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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,
Bear in mind that the views expressed here are my own. They may or may not reflect any sort of reality under which Pitney Bowes and eBay are operating. 😄
@carrollnb wrote:
So, from that quote, the elite GSP "team" is looking for a way to enhance the program so the seller can do what they've been doing since eBay started, ship directly to the buyer without duties and taxes up front.
That begs the question(s)
1) what be the point of keeping the GSP then??
Keep in mind that the point of the GSP is to make international shipping as palatable as possible to U.S. sellers as domestic shipping is, even though buyers are footing the bill for the entire exercise. 
Any sort of rejigging of the process for paying "import charges" would still see the sellers shipping to a central warehouse and having someone else initiate the international portion of the item's shipment.
@carrollnb wrote:
2) What kind of deal did the "team" make with PB and how long is eBay in for before the contract is up??
I believe Pitney Bowes already administers eBay's shipping label client, so I suspect the deal to adminster the GSP is an extension of that and the two deals are probably tied into each other. To paraphrase what Cahn, van Heusen and Sinatra said about love and marriage: "You probably can't have one without the other."
@carrollnb wrote:
3) If no duties or taxes will be charged what is the roll of PB then??
Related to my first response, as things stand right now with the GSP terms and conditions, Pitney Bowes' role is largely that of an importing agent. Sellers would still send their items to the Global Shipping Center for processing rather than directly to the buyer.
And don't forget that in cases where items aren't subject to tax and duty charges, the GSP's processing charges of four bucks (give or take) are folded into the item's shipping price. That likely wouldn't change.
@carrollnb wrote:
I can't see why sellers just can't ship to the buyer and let Canada customs figure it out on the other end. There is no reason for sellers to not just ship it to the buyer. On a lot of seller pages there is a disclaimer that the product may be subject to duty and taxes. I've always known this and accepted it. No different then coming back from a trip. You know you have to declare what you have and you know you MAY have to pay duty and taxes.
I can't see why not, either, although you have to remember that some U.S. eBay sellers are of the Joe or Jane Q. Trailer Park variety and probably don't have the same world view as most Canadians. Despite being a nation of immigrants, many U.S. eBayers have never shipped anything out of the country in their lives and see it as impossibly onerous.
As far as the issue of items that "may be subject to duty and taxes," the impression I have from some of the posts on this board is that some Canadian buyers see that message but disregard it after a couple of purchases from the U.S. that don't get taxes/duty assessed and charged on them, figuring that the message doesn't apply to them in any circumstances. But really, that's somewhat immaterial as the GSP was designed more to make shipping outside of the U.S. "easier" for U.S. buyers, not to be a cash-generating scheme for the Canada Revenue Agency.
@carrollnb wrote:
For the number of items I have won over the passed 8 years (at a cost of over $6000.) I have paid duty/taxes on 10 of them according to my records. If a buyer refuses the item because of duty and taxes to **bleep** bad for him. The seller is out of it. Let CC keep the item and dispose of it. It's not the sellers responsibility to do everything for the buyer. The buyer bears responsibility in this also, even more maybe then the seller - they have to pay attention to where the sellers responsibility ends and theirs begins. .
Actually, what should happen with an item sent as an oversize letter (Small Packet / International Letter Post) is that if it's undelivered, it should be returned to the seller. (Items sent as parcels may differ depending on the sender's instructions for undeliverable items.) There have been a few posts on the .com site's International Trading discussion board of alleged reports of buyers refusing to pay taxes, etc. due on a postal import, refusing the items, filing successful claims of non-delivery and getting full refunds. Unfortunately, there's nothing I can see that actually supports these claims, but they do tend to put a chill on the whole notion of direct international shipping.
@carrollnb wrote:
I don't understand why eBay just can't leave things that are working the hell alone. The only answer is they have a deal with PB and get a percentage of what ever eBay's GSP sends PBs way as eBay wouldn't be doing it just to benefit the sellers or buyers (that is premise) if they weren't getting their cut.
So buyers now have to pay for the sellers postage to PB, PB's handling and their postage charges, PBs calculation of CC duties and taxes which, is by any stretch of the imagination, a certainty and if PB charges to much to **bleep** bad for the buyer.
The GSP smells to high heaven.
As far as eBay was concerned, the status quo wasn't working. Sales on the .com site had flatlined and the only growth opportunity was in international sales. Like it or don't, this is an attempt to boost that aspect of the business.
The big problem with the GSP is that it's being largely used for items that are most cost-effective to purchase and ship as oversized letters. It worked quite well for the electronics purchases my wife and I made. I doubt that I'd have been able to purchase my item nearly as cost-effectively by any other means than the GSP. What would likely help mitigate a lot of the issues with the GSP is education.
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