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

 


krispymac wrote:


GSP not only demonstrates how geographically challenged the eBay Powers That Be are, it is environmentally irresponsible to send parcels on milk runs around the United States.


While there's certainly a lot of good arguments about why the GSP isn't generally a good fit for most Canadian buyers, I've never understood the environmental ones.  It''s not as though a GSP item is making some sort of solo journey to Kentucky and then to Canada.  It's more like it's carpooling, hitching a ride or taking a bus trip with other parcels with the same general destination.  The journey is already being made by other items, so how does adding one more package change the environmental impact?

Also consider that Canada Post handles letter mail in a similar fashion.  If I mail a letter to the person across the street from me, it leaves my small Vancouver Island town, goes across the strait to Richmond to be cancelled and sorted before coming back to be delivered.  My understanding is that many towns in the southern interior of the province have their mail handled in a similar fashion.

Message 5961 of 6,171
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Comments about the Global Shipping Program

Here's how the Global Shipping Program is working for my most recent purchase.  I bought a pair of antique carte-de-visite photographs.  These are small and light items, and I would expect that a seller could ship both of them to Canada for anywhere from about $4 to $12, depending on the method.  However, the shipping cost per photograph  under GSP was $18.  Now multiply that by 2, since the seller couldn't combine shipping under the Global Shipping Program.  The seller lives in Lynden, Washington, and I live in Vancouver, British Columbia, maybe 45 miles away.  So I'm tracking the package.  It goes to Seattle, and I'm thinking I'll get it in 2 or 3 days more.  Instead, it heads off to Kentucky, about 2000 miles away, practically the other side of the continent, where the package is sitting now.  Who cares about efficiency?  Or the environment for that matter?  The only positive thing I can say is that the photos were valuable items unrecognized by the seller, and were picked up for a relative song, and so I could shrug off the extra cost and delays, knowing full well that the Global Shipping Program is a terrible service for any Canadian buyer.  

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Comments about the Global Shipping Program


@vancouver_antiquarian wrote:

Here's how the Global Shipping Program is working for my most recent purchase. 


Looks like the way it usually works for shipments of this nature to Canada.


@vancouver_antiquarian wrote:


These are small and light items, and I would expect that a seller could ship both of them to Canada for anywhere from about $4 to $12, depending on the method.  However, the shipping cost per photograph under GSP was $18.

 


The price range you're describing seems to be that for an international oversize letter (what Canada Post calls "small packet" or "light packet" and what USPS calls "First Class International").  There are other shipping services out there that are much more expensive, such as parcel post or UPS Worldwide Express.

GSP seems to be structuring its prices to be competitive with parcel post.  I don't know of any shipping service that's as cheap as oversize letter for getting small items out of the country.

Also keep in mind that some of that shipping charge is actually the seller's own charge for getting the photo out to Kentucky.


@vancouver_antiquarian wrote:


However, the shipping cost per photograph  under GSP was $18.  Now multiply that by 2, since the seller couldn't combine shipping under the Global Shipping Program.  


I've never tried this myself, but others have posted here that it's possible to combine shipping on GSP purchases from the same seller by using the Shopping Cart to bundle your items.


@vancouver_antiquarian wrote:


The seller lives in Lynden, Washington, and I live in Vancouver, British Columbia, maybe 45 miles away.  So I'm tracking the package.  It goes to Seattle, and I'm thinking I'll get it in 2 or 3 days more.  Instead, it heads off to Kentucky, about 2000 miles away, practically the other side of the continent, where the package is sitting now.  Who cares about efficiency?  Or the environment for that matter? 


The Global Shipping Program is a glorified forwarding service.  The terms and conditions you agreed to say pretty much that.  The nature of forwarding services is that items are sent to a central location to be processed before going to their final destination.

Perhaps if the volume items being processed by the Global Shipping Center that were bound for Canada added up to a significant percentage of the shipments to the 98 or so countries served by the program Pitney Bowes would decide that more Shipping Centers in the US would be warranted, but I suspect right now that despite being the US's second largest trading partner, we're still not a big enough drop in the bucket in terms of eBay sales.


