eBay

femmefan1946 · ‎07-09-2016

eBay Canada 's head was interviewed on Radio One this morning.

It will probably repeat later today if you missed it.

Seems eBay commissioned a report from the CDHowe Institute about the $20 maximum duty free on imports.

Among other numbers tossed around, she said it cost CBSA $170 million to collect $40million on these low value imports.

She did NOT mention CBSAs practice of ignoring the low value imports entirely.

Now in my opinion you hire the company that will give you the results you want, but at least we know eBay is doing something for their buyers.

If not particularly for their Canadian sellers.

She also spoke briefly about the Canada Post disruption. I'll have to listen again for that or else it may show up on their website.

And, in passing, what do you think are the chances that the CDH report was shown to Neil MacDonald? The lapses in both interviews indicate a common source?

rose-dee · ‎07-11-2016

@mjwl2006 wrote:

If anything, that excursion of Ms. Stairs to the CBC has convinced me that it was right to be skeptical about eBay's motives and claims generally -- on almost any subject.
I believe that is called Confirmation Bias.

No, I'd call it final straw confirmation of my previous suspicions. I've held out a certain amount -- just a little --remaining belief in eBay's bona fides until this. Call me stupidly hopeful previously. Not anymore.

(Actually, I think it's referred to as "bias confirmation", i.e. finding one factor that confirms a prejudice, which can then be applied to all situations. This is different. Experience and observation are great teachers).

momcqueen · ‎07-11-2016

No, I did mean 'confirmation bias'.

con·fir·ma·tion bi·as

noun

noun: confirmation bias

the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories.

femmefan1946 · ‎07-12-2016

Canvasing to raise the tax free limit is short-sighted and selfish and certainly not in the best interest of Canadians.

I dunno.

Right now what is happening is that CBSA officers are quietly breaking the law to make their workload lighter and (possibly more importantly) to save the taxpayer money by assessing and collecting import fees only when those fees are likely to be higher than the cost of collection.

Which puts the officers in a difficult position and can't you just see the headlines -- CUSTOMS OFFICERS ARE CHEATING TAXPAYERS OUT OF MILLIONS IN UNPAID DUTY!!!!-- good thing Sun News went out of business, eh?

The $170 million paid to collect $40 million is not unbelievable, especially when you consider that couriers charge $25 and up to assess, collect and remit the same duties.

I don't think a rise in the maximum duty free allowance to match the drive- in $200 or even just to the $100 or so that CBSA seems to informally use as their de minimis, would change the mind of any online shopper.

Oh and let's get rid of the $60 'gift" allowance while we're at it.

rose-dee · ‎07-12-2016

@mjwl2006 wrote:

con·fir·ma·tion bi·as
noun
noun: confirmation bias
the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories.

Actually, they're both nouns (if we're going to split hairs).

Whatever you want to call it, a conspiracy theorist I'm not, my dear. In 15 years of using this site, I've just experienced too much of eBay's claiming one thing but doing another in reality.

That is called a cre-di-bil-ity gap (nouns, 1. Distrust of official statements: a situation in which the public distrusts the accuracy of official statements.)