and/or big box store such as Wal-Mart Best Buy etc when you add the GPS charge. 

It needs to be Removed and if I (we) get charged duty or fees when packages arrive, that is my (our) responsibility...NOT ebays to "Police" it! 

[afantiques]

Just buy from non GSP sellers. No need to penalise all sellers.

[femmefan1946]

shows you have only purchased 2 items since 2004

I guess you are new to the Boards. Members are allowed to have several IDs (I have seven myself, not all active) and one use that some members put an ID to is a posting ID.

There are various reasons for this, protecting a selling account being paramount.

But it is normal.

i'm not here also uses a posting account with very low feedback and s/he is quite anti-GSP most of the time. Both are respected members of the community. Even when the flamewars start.

[mwc1942]

"I guess you are new to the Boards. Members are allowed to have several IDs" etc.

Was responding  to "marnotom!" in his reply to "timlin2carter"

Question of you,

How do you high-lite in darker print?  

[afantiques]

Question of you,

How do you high-light in darker print? 

In the reply box, highlight the text to change and hit the B for bold or I for italic button, of the row above the text box. Other buttons do different things, try them.

[mwc1942]

Thank you, will do. 

[mwc1942]

"Just buy from non GSP sellers."

The adage "easier said than done" seems very appropriate here.

Viewed new listing last night of items of interest, total 16.  Of those, 1 had shipping to Canada price shown, 3 required contact with seller and final 12 were GSP listing.  That means if I was really, really interest on bidding it would require sending 15 messages to see if sellers would:

     a]  consider shipping to Canada & at what rate,

     b]  try to convince them to opted out of GSP [providing no bids place on item] and ship to Canada & at what rate.

That appears to be an awful lot of inquires and hard to justify for one or two bids on the hope of winning an item.  Ebay by introducing the GSP and automatically opting sellers in to the program has made it darn near impossible for Canadian bidders.  

Maybe that's exactly what they want, is Canada a losers market for them?

"No need to penalise all sellers."

From what was stated above,1 in 16 sellers [of interest to me] are listed as shipping to Canada which begs the question who is being penalized .....  the US sellers or the Canadian bidder?

[marnotom!]

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@mwc1942 wrote:

From what was stated above,1 in 16 sellers [of interest to me] are listed as shipping to Canada which begs the question who is being penalized .....  the US sellers or the Canadian bidder?

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Do you have any sense of how many of those twelve GSP listings would be available to Canada with direct shipping stated in the listing if the GSP weren't an option?

[mwc1942]

"Do you have any sense of how many of those twelve GSP listings would be available to Canada with direct shipping stated in the listing if the GSP weren't an option?"

Of course not, but then who can say how many would not ship directly to Canada?

[marnotom!]

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@mwc1942 wrote:

"Do you have any sense of how many of those twelve GSP listings would be available to Canada with direct shipping stated in the listing if the GSP weren't an option?"

Of course not, but then who can say how many would not ship directly to Canada?

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Sometimes there's clues in the listing descriptions that reveal that the seller didn't intend to use the GSP in the first place, such as the phrase "NO INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING" or similar.  Or, conversely, information in the listing description that suggests that they now ship internationally thanks to the Global Shipping Program.

Just for grins and giggles, since last year, I've been monitoring the number of listings of a particular smartphone.  The number hasn't increased dramatically on .com, but it has on sites such as eBay.ca and eBay Australia.  There are lots of ways to interpret this finding, one of them being that there are a lot more sellers willing to ship smartphones out of the US now that the GSP is available as an option.

I think there are quite a number of categories where the number of listings that offer shipping to Canada has increased due to the GSP.  Whether or not sellers are aware that they're offering this, of course, is a big unknown.