@vancouver_antiquarian wrote:

The only positive thing I can say is that the photos were valuable items unrecognized by the seller, and were picked up for a relative song, and so I could shrug off the extra cost and delays, knowing full well that the Global Shipping Program is a terrible service for any Canadian buyer.  


There's also the point that the items were available for shipment to Canada thanks to the GSP.  I suspect that if this seller didn't recognize the photos' value, he probably wouldn't have recognized that they'd have international interest and the items weren't listed with international shipping offered.  As a result, eBay automatically applied the GSP to the listing.

If the GSP didn't exist and you weren't able to to convince the seller to send the items directly to you by mail, how would you have had the items sent to you instead?


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Comments about the Global Shipping Program

I'm not sure how to reply to your question, as the only alternative I can think of beside the GSP is direct shipping with USPS or another courier.  On a few items the higher postal cost doesn't bother me much, although $36 for two small cards seems excessive.  I have to admit that when selling myself, my preference is sometimes to use more expensive and secure postal delivery methods, comparable to the GSP rates.  You're probably right that Canada is too small a market for two Pitney Bowes centres, but it is disconcerting to see the package heading in the wrong direction - a long way in the wrong direction - when the seller is practically just across the border.

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Comments about the Global Shipping Program


@vancouver_antiquarian wrote:

I'm not sure how to reply to your question. . .

 


Let me try reworking it, then.  If you found this listing and everything about it was the same except that the seller didn't offer shipping to Canada, and the seller refused to agree to mailing the photos to Canada even after a very polite request from you, what would you do instead?  Would you have them sent to a post office box in Blaine for you to pick up later?  Would you have the photos sent to a US address so that they could be forwarded to you or held for you?  Or would you give up on trying to purchase them?

 

 

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Comments about the Global Shipping Program

The Global Shipping Program is working great.  Amazon.ca thanks you for your (former) business.   I bought a medical device from the US that isn't even taxable here in Ontario.  This new system required me to pay $35 on TOP of a sales price of 150.00 PLUS shipping.  So let's call this what it is: Globull **bleep**ting Program.  One big leap back into days long gone by where UPS would hold an item for ransom until you paid big $$ for it.  Once had a $100.00 item shipped.  UPS wanted $125 MORE to release it.  I told them to send it back.  I told seller I did not receive item. They refunded my purchase. Don't care where UPS shoved it.  -Dean Dancey

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@cokedeano wrote:

I bought a medical device from the US that isn't even taxable here in Ontario.  This new system required me to pay $35 on TOP of a sales price of 150.00 PLUS shipping.


How do you know that the item didn't require $35 in customs clearance fees?  "Import charges" aren't just tax and duty.

Also consider that the GSP's programming has to go with information provided by the seller and eBay.  If an item is miscategorized or in a category with a lot of taxable items, there isn't going to be a way for the program to pick up on the fact that the item is non-taxable.

 


@cokedeano wrote:

Amazon.ca thanks you for your (former) business.  


I do have to wonder why you purchased the device on eBay if you found the charges so objectionable.

Message 5967 of 6,171
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Comments about the Global Shipping Program

GSP does not work and is environmentally unfriendly. A item on the west coast of the U.S is shipped by USPS to Erlanger KY then on to Mississauga  ON to be shipped by Canada Post , back to Richmond BC  before being delivered to my address in the interior of BC.

Instead of 700 miles the item has traveled 6000. As for time I can receive items from Europe or China quicker;

STOP THE GLOBAL SHIPPING PROGRAM

Message 5968 of 6,171
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Comments about the Global Shipping Program

Agreed!


@hydraulicdragon wrote:

GSP does not work and is environmentally unfriendly. A item on the west coast of the U.S is shipped by USPS to Erlanger KY then on to Mississauga  ON to be shipped by Canada Post , back to Richmond BC  before being delivered to my address in the interior of BC.

