The Global Shipping Program Sucks
Summary: samirelch expresses frustration with eBay's Global Shipping Program (GSP) as their orders take detours and accumulate delays, and they incur additional taxes. reallynicestamps and marnotom! explain that the GSP and its successor eBay International Shipping (eIS) are primarily designed for seller protection, causing the delays when items are processed through specific hubs. They also mention that having to pick up packages at Canada Post is an issue, but necessary due to customs fees, and that this process isn't exclusive to eBay. marnotom! explains how taxes apply to online transactions and used goods, noting that many jurisdictions, including British Columbia, apply taxes even to used items bought from businesses. marnotom! further notes that the inconvenience of picking up packages is offset by the potential costs of using couriers.
Everything i order seems to use this global shipping program which is just a glorified shipment forwarding service. Why does my order have to go further away from my location before it comes to me? My purchases usually just sit in this global shipment center for a few days adding extra time for nothing. Ontop of this I order a ton of stuff online from oversea's, and i have never had to pay duties/taxes for my goods, except when i order from eBay. Because of these duties I'm expected to be home when the package arrives, and since that's not possible with work i'm stuck having it re-directed to a Canada Post location that i have to go to and make the payment, what's the point of ordering something to my door if i just have to end up going to a store to pay for it and pick it up? The fact that i'm paying taxes on a used good is also frustrating, but that's a different quarrel for the government i guess.
reallynicestamps
·2 years agoIf you buy used stuff from Value Village, which is a business and not a charity, you'll see GST or HST charges on your receipt, too.
Even charities charge sales taxes on donated used goods.
marnotom!
·2 years agoThat’s definitely true for us in British Columbia, @reallynicestamps, but I don’t think it’s the case for most other provinces.
marnotom!
·2 years ago"Glorified forwarding service?" Where have I heard that term before? 😇 Glad to see you're reading up on this before posting, though.
As @reallynicestamps points out, the GSP is now exclusively a UK-based service. eBay International Shipping (eIS) is what some of our neighbours to the south are using on eBay now.
When sellers use eIS or the GSP, they handle the item just as they would if they were shipping it within their own country. They don't have to fill out customs documentation or prepare it with an international shipping or mailing service with which they may not be so familiar. Remember, international sales don't make up a signficant proportion of sales for most US eBay sellers. I'm not sure if the same holds true for UK sellers.
Anyway, the forwarding hub is where the magic happens when it comes to preparing the item for shipping outside the US or UK. It's not doing "nothing".
And the reason why your item sometimes moves "further away from [your] location" because it has to go through the hub first is because that's the nature of forwarding hubs. The item has to go somewhere to be processed for forwarding. eIS and the GSP only have the one hub, and it serves many, many more countries than Canada. If we Canadians bought more stuff from US sellers, maybe we could get our own hub just for us, but it still wouldn't be conveniently located for some Canadian buyers.
By the way, I don't know how it works in your town, but for me on Vancouver Island and much of the interior of British Columbia, if I mail a letter to someone across the street from me, it goes over the water to Richmond (Vancouver suburb) to be sorted and processed before heading back to the island for delivery. Given declining letter-mail volumes, Canada Post has determined this to be a more efficient use of resources. I also once received a non-eBay item from China that went all the way over to Mississauga before heading back west to me on Vancouver Island. What you're experiencing isn't strictly an eBay thing.
You're either buying a lot of very inexpensive items, or else you've been very, very lucky. Canada Border Services is supposed to assess and collect taxes and duty on mailed items with declared values of over twenty bucks. It happened quite a bit to me and my wife when we first started buying online in the late 1990s, but hasn't happened so much since Harper was Prime Minister.
Our governments have figured out they're losing out on a lot of tax revenue by letting online transactions go untaxed while shouldering conventional retailers with the burden of charging and remitting taxes. You've probably noticed that sales from Canadian eBay sellers are now subject to tax. The official line is that it's not the item that's getting taxed, but the transaction. If you buy used stuff from Value Village, which is a business and not a charity, you'll see GST or HST charges on your receipt, too. Most provinces have mechanisms in place to ensure that used car purchases have tax(es) applied to them, even those from private individuals. It's not so much that the item is new or used that affects its "taxability" but whether or not the vendor is registered to charge and collect taxes on applicable transactions.
As for the inconvenience of having to go to a post office or postal outlet to collect your imported item and pay the taxes and C$9.95 Canada Post processing charge, keep in mind that not all Canadians have door to door delivery and they'd be doing this anyway. The alternative would be to have the item sent by courier, and if you don't like Canada Post's ten dollar fee for collecting taxes owing from you for a mailed casual import, you're not going to like any better the fees some couriers charge for how they handle taxes and duties owing on same.
reallynicestamps
·2 years agoThe GSP , which is still used by UK sellers, is a glorified shipment forwarding service. So is the eBayInternational Shipping program (eIS) which has replaced it in the USA.
Both were designed as Seller Protection programs for paranoid and xenophobic sellers (see: Trump , Brexit).
Because of these duties I'm expected to be home when the package arrives, and...having it re-directed to a Canada Post location that i have to go to and make the payment,
You are using the Canada Post Flex Delivery service?
Make sure that your parcels are delivered to a postal outlet, since these are usually open six or seven days a week and up to 14 hours a day, depending on the hours of the business holding the franchise.
You realize that if you were not home when a non-eIS/GSP package was delivered you would still be going to pick it up or hoping that you were not targetted by porch pirates, right?
And that private couriers charge customs brokerage fees of $25 or more on imports?