Global Shipping from US to Canada is an Environmental Disaster

So here is the scenario, I purchased  phone from a seller in San Jose California. The seller shipped next business day and the phone went to Cincinnati Ohio. Then it was shipped to Erlanger Kentucky where it wallowed for three days with two different internal delays according to tracking documentation provided by EBay.

 

Then it was shipped to Ontario Canada and is (I am assuming on its way to me). I cannot tell as the tracking number EBay GSP provided for the Canadian leg is (as usual) invalid.

 

The phone if shipped via USPS would have gone from San Jose to Los Angeles to clear the USPS export place and arrived in Vancouver BC within 48 hours and been at my place the next day. Total time perhaps five business days with two carriers involved and total distance travelled about 1027 miles according to Google.

 

The actual distance travelled 5,569 miles and more than 10 days and I still will not have the package. Click below to see the route the parcel took to get to me!

 

https://www.google.ca/maps/dir/San+Jose,+CA,+USA/Cincinnati,+OH,+United+States/Erlanger,+KY,+USA/Eto...

 

How on Earth is this more efficient and better for the environment?

 

Besides being slow, expensive and almost impossible to track packages, Global Shipping is BAD for the environment and that means bad for all of us.

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Global Shipping from US to Canada is an Environmental Disaster


@*nightflight* wrote:

The notion that a sellers commitment ends at a single way point is flawed.

 


It's not a "notion" or "flawed".  It's in the terms and conditions of the Global Shipping Program:  The seller's responsibility for safe passage of the item ends once the item is accepted at the Global Shipping Center in Kentucky.  You agree to those terms and conditions when you purchase an item forwarded through the Program and there should be a link or two to them on the listing page.

http://pages.ebay.ca/shipping/globalshipping/buyer-tnc.html


@*nightflight* wrote:

 

I just got my first tasted to GSP as a Canadian today. It blind-sided me because I've not kept up with eBay as a seller or buyer for the last few years... and jumped on something I thought was a bit of a deal. Turns out... its not. Well, I won't make that mistake twice.


Listing pages, at least on .ca, should have all the GSP charges spelt out for you.  They're a bit more buried if you're browsing and buying on the .com site, and may be really challenging to tease out prior to purchase if you're doing it on a smartphone.


@*nightflight* wrote:

 

Unfortunately one of the items I purchase on eBay is pretty much not available anywhere else if I want these rare items, I have to use eBay.  Its unfortunate I have to filter out so many potential items because of GSP.

 


You can make your filtering easier if you view your search results in "list view" rather than gallery view.  Items forwarded through the GSP will have the note "Customs services and international tracking provided" applied.   

But make sure you do your homework.  My experience is that the GSP can work reasonably well in certain circumstances.  My spouse and I have had pretty good experiences with personal electronics.  The shipping price was a lot lower than the alternatives offered by non-GSP sellers and I doubt that most of those alternatives had taxes and import processing charges factored into them, so we'd likely be stung again upon receipt of the item.

I can see it not working so well for collectibles, however.

Message 21 of 36
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Global Shipping from US to Canada is an Environmental Disaster

The notion that a seller's commitment ends at a single way point is flawed.

 

The way the GSP works and the way the GSP user agreement is worded means that the delivery to the hub really is the end point for the seller using GSP. This delivery is not a way point, it is the start of a new delivery by a new shipper who takes responsibility from that point.

 

Did not see the better and earlier reply before posting. 😞

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Global Shipping from US to Canada is an Environmental Disaster

It's not just the Global Shipping program that is inefficient and slow. In the past two months I have had packages sent by FedEx International Priority service and also one run by UPS. Both these services are separate from their normal delivery services and handle the customs forms for their sellers. Both took twice as long to ship the small items to me in Peterborough, Ontario as it did when the sellers handled the mailings themselves.

 

USPS is better than it used to be...sometimes. I had an e bay item shipped to me recently from Long Island that ended up in Miami, Florida. The tracking system stopped  at that point and for over a week I had no idea where my package was. It suddenly appeared in my mailbox even though the "tracking" showed it was in Miami.  But..Long Island to Peterborough via Miami?

