eBay

what-a-guy-2002 · ‎03-10-2013

Member since 2010 (632 100% feedback). I have been experiencing the new compulsory "import fees" policy on items from USA. Surprising! I am disappointed with this policy. It is a negative one on many levels notwithstanding for USA and eBay revenues, as many like myself will now be sure to be motivated to resource items outside of USA, and outside of eBay.

Also disappointing is a story I was told that USPS recently (January 28, 2013) redefined Canada from being an 'intermediary' to an 'international' country, and therefore shipping fees from the USA to Canada have risen 80%!

Must be people in rooms in the USA racking their brains on how to support the USA economy versus just printing money.

cumos55 · ‎04-19-2013

We know that it is geared towards US sellers, and currently ONLY available on eBay.com.

BUT

It is NOT geared towards Canadian buyers... and that's where the problem exists.

However, Canadian sellers have to understand the impact of the GSP on Canadian buyers... and then meet the needs of Canadian buyers....

chimera148 · ‎04-19-2013

My understanding is that combined shipping is not allowed with the GSP even though the items are similar. So with more shipping costs and import fees the buyers and sellers both lose.

i*m-still-here · ‎04-19-2013

Sellers had been cancelling the listings with the GSP for me and re-listing without it, but PJ suggested using paypal to pay instead.......

So, that's what we did this time around.

I didn't ask the seller to send to send a payment request (and I'm still not sure that's possible unless the original payment was refunded?).............

I just send the payment to her email address........

Now it's impossible for her to mark the item paid.

I wonder if I'll get a strike?

She's on the phone with eBay and they can't seem to amend it either.

What a waste of time for both of us.

pierrelebel · ‎04-19-2013

"Now it's impossible for her to mark the item paid."

???

I do it regularly when buyers send a cheque or pay through Interac.

Seller goes to "sold page", click on "change status" and select "paid" (and method of payment).

Nothing to it.

pierrelebel · ‎04-19-2013

"I wonder if I'll get a strike?"

???

Strike are given by eBay following a claim of non-payment by seller. That is obviously not the case here.

melissasminis · ‎04-19-2013

Regardless, All I know is USPS shipping costs have went up approx. 50% since January, now we have to deal with mandatory import charges, otherwise we would not need to pay, are you kidding me? It used to be cheaper to buy from USA for example, now not. On top of the FVF on shipping for sellers, I don't know what to think anymore!

melissasminis · ‎04-19-2013

I forgot to mention how I noticed this program. I went to make a purchase, and only noticed this after I purchased the item and went to pay for it. The seller sent me a revised invoice without the GSP charges without a problem. I bought the item for $13.75 plus shipping which was $6.00, the GSP charges were over $8.00, needless to say, I was surprised!

In the ebay weekly hour boards a question was asked regarding whether is was a violation for a buyer and seller to agree to avoid these GSP charges and send a regular invoice without it, the ebay team went on to say that once the auction/item has ended, we cannot avoid these charges, this is incorrect. They also went on to say that these GSP charges in the long run would make it cheaper for us, that is also not true, extra charges are never cheaper to anyone.

Avoid anyone to uses this GSP, unnecessary charges, for items you wouldn't normally pay taxes and duty on. It's very very rare I get charges duty and taxes for items, onlt more expenisve items in boxes, never envelope items, which I usually purchase.

Thanks fo listening!

i*m-still-here · ‎04-20-2013

The seller agreed to ship without the GSP before I bid, and so I paid via Paypal directly rather than have the seller re-list the item without the GSP.

(That was complicated enough for this particular seller to deal with......)

It took some time and during that interim I was getting threatening messages from ebay to pay-up.

The seller must have preferences set to give automatic strikes after a certain amount of time.

Now the seller cannot mark the item paid, and neither could the CSReps at ebay intervene and mark it paid.

It still says "Pay Now" even thought it's already been shipped.

If you think about it, that does make sense.

Sellers have a given amount of time to get the item to the P-B relay station, and so there is no option to wait for checks etc.

It seems that the system is set up to only accept payments directly via the ebay/paypal combo.

Paypal alone is not enough.

I don't think I'll get a strike (and don't much care either), but it's possible considering the way the seller has her preferences set up.

marshallcabs222 · ‎04-23-2013

I TOTALLY agree, there is something EXTREMELY fishy going on here. In Canada there are NO custom fees of any kind when under $20, and yet I paid $9.35 of import fees on an item which cost less than $20????????????Where did this nine dollars go? I suspect ebay and not the seller since it is a seperate invoice to a different domain.

To make matters worse, I also receive an average of 5-10 parcels per week (90% from US) and never have to pay fees unless it comes through UPS or FedEx.

