Comments about the Global Shipping Program

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.

~Kalvin
eBay.ca Community Manager

kalvin@ebay.com

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Comments about the Global Shipping Program


@charlotte4583 wrote:

So, after paying $15 usd on a five dollar purchase because of the gsp, my order has been lost. I was refunded my money but the seller says she will never sell to Canada again. Thanks for that, ebay. Fewer options for us on both sides of the border.


I'd often see this sort of thing "in the old days" on the International Trading Discussion Board that used to be on the .com site.  Sellers would send inexpensive items overseas by mail, the buyers would report them AWOL, the sellers would give the buyers a refund, and then swear never to ship internationally again because this one international sale out of a hundred went south.

I suspect this seller hasn't shipped internationally prior to the GSP's inception and may not have a reasonable understanding of how the GSP works.


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Comments about the Global Shipping Program


marnotom! wrote:

 

I suspect this seller hasn't shipped internationally prior to the GSP's inception and may not have a reasonable understanding of how the GSP works.


 

 

"the [GSP] seller says she will never sell to Canada again"  

 

Doesn't sound like she was selling to Canada in the first place. 

 

Something somewhere seems to be amiss.  How can a GSP item 'go missing'?  It first goes to Kentucky where it shows "delivered" but that is not "lost", just arrived at the first stop on the journey.  From there it gets rerouted, but there should be a number somewhere to show something other than "lost".  And who refunded?  On a lost GSP item it should be P-B, but it sounds as if the seller refunded an allegedly lost ("misdirected"?) item.  I feel there is some key information missing from this indictment.  Maybe it's not just the seller.  

 

 

 

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Comments about the Global Shipping Program

remitheram
Community Member

Well I had a budget, now after the extra hidden charges from Pitney Bowes and other import charge my budget is pretty much broke. How Ebay thinks I'm not going to buy somewhere else from now on?

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Comments about the Global Shipping Program


@remitheram wrote:

Well I had a budget, now after the extra hidden charges from Pitney Bowes and other import charge my budget is pretty much broke. 


 

How are the GSP charges "hidden"?  I am not being argumentative,  Pitney-Bowes has been tinkering around with the appearance of the listings, moving the charges around, but you would be absolutely right that "hidden charges" are entirely unacceptable.  

 

A GSP listing generally displays the import charges directly under the shipping fee.  Because the charges are based on Canada's limit on how much we can (or can't!) bring into the country before taxes and duty (for Canada, that's only $20), and any transport company like P-B or a courier has to add the charges according to law.  

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

 

That means if you bid on an auction, and keep bidding hoping to grab it from other users, the higher the item price the higher the import charges on a GSP item.  That's a real down side to it because the buyer won't know exactly how much is owed until they win, and not many people are going to like that, I agree.  

 

Sometimes on lower priced items Pitney -Bowes rolls the charges into the shipping fee, but that should be the end of it.  There should be nothing "hidden" that springs out at you later.  It should all be apparent BEFORE you confirm your payment.  

 

 

        IMPORT CHARGES.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

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@i.am.vivian wrote:

How are the GSP charges "hidden"?  I am not being argumentative,  Pitney-Bowes has been tinkering around with the appearance of the listings, moving the charges around, but you would be absolutely right that "hidden charges" are entirely unacceptable.  


I'm wondering if remitheram's complaint is that the import charges don't show up in search results, or perhaps they're using their phone to shop and the import charges aren't always readily apparent until the time of purchase.

He or she can shop somewhere else, of course, but my findings have been that items are generally much more expensive on the Canadian sites of US-based e-tailers and I suspect that's due not just to shipping costs, but also because those sites have their version of import charges buried as well.

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marnotom! wrote:

I'm wondering if remitheram's complaint is that the import charges don't show up in search results, or perhaps they're using their phone to shop and the import charges aren't always readily apparent until the time of purchase.


Good point.  I don't use a phone for all this so I haven't seen if the import charges are visible on a listing or not.  It's true they don't show up in Search (very annoying) and even the shipping fee itself is less until we click on it and there's the higher one plus the import charges.  Very off-putting.  But it's still there before buying.  

 

There is no question that the GSP have been very sneaky in its presentation and I think people who are new to online buying will find it a bit intimidating to sort out.  When we were used to viewing regular listings, then along comes the GSP and we can see all the visual differences, being used to the other kind we easily see the differences.  To someone just starting out it might not always make a lot of sense.  

