eBay

wickedservant · ‎10-14-2013

I've generally avoided auctions where the seller chose to use the Global Shipping Program, but for various reasons ended up bidding and winning a few with this service, and it has presented problems in each case.

First, all shipping/handling charges are not visible. One charge is shown, one is not seen until viewing a credit card statement. This is deceptive, and by paying one fee to ship from location to location within the U.S. and then another to ship from there to the buyer, it is certainly not efficient.

Second, in the event that the seller wishes to cancel the auction/decides not to ship/etc etc who tells Pitney Bowes to initiate a refund of the seperately-charged second S&H fee? (including "Import Charges")

Though I am not the most active or spendthrift user on Ebay, I have enjoyed bidding and winning auctions here for over a decade and have never been disappointed with the format and standards until now.

If this garbage service becomes the norm for U.S. sellers, it it a despicably low norm. I won't be bidding on anything contaminated by it.

afantiques · ‎10-14-2013

"But apart from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?"

chimera148 · ‎10-14-2013

marnotom! · ‎10-14-2013

@wickedservant wrote:

First, all shipping/handling charges are not visible. One charge is shown, one is not seen until viewing a credit card statement. This is deceptive, and by paying one fee to ship from location to location within the U.S. and then another to ship from there to the buyer, it is certainly not efficient.

Could you elaborate on this point? Are you saying that you're paying more than what's stated on the listing page?

For example, for your PS 2 Slim, it shows for me in BC a shipping charge of $30.24 and import charges of $5.71. Add those to your bid amount of $39.03 and the total is US$74.98. Did you pay significantly more than that?

wickedservant · ‎10-15-2013

There was another shipping charge of roughly $13. So a forty dollar auction for a common, lightweight item costs fifty dollars to ship through Pitney Bowes. The seller can't be happy at the auction price, and anyone but a U.S. buyer can't be thrilled about the total cost. Global Shipping can jump off a cliff.

marnotom! · ‎10-15-2013

@wickedservant wrote:
There was another shipping charge of roughly $13. So a forty dollar auction for a common, lightweight item costs fifty dollars to ship through Pitney Bowes.

What were the charges you saw on your PayPal account? How much went to the seller and how much went to Pitney Bowes?

pierrelebel · ‎10-15-2013

The listings shows:

Shipping:

$30.24 International Priority Shipping to Canada | See details

Item location:

Hays, Kansas, United States

Import charges:

$8.98 (estimated and based on current bid)

Now this shipping and import charges is based on the buyer being in Ontario (rate will vary depending on province)

Domestic shipping (within the USA) was shown as US$12.35 using California.

Your PayPal account should have been charged for the item (US$39.07), the shipping charge (about US$30) and the import charge (about $9) only, not the $13 domestic shipping.

The shipping charge is about the same as if the seller had shipped to you directly using the same shipping method (USPS Priority) The import charge is lower than you would have paid if taxes had been assessed and picked up at the Post Office where a $9.95 administration (brokerage) fee applies.

marnotom! · ‎10-15-2013

@pierrelebel wrote:

Your PayPal account should have been charged for the item (US$39.07), the shipping charge (about US$30) and the import charge (about $9) only, not the $13 domestic shipping.

Actually, how the payment split works is that the buyer sees two PayPal charges. The first is the item price plus the seller's first listed U.S. domestic shipping rate, in effect what the seller would see if they shipped to a "real" buyer in Kentucky. The second payment would be the shipping cost for sending the item from Kentucky to its destination plus the applicable import charges. Those two charges should add up to what the buyer paid in Checkout.

That's probably what you mean, Pierre, but I thought I'd better bring up the payment split again so as not to confuse the buyer further.

bennett4612 · ‎10-16-2013

Hi wickedservant.

A couple quick points to add to the info the Community has already provided.

First off, in most cases we do not recommend using the GSP for items priced under $50. This info is on our FAQ page, along with a lof of other ... FAQs. http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/shipping/globalshippingprogram/update_faqs.html

Second, providing a transaction is cancelled the "official way", Pitney Bowes is notified automatically. Just like with a non-GSP transaction where PayPal/eBay/etc. are notified.

And lastly, on a GSP transaction there are estimated fees on the listing itself and then actual fees are listed on the checkout page.

Hope this helps.