 

I don't like having to buy stuff in the US and search the net for Canadian sellers on and off ebay before buying. "Out of Stock" is the most frequent message I get.

 

The most reliable and speediest delivery for me is LLBean. I take an XXL-Tall size in most stuff and it is next to impossible to find this size in Canada..I have been using LL Bean for about 40 years and have never had a single problem.Delivery time is usually 4 days.

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Global Shipping from US to Canada is an Environmental Disaster

I have had packages sent by FedEx International Priority service and also one run by UPS....Both took twice as long to ship

 

Both companies use hub and spoke systems for processing their shipments. This means all packages go to a central hub no matter where they start then are sent out from there.

I sometimes refer to the movie Castaway where the FedEx hub is featured near the beginning.

Airlines use hub and spoke a lot. Which explains Chicago's O'Hare.

And actually so does USPS and Canada Post. (Gateway Mississauga for you).

Here in Victoria, if I send a birthday card upisland to Nanaimo, it first goes by ferry to Vancouver then back to Victoria then by truck up to Nanaimo.

 

It suddenly appeared in my mailbox even though the "tracking" showed it was in Miami.  But..Long Island to Peterborough via Miami?

 Tracking shows the last place the item was recorded. Not where it is.

And those bar codes-- sometimes the clerk has a problem with them (just like in the grocery line) and only part of the barcode is picked up.

 

The most reliable and speediest delivery for me is LLBean.

I'm not sure about this, but I understand that LLBean ships from a Toronto area warehouse.

They have enough Canadian business to make it worthwhile.

 

But basically, tracking is a Seller Protection.

If you are not home when the carrier comes by, you will get a Notice telling you where and when you can pick up.

If the shipment does not arrive by the last estimated date eBay gave you, you can file a Dispute and get a full refund.

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Global Shipping from US to Canada is an Environmental Disaster

I purchased a phone on 10th of Oct, and today is 23rd but I am still waiting. It is worst kind of shipping experience.

Message 25 of 36
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Global Shipping from US to Canada is an Environmental Disaster

If this bogus shipping system continues, this might turn Ebay in bankruptcy, as any sane person for sure will avoid the ebay for the 2nd time.
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Global Shipping from US to Canada is an Environmental Disaster

No matter who the shipper or what the service I allow 20 calendar days for delivery from  North America and 30 from Asia.

This is based on over 30 years in mail order as a seller.

 

EBay also gives you a window of estimated delivery dates.

If the last estimated delivery date has passed you can open an Item Not Received dispute with eBay for 30 days thereafter.

Be sure to state that the shipping was by GSP.

GSP is pretty quick with these refunds, since they are not emotionally involved*. 

If the item arrives after the refund, GSP does not want it back.

 

 

 

*Sellers can be. There was a seller a few days ago getting hysterical over an $8 transaction that would at best have put $1.35 in her pocket.

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Global Shipping from US to Canada is an Environmental Disaster


@haditaqvi2015 wrote:

I purchased a phone on 10th of Oct, and today is 23rd but I am still waiting. It is worst kind of shipping experience.

If this bogus shipping system continues, this might turn Ebay in bankruptcy, as any sane person for sure will avoid the ebay for the 2nd time.


I think it's helpful to think of the GSP as a glorified forwarding service.  The seller sends the item to a forwarding centre in Kentucky which then makes arrangements for its passage into and within Canada.

If the seller chooses a slow shipping method to get the item to Kentucky, that's going to affect the item's overall transit time just as much as anything Pitney Bowes and its agents do (or don't do).

 

As Femmefan has already pointed out, standard transit times for packages and parcels from the United States are generally thought of in terms of weeks, not days.  While the GSP doesn't use the mail to get items into Canada, they generally make it there pretty quickly once they're out of the Kentucky forwarding centre.

It's not that the GSP is necessarily slow.  It's just that thanks to other ecommerce sites, the bar has been raised and now express shipping has become the "new normal" for a lot of people.