Instead of 700 miles the item has traveled 6000. As for time I can receive items from Europe or China quicker;

STOP THE GLOBAL SHIPPING PROGRAM


 

Message 5969 of 6,171
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Comments about the Global Shipping Program


@hydraulicdragon wrote:

GSP does not work and is environmentally unfriendly.


No more environmentally unfriendly than most other shipping methods.


@hydraulicdragon wrote:

A item on the west coast of the U.S is shipped by USPS to Erlanger KY . . .


. . . along with other items with a similar destination.


@hydraulicdragon wrote:


. . . then on to Mississauga  ON . . .



. . . along with other items also destined for Mississauga.


@hydraulicdragon wrote:

to be shipped by Canada Post , back to Richmond BC  before being delivered to my address in the interior of BC . . .


. . .  along with other items destined for Richmond and your town.


@hydraulicdragon wrote:

 

Instead of 700 miles the item has traveled 6000.


And all that time it's been car-pooling with other parcels, not making a solo journey.  How does adding another parcel to those heading the same direction make the journey more environmentally unfriendly?

I get it.  You find the GSP's network of shipping contractees to be slow.  That's how freight and mail consolidation operates.  It's less expensive than shipping by courier or through regular mail channels, but the trade-off is a slower transit time.  My wife recently purchased something through another e-commerce site that took eleven calendar days to travel from Los Angeles to Vancouver Island, and that was shipped through a mail consolidator.  As shipping costs rise, you're likely going to find more instances of this occurring with your mail and packages from the United States and possibly elsewhere.

However, while there's lots of reasons not to like the Global Shipping Program, the environmental arguments don't hold water.

By the way, Canada Post treats its letter mail similarly.  I don't know where you are in the interior, but when my dad in the Okanagan Valley mails his municipal utilities cheque to the office a kilometer and a half away, it goes to Richmond to be sorted and cancelled first before coming back to be delivered.

 

Message 5970 of 6,171
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Comments about the Global Shipping Program

Why do you always defend the GSP but at the same time criticize it, I do not get it. 

I think you just moreso defend ebay, the dying giant. 

If FedEx or USPS ships an item from CA up the west coast to BC, how is that just as environmentally harmful as shipping it to US east then straight up and back across from east to west again?

Does it end up getting tossed in with others items heading that way?

Sure, is it necessary?

No.

Does it cause delays if the shipment is not large enough?

Yes as they will delay it until the container is full. 

Are there shipments heading directly north right up the west coast?

Yep.

Is it more time efficient?

Sure is.

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@bobenis wrote:

Why do you always defend the GSP but at the same time criticize it, I do not get it. 

I think you just moreso defend ebay, the dying giant. 


Explaining the causes of the First World War is not a defence of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.  Explaining how the GSP works is not a defence of the program.

 


@bobenis wrote:

 


If FedEx or USPS ships an item from CA up the west coast to BC, how is that just as environmentally harmful as shipping it to US east then straight up and back across from east to west again?

Does it end up getting tossed in with others items heading that way?

Sure, is it necessary?

No.

Does it cause delays if the shipment is not large enough?

Yes as they will delay it until the container is full. 

Are there shipments heading directly north right up the west coast?

Yep.

Is it more time efficient?

Sure is.


I'm confused by your progression of questions.  You seem to be saying that shipping directly from California to BC is not necessary.

Assuming that's not what you meant, you appear not to have taken on board how I pointed out that consolidated shipping isn't as timely as direct shipping and seem to repeating that same point.

Just out of curiosity, what led you to believe that the Global Shipping Program was some sort of super-expedited shipping method, rather than a glorified forwarding service?

Message 5972 of 6,171
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No, I am saying shipping from CA to BC is far more efficient than shipping it to KY to ONT to BC.

Where in my previous post did I suggest that the GSP was a "super-expedited shipping method"?

