Canadians, Post your GSP gripes on US ebay,Seller Central

[afantiques]

If you weant US sellers to know about your reaction to GSP users, log in to eBay.com and post on the US Seller Central board, where there is a chance that your feelings about GSP and sellers using it might be noticed by US sellers who may have no idea that they are offering it and less idea about how it is regarded abroad.

Thousands of posts on the subject here have been more or less wasted on users who in general agree with you.

The ones to reach are the sellers using it, and they will not be looking here.

Any user with so broad an outlook will already be selling to Canada in a cost effective manner.

US board 'Packaging and Shipping' is another place to direct your pet peeves and cutting comments.

[bb_cool_stuff]

Do you know what the consensus is on the US boards in regards to the program af ?

You seem to be really in tune with it & it saves me some time looking.

[marnotom!]

I would say that most sellers using the GSP aren't board-posting types, so any sort of "consensus" is going to be pretty skewed.

[bb_cool_stuff]

Unfortunately yes.

Worth a shot though.

[afantiques]

Do you know what the consensus is on the US boards in regards to the program af ?

The usual attitude is bafflement. They usually say I don't ship overseas but........and then one of a series of queries, Why do I ship to Kentucky, my buyer won't pay, my buyer wants me to send by USPS, and so on, plus some international, buyers with problems of non arrival, damage or confused sellers+confused bidders/buyers.

This mostly happens on the International Trading board, but many more sellers resort to the Seller Central board with other problems, so many more are likely to see the topics and have their awareness raised, as they say.

There is no reason why users should not post on any board in any country in any language they please. Just talking to other Canadians is cosy but it won't do anything.

[arlene_v]

I agree we need to get this out there on the US boards.

At every opportunity  I raise it on the US  jewelry board,  but for the most part my posts are met with indifference, I'm afraid. 

I have tried to bring this up several times but so many regular posters there either don't sell outside the USA or  use the GSP that it is quite depressing. They seem to have a visceral fear of international buyers.  

I really do feel a tad desperate at times.  

[marnotom!]

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@arlene_v wrote:

I agree we need to get this out there on the US boards.

At every opportunity  I raise it on the US  jewelry board,  but for the most part my posts are met with indifference, I'm afraid. 

I have tried to bring this up several times but so many regular posters there either don't sell outside the USA or  use the GSP that it is quite depressing. They seem to have a visceral fear of international buyers.  

I really do feel a tad desperate at times.  

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Any idea what these sellers are selling?  There's a few subcategories in the Jewelry & Watches category that aren't even eligible for the Global Shipping Program.

[pierrelebel]

I took a quick trip to the UK - visited most of their discussion boards - and it appears nobody cares about GSP.

Why would that be?  Don't British buy from America?  Why are they not complaining about this and that?

[pierrelebel]

I then took a quick trip to France - same thing.

A few questions - very polite (surprisingly) - but no complaints right, left and centre.

Are we missing something?

[arlene_v]

Marno, many are selling vintage costume jewelry that sells for less than $50, although of course costume jewelry can sell for much more than that.  

Probably  90% of costume jewelry is not "right" for this program. being  light weight and selling  for less than the $50 threshold suggested by Ebay.

Recently a seller on the jewelry board complained  about a significant decline in her international sales (she stated in her OP that she had specifically bought high end fine jewelry to increase sales) .. and yet fine jewelry is in the restricted category for the GSP.  

Many of her fine jewelry listings were not even available to international buyers and yet she was complaining about a decline in international sales ...what can one say?? Chaos abounds.  

[marnotom!]

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@pierrelebel wrote:

I took a quick trip to the UK - visited most of their discussion boards - and it appears nobody cares about GSP.

Why would that be?  Don't British buy from America?  Why are they not complaining about this and that?

I then took a quick trip to France - same thing.

A few questions - very polite (surprisingly) - but no complaints right, left and centre.

Are we missing something?

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I think I made a post with my hypotheses about this a while back.  In short, no, I don't think those on that sceptred isle or the continent are buying from the United States, or at least, not nearly to the extent that we do.  The European market is pretty large, and I suspect prices are somewhat more uniform, so there's not nearly the incentive to purchase from the United States.  They can get more of what they want in their own back yard than we can.  Since shipping to Europe from the United States by mail is more expensive than it is to ship from the United States to Canada, it's also generally best to stick closer to home for one's eBay purchases as the shipping price makes the final price of a lot of purchases nonviable.

Also keep in mind that purchases made within the EU won't incur any further taxation on delivery as VAT will be assumed to have been included in the price of the item.  No customs form is needed for a mailed shipment from one EU country to another and that shipment won't be held or delayed in customs.

[marnotom!]

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@arlene_v wrote:

Marno, many are selling vintage costume jewelry that sells for less than $50, although of course costume jewelry can sell for much more than that.  

Probably  90% of costume jewelry is not "right" for this program. being  light weight and selling  for less than the $50 threshold suggested by Ebay.

Recently a seller on the jewelry board complained  about a significant decline in her international sales (she stated in her OP that she had specifically bought high end fine jewelry to increase sales) .. and yet fine jewelry is in the restricted category for the GSP.  

