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.

[chimera148]

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@icvideo wrote:
Amazon is looking better each day...

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http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-38320067  

[pjcdn2005]

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@icvideo wrote:
Amazon is looking better each day... No more E-bay USA for me I waited 3 weeks to get an Item almost right across the border from Me.. They would only sell through GPS......

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I've often waited weeks for a package sent directly here without gsp.

[towertreasuretrove]

pjcdn2005 wrote...

I've often waited weeks for a package sent directly here without gsp.

You must live in Antarctica....

[marnotom!]

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@icvideo wrote:

Amazon is looking better each day... No more E-bay USA for me I waited 3 weeks to get an Item almost right across the border from Me.. They would only sell through GPS......

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Guess it depends on what you mean by "better".  Much of the stuff I look for on Amazon isn't in stock and my choices are either to wait for Amazon to get it back in stock (Yeah, right.) or else purchase the item from one of their vendors, who are often charging many times over for the item than what I'd find it for on eBay.

[pjcdn2005]

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@towertreasuretrove wrote:

pjcdn2005 wrote...

I've often waited weeks for a package sent directly here without gsp.

You must live in Antarctica....

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It it feels like it some days, but no.   You've never waited 2 or 3 weeks for a package sent USPS first class?  You've never had a package take that long to reach your US customer?  

[tiptronic22]

Made a purchase from a seller in upstate NY. I'm located just outside Montreal, no more than a couple hundred miles away. After waiting 4 days for the item to arrive in Erlanger and another 4 for tracking to update I can see that the item sat in Kentucky during that time. By this time it arrives here it will be close to 3 weeks since purchase.

There is no excuse for this type of service. Almost $14 and 3 weeks to ship a dvd sized bubble mailer a distance I could drive in a few hours. On the other hand, I made an Amazon purchase on the same day from a seller in Florida and had my item 3 days later, free shipping! Never again will I purchase from a GSP seller and I'm less and less likely to use eBay at all at this point.

Between the 15% robbery fees sellers must pay and now the thievery imposed on buyers with the GSP, enough is enough.

[marnotom!]

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@tiptronic22 wrote:

Made a purchase from a seller in upstate NY. I'm located just outside Montreal, no more than a couple hundred miles away. After waiting 4 days for the item to arrive in Erlanger and another 4 for tracking to update I can see that the item sat in Kentucky during that time. By this time it arrives here it will be close to 3 weeks since purchase.

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What's the delivery time estimate on the listing page?

[reallynicestamps]

I can see that the item sat in Kentucky during that time.

Well, no.

What you can see is that the last place the item was recorded was in KY. It might have moved elsewhere within hours but unless the next stop is recorded, you wouldn't know that.

All tracking is after the fact.

I agree that the cost of shipping was high for a DVD. Unless it was priced over $20CDN (about $16USD) neither sales tax nor duty would be applicable, and there would be no reason for the seller to use the GSP.

Here are the USPS rates for tracked items. Note the arrows to more listings on the right.

https://ircalc.usps.com/

When you contact the seller, it could help him and other buyers if you pass this information on to him.

Another poster worked this out for buyers who have not yet received their GSP shipment.
TRACKING SYSTEM FOR GSP
It's not user friendly... But I found how to track your package via the global shipping program, once it gets to Canada you need to:
- Log on to eBay.ca
- Under the My eBay menu select Purchase History
- Under your orders find the specific order.  It should have something like the following:
        Estimated delivery Mon, Jan 11 - Thu, Jan 21
        Tracking number: Tracking number UPAAB000000#########
- Click on the UPA number.  This should open up a Shipment Details window, which should contain something like this:
     This shipment has been transferred to CPC for delivery to the final destination # 70351#########
-Click on the Canada Post number to see where the Canada Post Tracking history and expected delivery

[tiptronic22]

The estimated shipping time was 7-10 days.

The items finally arrived today. The original seller packaging had been opened with what looks like a rusty axe and hastily repackaged by pitney bowes. The item's retail packaging was bent and mangled to fit in the new box. Meanwhile, I received a package from China today. It had been ordered a day after the GSP items and sent China Post ePacket with an estimated delivery date of Jan. 25th!

