Why is the US shipping standards not held to the same standards as everywhere else.

[luv4orphans]

I purchased an item on March 10th and paid promptly. Item was shipped by seller on March 12th.  Since then its been travelling at a snails pace. Hasn't even left the US yet.  Picked up to bring to the Hub where it sat for days and now finally moving but hasn't left that area yet that I can see. About 10 days in that area is what I am seeing from the tracking. 

I shipped 3 items on March 17th. 2 went to the US and 1 went to Ireland. Both items going to the US were delivered on Tuesday, the one for Ireland was delivered this morning. 

Why can't we expect the same kind of service from the US. Not to mention that it costs a fortune to have anything shipped from there these days because of double shipping costs, one to the hub and then on to us. Had I have a choice in finding this bag in Canada or anywhere else for that matter, I would never have purchased from there. They need to resolve this fiasco.  This is worse than when they had the GSP program. Prices are practically double and it has nothing to do with what the post office charges. Its the new ebay system that's bringing in all these extra costs. 

When item gets here I will need to pay duty and taxes on it on top of all this aggravation. I realize this has nothing to do with ebay. But post office does charge us $9.95 for processing.  

[mrdutch1001]

"Most" Canadian eBay sellers ship their items directly to the buyer;  whereas many, many USA eBay sellers use the EIS program whereby those sellers ship their items to the Erlanger, KTY, USA hub where the items are then forwarded onward to the buyer(and this is a much more complicated process, than shipping directly to the buyer). Therefore it is in the best interests of Canadian buyers who do choose to purchase from USA sellers to know the process involved for the shipping of their item. ...and if the item is being shipped through the EIS program then the Canadian buyer needs to possess this thing called P-A-T-I-E-N-C-E!!

[marnotom!]

Simply stated, USPS is in a mess right now.

https://www.govexec.com/management/2024/02/usps-institutes-network-reforms-mail-delivery-hits-three-...

This affects shipments from sellers to the eIS hub.  This affects shipments from the hub to USPS international mail sort centres.  This could affect international outbound mail from those sort centres.

The current US Postmaster General was (is?) a fundraiser for the previous US president.  Draw your own conclusions.

[reallynicestamps]

When are the purchases due?

What service was used for shipping?

Canada Post has different prices for different levels of service- from Priority Post which can be as fast as overnight (but usually two or three days) to LetterPost which can take up to a month (but usually about a week to 10 days).

We pay import fees  on any purchase from the USA, duty on purchases over $150 and sales tax on any purchase over $40.

The $9.95 Canada Post service fee is for collecting that money.

If the eIS collected it in advance*, there would be no service fee.

Many USmade products are duty-free.

because of double shipping costs, one to the hub and then on to us.

Well, no.

USPS domestic rates are quite low. But the international rates are similar to Canada Post.

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

There has been a recent rise in international shipping rates as well.
And shipping pallets of goods to Canada is actually cheaper for the shipper than dozens or hundreds of individual packages.

Had I have a choice in finding this bag in Canada or anywhere else for that matter, I would never have purchased from there.

Well. Yes.

*Which sometimes happens, but I don't know exactly why.

[luv4orphans]

The 3 parcels I shipped out were all sent Tracked Parcel. One went to Ireland and arrived within 10 days. All qualified for tracked parcel and that was the cheapest way to ship.

What I am trying to say here here is that the shipping costs coming out of the US are not that cheap. I ship a king size jean quilt that weighed almost 5 pounds to the US last month for $42.00.  You mean to tell me that a medium size purse from the US costing $45-60 US on average is cheaper.  I can post you 3-4 listings in a row to prove my point if you need it. 

I did say that duties & taxes have nothing to do with ebay. Were they doing it themselves though we could avoid that $9.95 charge.

Its cheaper to get a purse shipped from Japan than it is from the US. Explain that one. 

[marnotom!]

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@luv4orphans wrote:

Its cheaper to get a purse shipped from Japan than it is from the US. Explain that one. 

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What shipping services or methods are you comparing?

[luv4orphans]

Yes something is off.  Ya the keep it in America crowd. Screw the rest of us.

The prices just shot right up overnight since ebay came up with their own delivery program. Its worse than when the GSP was in place. We're paying big bucks and item doesn't arrive till 3-4 weeks later. I send something to the US and its delivered within a week. Ireland 10 days and for a much cheaper price. Send a quilt to California from Ontario in February. Shipped on January 29th, arrived on February 2nd.  Heavy sucker and it costs $42.97 CDN to ship there. They want $45-60 US to ship a purse here. That's close to $80 CDN in some cases. 

