Comments about the Global Shipping Program

[kalvin@ebay.com]

Feel free to share your thoughts about the Global Shipping Program here. 

A few questions to get the ball rolling:

• What has worked well for you with the Global Shipping Program?
• Any ideas to help improve the experience for Canadian buyers?
• What has deterred you from buying items offered using the Global Shipping Program?
• How have you managed to search for items outside the program?

Please try & keep the comments constructive 🙂

If you have any questions about the program, please post them here.

[fredafonfon]

A 100% surtax on items as part of a retaliatory measure is something to complain about. Not necessarily just ebay, but if you buy from the states, and my husband does import car parts from the USA, you would understand the impact these changes are having. Let's wait and see how this affects inflation in our country. A 100% surtax on goods is something worth complaining about. 

[pierrelebel]

There are always two sides to a coin.

The last sentence from the message says it all:

"some Canadian manufacturers might find it to their advantage to argue in favour of the surtax applying to competitive imports."

So, do we want to support Canadian manufacturers and Canadian jobs while dealing with free trade with the USA or not?  It is a complicated issue where the USA appear to have taken advantage of Canada and the federal government wants to consider the possibility of retaliation.  It is a negotiation tactic, I do not see anything wrong with that. 

If I were to call my MP as you suggested it would be to support the Canadian government position.

[femmefan1946]

If it's not broke don't fix it!!!  Sellers did just fine without this terrible program.  STOP IT!!

Well, no. US sellers were not. Many US swellers, who work in the largest economy in the world were uncomfortable shipping overseas. They feared making out customs forms. They had to deliver their inttnationsal parcels to the  Post Office rathter han have them picked up by the USPS. They were afraid of Disputes for non-delivery by overseas buyers.

All of these concerns are addressed by the Global Shipping Program.

No, it is not good for buyers, especially Canadian buyers. But it is good for US sellers and for eBay which gets more listing and selling fees when the listings are open worldwide.

Someone is benefiting from this program, I suspect Pitney Bowes, don't know about eBay. 

PB charges about $5 to process parcels through the Global Shipping Program.

EBay gets more fees on more sales.

Nothing secret, no conspiracy. Just business

[i*m-still-here]

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@marnotom! wrote:

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And does your heart sink when you purchase an item from a store and see the sales taxes on the receipt?

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Mine does.

[anguscoinshop]

I got my last purchase today involving GSP, there was no receipt whatsoever.

I'm in business and I need all receipt to apply the deduction in my books. Ebay has refused issuance of a receipt.

I will phone the CRA on Monday morning to place a complaint against ebay.

As far as buyer complaint for GSP, in sure its not just from Canadian buyers. Its almost certain ebay is getting an earful from all over the place.

ebay will have to change there ways eventually otherwise they will strangle themselves.

[sakaw1067]

What the **bleep**, it is nothing more than a piracy.  I live in Canada, I never paid import tax except UPS involved for 300 plus transaction.   I do not buy anything shipped by UPS.  Now I will buy nothing with this money grab program by eBay.  sakaw1067

[marnotom!]

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@angus_coin_shop wrote:

I got my last purchase today involving GSP, there was no receipt whatsoever.

I'm in business and I need all receipt to apply the deduction in my books. Ebay has refused issuance of a receipt.

I will phone the CRA on Monday morning to place a complaint against ebay.

As far as buyer complaint for GSP, in sure its not just from Canadian buyers. Its almost certain ebay is getting an earful from all over the place.

ebay will have to change there ways eventually otherwise they will strangle themselves.

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I think your complaint would be better directed against Pitney Bowes rather than eBay.  eBay doesn't adminster the Global Shipping Program.  Pitney Bowes does.  See the terms and conditions page for buyers:

http://pages.ebay.ca/shipping/globalshipping/buyer-tnc.html

[marnotom!]

The Global Shipping Program is an alternative to the mail and commercial carriers such as UPS.

If you don't want to pay the taxes and clearance fees legally applied to a GSP purchase, simply don't purchase from a listing that uses the GSP.

If you feel a seller has lost your business because of their use of the GSP, drop them a quick, polite note explaining why.

[afantiques]

Non-Commercial Use. Merchandise available through the Program may not be sold for commercial resale purposes. By selling GSP Items, you agree not to sell any merchandise through the Program for commercial resale purposes.