[janicer_2002]

I have been an EBAY shopper for many many years and buy dollhouse items for my own use from lots of sellers all over the world shipped to Canada.  Needless to say, I will never shop from USA again with the sellers who use this global shipping program as my item just bought is $34.00 and is 49.00 total cost with the shipping and now Global shipping extra.   For heck's sake, it is only a homemade dollhouse miniature dog that cost maybe 5.00 to make it, and I choose to buy it at 34.00 but wasn't expecting all the extra charges.   Like a previous comment, once the item gets to Canada, it is Canada Post who ships it to my mailbox.   Not the USA.  If the Canadian Government wants to charge me duty and taxes (only GST in Alberta) then be it, for little toys, but to be forced to pay it if I want the item, EBAY has to quit this practice.    I know sellers who have told me that the shipping costs were way under what it cost them to ship to Alberta and quoted on EBAY shipping fee, and returned some of my money in the envelope/small box.   Love honest sellers.   This has made me a very aware buyer and WON'T bid on any auctions with Global Shipping costs added.

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@123redh wrote:
as a ebay shopper i cant stand the global shipping program. many sellers have chosen this option and they shouldnt be faulted when ebay leads them to do this and sellers cant even see what costs show in the listing or they might think twice about using it. there are occasions where its cheaper, such as an absurdly heavy item of low value. otherwise it has lowered my willingness to buy on ebay and greatly increased the cost to buy, especially that unneccesay tax at the border. this does tie in with Paypal, in particular Paypal Protection. and with low value items there are too many sellers and buyers being cowed into Priority shipping when it isnt really neccesary. Priority shipping and GSP are largely neccesary for Protection and that drives up the cost well above what it would cost to actually insure a shipment. since we are talking the cost of shipment lets also note ebay's policy to post inflated shipping rates. as a buyer and seller it would be nice if ebay and paypal would just say what the true cost of shipping really is and stop playing games.

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[marnotom!]

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janicer_2002 wrote:

I have been an EBAY shopper for many many years and buy dollhouse items for my own use from lots of sellers all over the world shipped to Canada.  Needless to say, I will never shop from USA again with the sellers who use this global shipping program as my item just bought is $34.00 and is 49.00 total cost with the shipping and now Global shipping extra.   For heck's sake, it is only a homemade dollhouse miniature dog that cost maybe 5.00 to make it, and I choose to buy it at 34.00 but wasn't expecting all the extra charges.   Like a previous comment, once the item gets to Canada, it is Canada Post who ships it to my mailbox.   Not the USA.  If the Canadian Government wants to charge me duty and taxes (only GST in Alberta) then be it, for little toys, but to be forced to pay it if I want the item, EBAY has to quit this practice.    I know sellers who have told me that the shipping costs were way under what it cost them to ship to Alberta and quoted on EBAY shipping fee, and returned some of my money in the envelope/small box.   Love honest sellers.   This has made me a very aware buyer and WON'T bid on any auctions with Global Shipping costs added.

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Hate to break it to you, but those "honest" sellers you encountered were ones who had no idea how the Global Shipping Program works, and it sounds as though you're a bit unclear on a few things about it, as well.

A seller using the Global Shipping Program is supposed to send the item to a shipment centre in Kentucky, which then forwards the item as part of a freight shipment to a Canadian hub.  The package is then separated from the rest of the freight and forwarded by Canada Post and/or Canpar to its final destination.

Your sellers get paid what they'd charge for shipping the item to the shipment centre in Kentucky, not for what is charged for shipping the item to your home in Alberta.  The rest of the shipping fee goes to Pitney Bowes, as do the import charges.  Part of the import charges go towards "paying back" Pitney Bowes for paying the taxes (and duty, if necessary) owing on your item, but you know that already.

Long story short, these sellers you're referring to had no reason to pay you anything.  You may wish to consider repaying them as they may have lost money on their sales to you, depending on how much Pitney Bowes' portion added to the total shipping charge to Alberta.

[isell_yourstuff]

The Global Shipping Program is a crock of nonsense! I recently got charged $8.38 'Import fees' on a purchase of only $19.99. This is nonsense because there are NO import duties payable on ANY purchase of under $20.00 into Canada. The seller refuses to even answer my emails about it, and eBay, although issuing me a 'one-time courtesy' coupon that more than covers it, is still using this program. It should not be allowed, or, the buyer should have the option to not pay it!

Yes, I'm aware that I should have noticed this dishonest charge, but, honestly, because it was below the legal amount, I didn't even think to look!

Oh, and, although eBay sent me an email saying I was getting this coupon, I still have not received it, so is that actually going to happen?

Has anyone else had issues with this lousy program?