 

For example the way that "No import charges on delivery" thing is displayed.  To young users who are unaccustomed to tricky ad jargon it seems to be intimating that there are no further charges, or no import charges.  I do not believe, not in the least, that this was accidental or that placing that phrase was not purposefully deceptive.  So taking the example of the listing above, IMO a lot of grief could have been spared if P-B had placed that phrase lower down AFTER all the applicable charges, like so, 

 

 

IMPORT CHARGES.jpg

 

 

 

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Comments about the Global Shipping Program

Thanks for your response. So what ended up happening (according to eBay's phone support) was that Pitney Bowes already paid the Canadian Government and that the money is lost.

I asked for additional information relating to the custom fees as the CBSA website states, I am entitled to get my money back if the item is refunded.

Of course, ebay now has to contact another department to get that information for me. This transaction has already wasted lots of my time. Using the GSP program made it worse




.

Message 5767 of 6,171
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Comments about the Global Shipping Program

Well technically, you didn't pay the duty and sales tax.

You gave GSP/PB a bunch of money. They paid the duty and tax.

So CBSA /Revenue Canada are technically correct.

 

 

It's yet another failure of customer relations for this terrible program.

 

Somewhere upstream there is a phone number for Pitney Bowes customer service. Apparently they are both intelligent and helpful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Politely, -- Captain Malcolm Reynolds

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Comments about the Global Shipping Program

 

This is it if you or anyone here needs it now, 

 

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

 

From what others have said when they contact Pitney-Bowes directly, they were treated very well, respectfully, professionally, and not fobbed off with jargon and evasions the way eBay's "customer service" does to people.  

 

 

Message 5769 of 6,171
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Thank you for the link!

 

 

I was about to contact Pitney Bowes this week but eBay refunded the "GSP import tax" portion to me today.

 

Basically, after 5 calls to ebay, 1 call to paypal, 3 email exchanges and message exchanges with the seller, I was able to recuperate all my losses.

 

In most of the exchanges, I was told by eBay that "there is nothing they can do" about GSP charges and the shipping cost back to the seller, even though it was the seller who sent me the wrong item.  I pressed on because I feel that eBay was advertising their "buyer protection" and "money back guarantee" on GSP program and not returning money back is false advertising.

 

Overall, I must have spent 7+ hours explaining the issue to eBay. (6 hours of that time was to reclaim the money loss from GSP program).

 

I'm not going to get items which are over $20 from eBay through this experience.  I bought many cheap items before this and my confidence was boosted.  Then fell right back down after this transaction.

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That's the worst of this poorly conceived and worse enacted program.

EBay unilaterally enrolled new sellers, those least prepared to deal with international selling, in the program.

And they dropped the suggestion that low priced goods (under $50USD) should not be shipped with GSP.

 

And the result, while most transactions probably go just fine, which we can assume since eBay has expanded the program to UK sellers, is that those who are shocked by either the high 'import fees' which sometimes masquerade as 'shipping fees', and those who have problems like kevin, are unlikely to return to eBay in future.

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Comments about the Global Shipping Program

I think Ebay is trying to imitate AMAZON with the GSP... Let me just say....It is not working!!!!

when i buy from AMAZON it is fast and simple...When I buy from an American on EBAY it is slow and cumbersome and really not worth the time or money

SHIPPING COST DOUBLES...SHIPPING TIME DOUBLES...I get dinged with duty that in all likelihood I would not pay otherwise..i get multiple stupid emails letting me know what the status of my package is.. this leads to a lot of frustration knowing that my item isn't here yet and its been 3 weeks...

WORST IDEA YET EBAY

i WILL NOT AGAIN PURCHASE ANYTHING THROUGH GSP

A CANADIAN

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PLEASE  post your comment on the dotCOM seller board.

 

Choir31-1.png

 

 

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Comments about the Global Shipping Program

Complete cash-cow and scam just because sellers are too lazy to actually calculate international shipping from their local postal office to potential buyers. Hey look just click on the global shipping we will take care of the rest. Sellers never see how much extra Pitney Bowes charges on top of sellers shipping cost to send to buyers. It's usually 3 times what the original shipping is in that country. I'm in Canada and most of my buys are in USA. Sometimes my items come from Canada then go to Kentucky, USA then back to Canada. We the buyers have to pay for this. Complete bull**bleep**. Ebay get rid of this **bleep** program. On top of that they open every package (Pitney Bowes) Not Border services for "Security" Ebay told me they check and open packages to make sure they are not damaged. So I said if anything comes damaged to me then Pitney Bowes is on the hook for it. Oh no you would have to put a claim into carrier. I'm so **bleep** at this program I don't buy from buyers who use International global shipping program. To top it all off buyers think that sellers are overcharging for shipping and are less likely to deal with them. It's ruining the economy of Ebay really bad. Oh and another thing they put another label on top so you can't see what the seller has payed for shipping the item. Well thought out scam. I have one question from a buyer's standpoint how in any way does this program benefit me? The answer is it doesn't it actually costs me. Just look for the round sticker re-sealed by the shipping program. What a joke.