I just looked at three listings for Samsung Galaxy S8s that had the Global Shipping Program applied to them, and none of them had minimum shipping times of less than eight business days to my semi-isolated town on Vancouver Island, and the maximums were in the 15-20 business day range.  What sort of delivery time range was stated on the listing for your phone?

As far as the GSP pushing eBay into bankruptcy, I think as Canadians we're flattering ourselves if we think our presence on eBay has that much of an overall impact.  We're just one of about 100 countries served by the GSP.  Our market is smaller than that of the other 99 countries combined and even smaller than countries such as the UK and Germany.  I'll grant you that the GSP is often more expensive for items sent to those other 99 countries, but then, buyers in those countries are also used to paying more to have items sent through the mail to them.




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Global Shipping from US to Canada is an Environmental Disaster

One part of the GSP 'import fees' goes for the receiving nations duty and another goes for sales taxes.

Canadians are charged if we import more than $20Cdn,-- how does that compare with UK or Germany?

I know that the dutyfree allowance for Norway, which is not part of the EU* is similar to Canada's.

And our (up to ) 15% sales taxes is similar to European VAT charges.

 

 

*Looks like it's L390

https://www.gov.uk/duty-free-goods/arrivals-from-outside-the-eu

 

 

Message 29 of 36
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Global Shipping from US to Canada is an Environmental Disaster

The 390 quid limit is for items imported in person along the lines of a weekend car trip from Windsor to Chicago or Richmond to Blaine.

Items imported by mail or courier have a different limit, and VAT is charged on the postage and packing as well as the goods themselves.

https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty




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Global Shipping from US to Canada is an Environmental Disaster

Looks like some folks have had a big gulp of the EBay Koolaid. GSP is not anywhere near efficient.

The GSP program adds an extra layer of infrastructure forcing people to ship thousands of miles the wrong direction in order to get their products to market.

 

Vendors like it because it is “fire and forget”. As an example, a vendor from Seattle WA sells an item to a buyer in Vancouver BC. All the vendor must do is ship an item from Seattle WA to Erlanger KY via USPS. The item then leaves Erlanger and heads off to Ontario and enters the Canada Post system and heads back to its destination on Vancouver Island.

 

People on this thread are rationalizing the process. Shake your heads and look at what we are doing. Instead of sending an item from Seattle WA to Vancouver BC for import processing (a couple of hundred miles). We are sending items thousands of miles the wrong way before we turn them around and send them back across the continent to the buyer.

 

Obviously GSP is inefficient as it takes longer than shipping directly from seller to buyer. Plus, there is an extra entirely unnecessary step (or more) in the supply chain and let’s remember those people need to get paid as well.

 

The Global Shipping Program was eBay playing “Let’s make a deal” to see how much they could make off the process. Why else would eBay have partnered with Pitney Bowes rather than an established logistics organization or courier and using the existing organization’s economy of scale to make the shipping process more efficient and cheaper at the same time? Remember Pitney Bowes expertise is postage meters and software and other than Erlanger KY, Pitney Bowes has no real logistics infrastructure that I can determine.

 

The issue everyone seems to be ignoring, is how the Global Shipping Program pollutes the environment. Shipping via GSP uses more fuel and creates more pollution than shipping via the most direct means. That at the end of the day is the real issue no matter how eBay tries to spin it.

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Global Shipping from US to Canada is an Environmental Disaster


@islandmatlow wrote:

The issue everyone seems to be ignoring, is how the Global Shipping Program pollutes the environment. Shipping via GSP uses more fuel and creates more pollution than shipping via the most direct means. That at the end of the day is the real issue no matter how eBay tries to spin it.


The issue hasn't been ignored.  Heck, it's the subject of this thread.  Scroll back and you'll see it's been dealt with.

Here's another way of looking at it:  The Global Shipping Program isn't any more polluting than any other means of shipping.

