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.

ronald5343 · ‎11-18-2013

I have completely stopped buying from any US seller that uses that ebay new way of charging we Canadians.

It must be said that if the US seller does not use the special Ebay shipping and does it to old way NO EXTRA IMPORT FEES ARE ADDED>

but the first thing I look for is ANYBODY BUT THE US. I have sent emails to Ebay and well THEY DON'T CARE FOR US AT ALL.

honest-sagitar · ‎11-18-2013

They call it "Import Charges", which implies that Canada Revenue Agency collects the funds. It is an utter misnomer and a senseless gouging. Shipping cost from US to Canada, very expensive and has been getting progressively worse. Gone are the days when it made perfect business sense to buy US and ditch Canadian eBay sellers. Not anymore.

Problem is that eBay.ca sucks. It has a paltry product selection, not eBay's problem, and the website itself has few important features missing, that are available at eBay.com.

If we as Canadians are buying US products from US sellers, I thought the Canadian government would be one to stifle us from doing so. But It chaps my hide knowing this is eBay's and USPS's doing.

It looks bad and desperate. eBay is getting a lot of competition from Amazon, which has set up a formidable shop in Canada. Now you can buy just about anything from Amazon. It is no longer a books distribution company. They have encroached and made strong strides in eBay's territory, there by putting a strong brake on eBay's revenue stream and profitability, which has become stagnant and is reflected in the the price of their shares. So, they scheme up these disgraceful charges to pad their income at our expense.

I gradually stopped buying from US sellers for reasons of astronomical shipping cost and now this senseless import charges. I just buy from Chinese sellers. And I will continue to do so. Besides, many US sellers do not know how to sell to Canada. If they did, they would have cried foul with these Import Charges implementation because it makes their product very expensive to ship.

Let us see if a movement will start to reject this cost and throw it in the face of eBay. So preposterous to pay as much, or more money in import charges as the price of the product. I cringe when I see that a product is offered for $9 and then shipping charges are listed at $30 and import charges at $12. No I am not referring to a bulky product. I am referring to an item you can fit in a regular USPS envelope.

afantiques · ‎11-18-2013

They call it "Import Charges", which implies that Canada Revenue Agency collects the funds

They do, eventually, and minus admin fees. How these costs are broken down is not detailed, merely categorised in the GSP details, but it's not all that hard to work them out.

Your main complaint is inappropriate use, and no one at all is arguing that this is not the main problem.

marnotom! · ‎11-18-2013

@honest-sagitar wrote:

They call it "Import Charges", which implies that Canada Revenue Agency collects the funds. It is an utter misnomer and a senseless gouging. Shipping cost from US to Canada, very expensive and has been getting progressively worse. Gone are the days when it made perfect business sense to buy US and ditch Canadian eBay sellers. Not anymore.

The use of the term "import charges" is defined in the GSP terms and conditions page for buyers. A link to this page is on every listing where the GSP is used.

As for the expense involved in purchasing from the United States, it is what it is. Most of the items I tend to purchase aren't very cost-effective to purchase even by mail from the United States, I now tend to purchase items from the United States that are difficult to source locally. The days of eBay being an online garage sale or flea market were over a long time ago.

If we as Canadians are buying US products from US sellers, I thought the Canadian government would be one to stifle us from doing so. But It chaps my hide knowing this is eBay's and USPS's doing.

USPS has nothing to do with the Global Shipping Program.

@honest-sagitar wrote:

It looks bad and desperate. eBay is getting a lot of competition from Amazon, which has set up a formidable shop in Canada. Now you can buy just about anything from Amazon. It is no longer a books distribution company. They have encroached and made strong strides in eBay's territory, there by putting a strong brake on eBay's revenue stream and profitability, which has become stagnant and is reflected in the the price of their shares. So, they scheme up these disgraceful charges to pad their income at our expense.

I heard on the news the other day that Amazon is still a money-losing operation. Make of that what you will.

As far as the Global Shipping Program being "bad and desperate," no question it needs tweaking, but keep in mind that most sellers that are using it likely didn't ship regularly out of the United States in the first place. We now have more choice as buyers, although that choice does come at a significant price for the inexpensive, lightweight items that aren't good fits with the GSP.

If there were no GSP as an option for U.S. sellers, I doubt that most sellers using it would be using the postal system for shipping to Canada. Instead, they simply wouldn't offer shipping to Canada (or any other country that's not the United States).

@honest-sagitar wrote:

Let us see if a movement will start to reject this cost and throw it in the face of eBay. So preposterous to pay as much, or more money in import charges as the price of the product. I cringe when I see that a product is offered for $9 and then shipping charges are listed at $30 and import charges at $12. No I am not referring to a bulky product. I am referring to an item you can fit in a regular USPS envelope.

That's interesting, because I thought that items within the tax-free threshold of C$20 now had the customs clearance charges included with the shipping price of the item and not as a separate line item, which you seem to be suggesting.

blutopeake · ‎12-01-2013

I could not agree more. I've been a HUGE fan of ebay for years now but this seems truly greedy and ludicrous . I've always been able to receive fair rates from dealers even after they went up in the extreme last year. I feel like one of my favorite pastimes is gone. I am truly and sadly disappointed

maritimeboy · ‎12-03-2013

Is there some way to filter out American sellers when we do a search for items? It is such a waste of time to search and find items that I want just to find it is an American who I no longer will purchase from. I refuse to pay extortion fees to get my products over the border.

