Questions about the Global Shipping Program

Do you have questions about the Global Shipping Program? Please post here & I'll do my best to track those answers down for you!

 

If you have any comments about the program, use this forum instead.

 

Thanks,

~Kalvin
eBay.ca Community Manager

kalvin@ebay.com

Message 5 of 3,104
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Questions about the Global Shipping Program

 

Do the import fees for Canadian buyers ensure at 100% that we will NOT pay other fees upon item delivery?

 

I am asking this question, on account of seeing this post that was left unanswered:

 

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Buying-on-eBay/Why-do-I-pay-a-fee-to-apparently-avoid-import-charges-and...

Message 1 of 3,104
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Questions about the Global Shipping Program

Unfortunately, no.

 

"Import fees" are only charged if the seller is using the Global Shipping Program on eBay.com.If you read the fine print in the Buyer's User Agreement for GSP, there is this under paragraph 3:

 

i. Exclusions. You alone are responsible for any customs duties, taxes, surcharges, fines, penalties, or other charges which may be imposed on you by customs or tax officials after a GSP Item has successfully cleared customs and been delivered to (or made available for pickup at) the delivery address specified by you.

 

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

 

My interpretation of that, is that if there are any additional charges, the buyer is responsible for paying them, even though you were not informed about them in advance.

 

Personally, I would not use the GSP, for this and other reasons. Your only alternative is not to purchase items that show Import Fees on the shipping and handling tab. Unfortunately, this is not a very good solution.

 

Message 2 of 3,104
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Questions about the Global Shipping Program

Thank you for your answer, I would rather pay import fees only once and when the item arrives than to pay via GSP and not even have a guarantee that I will not be charged import fees once the item arrives. IMO the GSP, as a third party, brings more harm than good for both sellers and buyers as it is, more than anything, another heavy formal bureaucratic process that complicates things.
Message 3 of 3,104
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Questions about the Global Shipping Program

From my own personal negative experience with buying from a seller using Global Shipping Program, is that GSP could be intentionally misrepresenting their program by saying that the added import fees is for taxes, duties, and fees. As far as I can tell, they are shipping costs for the seller to ship to one of Pitney Bowes`s centres. The PB`s Global Shipping Program then mails the package to the customer. In my own personal case, the buyer had no idea that I was an international customer. They were only given an address in Kentucky.  This means that the buyer ends up paying twice for shipping. The fee has nothing to do with importing taxes and duties.


To know that this is the kind of business that eBay promotes sends up a huge red flag.

Message 4 of 3,104
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Questions about the Global Shipping Program

You want questions?

 

I got a few more!

 

How many calls do you receive monthly at your Customer Service centres from Canadian and overseas buyers having questions, complaints or concerns about GSP?

 

How many calls do you receive monthly at your Customer Service centres from American sellers having questions, complaints or concerns about GSP?

 

How much does it cost eBay to handle those calls?

 

Based on your analysis of those calls, what percentage of Canadian buyers favour the program?  percentage of overseas buyers? percentage of American sellers?

 

Would it not make sense to minimize your call centre expenses by reducing those calls through better disclosure of the various costs (shipping, duty, taxes, fees) to buyers on the listing page?

Message 6 of 3,104
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Questions about the Global Shipping Program

Are there plans to implement and offer the GSP or equivalent on eBay.ca Canada?

Message 7 of 3,104
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Questions about the Global Shipping Program

Pitney Bowes Global Ecommerce Customer Service:

Phone 866.235.9627  Fax: 973.368.6301

 

Pbisgspcs@pb.com email

 

Message 8 of 3,104
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Questions about the Global Shipping Program

"Pb electronically sent a shipping label to Canada post on the 21st."

 

This may be a longshot but try entering that tracking number into the USPS website.  www.usps.com

Message 9 of 3,104
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Questions about the Global Shipping Program

  • When you pay for the item through PayPal, you are authorizing 2 payment transactions. The first payment goes to the seller and consists of the item cost and the domestic shipping costs. The second payment goes to the global shipping provider and consists of the international shipping costs and any import charges.

