eBay

patrick_the_loner · ‎06-09-2013

I just had a trying experience with 2 E bay sellers, it is not their fault but this new darn Import Charge to Canadians is a farce..If the Americans need money badly just put a gun to my face and take it not bleed the main source of the E Bay sellers income. As I am a member since Jan-7-08 I have bought a lot of different items and I may be forced to go elsewhere to buy. And from what I have read in the discussion board a lot more Canadians are doing the same...DON'T E BAY CARE ABOUT IT'S MEMBERS???????..The US postal service is to darn high to send items here to Canada??? What happened to that FREE TRADE WE HAD ( OR DID WE ??????? ) Yeah Right

You buy an item from E.Bay for $25.00 US and the shipping charges are sometimes double the price and now this so called IMPORT CHARGE NOW AH YOU THINK THAT CANADIANS ARE STUPID WERE NOT WE KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE US ECONOMY...........WE HERE IT EVERY DAY,,,WHY SHOULD WE CANADIANS AND LOYAL E BAY MEMBERS PAY FOR YOUR DEBT YOU DID IT NOT US,

GO BACK TO THE WAY THINGS WERE WE ALL WERE HAPPY THEN AND E.BAY SELLERS DID VERY WELL... Thank You A LOYAL E.BAY BUYER

marnotom! · ‎06-11-2013

I tried to find some other examples of the import charges being different on each site but haven't seen any more. Has anyone else noticed this on other listings?

I just went through a few listings in electronics and dolls (to see if this was a category-specific glitch) and couldn't find anything either.

lgparkes1 · ‎06-11-2013

To pierrelebel...I think you're missing the point here. No, I don't mind paying HST or sales tax on any purchase, but what we're seeing here is import charges being tacked on to duty-free items (like cameras/lenses) that FAR exceed any 12 or 13 percent sales tax. This is a money-grabbing scam that is no less than criminal! And it kinda makes me wonder exactly who you work for if you are apparently supporting it.

I'd love to hear what eBay.Canada has to say about this. I find it hard to believe that they actually support it. But I guess they're no less greedy than any other private for-profit company.

Personally, I think the RCMP should be investigating this racket. ASAP!

pierrelebel · ‎06-11-2013

"I'd love to hear what eBay.Canada has to say about this."

Please read the question on post #1 and eBay.ca's answer on post #2

http://community.ebay.ca/topic/Weekly-Board-Hour/June-5th-Weekly/4000009126

marnotom! · ‎06-11-2013

To pierrelebel...I think you're missing the point here. No, I don't mind paying HST or sales tax on any purchase, but what we're seeing here is import charges being tacked on to duty-free items (like cameras/lenses) that FAR exceed any 12 or 13 percent sales tax. This is a money-grabbing scam that is no less than criminal! And it kinda makes me wonder exactly who you work for if you are apparently supporting it.

I'd love to hear what eBay.Canada has to say about this. I find it hard to believe that they actually support it. But I guess they're no less greedy than any other private for-profit company.

Personally, I think the RCMP should be investigating this racket. ASAP!

I don't know why you keep going on about the lens being duty-free when duty has nothing to do with these charges anyway.

Can you go into more specifics about the charges instead of ranting? After you take off the amount of tax owing on a lens being sold through the GSP, what's the balance of the import charges? How does that compare to what Canada Post wants (ten bucks Canadian)?

And how do you expect the RCMP to investigate something that's being done in the United States?

pierrelebel · ‎06-11-2013

From eBay.ca:

"Obviously we are well aware that the current iteration of the Global Shipping Program isn't advantageous for most Canadian buyers."

It is as black and white as can be.

pierrelebel · ‎06-12-2013

"i don't know why you protect this Multi-billion company,"

???

Nobody here is "protecting Pitney Bowes.

The information you receive at the Post Office is incorrect.

Pitney Bowes, like many other American companies, is registered with GST/HST to collect and remit Canadian taxes to the Canadian government.

pierrelebel · ‎06-12-2013

Please take a look at:

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/gp/rc4027/rc4027-e.html

Doing Business in Canada - GST/HST Information for Non-Residents

Voluntary registration

Even if you do not have to register for the GST/HST because you are a small supplier or because you do not carry on business in Canada, you can choose to register voluntarily in the following cases:

you are engaged in a commercial activity in Canada; you are a non-resident person who, in the ordinary course of carrying on business outside Canada, regularly solicits orders for goods (except prescribed goods) to be exported or delivered to Canada; you are a non-resident person who, in the ordinary course of carrying on business outside Canada, enters into an agreement to supply services to be performed in Canada; or you are a non-resident person who, in the ordinary course of carrying on business outside Canada, enters into an agreement to supply intangible personal property such as intellectual property: to be used in Canada; that relates to real property situated in Canada; that relates to goods that are ordinarily situated in Canada; or that relates to services to be performed in Canada.