Many of her fine jewelry listings were not even available to international buyers and yet she was complaining about a decline in international sales ...what can one say?? Chaos abounds. 

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 Sounds like a seller who would start her day by putting her slippers on the wrong feet, quite frankly.  😄

[afantiques]

Why would that be?  Don't British buy from America?  Why are they not complaining about this and that?

The traffic is more UK to US than otherwise, I'd say. Mostly the boards are the usual complaints about poor sellers, thieving buyers, and ebay fees.

For a while I kept a thread bumped asking about any GSP experiences, with little response. The whole thing may be just that much more expensive, expensive enough to deter most buyers.

I'd say there were as many posts about the villainy of those terrible foreign buyers and their attempts to buy the good UK only stuff than anything related to the GSP.

The Australian buyers board is pretty quiet on this as well, but Australians with thier high tax exemption and long distance for heavy objects is really one of the places GSP buyers can save money over USPS.

[arlene_v]

@marnotom! wrote:

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 Sounds like a seller who would start her day by putting her slippers on the wrong feet, quite frankly.  😄

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Hmm, well she's savvy enough to have posted to the board, garnered all kinds of sympathetic and supportive posts  ..., and managed to make some very good sales within a day or two of posting to the board. (not international ones, I'm pretty sure!)

Every time the issue of the GSP is raised on that board  there seems to be a reluctance to do an analysis of whether this program fits the needs of buyers and sellers of vintage costume jewelry   Although quite a few very experienced and highly regarded  sellers on the board do not support this program (and have spoken out against it) , I have noticed more and more posters on that board are now using the GSP. 

The costume jewelry category  is very saturated, and I think a lot of sellers who wouldn't consider selling internationally a few years ago have opted into this program as a way of increasing their sales ...! , and honestly, I do understand why they do this ...that's the sad irony. 

Hard as it is to accept, we're just not that important to them. 

But let's keep trying! I will raise this whenever appropriate on the US jewelry board. 

[marnotom!]

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@arlene_v wrote:

Every time the issue of the GSP is raised on that board  there seems to be a reluctance to do an analysis of whether this program fits the needs of buyers and sellers of vintage costume jewelry   Although quite a few very experienced and highly regarded  sellers on the board do not support this program (and have spoken out against it) , I have noticed more and more posters on that board are now using the GSP. 

The costume jewelry category  is very saturated, and I think a lot of sellers who wouldn't consider selling internationally a few years ago have opted into this program as a way of increasing their sales ...! , and honestly, I do understand why they do this ...that's the sad irony. 

Hard as it is to accept, we're just not that important to them. 

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Agreed. Even in saturated categories, international sales generally don't make up the same proportion of a typical U.S. seller's sales as they do for a typical Canadian seller's sales. The U.S. domestic market is huge compared to Canada's and that coupled with the misconceptions of international sales means that you're not going to see a big stampede of sellers suddenly deciding that shipping directly to their international buyers is a good business move.

Your comments support my belief that the GSP is being largely adopted by--or is adopting--sellers with little to no experience dealing with international sales, so they don't know or understand concepts such as taxes and duties payable on imports, and they haven't given much thought to how niceties such as SNAD claims would be handled when they didn't ship the item out to the buyer themselves and that they didn't even receive all the money the buyer put into the sale.

If it's any consolation, while "more and more posters" on the Jewelry Board may be using the GSP, I don't think it translates into more and more posters on the Jewelry Board trashing direct international shipments in favour of GSP shipments.  The number of costume jewellery listings to Canada would likely be comparable to what they were this time last year if all the GSP listings were suddenly tossed out of the mix.

[pierrelebel]

Reading comments from French and Belgian buyers, it seems to me that these buyers have no expectation of getting parcels from the USA on a tax free basis.  They expect to pay tax (VAT). 

And that may be the biggest difference with Canadian buyers where post after post we read about an expectation of parcels coming from the USA by mail arriving without any tax or fee being charged (whatever the reason - that is another story).

[afantiques]

keep those comments coming on the US boards where US seller might see them.

[arlene_v · Accepted solution]

I'm delighted to report that the seller I mentioned in an earlier post who was complaining about a drop in international sales has indicated that for items less than $50 she is no longer going  use the GSP.  

She says that she's battling with the GSP, and seems to be grappling with the best way to sell internationally.  She seems like a very decent seller indeed, I hope it works out for her ...and for her buyers. 

Anyway, a bit of good news, so whenever possible, yes, let's get the word out there. This was an indication to me that many sellers just don't know the costs of this program. 

[charles54blue]

Gsp is a total fail. There are dozens of shippers out there who will tell you exactly what is happening to your parcel at any given time. For EBay to even allow this situation to occur is pitiful and borders on contempt towards buyers everywhere. I've been waiting for a parcel that was in Erlanger KY on dec 5, it is now dec 28 and no package, + no tracking. Sellers be advised, I will stay away from any sellers using GSP in the future. And while I'm at it, I just might stay away from EBay altogether. I don't even think EBay has the ethics to monitor this channel anyway.

[afantiques]

Sounds like time to start an item not received claim. Doing it through ebay may be best. Let us know what happens.