The above quote is from the Global Shipping Help file. My question is:

If I were to make a purchase from someone using the GSP (and I won't but...) and I go to the shipping page to calculate my cost. Where do I put that the item is going to be shipped to? IF the first payment goes to the seller and consists of the item cost and the DOMESTIC shipping cost - then to find out the Domestic shipping cost do I enter the location of the Pitney Bowes Shipping depot????
How do I know what Pitney Bowes (or the Global Shipping Provider) is going to charge me for shipping? I absolutely need to know that before I make any purchases. From what I understand, I will find this all out during checkout. That's a little bit late for me. Same thing with duties and taxes. I need to know what they are going to charge BEFORE i get to the checkout. When parcels go through normal channels USPS/CP I know how much tax I might have to pay and I know how much the duty charge will be. I would never purchase anything without knowing these costs up front.

 

Sorry there are more comments than questions.

 

Message 10 of 3,104
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Questions about the Global Shipping Program


@around_again_records wrote:
  • When you pay for the item through PayPal, you are authorizing 2 payment transactions. The first payment goes to the seller and consists of the item cost and the domestic shipping costs. The second payment goes to the global shipping provider and consists of the international shipping costs and any import charges.

The above quote is from the Global Shipping Help file. My question is:

 

If I were to make a purchase from someone using the GSP (and I won't but...) and I go to the shipping page to calculate my cost. Where do I put that the item is going to be shipped to? IF the first payment goes to the seller and consists of the item cost and the DOMESTIC shipping cost - then to find out the Domestic shipping cost do I enter the location of the Pitney Bowes Shipping depot????


How do I know what Pitney Bowes (or the Global Shipping Provider) is going to charge me for shipping? I absolutely need to know that before I make any purchases. From what I understand, I will find this all out during checkout. That's a little bit late for me. Same thing with duties and taxes. I need to know what they are going to charge BEFORE i get to the checkout. When parcels go through normal channels USPS/CP I know how much tax I might have to pay and I know how much the duty charge will be. I would never purchase anything without knowing these costs up front.

 


Hi, Round-again.  Hope you and Kalvin don't mind my leaping in here.  I went through a test listing from a seller using the GSP some time ago, so I may have a bit of insight for you.

 

GSP listings have shipping charges and estimated import charges right on them.  Usually, those "estimated" charges are pretty accurate, but I think they have to be considered "estimated" for auction listings where the taxes due on the item are going to go up as the bid price rises.

 

In the case of my test listing, the shipping charge and import charges were just as were mentioned on the listing page and it was a simple matter of going through checkout, agreeing to the terms and conditions of the Global Shipping Program, and almost making my payment.

 

The wrinkle is that since everything but the kitchen sink is thrown into the import charges and they're not itemized, you can't be 100% sure how much is going to taxes, how much to duty (which often isn't applicable anyway), and how much to the Global Shipping Program as an administrative fee.  However, you can calculate the taxes yourself using the tax rate(s) applicable to your province if you need to get an idea of how much is going to whom.

 

This likely isn't a perfect solution for you if you're trying to claim back any taxes (and duties, if applicable) paid on the item, but it's probably the best we can do right now with how the GSP is set up.

Message 11 of 3,104
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Questions about the Global Shipping Program

Well, that's all fine and good, but the agreement is written in such a way that they do not have to show the cost.

 

It's wonderful if it is shown, but if I see $0 under estimated duty/import charges, then I want that to end up being zero, and I want some kind of guarantee up front. I really hate surprises.

 

I suppose this is not the place to argue though. Sorry Kevin if that's not what you want in this thread, please just remove my reply

 

 

Message 12 of 3,104
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Questions about the Global Shipping Program


@crystaluhlman wrote:

Pitney Bowes Global Ecommerce Customer Service:

Phone 866.235.9627  Fax: 973.368.6301

 

Pbisgspcs@pb.com email

 


Thank you, that might come in handy.

