eBay

justineojuka · ‎08-14-2013

EBAY HAS INTENTIONALLY MISLED SELLERS TO THINK THAT "GLOBAL SHIPPING IS A WAY FOR THEM TO SELL AND SHIP THEIR PRODUCTS TO NON USA BUYERS WHEN GLOBAL SHIPPING IS JUST A IMPORT DUTY COLLECTION SCHEME BY EBAY" Thats untrue you can Still ship Items to NON USA residents without Global Shiipping

Infact you will lose many potential buyers by registering you Item on 'Global Shipping'. Global Shipping is just one of those options that ONLY Ebay benefits and sellers lose potential buyers. What 'Global Shipping' does is that EBAY collects import duty of your ITEM on behalf of the buyers Country. So that the buyers prepays for import duty at the time they are buying your Item.

I PERSONALLY WILL NEVER BUY A PRODUCT FROM A SELLER THAT USES "GLOBAL SHIPPING PROGRAM"

Now the total price of your Item will jump by at least 15% depending on that countrys import duty rate and that is the deal breaker to most buyers. Many buyers will simply then shy away and Not buy products that are checked with global shipping because when added with shipping costs your Item price will now increase greatly to discourage a buyer from continuing with the purchase.

"Global shipping has nothing to do with the ability of a seller to ship an Item to a non USA buyer. They should have called it "Pre-Import Duty collection program instead of calling it "Global Shipping Program".

A seller can still ship an Item out of the USA without Global Shipping. EBAY is the only one that benefits from Global shipping it collects this import duty money, and only gives it to the buyers importing country if asked by that country(allegedly) . In Canada most buyers handle their own import duty. Also some products are not import dutyable and yet EBay charges and collects the money.

Some Buyers have their own Import duty Tax number and sort it out with their own countries.

What you can do, is that at the time of listing your item, uncheck the global shipping for the Item. The Global shipping options for buyers from Canada and the Americas is Not really Neccessary. Or you could post the the item two times, One with Global shipping and the other without, and let buyers know that they can choose to buy the same Item without or with Global shipping.

Or you could ask International buyers to contact you before buying, request that their phone numbers are sent to you

Be a smart seller. DO NOT USE GLOBAL SHIPPING. LET BUYERS HANDLE THEIR OWN IMPORT DUTY. read the forums and internet about what are saying about "Ebay Global Shipping"

Many sellers are misled to believe that they have to use global shipping. You dont.

EBAY GLOBAL SHIPPING IS SIMPLY A GIMMECK THAT BUYERS AND SELLERS DO NOT NEED. ONLY EBAY BENEFITS.

pierrelebel · ‎10-10-2013

The listing clearly showed $16 shipping to Canada.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=161116907799

Why did you buy it?

anatrilla · ‎10-10-2013

yeah but I thought that went to the seller. the seller was suppose to refund me the shipment because it only costed less than $4. they also received an address that was not mine. this is clearly wrong.

pierrelebel · ‎10-10-2013

That is the way GSP works. The seller ships to a distribution centre in the USA (Kentucky) and the parcel is then resent to you.

Unfortunately, these low priced items (under $50) should never be offered through GSP by the American seller. Obviously more work needs to be done by eBay educating sellers how and when to use that program.

anatrilla · ‎10-10-2013

Thanks for clarifing but regardless I still dont undesrtand why they changed the whole thing expect thinking that it was just a way to get more money out of people. The other day I bought I used phone for $130 and guess what? I spend almost $200 between the import charges and the shipment. Does that seem fair to you? The seller could have just sent the phone with USPS around $8.

pjcdn2005 · ‎10-10-2013

@afantiques wrote:
and the item will be stopped in Erlanger, and the relisted at ebay again, the seller will NOT get his item back again, as would be the normal way to handle these stopped items.

The people in Erlanger systematicly stops these packages, steal the items (legally or not ) and relist the items,

The official ebay word is that anything that for some reason reached Erlanger but cannot be shipped is 'passed to a third party provider' and, it seems, is sold.

The good news is that the seller does not refund the customer, ebay/PB do the refund out of their money. As far as the seller is concerned it is a sale.

As far as the buyer is concerned, they vent their annoyance on the seller when they don't get the item, but that's another story.

More details here.

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Weekly-Chat-with-eBay-Staff/Weekly-Chat-with-the-eBay-Global-Shipping-T...

Wow...I'm really surprised and was obviously wrong when I said that didn't happen.