Old vintage Coach purses are hard to find in Canada. I didn't have a choice but to bite the bullet and dish out for shipping charges. $39 US.  Cheaper than some actually. Still over $50 CDN and going on 3 weeks. 

The least they could do is improve the delivery service with the amount they are nailing us with.   

[luv4orphans]

I get the process part and that's its complicated. Somebody made it complicated don't you think.  Seller shipped promptly but this sat in the vicinity of the hub for almost 10 days.

They want sellers to ship asap but then item doesn't arrive in a timely fashion. Its going thru the old milk route. They don't collect the taxes anymore etc. Why do they need that in between. Who wants to wait 3-4-5 weeks for an item they purchased online to arrive nowadays.  PATIENCE you said. Same standards should apply to south of the border as to the rest of us I would say. You think giving them a pass on this is going to fix the problem.  

I don't buy online much anymore but this brand of vintage purse is mostly available in the US. Sometimes overseas. I didn't have a lot of options. Maybe in 3 months, 6 months, a year I might luck out and find one in Canada. 

[reallynicestamps]

The prices just shot right up overnight since ebay came up with their own delivery program.

The GSP was eBay's own program.

I understand that GSP and eIS are both run by PitneyBowes, but have not seen that confirmed.

There were complaints that GSP was slow- just as there are now.

There were also complaints that the cost f GSP was higher than the USPS , but that was partly explained by the import fees (plus a ~$5USD service charge) which were included in the customer's payment.

Canadians were used to Canada Post and CBSA ignoring low value imports when the import fees started on $20Cdn imports.  The allowance has risen to $150Cdn for dutiable and $40 for sales taxes since 2020.

And coincidentally, the price of international shipping through USPS rose substantially about the time eIS was introduced.

https://www.pitneybowes.com/us/blog/usps-shipping-rates-increase-2023.html

https://blog.stamps.com/summary-of-2022-usps-rate-increase-international-shipping/

https://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2024/pb22641/html/info_005.htm

Note that the USPS post about the 2024 rise is based on the 2022 prices which were a big jump over 2021.

The main question remains:
What is the window for delivery you were given by eBay?
Is your parcel late?

[marnotom!]

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@luv4orphans wrote:

The prices just shot right up overnight since ebay came up with their own delivery program. Its worse than when the GSP was in place. We're paying big bucks and item doesn't arrive till 3-4 weeks later. 

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As @reallynicestamps notes in their post, the dramatic rise in the prices you saw with eIS was partly due to USPS raising its domestic rates around the same time the new international forwarding scheme was being rolled out.  Another thing that likely caused this price increase was the fact that many sellers new to international shipping weren't providing information to eIS on the shipping weights and dimensions of their items because they were using flat-rate shipping within the United States.  The GSP used a category average in cases like this.  eIS seems to use a category maximum instead.

eIS's shipping charges are generally very competitive with USPS counter rates if the seller lists the item properly, i.e. in the correct category with shipping weights and dimensions for the eIS calculator to use.  The problem, as you suggest, is that if the seller doesn't offer "free" shipping with the United States, the addition of a US domestic shipping charge to the eIS shipping charge can be a deal-breaker.  Do you know how to tweak with a listing to find out how much of the shipping charge of an eIS-forwarded item is actually the seller's charge for shipping to the eIS hub?  I've seen some listings where that charge is actually more than eIS's charge for getting the item from the hub to my home.

Keep in mind that eIS serves about 200 countries.  I haven't looked too much into this yet, but I've found a few instances where eIS is used where the total charge for shipping to countries other than Canada is less than the USPS equivalent service, and the seller doesn't offer "free" shipping within the United States.  I think the fact that USPS's shipping rates to Canada are less expensive than to most other international destinations kinda hoops things for eIS when comparing what it's asking for shipping compared to USPS.

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@luv4orphans wrote:

The least they could do is improve the delivery service with the amount they are nailing us with.   

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eIS seems to handle shipments to Canada a bit differently than the GSP did.  With the GSP, the item was sent to the hub, processed for customs pre-clearance, trucked off to Mississauga, and then sent on its way with Canada Post or a commercial carrier (or two).  What it looks like so far with eIS (I think) is that the item is sent to the hub, it may or may not get processed for customs pre-clearance depending on whether taxes (and duties, if applicable) were charged at checkout, it waits for a while until enough other items to Canada can fill up a pallet or truck, and then it gets trucked off as part of a consolidated mail lot to a USPS international sort centre where it then gets directed to Canada through the mail stream.

