eBay

redatsandy · ‎09-25-2018

Hi,

In Canada, Ebay been a member since 90's.

Global shipping . This system disturbs me and I will not use this system when the listing shows it at the only option.

1) Shipping time Item shipped from seller to global Sept 18th,Global received package Sept.24 (in Kentucky It will be another two weeks on top of t5his before I receive it

2) duty and tax collection, the item was $30US about $40 CDN. Canada post just passes parcels valued at less then $100 strait thru no taxes etc. The seller charges shipping, then global adds another shipping fee more then the original. This is all a racket, never again, ebay better get it together, or they will loose me for good, have spent probably $>40k buying , discusting

femmefan1946 · ‎09-25-2018

1) This is an assumption.

You don't know how long shipping will take until you receive it. Do you have a previous purchase which did take two weeks from KY to you?

FWIW- I've been in mail order for 30+ years and allow 21 days for delivery from anywhere in North America. I'm usually pleasantly surprised.

From shipping on Tuesday, the 18th to delivery to Erlanger KY on Monday the 24th, your purchase was being handled by USPS, not GSP.

2)Canada post just passes parcels valued at less then $100 strait thru no taxes etc.

Mostly true.

CBSA does not usually bother with low value and small shipments because it would cost the taxpayer more than the public servants could collect. They have stated that they pass about 93% of such shipments without assessment.

But.

The law is that any import valued over $20(~$15US) should be assessed for duty (usually negligible) and Sales Taxes (5%-15% of the value of the import including shipping). The shipper is entitled to charge a fee for wrangling the package through customs.

GSP/Pitney Bowes charges ~$5 US for this.

Canada Post charges $9.95

Other couriers charge $25 or more.

The GSP is a Seller Protection program. The reason we are occasionally forced to accept it is that US (and UK) sellers are reluctant to ship internationally, and the program comforts them.

It has few benefits for buyers and Canadians in particular should avoid it.

I've only used it three times myself. Once was my error. I didn't notice the warning and ended up paying $16 to ship a $2 comic book.

Once was when the GSP enabled item was, in spite of the GSP, the cheapest copy on eBay, worldwide.

And the third was a shirt I could not live without. My choice.

If you Search using List View on a laptop or desktop, the warning appears on each GSP enabled listing.

redatsandy · ‎09-25-2018

I have used the The global system in the past numerous times ( ten times plus), it usually takes18-22 days. I am on the left coast of Canada. As an example I ordered a product value $40us shipped on Sept 11 received Sept.19. I am just feed up with this practice that's why I vented.
Yes its being sent by US post but the delayis caused by being processed by global then back to US Post. Are you a Ebay employee?

reallynicestamps · ‎09-25-2018

Yes its being sent by US post but the delayis caused by being processed by global then back to US Post.

Well actually, the second leg from KY to Canada (usually Mississauga) is not by USPS but by Pitney Bowes' own shippers. Canada Post is the usual sub-contractor in Canada, but we have seen reports of CanPar and occasionally FedEx.

Are you a Ebay employee?

This question is a corollary of Godwin's Law.

We've been selling on eBay since 1998. And selling online since 1990.

momcqueen · ‎09-26-2018

“Are you a Ebay employee?”

This is a user-to-user Board. eBay employees generally leave us to our own devices unless we call to them for assistance.

Is the Left Coast of Canada to the east or west?

retroman_studios · ‎09-26-2018

I was reading your reply and I read "eBay employees generally leave us to our own devices unless we call down lighting on them."

Shows me that I should be reading comments at 5 in the morning!

As far as Global Shipping, it's a well known issue. A few of us have used it, myself included. I've had every imaginable detour and interruption that's possible. At this point, since I collect watches and old watchmaking tools, Canada isn't the most productive in terms of supplies as our population is rather small compared to our US Neighbors. "Strength in numbers" doesn't just apply to herd mentality, it also means a good base for economic growth.

But alas some of our Red White & Blue neighbors are a bit shy outside of the neighborhood, so eBay has offered its services for a profit. As long as you know this, shop around and know what to do when things go wrong, you shouldn't have too much of an issue.

Life's too short to get wrapped up in small issues like this.

