Don't yell at me...but a question for all of you...

[camrynscloset]

Why, on the US PS board, is there so much anti Canadian sentiment? Some of them are really...uh...Rude about anything Canadian. I have seen comments about everything from the dumb feedback Canadians leave to "OH my GOD a Canadian Bidder what do I do?" type things.

I know our board is alot slower, but I check here first and post my questions here, simply because they get answered and I am not ignored...plus, I like Canadians. 🙂 I like Americans too, but...anyway...LOL

Does every PS in the US have this view that they are happy to take our money, but every complaint we have must be dumb?

I am afraid to post there most of the time, I have seen some of the posts that have been made when the OP was in disagreement with the "regulars" and it scares me! I posted here about Bidpay, and was told factually and helpfully I was being an arse. There I feel I would have been slandered and treated very poorly. After some reflection I agreed, sucked it up, and moved on.

Anyone have comments on this? Is this just me? I don't check everyone's selling location who posts here, so I have no idea if we are all Candians or not. I care about the advice, not the location of it 😄

[imagi.nation]

My experience is that there are a small faction of sellers that follow and post to a lot of boards, including the US PS board, and by large seem to like to do nothing more than stir the pot. I only wish I had the time they did to be able to comment on just about every topic that comes along.

Anyways, it's this small minority that seem to have the most pro-American, anti-everybody-else attitude. I don't believe most sellers have this attitude, but most sellers won't enter the fray for fear of being flamed by the vocal minority of rabble rousers. I think most reasonable people know a dysfuntional situation when they see it and avoid it like the plague.

I find this to be a common scenario in a lot of internet discussion groups, not just the eBay ones. You're right, for the most part this isn't a problem on this, the CAD Powersellers group, so maybe there is something to this stereotype of the polite Canadian. 😉

Another board I can recommend as a "safe zone" is the one offered by AuctionSageSoftware dot com. Click on the button that says "Community", and check out the "eBay Roundtable". You may have to register to gain access to it, but this board has the nicest bunch of sellers I've ever seen in one place. I can't recall anybody ever being flamed for asking a question there.

Cheers,
Ernie.

[camrynscloset]

Thank Ernie!

I mod another board, and love that site. I have belonged to many groups since I started chatting online. I am usually vocal, but I do not really deserve PS status, (got it from selling off a huge chunk of inventory....the invite was a total surprise) and maybe I figure my opinions are not really valid compared to someone who has ebayed for 5 years and has 67 million feedback.

I do prefer this board...but come on...WHERE IS EVERYONE?!?!

[jenzaka]

Hi everyone:

I went to the US Power Seller board for the first time about a month ago and after I read a few posts, I made the comment to my husband "Wow....this is a really nasty board"
My point here is that I don't think US PS's necessarily pick on Canadians, I personally think they pick on (and yell about EVERYTHING)
I guess this just comes back to the reputation that Canadians have for being polite. On this board, even if you totally disagreed with a post, had extremely strong views on it, and thought the author was a complete idiot its very likely your post would begin with something like: I'm sorry, but I tend to disagree. My advice would be....etc"
On the US board it would be "You bleepin idiot! How did you ever become a PS with veiws like that? You need to do it MY way.....etc"
I'm a little lower keyed than that so I'll just stay put on my nice Northern board here...lol.
Anyway, try not to take it personally. Its just the American way.

[betterthanstore]

It's basically personality, I think. American is more outspoken than Canadian, and we try to be nice to everyone. American can't handle exception or reject or difficulties as well as Canadian, so they tend to shout.

[zarzuella]

I've got to admit to a kind of horrified fascination with the US board that keeps me lurking there on a regular basis It's a little scary when you read those blatantly bigoted posts; it amazes me that people can still be so small-minded. ]:)

I've come to the conclusion that you need to have a very specific personality type (ie self-centered and confrontational) to be interested in actually posting there, and this becomes a self-perpetuating situation. There are less and less reasonable posts and more and more sarcasm and put-downs. Fortunately there seems to be a core of reasonable regulars who do leap to the defence when the bigots get going.

PS: None of the above applies to Glenda. 🙂

[muminlaw]

Thanks Ann - I think. ?:| I have to admit I'm not one of those leaping to anyone's defense - I usually high-tail it outta there when the going gets rough!

I'm fascinated by the .com board too - it's certainly a lot livelier than it is here and after you lurk for awhile, you begin to learn which threads, and which posters, are safe to interact with. Seems to me this board used to be a lot livelier too - we've lost at least a half-dozen knowledgeable people, with good senses of humour, who just don't come around anymore.

Thebidwatcher hangs out on the US board, jaymor and firedept10 plus a couple of others have just disappeared - I miss 'em 😞
. Glenda
To Golf or Not To Golf? What a stupid question!

