New International shipping rates US to Canada

[tumutumu]

I've been a regular eBay buyer (never a seller) for over 20 years. We lived in the US  for over 15 years, and when we moved to Canada several years ago, I was happy to pay what seemed like reasonable charges to have items from US sellers delivered. As of last fall's  implementation of the new eBay "International Shipping" policy, even small, light  clothing items frequently ship with charges as high as $60 and more. I simply refuse to pay that much to have a $25 item shipped as I suspect much of the profit from these transactions is going into eBay's pocket. I have tried negotiating with individual sellers to arrange lower shipping rates, but I find they often refuse or ignore me. I get that--it's a lot of trouble to change shipping arrangements for just a few items. Does anyone know of a route for appealing this change to eBay? Am I alone in finding this change unreasonable? My only recourse here is to stop supporting eBay sellers, and I really don't want to do that...

[killahwhale]

You can buy a single hockey card for a dollar and it can cost over $20 in shipping. Last time I checked, it only costs $1.55 US for them to send a letter to Canada. Needless to say, I don't buy from US vendors even though lots of them have cards I want.

[marnotom!]

@killahwhale - A hockey card is not a "letter," it's "merchandise." Merchandise can no longer be sent internationally as a letter. (It needs a customs form, for starters.) Canadian sellers are running into this issue as well when shipping to the States and overseas.

[killahwhale]

I realise that a hockey card is not a letter. However, it should not cost 13x what it costs to send a letter. That's just gouging. What I said earlier is not quite accurate. Some US vendors actually do send cards via mail, and the shipping is generally less than $10.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

The challenge as per @killahwhale is to FIND the sellers using reasonable shipping where possible. Not the easiest task but something that has been pushing(Canadian) buyers away.

[pjcdn2005]

If you see a charge of $60 ish for a small item, that might be because the seller did not enter the weight and dimensions for their package which causes Ebay International Shipping to estimate the shipping cost, obviously they are estimating high. Sellers were not required to do that with the gsp so some don't realize that it needs to be done now.  Other than that, the seller does not have any control over the international shipping cost. 

There is a list of shipping cost, I'll post the link at the end of this post in case  you are interested.  The way that it works is the cost on that chart is added to whatever the seller is charging for shipping the package domestically.  If the seller has 'free' shipping, the total international cost will seem lower but in reality, that means that at least some of the shipping cost is buried in with cost of the item.  If you want to see what the seller is charging, go to the shipping and payments tab, change country to US and enter zip 60611. Then click on get rates.  I don't know the zip code to the consolidation center but it is in Illinois so that zip will give you a close price of what the seller would be charging to the shipping center.

There may still be some glitches in the program but for the most parts, I'm seeing prices for light items that are comparable or even a bit less than first class international. 

The shipping rates are about half way down the page...

https://www.ebay.com/sellercenter/shipping/ebay-international-shipping

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

---

@tumutumu wrote:

I've been a regular eBay buyer (never a seller) for over 20 years. We lived in the US  for over 15 years, and when we moved to Canada several years ago, I was happy to pay what seemed like reasonable charges to have items from US sellers delivered. As of last fall's  implementation of the new eBay "International Shipping" policy, even small, light  clothing items frequently ship with charges as high as $60 and more. I simply refuse to pay that much to have a $25 item shipped as I suspect much of the profit from these transactions is going into eBay's pocket. I have tried negotiating with individual sellers to arrange lower shipping rates, but I find they often refuse or ignore me. I get that--it's a lot of trouble to change shipping arrangements for just a few items. Does anyone know of a route for appealing this change to eBay? Am I alone in finding this change unreasonable? My only recourse here is to stop supporting eBay sellers, and I really don't want to do that...

---

Another way of looking at this would be that when the seller is in charge of the shipping they are more in control. They know what the item is. What it will need to be packed. What "potential" services could be chosen.

Throw it in the hands of eBay(a 3rd party) and less concern about the best rate. It's all being done by bots that really know little about the actual iten. Maybe it's all approximated/guesstimated? But is it truly accurate? There is no flexibility for using A, B or C services. Just the 1 specific service. The one eBay chooses to use.