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@rick_dano wrote:

Sometimes my items come from Canada then go to Kentucky, USA then back to Canada.


Really?

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I expect to pay taxes/shipping and even a reasonable handling charge for a program.

 

But the amounts I have seen when I put items in my cart are punitive - at least for the items I have looked at I can't see the program as encouraging many international buyers.

 

$200 non dutiable pair of shoes where the GSP and shipping is 40% of the purchase price????!!!!

 

I will not purchase anything of significance from a seller who participates in the GSP.

 

 

Message 5776 of 6,171
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Unless those shoes are made in the USA (or Mexico or Chile or Israel or another country we have a Free Trade agreement with) they are dutiable at 20% .

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/trade-commerce/tariff-tarif/2013/01-99/ch64-2013-eng.pdf

And then they are taxable, whether they are dutiable or not because they are valued over $20CDN (about $16 USD).

Plus a ~$5 service fee to Pitney Bowes/GSP.

 

Plus whatever shipping the seller felt was appropriate.

 

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netspuz
Community Member

The 'gotcha' with GSP is 'amount confirmed at checkout'.

 

Twice now, I've seen the 'Import fees' displayed by GSP/PB on an auction win jump significantly at time of checkout (as much as +66%). Sent complaints/proof to both eBay and Pitney Bowes but nothing ever gets resolved.

 

Shoes may be dutiable at 20% but gold and silver bullion are completely tax exempt (.999+ purity HS codes: HS 7106.91.00.11 and 7108.12.00.11) but Pitney Bowes/GSP charges import taxes and fees anyways. Are these taxes simply pocketed by PB/GSP and eBay? There is no transparency as to the breakdown of fees and there needs to be.
 

This program is a rip-off, plain and simple.

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@netspuz wrote:

The 'gotcha' with GSP is 'amount confirmed at checkout'.

 

Twice now, I've seen the 'Import fees' displayed by GSP/PB on an auction win jump significantly at time of checkout (as much as +66%). Sent complaints/proof to both eBay and Pitney Bowes but nothing ever gets resolved.


The problem seems to be based in the auction format itself.  Pitney Bowes can only provide an estimate of the import charges until the auction has ended and the buyer's location is known.  I agree that the coding of the site should be able to be tweaked so a better estimate can be obtained before auction's end.

 


@netspuz wrote:

Shoes may be dutiable at 20% but gold and silver bullion are completely tax exempt (.999+ purity HS codes: HS 7106.91.00.11 and 7108.12.00.11) but Pitney Bowes/GSP charges import taxes and fees anyways. Are these taxes simply pocketed by PB/GSP and eBay? There is no transparency as to the breakdown of fees and there needs to be.
 


Consider that the GSP is only able to base its calculation of taxes and duty on the item's category and eBay has not created a category for .999 bullion.  Also keep in mind that there's more to import charges than taxes and duty.  You're paying for some very expensive paperwork to be done on your shipment.  That's why the term Pitney Bowes uses is "import charges" and not "import taxes and duty".  It gives them licence to fold whatever they want into those charges as per the terms and conditions.

 

Message 5779 of 6,171
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The 'gotcha' with GSP is 'amount confirmed at checkout'.

 

From another point of view, the 'amount confirmed at checkout' could also be interpreted as 'last chance to back out'.

Which doesn't work on auctions, since the import fees cannot be determined until the auction is completed.

 

There is a lot to be said for avoiding GSP auctions (or for that matter listings) especially if you maximum bid will be under $100.

Very generally* speaking , most of the time* , it seems* that CBSA ignores small packages that are valued under $100 or so*.

And if CBSA does stop your bullion, as you say, you would not be charged duty. (Is bullion also exempt from sales taxes?)

You might still be charged the $9.95 service fee by Canada Post, of course.

 

 

 

 

 

* Note all the weasel words.

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