 


marnotom! wrote:




Just out of curiosity, what led you to believe that the Global Shipping Program was some sort of super-expedited shipping method, rather than a glorified forwarding service?


Message 5973 of 6,171
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Comments about the Global Shipping Program


@bobenis wrote:

No, I am saying shipping from CA to BC is far more efficient than shipping it to KY to ONT to BC.

Where in my previous post did I suggest that the GSP was a "super-expedited shipping method"?

 


 

Why does it have to be the previous post?

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Buyer-Central/Comments-about-the-Global-Shipping-Program/m-p/369420#M336...

I'm just wondering why or how people seem to have unrealistic expectations about the GSP's shipping speed, particularly when delivery time estimates are right on the listing page and the GSP's terms and conditions state that Pitney Bowes' role is that of a forwarder.

Message 5974 of 6,171
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OK, and what am I looking at in my pages past posts that you took your time to skim through to prove a point?
You clearly have no hobbies as you are always the one to swoop in on every post here to give your two cents and defend. 
Are you a paid shill or?
Those posts you quoted me on were regarding 6 in a row items I bought that were handed off to USPS and sat in customs for 10 days. 
You know, the ones where you few decided to claim I was full of it and asked for tracking numbers etc because if it didn't happen to you there is no way it could happen to anyone else. 
The photos I posted and the pasted tracking info clearly proved you wrong but then hey, it because "oh it must be some new guy who doesn't know the ropes making a mistake".
Yeah, 6 times in a row. 

But by all means, keep it up if you think it build good ebay karma.  Smiley Wink




@marnotom! wrote:

@bobenis wrote:

No, I am saying shipping from CA to BC is far more efficient than shipping it to KY to ONT to BC.

Where in my previous post did I suggest that the GSP was a "super-expedited shipping method"?

 


 

Why does it have to be the previous post?

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Buyer-Central/Comments-about-the-Global-Shipping-Program/m-p/369420#M336...

I'm just wondering why or how people seem to have unrealistic expectations about the GSP's shipping speed, particularly when delivery time estimates are right on the listing page and the GSP's terms and conditions state that Pitney Bowes' role is that of a forwarder.



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Comments about the Global Shipping Program


@bobenis wrote:
OK, and what am I looking at in my pages past posts that you took your time to skim through to prove a point?

 


Your post is one of concern about the shipping time of your item and you make reference to the fact you paid for "Priority International Shipping".  In the context of what you posted, it sounds as though you expected your shipment to travel faster than it did by some generic "priority" shipping process, and I'm just wondering why you felt that a generically-named shipping process would be faster than what you got.

As there seem to be quite a few posts from people who have unmet expectations of the GSP's shipping speed, I'm just hoping to get a bit of insight on how those expectations develop as they don't seem to be based on the listing page's delivery time estimates or the program's terms and conditions to which they agreed.

 

By the way, your post was pretty easily found with a Google search.

Message 5976 of 6,171
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Comments about the Global Shipping Program

OK, so we are going back to this again?
Tell me what you think "International Priority Shipping to Canada" vs "International Standard Shipping to Canada" means to you?
Also please enlighten me what a "generic priority shipping process" is.
Key word here is priority.
Use those Google skills to do a "generic" search for "standard vs priority shipping" just to get an idea what the two mean and their differences. 
Regardless of how fast it is, and any of us who have used the GSP will know, it states "International Priority Shipping to Canada" and thus should be handled as such but it is not. 
Now that I have once again explained myself about the difference of Priority vs Standard shipping what I cannot seem to understand is WHY you brought up my post from page 291 (we are on 299) regarding the stated type of shipping when my last 2 posts have nothing to do with the speed of the claimed "International Priority Shipping to Canada"?
I was clearly stating shipping from California up the west coast to BC is far more efficient and also quicker due to proximity vs shipping to the near east coast of the US then up to Ontario and back over to the west again. 
It was easy to understand so I think you are having issues with reading what I am typing, hence your "confusion". 