Smile! It only takes 17 muscles to smile but like 27 to frown. 🙂

redatsandy · ‎09-26-2018

Surely you jest, left coast equals the west coast. I thought this was a standard joke in all N America. i have even heard Bill Maher use the term. A common term in Western Canada.

Pardon my presumption.

pjcdn2005 · ‎09-26-2018

Maybe it's common in BC but I've never heard the 'left coast' term in Alberta, But since BC is in on the left side of a map, I knew what you meant.

momcqueen · ‎09-26-2018

I go well out of my way to avoid hearing anything said by Bill Maher but thank you for the clarification. As a Manitoban living on the Longitudinal Centre of Canada, I consider myself central but according to our friends in Ottawa, Manitobans are western. However, my closest coast is probably the Arctic and the only one with which I can really identify.

Drummond: your interpretation of my words at 5 am made me laugh out loud (for real) yet I don’t doubt that’s how it sometimes seems to the eBay employees being tagged at the time.

marnotom! · ‎09-26-2018

@redatsandy wrote:

Hi,
In Canada, Ebay been a member since 90's.

I've been a Canadian eBay member since the late 1990s as well. Most of us posting here are Canadians, as these are the eBay Canada community boards.

@redatsandy wrote:

Global shipping . This system disturbs me and I will not use this system when the listing shows it at the only option.

This is interesting. I've never run into any listings where there's more shipping options to Canada in addition to the Global Shipping Program. Do you have a link to an example of one?

@redatsandy wrote:

1) Shipping time Item shipped from seller to global Sept 18th,Global received package Sept.24 (in Kentucky It will be another two weeks on top of t5his before I receive it

I know someone has asked you about this already, but how do you know about this two week wait? Are you going by the delivery estimate on the listing page or in your confirmation emails? I can never figure out why people buy items handled by the GSP if they don't like the delivery time estimate on the listing page.

Consider that the Global Shipping Program is really just a forwarding service used by sellers unwilling or unable to ship directly to international destinations. Of course it's going to take a bit longer. But considering that Erlanger, KY is less than twelve hours from Mississauga, where most GSP items destined for Canadian destinations are shipped, most of a GSP item's transit time is in the hands of the seller. Once in Mississauga, items usually go out by Canada Post's Expedited Parcel service which doesn't take weeks to get to most points in Canada.

@redatsandy wrote:

2) duty and tax collection, the item was $30US about $40 CDN. Canada post just passes parcels valued at less then $100 strait thru no taxes etc. The seller charges shipping, then global adds another shipping fee more then the original. This is all a racket, never again, ebay better get it together, or they will loose me for good, have spent probably $>40k buying , discusting

Canada Post doesn't process items through customs. That's the job of the Canada Border Services Agency. And as already pointed out, the official tax/duty-free threshold for items sent by mail or courier is C$20. When my wife and I started out on eBay in the 1990s, about two-thirds of the items we purchased from outside of Canada were assessed and charged taxes (and occasionally duty), and those items were less than C$100 in value. One time, an antique pocket watch she bought for me for a song was reassessed by CBSA and taxes were charged on the new, higher declared value the agent inspecting it came up with.

I'm a bit surprised that, as a longtime eBay member, you're not more familiar with how CBSA treats casual imports. I guess you got lucky more easily than my wife and I in the '90s.

I guess the way I see it, I'm paying duty (indirectly) and taxes on 100% of my purchases from Canadian brick and mortar retailers. If I get away with not paying them it's a bonus, not something to which I'm entitled.

@redatsandy wrote:

The seller charges shipping, then global adds another shipping fee more then the original. This is all a racket, never again, ebay better get it together, or they will loose me for good, have spent probably $>40k buying , discusting

The seller's shipping charge is the domestic shipping charge for getting the item to Kentucky. The GSP's shipping charge is an estimate of the charge for getting the item to Mississauga (probably not huge as it's travelling as freight) and what it costs for getting the item from Mississauga to its destination as an Expedited Parcel. As it's an estimate, there's going to be a "pad" to cover goof-ups, variances, etc. In addition, most sellers don't provide the GSP bot with information on their items' packaged weight and size, so a guess or category average has to be applied, which is why the charge is an estimate.