[chuck111fishing]

i really dont know its like we always gte negative response being canadian in my eyes. I work with many partners across states to help them anyway they want but there is some just plain rude. trying to make to new partnership with other americans store isnt worth hassle. Its sad but guess it will always be some kind of negativety due to government problems. Meanwhile life must go on if they dont sell to us than there always someone that will . There lost our gain.

Just remember we always give to the USA on silver platter like oil, lumber, water and much more but this doesnt mean nothing them.
Fish on

[ellenskdesign]

As a US powerseller, I can tell you that the negativity undoubtedly comes from shipping & customs problems, and has very little to do with Canadians as individuals.

I personally prefer Canadian buyers for high ticket items, because I can usually count on the fact that they are educated, and able to (and actually do) read and comprehend the particulars of a listing..

Most of us in the US just hate having to ship outside of the country, period, because of PayPal's lack of support for international transactions, because of the time it takes for packages to actually arrive (if they do actually arrive), because customs regulations are a hassle and are always being selectively applied, and because in order to have our packages tracked we have to pay (and in many cases, pass on to grumbling customers) ridiculous shipping charges for USPS GEM - or take the risk of an INR which we -will- lose.

As well, there's probably a disproportionate amount of angst aimed at Canada simply because so much cross-border commerce takes place between our two countries... I'm sure we'd be just as angry about INR's or the regular postal/customs screwups if, say, Michigan, were a part of Canada - and I can guarantee you there would be threads on the US PS board about "MORE PROBLEMS WITH AWFUL MICHIGONIANS" (made up word?) if sending things there was as much of a headache and worry as sending things to Canada or anywhere else outside of the US.

One thing I do notice is that almost none of my Canadian buyers (over any of my selling accounts) ever have a PayPal confirmed address. It was my understanding that PayPal has implemented Confirmed Addresses for Canada and the UK - have they, and isn't it relatively easy for you guys to do this? I know that seeing that on an inbound payment from Canada would cause me to sleep (a little bit) better at night..

-K

[muminlaw]

Hi Ellen, and thanks for giving us a US viewpoint on this. I think that many of us don't even give the confirmed address a second thought because it doesn't do us any good in Canada -- Canada Post doesn't offer PayPal approved tracking for anything close to reasonable rates so we mostly ship everything on trust! We're probably slightly hurt and definitely puzzled that, while we take our buyers on trust, American sellers seem to be afraid to treat us the same way. Quite frankly, I think we trust our buyers and/or sellers much more than we trust eBay or PayPal!!

Having said that, it depends a great deal on what one sells - if I were in a high-risk genre like video games, or CD/DVDs, I might feel entirely different! Stamp/postcard/coin collectors and dealers are used to dealing international mail order and think nothing of it - many of our European collectors have sent large sums of cash to pay for purchases and dealers often mail orders out before they've been paid. Somehow, cheating is very, very rare! Glenda

[camrynscloset]

One thing I do notice is that almost none of my Canadian buyers (over any of my selling accounts) ever have a PayPal confirmed address. It was my understanding that PayPal has implemented Confirmed Addresses for Canada and the UK - have they, and isn't it relatively easy for you guys to do this? I know that seeing that on an inbound payment from Canada would cause me to sleep (a little bit) better at night..

My address is confirmed, and I am seeing it more and more on payments I receive from other Candians as confirmed as well. However, no good comes from a confirmed address unless you can track the package sent to that address.

[ellenskdesign]

Like I said, we want that confirmed address so we can send the items USPS GEM (Global Express Mail, which is tracked) so we can be safe from unwinnable chargebacks.

We can't FedEx or UPS anything up there because you'll get hit with massive customs brokerage fees.. even if we do follow the inevitable request to lie in filling out the customs forms! So it's GEM to a confirmed address, or hope that our buyers a) don't know enough to work the system, or b) aren't low enough to do so.

If you want to operate on "trust" with your fellow countrymen (or mine), that's your business, and I wish you luck... depending upon what category you sell in, you may never run across a problem... but, just like the eternal "who leaves feedback first?" debate, once you get hit with a few unjust and costly "negatives", your tune may change.

-K

[ellenskdesign]

By the way, it's not like US buyers only "distrust" (to use your parlance, when in fact I just see it as good common sense in today's world) buyers from outside the US.

We get free (via automated internet shipping) or relatively cheap (at 55 cents) delivery confirmation (which PayPal accepts as proof of delivery) for all domestic Priority Mail which starts at a flat rate of $3.85 for 1 lb or less. Rarely will you see anything shipped domestically inside the US without it - especially for ebay transactions.. It is done for good reason - whether you've come across it yet or not.

Ahwell.

-K

[iburk]

The US sellers board really started sucking about 3 years ago ... the same old losers, getting more assertive. There are thousands of US powersellers ... it just not worth the effort to even try to reason with the handfull that post there.

There is no intelligent life there.