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.

[stereo4vr]

Since some people object the term money grab to describe Ebay GSP  I'll use other term - GSP is a racket.

Racket = a service that is fraudulently  offered to solve a problem, such as for a problem that does not actually exist, that will not be put into effect, or that would not otherwise exist if the racket were not to exist.

Ebay/PB force U.S. sellers to believe that USPS shipping with signature to Pay Pal verified Canadian address is not effective seller protection, so offer their GSP racket as a "solution." 

Buyer has to pay exorbitant fees to ebay/PB for GSP racket fee and has to deal with incompetent courier service 

PB uses in Canada (Canpar) 

Canpar is incapable to deliver to residential address in reasonable manner, so Canadian buyers end up having to pay additional $10 for third delivery, while the actual attempts most often never occurred. 

I will never buy from a seller insisting on GSP racket. 

IMHO, there is a legal ground for class action suit against Ebay Inc. for perpetuating GSP racket , one from U.S. sellers and other from Canadian buyers.  

[byacey]

Further to all of this, when viewing an item for sale, it isn't readily apparent from the shipping information that the buyer is agreeing to the Global Shipping Program.  The item I ordered (shipped Sept 17 and still hasn't arrived) appeared like it would be shipped via USPS which I like using.

USPS is very reasonable in price, and very rarely longer than 14 days shipping to Canada with ordinary mail service. What is the purpose of GSP if  it costs more and they can't deliver?

[atvds1210]

It's ironic that Ebay, correctly, took steps to curtail sellers abusing shipping charges to avoid fees - and pre-GSP shipping fees were pretty rationale and you could understand it.   Now they have officially re-instated crazy shipping costs through the GSP.  The shipping costs are way out of whack for many items. 

At least the GSP is well flagged in the listings, so I can quickly give them all a pass.

[00nevermind00]

Last Wednesday's Weekly chat on the US boards was about every Canadian buyer's "favorite" program, the GSP. It was pretty interesting and the eBay/GSP reps even went a little beyond the usual canned answers a few times.

It's worth at least a quick glance:

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Weekly-Chat-with-eBay-Staff/Live-Q-amp-A-with-eBay-s-Global-Shipping-Te...

[victoria6320]

I have recently been very overcharged on an item.  The item clearly stated 20 dollars shipping, when I went pay, it then said 40 and change for shipping, double what the actual auction said.  Tried to reach buyer with no luck so a day goes by and I don't want to not send payment for the item to the seller, it's not his fault clearly so I in good faith send the money feeling it will end up refunded to me as it's clearly an error that will sort out later.  Well, guess what.   No, they (Ebay) at customer service tell me oh that is the new Global Shipping Program, and when he says shipping fee, it's to the Global Shipping place in Kentucky, then I'm recharged again from Global Shipping (on PayPal reads as Pitney Bowes) from there in Kentucky.  In fact it goes further away from me to be shipped further, taking longer for shipping and charging me again, which amounts to double dipping the shipping fee.  Appalling and likely quite illegal I would think to advertise one thing and then do something totally different when it comes to checking out.  Be very wary, careful to ask your seller not to use UPS as they are associated with this.   My seller believed after he printed the label and packaged and took to UPS that it was going UPS.  Why would you think otherwise?  Nope, backdoor deals are prevalent now as ebay appears to have worked a lucrative deal with this shipper to now ship to the Global shipping center instead and double charge the buyer.   I've had hundreds, nearly 1000 items from ebay in the past and have never run into this before the new "Global Shipping" program just came into affect.   Very deceptive.  The moral of this story is ...   Be vey sure your seller does not use any shipping by UPS, or other shippers other than postal service.  It does not say Global Shipping, but it turns out to be, and guess what, you're going to be gouged for huge shipping fees in the end and delayed service.  A money grab for ebay and  their newly conceived Global Shipping Program.   BUYER BEWARE!!

[pierrelebel]

00nevermind00  - Thank you for taking the time to ask the questions on the eBay,com, follow-up on them and post the thread here.

IMPORTANT

I wish every poster on this thread would take the time to read and understand the question and answer posted in post #24 on the eBay.com thread.

This is where most Canadian buyers purchasing through the Global Shipping Program reach the wrong conclusion.  Please read carefully

Question: "This is a very sore point for Canadian buyers because unlike many countries, Canada starts collecting duty charges (different from sales taxes, also collected) at very low levels. So if refunds are not possible (why not?) then shouldn't the relevant information be compulsory in order to list an item with GSP shipping?"

Answer by eBay: "This is described in the buyer terms & conditions.  The buyer is paying program fees, which are non-refundable.  In the program fees, every effort is made to get the most accurate quote we can.  However, the buyer should really not pay if they don't agree with the costs."

In other words, when Canadian buyers pay an "import fee" to Pitney Bowes, they do not pay duty and/or taxes.  They pay a "program fee". That is a very important distinction to make.

While Pitney Bowes may calculate applicable taxes and duty - which they must pay as importer of record - based on the information supplied by the seller (country of origin for example) and the buyer (province of residence for example), what Pitney Bowes in turn charge Canadian buyers is a "program fee" which will include the estimated duty and taxes and a service charge.

Understanding the system does not make it any more inviting for Canadians. Hopefully eBay will eventually find ways to prevent sellers from listing low value items not appropriate to the program.

[00nevermind00]

---

@pierrelebel wrote:

Hopefully eBay will eventually find ways to prevent sellers from listing low value items not appropriate to the program.

---

Thanks for the kind words Pierre. They seem to have a GSP Chat every six months or so. I knew this one was coming and I had my questions ready.