@marnotom! wrote:


Just out of curiosity, what led you to believe that the Global Shipping Program was some sort of super-expedited shipping method, rather than a glorified forwarding service?




I didn't say it was nor was that my point in my previous post. 
No idea what you are talking about here. 





@marnotom! wrote:

@bobenis wrote:
OK, and what am I looking at in my pages past posts that you took your time to skim through to prove a point?

 


Your post is one of concern about the shipping time of your item and you make reference to the fact you paid for "Priority International Shipping".  In the context of what you posted, it sounds as though you expected your shipment to travel faster than it did by some generic "priority" shipping process, and I'm just wondering why you felt that a generically-named shipping process would be faster than what you got.

As there seem to be quite a few posts from people who have unmet expectations of the GSP's shipping speed, I'm just hoping to get a bit of insight on how those expectations develop as they don't seem to be based on the listing page's delivery time estimates or the program's terms and conditions to which they agreed.

 

By the way, your post was pretty easily found with a Google search.


Message 5977 of 6,171
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Comments about the Global Shipping Program


@bobenis wrote:
OK, so we are going back to this again?
Tell me what you think "International Priority Shipping to Canada" vs "International Standard Shipping to Canada" means to you?
Also please enlighten me what a "generic priority shipping process" is.
Key word here is priority.

Yup, you'd better believe the key word is "priority".  All items forwarded through the Global Shipping Program have the shipping method described as "International Priority Shipping" which is Pitney Bowes' or eBay's generic term for the network of freight forwarders, logistics companies and local shippers that make up the GSP.  It's not a description of a specific shipping service such as FedEx or USPS.  Since there is no such thing as "International standard shipping" for items forwarded through the GSP, the term "priority" is essentially meaningless as there are no GSP shipments that take priority over any others.

USPS is guilty of this as well.  Contrary to what some believe, "Priority international" packages have no priority over other internationally mailed items.  It's just the term USPS decided to apply to its international parcel service as it's handled similarly to its domestic "Priority" parcel service.  Except for the Priority International small flat-rate boxes, which are handled as oversize letter mail, making them in effect First Class International items with a fancy, expensive box.

 


@bobenis wrote:

 

Now that I have once again explained myself about the difference of Priority vs Standard shipping. . .

 


 

Actually, you haven't and you haven't answered my question, either.  If you know what the definition of "priority" is, how were you led to believe that the GSP would forward your items in a faster manner than it actually did?

 


@bobenis wrote:
I was clearly stating shipping from California up the west coast to BC is far more efficient and also quicker due to proximity vs shipping to the near east coast of the US then up to Ontario and back over to the west again. 

I'd re-read what you posted.  It's not as clear as you may believe.  In any event, the eleven calendar days that it took my wife's item to reach central Vancouver Island from Los Angeles suggests that proximity doesn't necessarily make for efficient, quick shipping.

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Actually First Class and Priority are quite different in speed when coming to Canada. 
Canada Post now takes both Priority and 1st class as Xpresspost (thanks to the Priority label on the corner of First Class items) so the speed once released from customs is generally the same, 2 days. 

However the speed at which it makes it to the border within the US is much quicker. 

Message 5979 of 6,171
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Comments about the Global Shipping Program


@bobenis wrote:


Actually First Class and Priority are quite different in speed when coming to Canada. 
Canada Post now takes both Priority and 1st class as Xpresspost (thanks to the Priority label on the corner of First Class items) so the speed once released from customs is generally the same, 2 days. 

However the speed at which it makes it to the border within the US is much quicker. 


Small goof on my end.  What I meant to say was "Priority International gets no priority over any other class of international parcel post."  (Unless there's a slower and less expensive class of parcel post available to businesses that I don't know about.)  First Class International is an oversize letter classification.

In any event, seeing as I've received First Class International packets in four or five businesses days and I've had Priority International parcels take three times that long, it seems apparent that CBSA hasn't been directed to give priority to parcels over oversize letters, unlike EMS items. 

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