Global shipping program. All it does is add a fee for buyers and at least FIVE DAYS longer shipping

[shallow_karl]

I got confirmation that a package was delivered July 7th to Kentucky.  Since then, NO conformation of it having been shipped from there.  Why does it take so long just to re-route something already PACKED???

[marnotom!]

Your screenshot says the item arrived at the Global Shipping Center on the 8th, just before the weekend, and I don’t think anything leaves there on weekends.  Or perhaps stuff does leave there on weekends but the tracking database doesn't get updated until Monday.

The Global Shipping Program is essentially a glorified forwarding service. I don’t know of any forwarding service that performs its services free of charge or has some sort of inherent delay in shipping time. The GSP deals with about 100 different countries and does more than just redirect packages, after all.

You’re free to choose your own forwarding service, of course. Just keep in mind that you won’t have the full complement of buyer protections available to you should something happen to your item if you go that route.

[femmefan1946]

The GSP is a Seller Protection service.

It does save the buyer some inconvenience by charging import fees up front so the buyer does not have to pay those on his doorstep before getting his purchase.

And the service fee of ~$5 is lower even than Canada Post's fee of $9.95 for the same customs brokerage.

But mostly it protects the seller against false claims of slow or no delivery. The seller's responsibility for delivery and for damage in transit ends at the GSP plant in Kentucky. It also protects the seller against a common customs scam and many Not As Described claims.

But any effect on the buyer is a side effect of the Seller Protections.

[shallow_karl]

Plus, it's ridiculous to take a package that originates in New York, set to go to Toronto (500 miles away) and redirect it 1000 miles in another direction then 1000 miles back.  FOUR times the distance, the waste in time and fuel.

[ypdc_dennis]

Based on my brother's experience with the USA GSP (which I don't use), if you have your emails turned on, your next update will be that it cleared customs, then 4-7 days later an out-for-delivery update.

-;-

[femmefan1946]

Well actually 790 miles from NYC to Chicago and then 520 miles to Toronto.

Or 649 from NYC to Erlanger and then 500 to Toronto.

So actually a little shorter.

But that's the spoke and wheel distribution system for you.

The best picture I've found of this is from Air Canada showing their spoke and hub flight paths.

Try to get from Fort Mac to Saskatoon without going through Vancouver. Or to Halifax without stopping in Calgary, Toronto and Montreal.

Because the shortest distance is not necessarily the most economical nor the most efficient.

[marnotom!]

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@shallow_karl wrote:

Plus, it's ridiculous to take a package that originates in New York, set to go to Toronto (500 miles away) and redirect it 1000 miles in another direction then 1000 miles back.  FOUR times the distance, the waste in time and fuel.

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You're seeing the item as going on a solo road trip when in fact it's going on something more like a bus ride or airplane journey.

As @femmefan1946 points out in her excellent post, sometimes it makes more sense for an item to take a somewhat roundabout shipping route.  It actually saves resources.  A while ago my wife received an item shipped by FedEx from Southeast Asia.  It went to Alaska and Washington State (or possibly even California) before being checked into customs in Vancouver (more likely Richmond) and then heading over to us on Vancouver Island.  Why didn't FedEx just fly it straight to Victoria or Nanaimo?  Probably because the amount of goods destined for the Canadian west coast that FedEx handles in SE Asia simply doesn't warrant a plane dedicated to shipping it there directly.

The Global Shipping Program (not the "Canada Shipping Program") deals with over 100 different countries, and as far as I know, everything the program handles goes through Erlanger, Kentucky first.  There probably isn't enough volume in goods to warrant a special facility or facilities for goods destined for Canada, which would require more buildings built on this earth, infrastructure put in place, and employees commuting to work in ozone layer-depleting vehicles.

[aramatic]

For items less than a couple of hundred dollars there are no import duties. The money GSP adds for this goes straight into Pitney-Bowes' pockets. GSP is a scam that adds to the cost of an item without any benefit to the seller, who actually loses since the final value fee calculation includes the inflated shipping cost. Not to mention the inflated delivery time, as an item bound for Canada is sent from wherever to languish for a few days in Erlanger, KY and then sent up to languish for another couple of days in Mississauga, ON and eventually reaches you in almost twice the time it takes for a USPS package sent directly. I get things quicker from South America than I do from across the border.

[aramatic]

Are you an eBay employee? You always seem to make excuses for them.

[aramatic]

A package shipped with USPS instead of the GSP arrives more quickly time after time. It's pointless dragging out diagrams of shipping routes etc. etc. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. I'm also on Vancouver Island and I've had the same kind of item arrive from Lima, Peru more quickly (and more cheaply) than from Seattle. GSP is a scam.

[marnotom!]

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@aramatic wrote:

For items less than a couple of hundred dollars there are no import duties. The money GSP adds for this goes straight into Pitney-Bowes' pockets. GSP is a scam that adds to the cost of an item without any benefit to the seller, who actually loses since the final value fee calculation includes the inflated shipping cost.

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I think the feds would disagree with you on a lot of this:

https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/services/cusma-aceum/lvs-efv-eng.html

The tax and duty-free limit is officially $20 for items sent by mail from the US and Mexico.  The tax-free limit is $40 and the duty-free limit $150 for items sent by courier from the US and Mexico.

The GSP has been around since 2013.  I think that if there was some sort of "scam" going on it would have been caught by now.  What's likely confusing you is that mailed items often get a "free pass" from Canada Border Services and items that should be charged taxes and duty pass through anyway.

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@aramatic wrote:

Not to mention the inflated delivery time, as an item bound for Canada is sent from wherever to languish for a few days in Erlanger, KY and then sent up to languish for another couple of days in Mississauga, ON and eventually reaches you in almost twice the time it takes for a USPS package sent directly. I get things quicker from South America than I do from across the border.

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Seeing as the GSP is a forwarding service that serves about 100 countries in addition to Canada, I'm not really surprised that there's the odd delay here and there.  I don't buy from eBay for next-day delivery anyway.

[marnotom!]

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@aramatic wrote:

A package shipped with USPS instead of the GSP arrives more quickly time after time. It's pointless dragging out diagrams of shipping routes etc. etc. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. I'm also on Vancouver Island and I've had the same kind of item arrive from Lima, Peru more quickly (and more cheaply) than from Seattle. GSP is a scam.

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Your definition of "scam" seems to differ from mine.  I've never associated the term "scam" with shipping time.

I'm pretty selective about the items I have forwarded through the Global Shipping Program and regarding it as a forwarding service has helped me manage my expectations of the program.  I've purchased several phones where the GSP was used as part of the delivery chain and I've paid less in delivery charges, customs charges and processing charges than I would have if the seller had used other delivery methods.  In addition, I ordered cases for those phones at the same time as I ordered the phones and while those sellers didn't use the GSP for those, in all but one instance the phones still arrived before the cases.

Anybody whose expectations of the GSP are of express delivery has been drinking a weird blend of Kool-Aid that wasn't eBay's or Pitney Bowes' making.  Having said that, there are some buyers in countries other than Canada that actually don't mind the GSP because it bypasses their countries' problematic postal systems or customs offices and they do get their items faster.

No single delivery system is perfect for everything.  If you don't want the GSP to forward your "must have" item, get a US address you can use to have your item sent to and either pick it up yourself when the borders open up or have that person or forwarding service send it up for you.  Just because the GSP is there doesn't mean you have to use it.