---Ben

16blythest · ‎10-18-2013

To wickedservant.

I,too, have enjoyed bidding on & winning quite a few things over the years.

EBay was fun! I had great sellers ,excellent communication with them that went beyond just buying & selling.

I have a 100% excellent feed back.

But it's not fun any more. I feel I'm being royally cheated.

It's extremely rare for me to comment on these message boards but the GSP has forced me to, I'm so annoyed .Keeping silent isn't an option.

Whatever our friend Wise Yoda, The Font Of All Knowledge has to say to shoot down everyones concerns , the fact remains that even the SUSPICION of being conned will turn buyers away.

Actually BEING conned will REALLY mess up sales.

Canadian & UK stores for this Canadian from now on , on eBay.ca.

afantiques · ‎10-18-2013

As ever, why not buy from non GSP US sellers? They are likely to be the more competent ones anyway.

16blythest · ‎10-20-2013

To afantiques:

How easy is it to find non GSP sellers in the US listings?

I fear hidden Pitney B costs will spring up at the final stage of a transaction, or on my PayPal bill.

Why go through the whole transaction only to have to cancel at the final moment?

Sellers no longer send us a final bill by eMail as they used to.

One of my sellers didn't like being pushed aside like that.

What to look for on the seller's posting to be sure ?

By the way, still waiting for the fast Pitney B. package to arrive after over a week.

pierrelebel · ‎10-20-2013

"How easy is it to find non GSP sellers in the US listings?"

It depends what you are looking for. For example, you recently purchased a "thermal blanket" from an American seller offering GSP.

Searching for "thermal blanket" on eBay I find American sellers offering GSP and some who do not. It is right there on the search result page reading "Customs services and international tracking provided".

Then I noticed you also purchased a "Pepperell" blanket from an American seller also offering GSP.

Searching "Pepperell" in the blanket sub-category, I found ten (10) listings from American sellers, seven (7) shipping directly to Canadian buyers and only three (3) offering GSP and all three listings are clearly shown on search result page as "Customs services and international tracking provided"

So to answer your question and dealing specifically with items you have recently purchased from the USA, yes it is relatively easy to find items where the American sellers will ship directly to the Canadian buyer.

"Why go through the whole transaction only to have to cancel at the final moment?"

You do not need to go through anything. The information is right there on the search result page.

marnotom! · ‎10-20-2013

A small postscript to Pierre's excellent post, make sure your search results are in "list view" form rather than "gallery view" so that you can see the note about customs services and whatnot on the results page.

16blythest · ‎10-21-2013

OK. Will be vigilant in future.

16blythest · ‎10-21-2013

2nd reply: BUT can avoid all problems by buying Canadian.

16blythest · ‎10-21-2013

THANKS!

16blythest · ‎10-21-2013

Yes, one charge is shown. The other is hidden until the end.

And the value can change during bidding.

Not a good system,as you say.....

marnotom! · ‎10-21-2013

@16blythest wrote:
Yes, one charge is shown. The other is hidden until the end.
And the value can change during bidding.
Not a good system,as you say.....

For auctions, it's impossible for the Global Shipping Program system to provide exact import charges until the auction has ended, since the bulk of import charges are taxes (and duties, if applicable).

My understanding from a test listing that I used is that you don't actually commit to purchasing a GSP item until Checkout time. If you don't like the import charges at Checkout, you don't complete the purchase.

sutherland1023 · ‎10-12-2015

You need to watch out even more now, as there seems a new tactic at play. I recently won a couple of pairs of Binoculars by being the only bidder, checked as I thought carefully and page showed USPS shipping $11.00, then a mysterious charge appeared on my credit Card, From Pitney Bowes Direct, charging for their extra fee's. I know they wasn't on the original listing but they change listing after closing and invoices as they go. Being caught the first time I was attempting to print off the invoice before it could be changed, they blocked some but not all.

How can you now bid on anything, in good faith and understand what your going to end up paying, Two sets of Bino's from different sellers

#1 Pair of USN E type 6x30 Bino's shipping 25.00, now another 20.00 separate charge just taken out of my account. not listed on original sellers page.

#2 Pair of miniature Oigee Bino's $9.00 pitney Bowes charges $40.00. How can anyone call this reasonable behaviour, it's just legal theft.