I can drive directly to a shopping centre in my town in ten minutes.  If I take the bus, it takes 25 minutes because it takes a less direct route and makes many stops along the way.  Does this mean that taking my car is less polluting because I can get there more efficiently in terms of time and fuel used?

Not necessarily.  The bus is going to be on the roads no matter what.  Using my car adds to fuel used and wear and tear on the road.  If I choose to take the bus, I've taken my car off the road.  If others make a similar choice as me, that's going to take their cars off the road as well.  And, of course, not everyone will be using the bus to get to the shopping centre.  Some may get off along the way, others may get on midway through the bus's journey from my home to the shopping centre.

In a similar manner, the GSP funnels items into a centralized location, ships out ones with a similar destination on the same truck or plane and disperses them to their precise location from there.  

The shipping "highways" are already there, even if it means some items may be going the "wrong way".  Stuff is still going to go from Portland, OR to somewhere in Kentucky.  The GSP just adds to the load going that way, and that may mean that freight trucks are filled and used more efficiently instead of travelling half empty because half that load has gone on a different truck headed for Seattle, instead.

You may have read Femmefan's observation earlier in this thread that letter mail from Vancouver Island has to go to the mainland to be sorted before coming back to be delivered to a destination on the island.  Here's more food for thought:  One option a major airline in this country has for flying from Comox to Kelowna is to take a flight from Comox to Calgary ("passing over" Kelowna in the process) and then fly from Calgary to Kelowna.  Is this environmentally unsound or simply using resources that are already in place?  

No question these sort of practices are inefficient if time is of the essence, but I don't buy the arguments that they have more of a deleterious effect on the environment than any other transportation method.

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Global Shipping from US to Canada is an Environmental Disaster

Ok so if I am reading you correctly it makes sense to fill up trucks that are going the wrong way instead of filling up the trucks that are already in place and going the direction the parcel needs to go.

 

That Koolaid must be tasty.

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Global Shipping from US to Canada is an Environmental Disaster


@islandmatlow wrote:

Ok so if I am reading you correctly it makes sense to fill up trucks that are going the wrong way instead of filling up the trucks that are already in place and going the direction the parcel needs to go.

 


No, you are not reading me correctly.

 

I am not comparing full trucks to full trucks.

 

The freight (not mail) trucks that are in place to ship GSP items to Canada only have one or two destinations in central Canada.  There are reasons why Mississauga is such a huge entry point for imports from the United States.  It's sort of a case of "if you build it, they will come".

If we were to have trucks going "the right way," that would mean adding yet another truck to the fleet.  Trucks consume fossil fuels and fire carbon into the atmosphere.  If "the right way" is British Columbia instead of Ontario, it's likely that the items would be processed in Richmond.  Richmond may not have the same sort of infrastructure Mississauga has to handle GSP shipments, so larger warehouses and dispatch centres would have to be constructed in Richmond.

Warehouses and dispatch centres require employees.  Yay, jobs!  But those employees have to commute, and may only be able to do so by car.

In this scenario of extra transport trucks on the road, warehouses and dispatch centres being built on otherwise decent land, and commuters adding to the GSP's carbon footprint, how is the environment any further ahead if the GSP somehow shipped more directly?  

Don't forget, the GSP is a glorified forwarding service.  That's why stuff gets sent by the seller to Kentucky.  In the old days of eBay, those sellers likely wouldn't have shipped to Canada and for an item you really wanted, you'd have had to have had a US shipping address and a means to collect the item or have it forwarded to you in Canada.

My point isn't that it makes sense to use what's called a "spoke and hub" transportation model for GSP shipments.  My point is that it doesn't appear to be any worse for the environment than what you appear to be accustomed to.

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Global Shipping from US to Canada is an Environmental Disaster

Honestly...

It really bugs me: item has left the seller's place 2018-01-22, and i should espect it by 2018-02-07

just place yourself in the buyer's seat.

it's not a better option for the buyer.

my two cents.

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Global Shipping from US to Canada is an Environmental Disaster

This thread is many years old and the information contained therein may no longer be accurate. 

@happy_pigeon

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