I get the impression that you Ontario-ites are rather fortunate having shipping central--i.e. Mississauga--in your province.  This likely cuts down the shipment time for a lot of direct mailed shipments.  I'm on Vancouver Island and two to three weeks for a standard mail shipment from the US isn't unusual for me.  If the item is sent through a mail consolidator or mail/courier hybrid, I can expect to wait another week or so.  I bought a few phones back in the GSP days, but I bought cases for their phones that went through the mail system.  In all but one instance, the GSP-forwarded phones arrived before the cases, which appeared to be handled by mail consolidators in a manner similar to what eIS does.  

eIS and the GSP are basically North American ground shipment forwarding services.  I doubt the item from Japan you referred to in an earlier post went by surface mail and that it wasn't forwarded, either.

Apologies for the lengthy post.  To snitch a quote from Mark Twain, I didn't have time to make it shorter.  😁

[fergua3]

The EIS can be slow.  One reason is the package can change carriers 2 or 3 times in its journey, each of which causes delays.

And its expensive because the US seller has to select a shipping service from them to the Hub and they can select whomever they want and charge whatever they like.  Most sellers hav no idea how EIS works and they end up entering high shipping costs to the Hub, mostly out of ignorance of the system and that is why EIS can be so expensive.  However, it's not always expensive, if the US seller understands how the EIS works.

Another reason that tracking is slow is appearances.  Since the package keeps changing carriers, the tracking number keeps changing.  But EIS is poor at disclosing the new tracking numbers to the buyer.  So a package can appear to be stuck at the Hub when it is in fact moving via another carrier using a different tracking number than the one originally provided.

Best bet is to track the package on parcelsapp.com.  It will show all the tracking numbers and carriers involved in the package's journey.

When used by a knowledgeable seller, the EIS is not awful.  It's still a bit cumbersome but not overly expensive for the most part (as compared to the US seller shipping directly to the buyer).  But the vast majority of US sellers don't understand it very well and that's where you can get the ridiculous shipping costs commonly seen.

Also, it's common for packages from far off foreign lands to cost less and arrive faster than shippig from the US.  I can order smallish packages (under 1 kg) from Austrailia and receive them waaay cheaper and in just a few days, with tracking.  The same package shipped from the US costs 2-3 times as much.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@luv4orphans wrote:

Yes something is off.  Ya the keep it in America crowd. Screw the rest of us.

The prices just shot right up overnight since ebay came up with their own delivery program. Its worse than when the GSP was in place. We're paying big bucks and item doesn't arrive till 3-4 weeks later. I send something to the US and its delivered within a week. Ireland 10 days and for a much cheaper price. Send a quilt to California from Ontario in February. Shipped on January 29th, arrived on February 2nd.  Heavy sucker and it costs $42.97 CDN to ship there. They want $45-60 US to ship a purse here. That's close to $80 CDN in some cases. 

Old vintage Coach purses are hard to find in Canada. I didn't have a choice but to bite the bullet and dish out for shipping charges. $39 US.  Cheaper than some actually. Still over $50 CDN and going on 3 weeks. 

The least they could do is improve the delivery service with the amount they are nailing us with.   

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@luv4orphans 

US sellers "can" offer slightly discounted shipping to Canada using eBay Labels. Are they? Hard to say. See below. Seems more like they can't be bothered. Any profit they make off shipping goes directly to the bottom line vs passing on to buyers. Same goes for sellers that use systems like Ship Station or Stamps. (Substantially better discounts vs eBay Labels.) Do they pass on the savings? Again, not likely.

When you compare the 2 services CP vs USPS, CP is basically flat rate for tracked whereas Expedited/Xpresspost are distance based. Price will vary depending on the final zip code. USPS to Canada is arranged Zipcode to Canada. 1 size fits all. No real savings whether you compare shipping Seattle - Vancouver , LA - Wpg or Houston to Edmonton.All the same. So very difficult to compare directly.