All I am saying is once eBay got involved with this part of the process, the buying experience for many buyers(Canadian & possibly foreign) became not such a good thing. We've seen the reports of transactions going off the rails...For years. From many a buyers perspective all they want is the item they are looking for in a timely, economical method. That is no longer a possible option or becoming less so as days go by. Leaving buyers little choice but to go elsewhere. Not sure how this is really helpful, in the scheme of things!!!

-Lotz

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

I and many other Canadian have been seeing and reporting crazy high shipping for low value items for several years. It's come to the point where it is more the norm vs a blip. You find something you are interested in, you see see the crazy shipping cost. You message the seller explaining your interest and bulk of the time either no response or it is what is. We can't change the shipping. Something screwy in Muldova!!

Previous similar type variation I have found in the past and still find from time to time, sellers being shady with their actual location. You will find amongst their listings that state a portion of their items are located in Canada. When you do more research turns out the seller is based in China. Confirmed by the number of negs/neutral feedbacks Past buyers) explaining item was shipped from China and/or seller shipping and tracking does not work or is a duplicate. Item never arrived. Seller will message asking buyer to wait. 

[member8873344]

You must either be a part of the new international shipping program or opt out of it, which is what I made the decision to do. Opting in and out is not a viable option when international buyers want me to shipo internationally. Unfortunately the folks at Ebay have become even bigger pigs of the past few years - profits over people - and I am experimanting with other online venues so I can get stop sellling on their platform.  It started off as a great place to sell but ihas become another corporate rip off.

[paradrox]

Am I glad to have found this post!

I agree 100% with you.  In the past weeks, I've been shocked to see shipping charges jump to 50-60$CAN for almost everything, from every seller I browse.  And mostly for small or medium items, not very heavy.

I was about to buy another item I've purchased on January 26 for 6.99$US + 14.10$US shipping, but the cost is now 6.99$US + 39.74$US shipping.  That's insane!

Last week I received an offer for an item I was watching.  The price was indeed a deal, but shipping was 67$CAN for a simple pair of pants!  I contacted the seller and he answered me: "Hi, I unfortunately don’t have control over the shipping rates internationally. My price is $8.99, the extra charge is from international. It won’t let me lower it either."

I can't spend my days contacting US sellers to explain that eBay changed their shipping charges, possibly without them noticing, and that they should adjust them or risk losing sales from Canadian buyers.  For now, I don't see eBay International Shipping as being good for Canadian buyers.

But how can we alert eBay that their new system is hurting them?  I don't think that chatting with a customer service agent will change a lot.  I've been buying on eBay for 17 years, but if nothing changes, I'll just leave and go buy elsewhere.  And that's sad...

[thechabinator]

same here..I have been buying a lot from usa seller using global shipping program.....but since ebay merged sellers to the new Ebay international shipping program, prices are way too high...I saw that some sellers still use global shipping program...that means it still exist and that the seller can probably select it..but the problem is that many are probably not aware that they were merged automaticly and that the new program is bad for sales....

[marnotom!]

@paradrox  and @thechabinator

eBay International Shipping (eIS) is, like the (now phased out in the US) Global Shipping Program, a glorified forwarding service.  The shipping charge you see is the sum of the seller's shipping charge to the forwarding hub in Illinois plus eIS's shipping charge from the hub to you.  That second charge is set by eIS and the seller has no idea what it is unless they check their own listing and change the shipping location from the US to Canada or one of the other 200 countries served by the service.

When I last checked, eIS's shipping charges tended to be less than the USPS counter rates for comparable services.  The problem is that the seller's own charge for shipping the item to the Illinois hub can boost the total shipping price considerably.  Another thing that can make the total shipping price unreasonably high is what @pjcdn2005 mentioned earlier, which is that the seller hasn't provided the eIS shipping calculator information on the item's packaged size and weight because they're using flat-rate shipping within the US.  This throws the calculator for a loop and usually what happens is that the shipping charge ends up being based on a category maximum.

The possibly good news is that eBay is rolling out an option for sellers to offer other shipping methods besides eIS on their listings.  The interesting thing is that where I've seen this offered, it's been to countries other than Canada and eIS is actually cheaper and has a shorter estimated delivery time than the USPS alternative.

[paradrox]

@marnotom!Thanks for the update! I'm still astonished with every package I receive at the amount of labels on it. The packages seem to pass thru 2, 3 or even 4 brokers before arriving at my doorstep. It's just time and money wasted, not to mention the environment.