I really don't think that it is right that they do it that way. They should return the item to the seller who can then arrange to ship the item to the buyer via another method. Perhaps it is less expensive for PB to do it the way they are doing it but it doess seem like poor customer service. .Although neither the buyer or seller is out the money, the buyer does not have the item which they obviously wanted.

pierrelebel · ‎10-10-2013

"The seller could have just sent the phone with USPS around $8."

That is correct. Taxes may be collected at the Post Office upon receipt.

As stated on many previous posts, the problem is mostly with American sellers using the program when they should not. I blame eBay for being too aggressive in promoting and pushing GSP instead of educating American sellers as to when and how to use it.

i*m-still-here · ‎10-10-2013

ONE problem is that without the GSP buyers are almost guaranteed that no taxes would be owing upon arrival for an eBay type item unless shipped by courier.

Not 100% guaranteed, but so so close that a buyer can pretty much purchase freely with the occasional very forgivable surprise.

That is true for items of all values, and even though there is a greater chance that a $500 item well be taxed............. the chance is still very small.

There simply is no way to bring the GSP into line with that no matter how much you tweak it.

Anonymous · ‎10-10-2013

Pierre, I checked your feedback history and see that you are a seller only, so we have no way of knowing if you have bought anything from USA with GSP. If you don't ever bought anything from USA with GSP, then how the heck would you understand how we feel about GSP? Just wonder.

Another thing, those people have rights to say "scam" regarding GSP. I have tried to buy 5 items from US sellers with GSP to see what is up.

All of them came with much longer delay in mail service because the sellers have to ship to hubs that eBay tells them to. I noticed that with way too high postages rates we have to pay with GSP and when all 5 packages arrived at the hub, they were opened and inspected and repacked, of course, poorly repacked.

I see all 5 of them shipped from sellers to hub with the tracking information but when they leave the hub, there are NO TRACKING AT ALL! Apparently whoever at hub used the cheaper mail service and profit the difference in postage rates for themselves!!

I usually received an average of 20 packages/parcels from US sellers without GSP, all of them came with XpressPost stickers. Wonder why those 5 packages I bought from US sellers with GSP don't come with XpressPost stickers and all of them were scanned with tracking information from the sellers to my home.

It clearly just tell me that there is something "scam" about GSP!! So Pierre, listen and believe us when we tell you of our experiences with GSP.

pierrelebel · ‎10-10-2013

"see that you are a seller only"

???

We all know better than judging a book by its cover. While I sold millions of dollars worth of stamps on eBay in fifteen years under "pierrelebel", I have also been a buyer - hundreds of thousands of dollars worth - under my buying ID.

Why do folks keep making assumptions about other posters? Why do folks suggest that one's opinion is right or wrong based on the limited information available here?

i*m-still-here · ‎10-10-2013

honeybed1950.............. You have a very valid point.

I agree with you 100%

The responses and advice to buyers regarding the GSP are coming from posters who are mainly sellers but buy a little now and then.

I sell as well as buy, and I've also spoken in support of the GSP because as a Canadian seller is can help me as long as buyers don't leave eBay as a result of the GSP.

No one who only buys and never sells would do that.

Sellers understand the GSP to a certain degree, but it's also glaringly clear that they don't really "get" it time and time again.

pjcdn2005 · ‎10-10-2013

Pierre, I checked your feedback history and see that you are a seller only, so we have no way of knowing if you have bought anything from USA with GSP. If you don't ever bought anything from USA with GSP, then how the heck would you understand how we feel about GSP? Just wonder.

honeybed, all of your feedbacks on this id are from one seller who is Canadian. So if you assume that Pierre hasn't bought anything from a GSP seller I guess that we should assume that you haven't either??

i*m-still-here · ‎10-10-2013

Even though Pierre has stated many times that experience with the GPS is necessary to really understand it, I don't agree with that statement.

One does not have to use it to understand it, and it's probably also true that the more experienced the buyer / the less likely that the buyer will fall into that trap.

So, in a way the converse is true.

However, buying experience is another story. It's clear from the posts that some sellers don't understand the buying end of eBay as well as they do the selling end.

Nothing wrong with that, but it really is the reason that these exchanges about the GSP go on and on and on.

These boards are dominated by sellers, and that shows up all the time in the GSP threads.

marnotom! · ‎10-10-2013

@anatrilla wrote:
totally agree. I'm so **bleep** off. I just bought an item for $0.71 and they charged me $16! The seller got:

$3.16 USD which includes shipment he's paying for and somone **bleep**ing else under the name of "Pitney Bowes, Inc." got $13.71 USD and for what?? seing as the seller only got $3.16????? why are they charging me 13.71????