If a seller offers "free" shipping within the United States and sells an item where the GSP bot can calculate a realistic shipping charge, the shipping can work out to be a pretty good deal if you're willing to wait for your item a little longer than if it were shipped by some overkill ultra-tracked express shipping method. I've purchased three cell phones that were forwarded by the GSP and their shipping charges were less than US$13. Much cheaper than what competitors were charging for direct shipments and there was also the reassurance that my customs charges were already dealt with instead of being dealt with later with processing fees much higher than the GSP's.

Having said that, I haven't purchased anything else forwarded by the GSP because it hasn't made sense to do so, just like I wouldn't purchase a five dollar collectible postcard shipped by a Canadian seller by Xpresspost. No shipping method is perfect for everything.

cflfan · ‎09-30-2018

Will not use this program Global Shipping , rips people off with shipping charges and duty

Sometimes sellers quote up to 23 dollars to ship a football card with this program,

Its a joke, used by American sellers who are to paranoid to use normal international shipping

redatsandy · ‎09-30-2018

Sorry I've been away for several days, OK bad joke, We had a business in Alberta, this is a common term, particularly among truckers. I heard my mothers neighbor use this term in sleepy town Dauphin Manitoba, . The term is more a play on words, the west coast is always quite left leaning, this extends by the way straight down to California.

Thus the left coast

PS my neighbor knows of this expression and uses it frequently, he attributes the phenomenon

of left leaning west coast to low altitude and salt air that has a detrimental affect on the brain.

nough said

marnotom! · ‎10-01-2018

@cflfan wrote:

Will not use this program Global Shipping , rips people off with shipping charges and duty
Sometimes sellers quote up to 23 dollars to ship a football card with this program,
Its a joke, used by American sellers who are to paranoid to use normal international shipping

If sellers don't provide information on their item's shipping size and weight, how do you think the GSP is able to calculate its share of the shipping charges?

kepar_8956 · ‎10-01-2018

Given the duty limit was increased to $150, the program shouldn't be used on purchases under the limit.

esclyons · ‎10-01-2018

But you will never get the american's to change their ways, most of them using the gsp don't even realize they are in the program.. So as a Canadian buying from the USA you will need to send them an email and ask if they would be willing to ship the item, first class mail , with confirmation..

and don't expect the new 150$ exemption to come into effect for several months...

ypdc_dennis · ‎10-01-2018

@kepar_8956 wrote:
Given the duty limit was increased to $150, the program shouldn't be used on purchases under the limit.

Fail to see your logic.

If the item is under $150 then GSP should be charging $0 for duty when the new rules go into effect (just like it currently does for items under $20cdn).

But no duty does not mean no sales tax under the new rules. Taxes are to be collected on any amount over $40 (up from $20).

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/de-minimis-duty-free-1.4845458

redatsandy · ‎10-02-2018

A report on CBC today stated the $150 duty free but that sales tax would now be applied to amounts over $40 ( previously was $20)

marnotom! · ‎10-02-2018

@redatsandy wrote:

A report on CBC today stated the $150 duty free but that sales tax would now be applied to amounts over $40 ( previously was $20)

Under the proposed USMCA it's still $20 for items sent by mail, apparently, although I suspect Canada Border Services will be doing business as usual (i.e. random/roulette style assessment and charges) unless staffing levels increase.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/canada-usmca-1.4845494

reallynicestamps · ‎10-03-2018

you will need to send them an email and ask if they would be willing to ship the item, first class mail , with confirmation..

And be prepared for a panicked response, because .... xenophobia.

And again, many don't know they are enrolled.

reallynicestamps · ‎10-03-2018

Under the proposed USMCA it's still $20 for items sent by mail, apparently,

Ummmmm.

Mail as opposed to courier? Or should we be saying "shipped" not carried.

Because the cross border shopper gets a higher de minimus already, with some time constraints.

The GSP is courier based (Pitney Bowes). Either all the reporting I've read or the CBC reporter is wrong.

In any case-- CBSA was in the habit of ignoring low value postal shipments entirely.

Whatever the de minimus ($20 or $150) sales tax was still due and collected on courier shipments. Postal shipments got ignored.

The difference seems to be that whether duty is due or not, CBSA will soon be collecting sales taxes on imports valued over $40.

Note that sales tax always has been due (over the de minimus) even on items that were duty free, whatever the value. And that NAFTA only affects items MADE in the USA (or Mexico) not items purchased in the USA.