Ebay survey for .ca regarding GSP - looks like Canada may be next

[kotonline]

Just received a message to do a survey for ebay.ca. It seems they are ramping up (or so it appears) to roll out the GSP (global shipping program) in Canada. I can see by the questioning how .com sellers cold have easily been persuaded  to sign up. If/when it rolls out... read the fineprint,

[momcqueen]

Are you speaking of this survey? I took it and didn't think GSP was the goal. You do?

http://announcements.ebay.ca/2016/08/23/7880/

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

This summer, we launched a short survey for our Canadian eBay business sellers—an email was sent earlier this month. Thank you to those who have already participated—your feedback will help us take the pulse of the business outlook of our Canadian seller community.

If you haven’t yet participated, I encourage you to take a few minutes to complete the survey, which can be found here. We want to hear from you!

Your individual answers will remain anonymous, but aggregate results will be reviewed by eBay Canada team members and may be shared externally as well.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to provide us with your thoughts,
Andrea Stairs

[sylviebee]

I was curious so I completed the survey.

I didn't see it as being about the GSP either.

Among other things, it looks like eBay.ca is trying to figure out why Canadians aren't buying from Canadians.

I'd like to know what that's about as well.

[momcqueen]

Is it possible that we each received slightly different surveys than the other? Mine was, as I recalled, about barriers to exportation. My international sales have decreased because I don't offer Small Packets postage any longer. All Tracked for parcels. I care too much about avoiding defects.

Or maybe the questions ahead were determined by the way in which a participant answered previous ones.

[afantiques]

Or maybe the questions ahead were determined by the way in which a participant answered previous ones.

This is a normal practice.

I was also curious so I did the survey and could see no relation to the GSP, and in any case, introduction of the GSP to Canada would make little commercial sense. The only reason it popped up in Britain was that Britain was the hub for all of Europe for the US GSP. Adding a local version was both simple and cheap like adding a new station to an existing railway line.

[sylviebee]

We probably all answered the same questions but the way we experience and remember the survey is subjective.

That is:  We experience the survey coloured by own concerns...........

Much as the OP experienced/remembered the questions as being about the GSP.

[kotonline]

This is the body of the message originally received:

It is possible I have GSP on my mind lol.

Dear kotonline,

Thank you for being a valued eBay seller! We would greatly appreciate your feedback to help us understand how we are doing.

We'd like to invite you to take this short survey and help us learn about your eBay selling experience in order to make eBay a better place for our valued sellers and buyers.

To take the survey, please click the link below, or copy and paste the following address into your browser.

[momcqueen]

Hmm, I cannot compare it against what I would have received because I was not invited to do it via email: my settings prohibit that. I found it as part of Announcements or something. 

In principal, I wouldn't oppose shipping as part of a GSP for Canada BUT I would NEVER allow some rubes at a repacking hub to wreck my careful packaging by squeezing my precious whatever into a too-small-box protected by thin-air alone in order to save a few bucks. I can complete my own Customs forms. 

Maybe ebay could teach US how to collect import fees upfront instead. I see the option to prepare it exists on the CPC website but I have never dared to try and paypal shipping does not allow for it. 

[pierrelebel]

"Maybe ebay could teach US how to collect import fees upfront instead."

Not likely since the bulk of exports from Canada go to the USA where there is no national tax or duty for goods priced under US$800,  So there is simply no need for such program.

[momcqueen]

I'm not sure about you but the USA is not necessarily the main country to which I export. It is UK and/or Germany both of which have Import tax collection systems that are laborious for the purchaser/importer. Much more so than it is for Canadians to import. We simply pay the guy at the doorstep: Brits and Germans do not. If I could offer them pre-paid import fees, my sales to those countries may well accelerate. 

[pierrelebel]

"USA is not necessarily the main country to which I export."

I understand.  My comments refer specifically to the bulk of exports from Canada, not individual sellers who may have a different market.

Unless the volume justifies the costs, eBay will not do it.

[momcqueen]

---

@pierrelebel wrote:

... Unless the volume justifies the costs, eBay will not do it.

---

True. 

[tobyshitzu]

I just did a by invite survey on international shipping, it had nothing to do with the GSP

It was entirely about changing defects/TRS.  They are proposing that international deffects wouldn't effect our Canadian status (the same as americans already have), and foriegn sellers listing here would only have TRS here if they earned it on canadian sales.  A .ca specific TRS program as staff mentioned would eventually come ages ago.  .  The questions essentially were all "would you be willing to offer more countries/items internationally" if it was like that.  Being I have no defects from anywhere since the present system started I answered everything that It wouldn't change anything for me

One of the statements in it, essentially they all said the same thing:

"

• No matter which site an item was ordered from or where the buyer is registered – the transaction will only count towards your performance status in the market the item was shipped to, i.e. if a buyer living in Mexico orders an item from you and asks you to ship it to an US address, this transaction counts for your US performance status only."

 Didn't mention anything that would be negative with the propsoed change, though I wonder if it will means we don't get the discount on all sales anymore unless we have enoguh sales to each country to qualify there

[momcqueen]

Very interesting.

That's not the survey I took. If I had you'd better believe I would have told them that an ebay Canada Top Seller only program would cajole me into offering international Small Packets Airmail again. If I am understanding what you are inferring.