Message 13 of 3,104
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Questions about the Global Shipping Program

I am experiencing the same problem with this global shipping, I purchased an item on Sept 2nd,  it does show seller  shipped it and it went to a few locations and the last update provided was that it was still in Pennsylvania on the 10th, here it is now the 26th and still has not arrived,  this global shipping appears to be nothing but  a hassle in my opinion.

Message 14 of 3,104
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Questions about the Global Shipping Program


@around_again_records wrote:

Well, that's all fine and good, but the agreement is written in such a way that they do not have to show the cost.

 

It's wonderful if it is shown, but if I see $0 under estimated duty/import charges, then I want that to end up being zero, and I want some kind of guarantee up front. I really hate surprises.

 

I suppose this is not the place to argue though. Sorry Kevin if that's not what you want in this thread, please just remove my reply

 

 


I don't think we're arguing, but maybe I'm misreading your post.  🙂

 

If you want no import charges on your items, be sure that you're buying items that will be valued at under C$20, unless they're books which aren't subject to the C$20 tax and duty-free limit.

 

Bear in mind, though, that you're still paying processing fees for your items, usually around four bucks.  For sub-twenty dollar items, those processing fees are moved from the import charges to the shipping fee.

 

If you're concerned about whether the "estimated" import charges on a listing page are going to skyrocket after you hit the "buy" button, bear in mind that you can likely still bail out before you have to pay.  Kalvin goes into some detail on that in the other thread.

 

Having said all that, I don't understand your point about the GSP terms and conditions stating that "they don't have to show the cost."  Who is "they" and what "cost" do you mean?  Can you quote the part of the T&C to which you're referring?

Message 15 of 3,104
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Questions about the Global Shipping Program

Having said all that, I don't understand your point about the GSP terms and conditions stating that "they don't have to show the cost."  Who is "they" and what "cost" do you mean?  Can you quote the part of the T&C to which you're referring?

 

If you look at my last post in the other thread that Kalvin started - Comments about the Global Shipping Program - I have a quote there about not being able to see the total cost. There are more areas in the help files that state basically the same thing - you won't know the cost until checkout. I have to get some sleep right now, but I'll check them out tomorrow

 

Oh By the way, I guess arguing was a poor choice of words. Smiley Happy

Message 16 of 3,104
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Questions about the Global Shipping Program

Unless Pitney Bowes has taken over Ebay , then Ebay is responsible for this site ! Nobody can tell me that Ebay doesn't pocket "a few pennies" from this arrangement . As for having fun blaming Ebay . it simply isn't the case . I'm not having fun at all ! I just don't like cheaters and scammers . Spin it any way you like , this is a scam !

Message 17 of 3,104
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Questions about the Global Shipping Program

 


around_again_records wrote in the other thread:

Note: The Request total from the seller link is not available for Global Shipping Program purchases. You will see the total, including shipping, after you've purchased the item.

 

Above is quoted from Global Shipping Program Help files.

My only comment is hmmmmmm wish I could get away with that.



I don't read it that way, exactly.

 

You simply can't use the "Request total from seller" function on a GSP sale to get a total and invoice from the seller because the seller doesn't generate a GSP invoice.  You can still work out the total yourself prior to purchasing the item by adding up the item price, shipping price and import charge, however.  Those will be on the listing page.

 

Bear in mind that another quirk with the GSP is that shipping can't be combined on GSP items.  Is that what you're asking about?

Message 18 of 3,104
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Questions about the Global Shipping Program

Hi everyone,

 

Thanks for your responses so far, lively conversations happening here.

 

The intent of this thread is to compile a list of questions that we can easily extract so we can forward them to our GSP friends in the US. For running conversations, I'd appreciate it if you can have them off this one to stay true to its purpose.

~Kalvin
eBay.ca Community Manager

kalvin@ebay.com

Message 19 of 3,104
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Questions about the Global Shipping Program

My question : Is it possible for USA sellers to have two options for shipping to Canada one #1=USPS, and #2=  using GSP ? so buyers like myself can EASILY choose which on of the two option we would like  .

My other question is if these options were given what is the likely persentage of buyers choosing GSP?

Thank you.

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