This clause in the agreement may also cover business to business sales. They may have excluded commercial use because the way tax payments are handled made individual receipts impractical. It should also have mentioned business supplies to be thorough.

[anguscoinshop]

Canadian law supersede ebay's terms and condition.

[anguscoinshop]

Shop local, it will be good for your local economy. There are also many other venues you can use.

[afantiques]

Canadian law supersede ebay's terms and condition.

What is the position if the seller has breached the conditions of use. The seller is responsible for the listing, not ebay, which is of course, only a venue.

It is enough of an arguable point to defect complaints like yours.

The defense is 'We told them not to do it and they did it anyway, we made reasonable efforts to prevent such use.'

[marnotom!]

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@angus_coin_shop wrote:

Canadian law supersede ebay's terms and condition.

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What do eBay's terms and conditions have to do with the Global Shipping Program, which isn't administered by eBay?

Again, your beef is with Pitney Bowes in this case.

[2011limey1]

In my Saved Sellers there are a couple I used to buy the same small items on a regular basis, so they know me.  A little while ago when going to order again, I noticed they had both gone to GSP.  I sent a very polite note to both explaining the situation here in Canada and regret it's not worth buying from them any more blah blah.  As we've talked about here on the Boards MANY times - both replied back that they didn't realize it would cost so much to ship such small items.  In other words, they were not aware of the repercussions of the program.  Just got a reply from one, saying she's opted out.  Guess all we can do is POLITELY ask the seller of an item we want if in fact they know how much it'll take to ship to Canada, especially very small items.  Can't hurt, and in my case it worked.

[angelasunshine135]

This program is making my shopping experience a nightmare. Moste sellers seem to now be using this prgram so I cannot buy from them. I obviously won't purchase from someone who charges me more fees for no good reason. Someone like me who shops a lot from Canada, knows very well that their are rarely import taxes on items 50$ and less, so why would I pay more? I'm sorry, but there is nothing positive about being overcharged. 

[anguscoinshop]

At the end it wont matter, enay is responsible for there site, no one else.

I read another post with a bad experience with the GSP, the CEO needs to read, listen and do what is correct to keep the buyer base.

[doxymoron]

Smalls item are ridiculously expensive to mail via Pitney Bowes. The cost on a particular item I buy  is on the order of $18 for PB vs. $7.35 using USPS first class international mail, which now includes international tracking. As a result, I no longer buy these small items from sellers using Pitney Bowes. Since USPS first class international now has tracking, where's the advantage to the seller of using PB?

I had one seller signed up for Pitney Bowes who was willing to mail me the small item via USPS first class instead, but she could not find a way to invoice me for it. It would not allow her to send an invoice for the item because it was linked to Pitney Bowes shipping. No choice = no sale!

For items over 4 pounds, PB costs less than USPS... BUT... some dutiable/taxable items sent USPS attach no customs charges, because our border people do not charge customs on every dutiable/taxable item for which they have a right to. With PB, we pay duties/taxes every time.

The bottom line is that I do not like PB, and I suspect that sellers generally do not know that it is turning away international customers.

[lady.stark]

I just made my first GSP purchase today. Since it was implemented, I usually avoided all listings associated with this program. But this time, I made an exception, for many reasons.

(a) I've been searching for that poster since a LONG time and it's rare.

(b) The last poster of that kind I saw sold for over US $30 + shipping.

(c) That one was part of a lot of 3 posters and the price of the auction began at $35.

(d) I won at about $42. Shipping and import charges were about $26 for a total of $68 all fees included. For a lot of 3 posters, it is pretty reasonable.

So I didn't ask the seller to ship by another method and just paid for it. I will let you know how that purchase go in terms of shipping time and all.

[marysavory69]

I hate this GSP !! Its actually making me not want to use eBay at all anymore after I have been buying for years! Its making the items way too expensive and I think its ridiculous. For example I wanted to buy a pair of sneakers listed at 75 dollars. by the time the GSP was added on they were over 125, but shipping within the US was 8 bucks! To add insult the sneakers were used as well! I hope eBay realizes that this will also affect the sellers as people are not going to pay these charges. Well at least I know Im not! I tried to find out where to complain to eBay and cant!

[Anonymous]

to mary... Whenever you receive surveys/feedback from eBay asking you to respond to share your "experience" with eBay, you can tell them about GSP and what you think of.  I often use that formats to put in my experiences and suggestions or rant.   I felt it is the only way I can express my frustrations and include suggestions, etc.