Anyone know how to complete this kind of exclusive search?

afantiques · ‎12-03-2013

Use 'List View' for your search results and all the GSP ones will say something like Customs service and international tracking provided.

Just skip them

reallynicestamps · ‎12-03-2013

The ones who are being greedy are not the sellers.

And not eBay.

And not even Pitney Bowes who run the program.

The greed is on the part of the Harper Government, who promised to raise the Free Import limit to $200 and still have not eight years into their reign.

maritimeboy · ‎12-03-2013

Surprise, surprise! King Steve has not lived up to a promise. Who would have thought it. That clown is so history! I can't for the life of me, get my head around why Canadians gave that traitor a majority in the last election. Good drugs, I guess.

mr_mcs · ‎12-03-2013

Yes, under $20, but you have to pay on the SHIPPING AS WELL! So if the item is $9 and the shipping is $30 you are paying the "import fees" on $39.

I concur with most, I WILL NOT PURCHASE ANYTHING WITH THIS ADDED, first, they don't give us a choice, and second, most items sent to Canada via USPS Priority under about $100 rarely if ever get touched at customs. I have to agree that these mandatory fee's are cheaper than say UPS, but I still will not purchase them, as I always have stuff sent from the U.S. via USPS because as stated they are far cheaper than Fed Ex or UPS on the broker fees if you get dinged. EBAY HAS FOREVER LOST MUCH OF MY BUSINESS!

mr_mcs · ‎12-03-2013

Right, we would be much better with the Liberals LOL

mr_mcs · ‎12-03-2013

Yey, we would be much better with the Liberals, McGuinty really showed us how well they keep their promises, he was a stellar 0%

theoldestfart · ‎12-03-2013

Canada Post is loosing money hand over fist. If Canada Post is told by the federal government here in Canada to adhere to the letter of the law and do closer inspections of items coming into Canada then the difference between the charges using GSP and strictly Canada Post would be lessen.

pierrelebel · ‎12-03-2013

"If Canada Post is told by the federal government'

???

Canada Post has nothing to do with the taxing decision.

The decision to charge or not charge applicable taxes is made by Canada Customs, an agency of the Canadian federal government, NOT by Canada Post.

Canada Post only delivers parcels and collect taxes IF Canada Customs assigned taxes to the parcel.

theoldestfart · ‎12-03-2013

I stand corrected. It is indeed CBSA that does the assessing of any taxes and duties due on incoming mail shipments. They are the ones that are not following the letter of the law.

marnotom! · ‎12-03-2013

@mr_mcs wrote:

Yes, under $20, but you have to pay on the SHIPPING AS WELL! So if the item is $9 and the shipping is $30 you are paying the "import fees" on $39.

I'm not following you here. A $9 item won't have a "import charges" as a separate line item. The various customs clearance and processing fees will be added to the shipping charge, instead. For a nine buck item, that charge usually works out to something between three and four bucks, so I'd say your big beef with your hypothetical shipment should be the shipping charges, not the import charges, unless this is a pretty large nine buck item.

civicsirxxx · ‎12-04-2013

I have also stopped using ebay for shipping to Canada due to the overpriced shipping charges and the import fees, it's simply not worth it anymore. If I do buy something now I get it shipped near the border and drive down and pick it up myself, its about an hours drive but I also get my groceries while im there and save money big time on those, and I also buy my gas in the USA which is about $0.98/L vs $1.26/L in Canada. And while I have to pay tax on the item I shipped to the USA, it is no where near the crazy import fees charged in Ebay. And you only pay fees on the actual product, NOT the shipping. If you do get charged on the fees you can dispute it and get part of your money refunded.

civicsirxxx · ‎12-04-2013

And what really gets me is why are we Canadians paying import fees on used items from the USA...used items! It would be like buying an item at yard sale and then going to Service NB and saying "hi I bought this used record player at a yard sale and I want to pay GST for it"??? What happened to this thing called NAFTA? And why is Canada defined as International? We're physically connected to the USA, it's just an imaginary line that divides us, it's not like it's shipping over seas.

marnotom! · ‎12-04-2013

@civicsirxxx wrote:
And what really gets me is why are we Canadians paying import fees on used items from the USA...used items! It would be like buying an item at yard sale and then going to Service NB and saying "hi I bought this used record player at a yard sale and I want to pay GST for it"??? What happened to this thing called NAFTA? And why is Canada defined as International? We're physically connected to the USA, it's just an imaginary line that divides us, it's not like it's shipping over seas.

No, it's not like a yard sale at all and NAFTA has nothing to do with GST or PST, either.

live2ridebc · ‎12-07-2013

I have been buying off eBay for about 8 years and have rarely had to pay any import fees when using USPS. The GSP program is just making the cost of buying an item from the US too expensive. I no longer find it economical to purchase items from sellers that are using this program.