It's amazing that I can get something from halfway around the planet to my door faster than someone located a few area codes away. And we wonder why we're losing all our manufacturing and technology jobs to the Chinese....

[marnotom!]

I think you mean 7-10 business days, not calendar days, which means you don't count weekends and holidays. Assuming your first post was made eight days after you purchased your GSP item, it arrived within the estimated delivery window.

No, it's not as fast as the mail if you're fortunate enough to live in central Canada, but the GSP uses a mix of services, including freight transport, to move items. It is what it is.

[kevin_camera]

Hi,

I just want to say I ordered something from GSP for the first time and the best way to describe the experience is definitely unimpressive given that ebay had many years to make changes to it.

I find it surprising that there is still a lack of information with tracking.  For example, I wouldn't be able to tell if sellers put in a wrong address, and there's no easy way to verify that.  (This doesn't happen often, but very annoying when it does).

I'm still waiting for the package to be delivered to me via NY (which of course, took the route to ON then KY first).

On top of that, there is no way to know when I should be home for the delivery. Will my item (over $200) be left unattended at the front door by UPS?  Or safely stored in a community mailbox?  Who knows.  And there are no additional instructions on the website for us to find further information.

I'd be avoiding sellers using the GSP program as much as possible in the future.  I'm surprised that eBay took a step backward by complicating the whole delivery process when everyone else is trying to simplify it.

[i.am.vivian]

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kevin_camera wrote: 

I find it surprising that there is still a lack of information with tracking.

there is no way to know when I should be home for the delivery. Will my item (over $200) be left unattended at the front door by UPS?  Or safely stored in a community mailbox?  Who knows.  And there are no additional instructions on the website for us to find further information.

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I would think that the GSP item will be treated the same way all your other mail is.  If is small enough to go into a CMB then it will most likely be handed to Canada Post by Pitney-Bowes.  In that case, like the rest of your mail it will be left in a box if that is the usual practice if it is small enough for the letter carrier to tote around in a bag.  

If it is so big it needs to be delivered by a truck, they will ring the doorbell and if you are not home, either leave it on the porch (or in the barbeque, behind a planter, etc) like usual, or leave you a notice card where to go get it.  If you do NOT want them to leave it and you have to go out, put a sign on your door asking them not to leave it, "no safe drop", because your are right that it isn't very safe.  

If you need the tracking info and clicking on the first one you got does not provide you a pop-up window with the new information, you can contact P-B with your transaction numbers and get it from them.  Anyone who has ever contacted P-B has only good things to say about how it went.  Email or phone call, either is free.

http://www.pitneybowes.com/ca/en/contact/contactus-email-us-canada-en.html

[charlotte4583]

I haven't bought anything on ebay for a while and this week I won an item for $5.01. I contacted the seller to ask if the shipping charges could be reduced and she assured me that she would send the item would be sent as cheaply as possible. After the auction was over I got dinged $2.65 plus an additional $13.03 for shipping because of the gsp. What a ripoff! The seller wasn't even aware that she was participating in the gsp. I might still get hit for duty at the post office. How can this be legal never mind ethical. After ebay deducts it's fees we know who's really getting g ahead don't we?

[marnotom!]

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@charlotte4583 wrote:

I haven't bought anything on ebay for a while and this week I won an item for $5.01. I contacted the seller to ask if the shipping charges could be reduced and she assured me that she would send the item would be sent as cheaply as possible. After the auction was over I got dinged $2.65 plus an additional $13.03 for shipping because of the gsp. What a ripoff! The seller wasn't even aware that she was participating in the gsp. I might still get hit for duty at the post office. How can this be legal never mind ethical. After ebay deducts it's fees we know who's really getting g ahead don't we?

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Charlotte, you've posted before about the GSP and it sounds as though you're still a bit shaky on how it works.