Since my initial post, there seem to be some sort of improvement.  I still find that shipping charges are too high.  I know all about inflation and price of gas, but come on!  How can dealing with 2 or 3 brokers be economical?  With a new system, I would at least hope for faster service...

By curiosity, what happened to Erlanger?  Did they completely close that small storage locker?  And is Glendale Heights bigger and better?

[marnotom!]

@paradrox, my wife purchases a fair bit from outside of the country and most of them aren't shipped directly through the postal system or any other carrier.  Once she purchased an item from Southeast Asia that went to Alaska and Seattle (or was it San Francisco?) first before it reached Vancouver and then over to us on Vancouver Island.  It would have been more wasteful for FedEx to charter a flight just for her package and it wouldn't have been able to fly to Vancouver Island anyway as FedEx doesn't have an air cargo hub there.

Yes, your items would be going by an inefficient means if they were travelling solo, but they're not.  Compare flying to Calgary from Vancouver by the airline of your choice.  Is it any worse for the environment to fly to Winnipeg from Vancouver, then backtrack to Calgary?  Those planes are going to fly to those destinations whether or not you're on them.  Same deal with the parcels.  All shipping is terrible for the environment, but I don't see how services such as eIS are any worse for the environment than shipping directly.

As for what happened to the Erlanger facility, it's a bit of a mystery but my semi-educated guess is that it's still being used by the subcontractor Pitney Bowes used, but for other vendors/services.  I'm pretty sure I've seen on the labels of a few things my wife has purchased a note indicating that Pitney Bowes handled the logistics end of things for those shipments, but this was a while ago.

[mrdutch1001]

I suspect that several years ago there was a smaller percentage of USA sellers using the then GSP,  as compared to the most likely way higher percentage of USA sellers that now engage in what is becoming the preferred method of shipping as it removes much of the burden of the shipping risks for those USA sellers.

The bottom line is that it is still the buyer's choice as to making purchases from USA sellers who use shipping methods other than USPS. No one is forcing buyers to purchase from those sellers...and it certainly is not a buyer's place to tell eBay or its sellers what they can and cannot use for the shipping method.

Buyers have choices just as sellers do...

[roadie16]

Like you, I have been an eBay "buyer" not seller, for many years. The cost of shipping from the USA to Canada has made buying item from USA sellers unresonable. However, I have had some luck with a few sellers working with me regarding shipping costs. It has been my experience that many "sellers" will not ship to Canada or will stick with the unreasonable shipping fees.

I live in a border city and have a shipping depot, similar to USPS, in the USA that I have parcels delivered to. There is a small charge of $5 per package but most items are free delivery or significanly lower shipping cost to me. 

[leaky-bucket-labs]

Ebay is burning people and they use trolls to patch up the leaks here on the forum

[wildcatca1970]

Howdy- I hear ya... 

I've noticed that the new 'eBay International Shipping' charges are between $10-15 USD higher than the old GSP programme.

I purchased an item in Nov'r 2022, and was charged $24.70 USD to ship to me here (GSP). The same item today, is $35.31 USD.

Is this because of the increase in prices generally, or has the Bay dropped the ball on this as well?

... Wasn't this new programme touted as a cheaper alternative to the GSP?

[marnotom!]

@wildcatca1970 , did you have a look at the chart in the page that @pjcdn2005 linked in their post?

[elgie620]

eBay keeps the shipping secret. I ordered from a USA seller and shipping stated USPS international. I thought this was OK, but also a bit expensive but the goods were reasonably priced so went ahead with it. USPS to Canada is about 7 - 10 days.

Following the tracking I find the goods got handed over to eBay's SLOW !!! shipping service, with POOR tracking. It took about 3 - 4 weeks on the parcel to arrive.

SOLUTION: I am closing my eBay account as to Canada it is overpriced and under valued.

[femmefan1946]

@pjcdn2005 

 said :

But I have seen first hand that sellers using the new program show a really high shipping cost if they don't use the package's weight and dimensions in the listing.

So would it be likely that the new international shipping program does not play nicely with Flat Rate Shipping?

Listings with Calculated Shipping should be fine since those have to include weight and dimensions.

devon@ebay 

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@pjcdn2005 

See response: @mrdutch1001  "Worldly visibility".  There are limited other reasons for listing 100 + items worth 10.00 to 20.00 with 100.00 USD shipping to Canada. Only 1 I have a heard on occasion is as a placeholder for out of stock. This is not the case here because shipping within the USA is either free or marginal on those same items.