LA to Wpg - 2 lb package

https://www.ebay.com/shp/Calculator  -  dot com discount calculator

See discounts

Note: Cheapest option is at the bottom.

https://www.ebay.ca/shp/Calculator   -  dot ca discounted calculator

See discounts

Wpg to LA - 2 lb package - Note: Expedited/Xpresspost are MIA with the magic eBay Calculator

-Lotz

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@reallynicestamps 

@luv4orphans 

Each and every time when eBay negotiates with USPS/UPS/Fedex it is all umbrella under 3 unique accounts. In theory because of volume the discount could/should be a group discount. Same thing happens when a corporation applies for discounted rates. Once each branch signs on they qualify for the MASTER discount. When you view the discounts on dot com those discounts appear to be the bare minimum at least that is my take away.

Similar to Shipstation, Shippo or Stamps. 

-Lotz

Interestingly one little perk peeking at Shippo they have 100% discount for fuel and residential deliveries when using Fedex. Something else to make one say hmmm!!! And all those outside services offer massive promos to trial.

[marnotom!]

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@fergua3 wrote:

And its expensive because the US seller has to select a shipping service from them to the Hub and they can select whomever they want and charge whatever they like.  Most sellers hav no idea how EIS works and they end up entering high shipping costs to the Hub, mostly out of ignorance of the system and that is why EIS can be so expensive.

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My understanding is that the eIS calculator bases the seller's portion of the shipping charge we see on the listing page and checkout on the least expensive shipping method the seller offers US buyers.  The seller doesn't have to select anything specifically for eIS.  The seller can use a different method, of course, but they're only going to get paid for that cheapest shipping method.  If I'm wrong about that, feel free to set me straight.

Great post overall, @fergua3.  👍

[marnotom!]

@lotzofuniquegoodies, I'm assuming you're referring to direct shipments to Canada via USPS, FedEx, etc. as items forwarded by eIS do not require the seller to purchase a shipping label to Canada (or other international destination).

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@marnotom! wrote:

@lotzofuniquegoodies, I'm assuming you're referring to direct shipments to Canada via USPS, FedEx, etc. as items forwarded by eIS do not require the seller to purchase a shipping label to Canada (or other international destination).

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Remember in the past US sellers used USPS as standard practice. When sellers were either offered or  got opted into into former GSP/eIS, almost automatically.  Many new sellers are unaware they do have choice (or it is possible to opt out on a listing by listing basis - Just not super easy for sellers to locate) if they wanted to it has become much harder (okay next to impossible) to find US sellers that do ship USPS to CP for Canadian buyers. I know if there was a sort option for shipping method with US sellers I would use it in a heartbeat. Many others i have spoken to over the past several years would too.

-Lotz

[fergua3]

my understanding was that the reason for such wild fluctuations in EIS shipping costs, was because som sellers were selecting expensive  eg express courier services to take the package to the Hub and also entering grossly exaggerated dimensions, ballooning the shipping cost.

What i was led to believe was that this was usually done out of ignorance/laziness/who cares, rather than a deliberate attempt to rip off buyers.  Some sellers using EIS have very good shipping costs, even lower than shipping it by USPS directly.

The way for we Canadians to fight back, of course, is to simply not buy from sellers that charge ridiculous shipping.   No matter how badly you want their item.  Otherwise, we are just feeding the bear and nothing will change.

[pjcdn2005]

The charge to the hub for EIS shipments is the same as it would be for a domestic buyer that lived in the area of the hub. US sellers don't pick a specific way to send to the hub, they have zero control over the cost of international shipments. If they are entering the wrong dimensions than their domestic buyers are affected too.

In the past, it wasn't necessary for sellers to be accurate on dimensions if they were using certain services as not all domestic services were dimension based.  It's more important for both domestic and international services to enter the correct ones now but not all sellers realize that so it could account for some of the high US shipping costs. I don't know if there are other reasons why EIS can be expensive but I agree with you that many EIS shipping costs are less that USPS, especially if the seller is shipping Priority.  Even first class international  can be expensive now.

[femmefan1946]

I wonder how difficult it would be for eBay to program in the requirement that sellers give weight and dimensions when listing?

Even for domestic shipping.

It would be beyond some sellers I suppose who can't figure out things like, there are selling fees, Canada is not a US state, and that most of their products will have to be packaged for mailing.

[flipistics]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

I wonder how difficult it would be for eBay to program in the requirement that sellers give weight and dimensions when listing?

Even for domestic shipping.

It would be beyond some sellers I suppose who can't figure out things like, there are selling fees, Canada is not a US state, and that most of their products will have to be packaged for mailing.

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There's no real need to even do that. Just make all listings that DON'T include weight and dimensions domestic only.

I'm actually kind of surprised eBay hasn't partnered with Stallion (Shippsy) for Canadian orders.