As for preventing sellers from listing inappropriate items, I'm sure it would be no great feat of coding to do this. So the reason it's not being done is that despite paying lip service to that $50 figure (which was plucked out of thin air after months of entirely predictable complaints from outraged international buyers), they really don't see a problem with $5.00 postcard-sized items being offered with $16.00+ GSP shipping.  If you read some of the posts from sellers on the Chat, some sellers appear to be being auto-opted in even though their items are totally inappropriate for GSP shipping by eBay's own purported "standards".

Question #2 is something I discovered by accident just a few hours prior to chat by viewing my saved searches on my phone, something I never do. When I got home later I checked one item of interest on my computer and the discrepancy in "import charges" jumped at me.  ALL the GSP items I checked showed a discrepancy. This issue seemed especially troubling to the GSP people who were on chat and I exchanged a couple of PMs with Katherine over it. I wonder if it could maybe explain the assertion by some posters that the GSP charges "jumped" after they hit the "Buy" button. What if the charges shown on my phone are the correct ones, with the charges shown on my desktop being too low (for whatever reason) until the item is actually bought? Mind you, this is only speculation on my part. Since I won't touch any GSP item with a barge pole, I will not be testing my theory.

[afantiques]

The GSP has been around for about two years now. UPS can be a terrible choice for Canadian buyers. But it is not involved in the GSP unless the seller uses it to ship to KY.

The biggest defect with the GSP is the almost total ignorance of the nuts and bolts of this shipping method by both buyers and sellers.

Some of this is due to the totally inadequate education by ebay for buyers and sellers, but a certain amount is due to a full ahead and never mind the torpedoes attitude by buyers and sellers who decide to do it their way rather than find out and understand exactly what is going on the moment anything odd shows up.

[herculesjabot]

I think it's a rip off.  In the future, I will buy NOTHING on Ebay from a seller who uses this system. 

[irishregbuff]

I have not read any of the comments here yet, as I do not want any replies to influence me. 

This Global Shipping Program amounts to nothing but legalized thievery. Plain and simple.

The rates are 3 times what they should be for shipping. The items take on average 3 weeks to arrive, which is ridiculous. 

And what the heck is he deal with charging import and duty fees??? I buy Canadian Medals. read CANADIAN I am CANADIAN, These are items that are returning to CANADA. According to the CBSA these are NOT subject to duties or import charges. In the past if I was charged such fees I was able to appeal them through the CBSA appeal system and get my money returned to me, Now??? I have had my money stolen from me as I see no way to recover the fees charged to me. 

This whole system is a money making scheme for eBay. The only ones benefiting from this is eBay. They certainly do not give a rats butt about the sellers or the buyers, as long as eBay gets their pound of flesh they do not care. 

In short, paying way over the top for shipping, waiting way too long for items, and being forced to pay duties and import fees that should no be charged. 

I wonder if the US sellers have figured out yet that by using this GSP, they are losing money. There is no way a Canadian should be paying import  duties for CANADIAN items returning to CANADA.

A quick recap here in my out of pocket funds. Auction closed at $100.00 USD, that is $112.00 Cdn. Add to it, the BS duties, and over-the-top shipping fees, it amounts to $177.00 Cdn. Are you guys **bleep** kidding me?? I am done with ANY US seller who uses this program. It is designed to legally STEAL from the buyers. 

Ebay, you guys need to smarten up, stealing the way you are will only lead to huge problems in the future. 

I do fully expect my comments to fall on deaf ears, but in the off chance they survive, I hope people can learn from them not in the way I did. NOT FAIR PLAY IN MY BOOK.

[irishregbuff]

You are missing the whole point here.....Ebay is making a huge profit on the ridiculous shipping fees now, were as before, they were missing out.

So there is no doubt, . YES I am very angry at this legalized thievery.

[mater721]

"I am done with ANY US seller who uses this program."

This is your best option.

I would only ever buy from a GSP seller if total cost (including shipping and import fees) was reasonable. Seems rare.

[respiraterry]

Global shipping program is a complete joke and a ripoff. They totally overcharge you on taxes and the shipping prices make absolutely no sense. You can find the exact same item for widely varying rates. I bought a 2.5 lb mug from florida shipped to BC Canada and shipping was $10, i just looked at a baseball hat and they want $17 to ship it half the distance ? Never mind they want $13 duty on top of that for a bid of $30? What a joke

[knutkr]

No more buying from sellers with Global Shipping. 2 Parcels lost last month, and it is impossible to contact Ebay. When i try, i only get a list of questions with answers, and no contact Ebay button.

[rick31797]

Does anybody know , if GSP has been Confiscating Guitars , i have been hearing rumours they are doing this, and i wonder what is there reasons..i have bought many, shipped USPS , and had no issues..

[jkwilly]

How are the fee's collected by Ebay transferred to the country the product is shipped to? If Ebay US collects IMPORT fee's then they must be paying the country of entry. Can you please explain how this is done?

My guess is they do not pay anything and keep this fee.

[jkwilly]

Perfect my sentiments exactly

[mater721]

"How are the fee's collected by Ebay transferred to the country the product is shipped to?"

I believe Pitney Bowes does this. They are the "importer" of record.

[lraetoll]

I don't care about reasons or explanations or fee breakdowns or anything else about GSP.

 It doubles & triples the shipping cost. It slows deliveries.

I flately refuse to buy any item under the GSP program.

Perhaps a lot of sellers don't do much business with Canadians.

I'll bet they never will if they use this greedy monster.

E-Bay, this is New Coke ........ wake up and dump it!

[rick31797]

This marriage with Pittney and Bowes must be making them a ton of money ...so money talks and they don't really care what people think about GSP..