-Lotz

[pjcdn2005]

Yes I already saw that. As I just replied a few minutes ago, I don't believe that sellers list high shipping charges to countries that they want to ship to for 'world visibility' They obviously want more visibility in their own country so I don't think shipping to other places increases their visilbility in other places. I've never seen ebay say that to would help so not sure where that belief came from.

[reallynicestamps]

charges as high as $60 and more. I simply refuse to pay that much to have a $25 item shipped

Perfectly reasonable

as I suspect much of the profit from these transactions is going into eBay's pocket.

No.

The seller charges and gets the shipping fees. EBay does get a fee (12.9%) on that fee, but not the money itself which goes mostly to the shiping carrier.

I have tried negotiating with individual sellers to arrange lower shipping rates, but I find they often refuse

Many sellers have learned that a request for lower shipping charges is part of a scam to remove expensive tracking costs.

Tracking is often the only Seller Protection against false  Not Received claims.

This might be helpful:

https://postcalc.usps.com/?country=10440

Note that the highest priced shipping rate is at the top of the list of services.

Note also that the weight and dimensions of the parcel are used, but not the value of the contents.

You could try asking the seller if they would consider using FirstClass International Parcel for shipping,which is the cheapest service, and includes the all-important tracking.

If you do, point out the TRACKING which is what they want.

Buyers were complaining about what they felt were high GSP charges, although the GSP charge included Canadian duty and sales taxes.

The new International Shipping does not include those.

While this is unimportant for US imports where the duty free allowance is now $150 and the tax free allowance is now $40, on higher value imports it could be a shock on the doorstep when the carrier demands more money before releasing the item.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

I have a US seller saved who sells an item I used to carry. Package weight would be approx 300 grams. Their shipping for that particular item 100.00 USD to Canada with International standard. Located in Blaine WA. Shipping rates for small portion of items at 10 to 15 Canadian with balance (1/10th) displaying the 100 USD. Only rational reason I can think of that insane shipping option would be site visibility with no intention whatsoever for shipping to Canada. They have slightly over 1000 listings with most of those being multi units.

[mrdutch1001]

I would tend to agree with your statement "no intention whatsoever for shipping to Canada." .. I have seen sellers on other selling sites put their shipping rates astronimivcally high to countries that they don't want to ship to hoping to discourage those buyers but still want to maintain their "worldy" visibility.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Wouldn't that be against the search manipulation policy? As a side my item was pulled. Theirs remains. The item I had that was similar has a documented product recall attached to it.

[marnotom!]

Good luck in trying to prove that's what the seller's intentions were.

[pjcdn2005]

If a seller purposely lists an item with high shipping costs because they don't want to ship there how does that increase their visibility to Us buyers?  I don't think sellers are listing high prices to non US countries just to increase their visibility in the US. It just doesn't make sense.

[pjcdn2005]

reallynice stamps - The op is reperring to ebay international shipping. The seller only pays fvf on the domestic shipping portion, not the international. Lotz - was the seller you are referring to here listing with international standard delivery or the new ebay international shipping?

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Canadian Retail: 14.99. 

Specific seller:

Selling price 6.99 US with $100.00 (approx C $134.56) Standard International Shipping to Canada.

Note 1: International shipment of items may be subject to customs processing and additional charges.

Located in: Blaine, Washington, United States

Note 2:  Seller charges sales tax in multiple provinces.

Free USPS retail shipping for US buyers.

[pjcdn2005]

eBay international standard is set up quite a bit differently than the new program ebay international shipping. Your seller either thinks it gives him some benefit or just dumb and is guesstimating the shipping cost. In the new program the only price that the sellers sets is the domestic one. In your example the seller set the price or entered the weight as much heavier. I really don't understand it. I don't remember if you said that you asked him about it?

But I have seen first hand that sellers using the new program show a really high shipping cost if they don't use the package's weight and dimensions in the listing.

[reallynicestamps]

@pjcdn2005-

The seller charges $10 for US/domestic shipping.

The seller charges $100 US for shipping to Canada.

The buyer pays $100 for shipping to Canada.

The seller actually pays $25 for the shipping label but fees on the $10 domestic charge, pocketing the other $75.