If you choose to register voluntarily, you have to stay registered for at least one year. By registering, you can claim input tax credits for the GST/HST paid or payable on purchases related to your commercial activities. If you are a small supplier and register voluntarily, you have to charge, collect, and remit the GST/HST on your taxable supplies of goods and services (other than zero-rated).

marshallcabs222 · ‎06-23-2013

100% agree. The import charge is a blatant scam.

marshallcabs222 · ‎06-23-2013

Well said

marshallcabs222 · ‎06-23-2013

100% bang on my friend.

marshallcabs222 · ‎06-23-2013

A lot of the confusion on this matter would be eliminated with a full breakdown explaining what/where the GSP costs are allocated on your invoice. Or avoid those listings all together which of course hurts the bottom line for everybody involved.

kerstingunnel · ‎06-23-2013

Since 2009 I have been and am a VERY happy eBay buyer. The recent surge of US based eBay sellers partnering with GSP, however, has me scratch my head. From what I can tell, it postures to solve a completely non-existing problem while creating a very tangible and substantial one.

In the years I have been buying on eBay, a shipment to me from the US has NEVER ONCE been halted at the Canadian Border Agency to accrue charges of broker's fees, sales taxes and import charges. I have NOT PAID A CENT EVER in such charges for shipments originating from US based eBay sellers. Shipments can be halted, but in my own experience, they rarely, if ever, are.

For each and every purchase from a seller who is partnering with GSP, however, such charges are paid (probably in addition to monies paid to eBay and GSP for their hand in the arrangement) and paid substantially. In a typical eBay transaction an item won at $26 cost $11.50 to ship and $9.51 (!!!) in GSP import charges.

Postal rates have gone up steeply for international shipping recently, adding to the sudden increase in the cost of shipping to Canada..

EBay may not be able to influence US postal costs, but the GSP partnership with eBay vendors is definitely an area of eBay's direct control and prerogative.

I will not buy from an eBay business who partners with GSP.

This year we Canadians number 35 million people and I'm sure that there are many of them who LOVE eBay as much as I do. Since this is a substantial market, I think it would be exceedingly foolish and myopic of eBay to jeopardize it altogether by taking GSP on board. Several eBay sellers I have contacted say that if the partnership becomes mandatory, they will cease to offer their listings to Canadians. Some have tried to work with GSP and find immediately that it doesn't serve them or their Canadian customers well - they have subsequently backed out of the partnership. Many have figured out beforehand and on their own that it wouldn't be in their interest or that of their Canadian customers and they have not opted for bringing GSP on board. All sellers say that they are encouraged by eBay to partner with GSP.

Every seller I have discussed this issue with was under the impression that this a valuable service devised to streamline the buying process and solve existing problems for their Canadian customers. This is, then, patently untrue. If this is how eBay, against their better knowing, "sells" the GSP program to their vendors, eBay actively misleads them. If eBay is unaware of the real state of affairs in regards to import charges, it ought to look into the factual situation more diligently before making such a serious move. It appears to be a predatory and parasitic practise.

It seems, thus, that the arrangement benefits GSP, eBay and the coffers of Canada. It doesn't benefit eBay vendors or their Canadian customers. In the end, since we all coexist and are interdependent, if it chokes or severely affects the Canadian market, only GSP and the government of Canada come out the winners, not eBay, not eBay sellers, not Canadian eBay buyers.

Other US based on-line businesses are partnered with similar programs for shipping to Canadian customers, which is one of the reasons I always prefer to buy on eBay.

Why fix what works perfectly well without fixing?

pjcdn2005 · ‎06-24-2013

Well said kerstingunnel! I hope that the ebay reps read your post as it is well stated without drama. I am sure that many many Canadian buyers feel exactly the same way.

marnotom! · ‎06-25-2013

@kerstingunnel wrote:
Since 2009 I have been and am a VERY happy eBay buyer. The recent surge of US based eBay sellers partnering with GSP, however, has me scratch my head. From what I can tell, it postures to solve a completely non-existing problem while creating a very tangible and substantial one.

<snip>

Why fix what works perfectly well without fixing?