Instead of asking the seller to "reduce the shipping charges" on your item, you should have been asking her to consider shipping the item directly to you instead of using the GSP.  Granted, this may have got a reaction of confusion from the seller, but at least that would be a tip-off to you that the seller was unaware that the GSP had been automatically applied to her listings.

The GSP is often applied to listings where the seller hasn't blocked bids or purchases from users with shipping addresses located outside of their "ship to" locations, but also hasn't specified shipping rates to countries other than the United States.

This condition is mentioned in the eBay.com user agreement and eBay did give notice to sellers that a new clause was being added to the user agreement that concerned the Global Shipping Program, but it seems that many sellers missed this.

This is why buyers need to be vigilant themselves and follow the links to further information on the GSP on listing pages where the program has been applied so we can learn the basics of the program.  As Canadian buyers, we have to do quite a bit of educating of US (and UK) sellers on this program, as it appears that many of them wouldn't know the GSP's workings if they hit them in the head.

Your seller probably thought that you lived in Erlanger, Kentucky (where the Global Shipping Center is located) and used that information to reduce the shipping charge from her locale to Erlanger.

By the way, you shouldn't be hit for taxes or duty on a GSP item upon receipt, particularly if it's worth only five bucks.

[kevin_camera]

Thanks for your input. I ended up calling and finding out the tracking number and the tracking method.

To further add to the confusion, ebay sent me an email late last week with a "Domestic tracking number" which is different than the tracking number than the one pitney bowes gave me. (of course, the tracking # for ebay doesn't work)

In anycase, it is going through canada post so I know the package will be securely stored when I'm not at home.

It baffles me why ebay wouldn't work with pitney bowes to make the correct information available given that this is not exactly a cheap service.

To have an automated system send out incorrect information after 3 years+ of GSP program rollout is a sign that ebay dropped the ball, big time.

[reallynicestamps]

It is a cheap service.

Most of the cost is Canadian duty and Canadian sales taxes. Particularly sales taxes. The service fee is about $5.00.

[kevin_camera]

Where did you get your numbers from?  The charges are lumped together so it is not easy to tell.  As far as I know, the things I order from the states only go through the 13% HST (from say, B&H or amazon).

Subtracting the 13% taxes from the lump sum charge paid to PB on my receipt, $30 went to shipping costs.  (This does not include the $20 I paid for seller to ship to PB shipping center).

So this is just slightly more than the standard post cost, with additional unnecessary re-handling.

[reallynicestamps]

Where was your $200 item made?

And 13% of $200CDN  is $26.

On $200USD  (about $260 CDN) it would be $33.80.

There is sales tax on used goods, even if there is no duty.

Then duty

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/import/postal-postale/menu-eng.html

I did notice that cameras may be exempt, but the post was not on a Canadian site, and was dated 2004, so that may or may not be accurate.

[1978tase]

My question is about the total cost.  My shipper will send as many items as I buy from him fro the american shipping price of $5.00.  Now GSP wants over  $18.00 and if I put in a  request for cost of 3 items shipped its over 25.00  This does not make it worth while to buy this items as the total amount for items is probably only $25.00  Wont be buying anything from the us with this kind of shipping charges,

Spoiler

[reallynicestamps]

This is another stupid part of the deeply flawed GSP.

The seller who uses the GSP cannot combine and discount shipping.

If you have been in touch with the seller, you can politely ask him if he would make a private listing for you.

The listing should include all the items you have agreed to buy at the agreed price and agreed shipping.

The title-- this is the trick-- is your name.

He lists this as Fixed Price.

He uses USPS First Class International shipping which includes Confirmation of Delivery and parcels up to four pounds.

https://ircalc.usps.com/

He gets the cheap rate by filling in the destination and weight, choosing the package type in the lower row (that shows types of packages) and hitting Continue.

Yep. USPS is hiding the cheaper rates from consumers.

You pay. He ships.

Handled by USPS and Canada Post and no GSP !

But note that the idea of doing this panicks some US sellers and is too much work for a small sale for others. (High value and bulky items are more likely to be assessed at the border).

Nothing in this life is simple, is it?