The seller charged $2.41 for shipping the mints to Kentucky, where the Global Shipping Center is located. The seller gets from the Global Shipping Program whatever they got for the item, plus the cost for shipping it to Kentucky.

The rest of the shipping charge is what it costs to get from Kentucky to where you are.

But the real reason they're charging you that much is because you bought the mints. Why did you buy them if you didn't like the shipping charge? It should have been right on the listing page.

Anonymous · ‎10-13-2013

This Id username is not to buy, it is to be used for communication here. I have 2 other accounts that I buy and sell. Thanks.

pietert2005 · ‎10-13-2013

the gps is no scam,i heard some people say here...

im from netherlands.. i just saw a jacket on ebay.com... it costs 400$...

My additional import tax would be 211$ haha.

in my country this import tax would be exactly 20% of 400$.

What u mean; 211$ for import taxes isnt a scam?

anguscoinshop · ‎10-13-2013

In the last month 1/2 I spent about $2000 in play money, $70 of that is eBay. The rest has all been spent locally.

That massive reduction of purchasing on eBay is strictly due to eBay's GSP.

EBay do know they are loosing cargo ship full of money.

As the CEO of my company, I address every issue as they come without delay.

It amazes me to see eBay absolutely willing to let sales fall to new lows because of a failed program.

pjcdn2005 · ‎10-13-2013

@pietert2005 wrote:
the gps is no scam,i heard some people say here...

im from netherlands.. i just saw a jacket on ebay.com... it costs 400$...

My additional import tax would be 211$ haha.

in my country this import tax would be exactly 20% of 400$.

What u mean; 211$ for import taxes isnt a scam?

Many of the Canadian complaints about the GSP are because with GSP they are guaranteed to have to pay tax and/or duty but if the item was sent direct by the seller, the package might slip through without any extra charges. Perhaps as you suggest, when you import something to the EU from a non EU country, they charge you only for VAT on all items. As I have never imported anything into the EU I have no idea if that is how it works but legally, they can charge you duty on many items that cost more than 150 Euro. I was curious how much that would work out to on a $400 coat as $211 does sound expensive.

http://www.belastingdienst.nl/wps/wcm/connect/bldcontenten/belastingdienst/individuals/abroad_and_cu...

Item 290991016905 uses GSP and has an import charge to the Netherlands of U.S.$183

Coat is $449 (331 Euros) and shipping is $39. Jeans have 12% duty so I'll use that figure as I don't know the exact duty charged on a coat.

Duty is on the item + shipping

$449 + 39 = $488 x 12% = $58.56 Duty

Vat is paypable on shipping & duty

$449 + $39 + $58 = $546 x 21% VAT = $114.66 VAT

VAT + Duty = $173.22 so PB's service charge may be $10 in this case.

Frustrating...yes...scam...no.

If you normally would have to pay $102 VAT and nothing else, you should avoid the GSP. But if you usually do have to pay duty when when an item is more than 150 Euros, then the using the GSP works out to be about $10 more in this situation.

pjcdn2005 · ‎10-13-2013

@Anonymous wrote:
This Id username is not to buy, it is to be used for communication here. I have 2 other accounts that I buy and sell. Thanks.

Yes I realize that. You totally missed the point.

marnotom! · ‎10-13-2013

@pietert2005 wrote:
the gps is no scam,i heard some people say here...

im from netherlands.. i just saw a jacket on ebay.com... it costs 400$...

My additional import tax would be 211$ haha.

in my country this import tax would be exactly 20% of 400$.

What u mean; 211$ for import taxes isnt a scam?

My understanding in the Netherlands is that taxes would be charged on the shipping, not just the item itself.

An item of that value would also likely be subject to duty, not just taxes.

And then there are various customs-clearance related charges on top of that. Remember, you're being charged "import charges" which are taxes and other fees for buyers.

It's not a scam. It's just "by the book".

Not a scam. Just "by the book".

marnotom! · ‎10-13-2013

@angus_coin_shop wrote:

In the last month 1/2 I spent about $2000 in play money, $70 of that is eBay. The rest has all been spent locally.

That massive reduction of purchasing on eBay is strictly due to eBay's GSP.

EBay do know they are loosing cargo ship full of money.

As the CEO of my company, I address every issue as they come without delay.

It amazes me to see eBay absolutely willing to let sales fall to new lows because of a failed program.

If those items you would have purchased without the GSP are getting purchased by other people instead, then eBay isn't necessarily losing money.