Keep in mind that the GSP was likely not designed with the typical Canadian eBay buyer in mind.

My hypothesis is that a suit at Pitney Bowes was perusing the International Trading Discussion Board on the .com site and noticed posts from sellers upset because a buyer from the EU had not collected their item from customs or the post office and felt that it was because VAT was due on it. Or perhaps they saw posts from European buyers upset because the weren't anticipating what they saw as "an extra shipping charge" levied by the post office, when in fact it was VAT owing on the item. Or perhaps they saw the occasional post from a seller anticipating an INR case or claim they couldn't "beat" because there was no tracking on the item (unaware that tracking would not save them anyway if the tracking didn't show delivery). And then there are complaints about glacially slow customs processing for letter-class items in countries such as Brazil and Italy.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

Posts like these are generally regarded as the exception rather than the rule for international shipments from the U.S. but because they make up the bulk of what's posted on that discussion board, they tend to leave U.S. sellers--and possibly that Pitney Bowes suit who sold the idea to eBay--with the view that international shipping is a time bomb waiting to go off, a series of plane crashes, an unnecessary hassle, or what have you. The problem isn't non-existent, as you claim, but it is likely a lot less significant than the discussion boards make it out to be.

The U.S. market is large enough for most sellers to make an acceptable go of it on eBay, so why "complicate" things by making it "risky", is the sentiment of many U.S. sellers.

The problem is, all these "Ships to United States and nowhere else" sellers on eBay have ensured that the U.S. market is pretty well saturated. The pie has been consumed. The pie can be made bigger, however, if more sellers expanded their buying pool.

The GSP hasn't only been marketed as a way to make international sales "easy," but there have been other carrots dangled in front of sellers to encourage them to adopt it in the way of reduced fees. That's likely a big reason why you've started running into so many sellers using it.

Then there are sellers who just see the "easy" carrot and adopt it without doing their homework and experimenting or else checking in with the competition to see how much it would actually cost their international buyers.

While your points are certainly valid, keep in mind that you're speaking only of the Canadian experience as a buyer. In Australia, there's an extremely high non-taxable threshold for personal imports so the only thing the Australians need quibble about are the shipping charges (which for heavier items can actually turn out to be lower than what's offered by USPS). In Europe and South America, speedier transit through customs may be desirable for some, although they may have to wait a bit to try the GSP out for themselves as it isn't offered to many countries at the moment.

While getting potentially taxable items tax-free is certainly an incentive for using the post office versus the GSP, one shouldn't fault the GSP for doing its job. If a Canadian is buying an item from the U.S. (or anywhere else other than Canada) and it doesn't get assessed for taxes, it should be considered a bonus, not treated as a given. I'm glad you've never had to pay taxes owing on a postal import, but I have, and I've even had to travel to the post office by boat to pay those charges when I lived in a more remote location. Consider yourself very lucky indeed.

i*m-still-here · ‎06-25-2013

Isn't it interesting that all who come into contact with the GSP try to find some justification for the way ebay is promoting it.

I've yet to see an explanation that even comes close to being satisfactory.

Could it just be a mistake?

marnotom! · ‎06-25-2013

@i*m-still-here wrote:

Isn't it interesting that all who come into contact with the GSP try to find some justification for the way ebay is promoting it.

I've yet to see an explanation that even comes close to being satisfactory.

Could it just be a mistake?

I don't understand your post.

i*m-still-here · ‎06-25-2013

I'm saying that we're all looking for some kind of explanation for the existance of the GSP, and maybe there is no reason that makes sense.

Maybe it's just one big mistake.

marnotom! · ‎06-25-2013

The reason it doesn't make sense is because it wasn't made with international sales in mind.

Pitney-Bowes is looking for new sources of revenue due to the fact that its core business of postage meters is tanking.

eBay.com is looking for increased revenue from sellers in a saturated domestic market.

It's a marriage made in, well, pick your geographical location.

marnotom! · ‎06-25-2013

I should probably qualify that somewhat to say that the GSP wasn't devised with sales of small, modestly-priced items in mind, and those are the types of purchases that are most cost-effective for most Canadians to make.

Look up a brand new high ticket electronics item such as a mobile phone on several different sites. You'll likely see a big discrepancy between the number of listings available on .com compared to .ca and other eBay sites. I think these are the types of sales that the GSP is trying to attract for eBay.

However, it usually doesn't make a lot of financial sense to purchase an item like this on eBay from the United States, does it?