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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.
GSP is not suitable for most transactions by most Canadian buyers.
If you wish to purchase an item from an American seller offering GSP but do not want to use GSP, simply write to the seller and ask if he is willing to relist the item without GSP or exempt Canada from GSP.
Do NOT buy or bid until the listing clearly has been revised to allow a purchase without GSP. It cannot be changed after the fact.
The Global Shipping Program (GSP) is not suitable for most transactions by most Canadian buyers.
American sellers have been advised to use it for items averaging more than $50 value. However, most listings offering GSP are well below $50 making the transaction way too expensive to make sense.
The "import charge" does not go to the seller. It is paid to PayPal and goes to Pitney Bowes who consolidates shipments from American sellers at the Kentucky Distribution Centre and distributes the parcels to several countries around the world. No tax or duty is collected at time of delivery.
Prepayment of taxes is nothing new. Many large American mail order businesses do it (LL Bean being the most popular). However, the GSP offered by eBay is badly flawed when it comes to relatively small value transactions.
PS - By the way, Canadian taxes (GST/HST) apply equally whether the goods purchased are new or used.
"This is not up for debate"
You are correct. The program is not up for debate. eBay is expanding it to more countries and finds it profitable for sellers.
Canadian buyers can scream as long as we want, eBay will not cancel the program.
Best to simply avoid listings by American sellers offering GSP.
What you have experienced is an example of why GSP is not means for low priced items.
I will try to explain but please bear with me.
For items priced over Cdn$ 20.00 (appx US$18.00) you will find two charges in addition to the price of the item:
1 - shipping charge (includes both the shipping from the seller to the distribution centre in KY and the shipping from KY to your door)
2 - "import charge" (includes both taxes (GST/HST/PST and a service charge by Pitney Bowes (about $4/$5) to handle the shipment.
For items prices at less than Cdn$ 20.00 (appx US$18.00) you will find only one charge in addition to the price of the item:
1 - shipping charge (includes both the shipping from the seller to the distribution centre in KY and the shipping from KY to your door AND the Pitney Bowes service charge to handle the shipment (about $4/$5)
So, when you first looked at the item, there was a "import charge". By the time the seller accepted a lower price (below Cdn$ 20) the "import charge went away.
However, as you can see from the example above, the "shipping" charge was automatically increased by the service charged going to Pitney Bowes to handle the shipment. That extra "shipping charge" did not go to the seller. Do not blame him.
Overall, what you have paid as "shipping charge" is LESS than what the original listing wanted when combining both "shipping charge" and "import charge".
As stated so many times in the last two years since the program was implemented, Canadians should NOT use it for low value transactions. It is best to ask of the seller is willing to relist the item to ship directly without using GSP.
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