Ebay should be made to answer these questions.

econospan · ‎04-23-2013

I fully agree. i have been experiencing higher than usual freight fees of late. now we have to put up with global shipping fee. i looked back at all the parcels that i have received lately and this fee seems to be sneaking into even the smaller packages parcel post used to let through with out a charge. yesterday i bought a train car for 14.99 freight is 14.09 and gsp is 3.20. wow. i used to enjoy e-bay, but sadly the days are numbered. local business will get my money again. no loss, better for the local guy anyway. i was one of the silent majority that was saving a buck and helping the little guy in the US. i regret i can not afford this anymore.

crafty_cat_lady · ‎04-23-2013

I just got done with a conversation with a nice lady in Texas who is selling her late mother's cat figurine collection. She'd opted into GSP, not understanding what it meant (she thought she couldn't ship internationally without it). I told her that she always had been able to ship internationally, and that this was just a song and dance being handed to her by eBay. I explained that these import fees don't go to her (she agreed with me there, that she doesn't charge or get any of that), and that they benefit nobody but eBay and its corporate affiliates.

The basic thing she needed to be aware of is that she would lose Canadian customers due to our being rightfully angry at having to pay import fees that we never had to before. The reason I'd contacted her in the first place was that I decided to explain why I saw a listing for something I'd like to have, and why I wouldn't be buying it from her. She said she would look into it, which is a step in the right direction.

I'm glad I saw this thread; it's saved me from making some horribly expensive mistakes.

rainbow71113 · ‎04-23-2013

Hello I'm Still Here,

I wonder if you can ask the seller if there were any problems with your payment sidestepping the gsp.....I am curious to know if the seller still has to pay money to pitney bowes even though she didn't collect it from you? If that would be the case it would be very unfair for the sellers as well. The way it sounds is that pitney gets their money on any transaction that is completed with gsp unless the transaction is cancelled. In your case you didn't complete that part but can pitney still try to collect from the seller and do they have any recourse on payments that are owed to them but not collected?

crafty_cat_lady · ‎04-23-2013

Hi, isis1313! Dunno if you remember selling me an elephant Beany Baby some while back - I've had visitors comment on how cute and adorable it is! So that transaction has cheered several people up. 🙂

i*m-still-here · ‎04-23-2013

isis: The seller does not pay P-B. The buyer does.

The payment shows up as two transactions on the paypal account. One to the seller and one to P-B.

The sellers portion includes item cost plus the seller's shipping cost to P-B.

The P-B portion includes a handling fee, shipping to Canada (which is usually for an expensive up-graded shipping method), plus duty and taxes if there are any.

I has occurred to me that it would actually be possible for the buyer and seller to agree to cancel the transaction and the seller should be able to collect FVFs if the buyer pays by any other method than the ebay/paypal combo.

rainbow71113 · ‎04-23-2013

mine didn't show up that way, it showed $24.60 for shipping and $3.34 for import fees, it wasn't separated for any amount to pitney. I was wondering on an earlier post that mentioned the separation since I didn't see that in my transaction. I wonder if they changed how it looks from the time I paid until recent transactions. Mine was way back on March 14th.

hello Crafty....I remember and I'm glad you like him. I had trouble selling those things- they were too high for lettermail and people didn't want to pay $9.00 for shipping through Canada for a beanie that was only costing $1.99.,,,LOL

pierrelebel · ‎04-23-2013

Good morning isis1313

"it showed $24.60 for shipping and $3.34 for import fees, it wasn't separated for any amount to pitney."

I think many readers, myself included, would appreciate the experience of a buyer who has actually gone through the GSP process and understands how it works.

Would it be possible to take a few minutes, check your PayPal history for March, dig out the two payments, and review all information on the PayPal "details" page.

Anything in there showing actual amount of tax(es) charged? HST/GST registration number? Etc...

i*m-still-here · ‎04-23-2013

isis:

The paypal payment shows up as two transactions, One to paypal and one to P-B.

You don't see the details there.

When you dig a little deeper you will find that the buyers portion of the bill is for item cost plus the buyer cost to ship to P-B in the States.

The P-B portion is for shipping to Canada, a handling fee, plus import charges.

You don't actually see the breakdown for import fees and handling handling charges.

However, it's just logic.

We know it's there because when there are no import fees there is still a handling charge.

While it's possible that they waive that handling fee when there are import fees.......

From what we know is it really likely?

rainbow71113 · ‎04-23-2013

oops, I stand corrected, looked up the confirmation email from the transaction and I was wondering why none of the numbers seemed to make any sense, I'll try to copy it here- I replaced the seller's id and email as per policy....yes Pierre you are not the only one with posts removed...LOL

271168265445Lot of 20 Decorative Painting Books and Magazines ~ Nice Colletion!!1$18.25 USD$18.25 USD
Shipping & ...

International shipping
(includes any seller handling fees)$6.52 USDTotal:$21.42 USDThis charge will appear on your credit card statement as "PAYPAL *PITNEYBOWES".
Payment sent to From amount:$26.01 CADTo amount:$24.77 USDExchange rate: 1 Canadian Dollar = 0.952326 U.S. Dollars

The total that went to pitney is $21.42 and NOT the $6.52 on top of that although it reads that way. I was so frustrated about the whole thing I didn't even look into it further, just paid it.