@chupa_chips wrote:
Before this program I could buy something and have it sent USPS and get it in a week or so for less money and less hassle. My good have now sat for 14 days after clearing customs and not moved.
The GSP hasn't taken away US sellers' choice to use USPS if they so wish. Many US sellers see the program as a convenience and a way to minimize risk when shipping out of the country, however, so they've opted to use it as it's less perceived hassle for them. unaware that it can sometimes be more expensive than the postal system to Canada.
I'm not sure what you mean by "hassle" in your context, however. If you're concerned about the last scan of your item being two weeks ago, keep in mind that scans only show the last location an item is known to be. Your stuff could have moved on to a location where it didn't get scanned or the scan information didn't reach Pitney Bowes, who administers the Global Shipping Program. Since you're still going about your day to day business as usual, I'm not sure how this is a hassle for you. An annoyance, perhaps, but not a hassle.
@chupa_chips wrote:
The product is now further away than where they were purchased from. This program is really a money making scam.
When I mail a letter to my neighbour across the street from me, it first goes to Vancouver to be cancelled and processed before coming back to my small town on Vancouver Island to be delivered. If I fly out of a small airport here on the island to the Okanagan Valley (Kelowna, BC), there are some flights that take me to Calgary first. Your item isn't going on a solo road trip; it's travelling with other items and it's simply a more efficient use of resources to have it travel with other items that may have common destinations along the way. The GSP wasn't built for speed and the estimated delivery times on the listing page generally reflect that. Unfortunately, the GSP also deals with Canadian carriers that are cheapskates and, like many services these days, probably have staffing issues that are leading to delayed shipments.
Yes, the GSP was devised to make money for Pitney Bowes, which diversified from its core business of postage meters a number of years ago by buying a logistics company. I don't see anything in the GSP's marketing that suggests that it's a charitable organization doing what it's doing out of the goodness of Pitney Bowes' corporate heart. My definition of "scam" must be different than yours, though, as there's nothing fraudulent involved in what the GSP does.
@chupa_chips wrote:
The vendor sent it usps to GSP so the exorbitant costs were not because of the seller.
You say the shipping cost for your item was "exorbitant" yet it wasn't expensive enough to make you pass on the item. I also wonder, since you make reference to life before the GSP, if you're aware how much shipping costs have increased since 2013, when the GSP was unleashed on us. Unless it's a Media Mail item, a half-kilo package sent from Minneapolis to the Global Shipping Center will cost at least just shy of nine bucks US, with the most expensive shipping option being almost 38 bucks.
https://postcalc.usps.com/Calculator/MailServices?country=0&ccode=US&oz=55414&omil=False&dz=41025&dm...
A cell phone (about 250 grams) would cost about US$22 and change to send directly to me by First Class Package International. The GSP charges about US$25 right now. Most sellers would likely not want to opt to send a brand new smartphone as a small packet, so you'd probably be looking at more expensive parcel post options.
Most listings I've found where the GSP's shipping is astronomically out of whack are due to something the seller did to throw off the GSP's calculator bot.
I've only bought a few cell phones and a musical instrument that were forwarded by the GSP. I haven't bought anything else because it didn't make sense to use it with the items I was looking at. It is what it is, and I'm not getting my Denver Hayes in a twist about it. A seller using the GSP inappropriately is one I probably wouldn't want to buy from anyway.
BMerTmWU1!~~_7.JPG "lotzofuniquegoodies"){kind=avatar}
