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.

[sandraspin]

Ebay.com US sellers participate in the Global Shipping program which basically is an enormous rip off and money grab for Canadian (and overseas) buyers.  I was recently charged 20.91 for a 10.00 item.  I paid it thinking it had to do with the cost of tracking or insurance or whatever, then found out that in fact the total cost of shipping came to 4.92.  Further when I left feedback for the seller indicating shipping WAY too high, ebay removed it thus lessening the chances of another buyer being alerted to the problem.

Moral of the story:  DO NOT BUY FROM U.S. SELLERS!

[pierrelebel]

"DO NOT BUY FROM U.S. SELLERS!"

With all due respect, that statement does not make sense.

If you find an item from a US seller that is too expensive for you, of course you should not buy it.

However, there are millions of items listed on eBay that are of interest to Canadian buyers, even after considering the cost of shipping and taxes if applicable. 

Why should Canadians not buy those items?  Because you had one bad experience?  Does that make sense?

Your lack of understanding of the Global Shipping Program (GSP) lead you to blame the seller resulting in you leaving negative feedback for high shipping cost thinking $4.92 was the cost of shipping to you in Canada.  You did not read or understand the cost information provided in the listing and blamed the seller for your mistake.

Your name has been added to my blocked bidder list.  Some sales are not worth having.

[pierrelebel]

"people that used GSP , have already commented how much longer the wait time is to get the product.."

That may be true for some buyers yet we have read on these boards testimony to the contrary where goods came in very quickly from US sellers using GSP.

It is obvious from your many posts that you do not like the program.  OK.  Do not use it.  That is your choice.

I do not like the program either and will not use it.  That is my choice.

However, let's keep our comments factual, not tinted by the like or dislike of a program.

[brandeentertainment]

ya blaming the seller is not the way go partner .. Althought the GSP Program is really more hype then anything and it does cost a little more with the GSP program no all buyers have to do is see if it is worth the extra cost..

example: I have for years bought all my vehicle parts of ebay for about 8 years now anyways but now with the GSP program in brings my cost of most of the Car parts I need to within a Few $$ of buying locally so Now I buy locally because saving $2 is not worth the wait well before i used to save alot more..

This situation you are having I do not really understand by your description of it but it seem you are blaming the seller for like Pierre said your lack of knowledge os the GSP program..

My first purchase with GSP cost me $20 more for mailers I have been buying off a guy for years .. Lessons learned i do not buy mailers of him in small amounts anymore .. with the Gsp Program i now have to buy a couple 1000 to make it cheap again so that is what i do .

I am new to this program too but I am not new to ebay and you should never blame a seller for something that was not his fault and Cost well if you agreed to it then your complaining is pointless because you chose to buy now nobody forced you

[bb_cool_stuff]

You did not read or understand the cost information provided in the listing and blamed the seller for your mistake.

These posts have been going on for months & like I mentioned previously, have become very tiring.

I guess its just too easy to blame eBay, Paypal, GSP & Sellers without accepting personal responsibility for their lack of research.

[bb_cool_stuff]

However, let's keep our comments factual, not tinted by the like or dislike of a program.

That would be a fine start.

[afantiques]

You seem to want to defend the GSP but then call it a scheme...,So i really don't know what your point is, if you think that most people are mis-informed and GSP really is a good thing, does that mean you are buying products out of the US using GSP, or let me ask you have you ever used this service, because you seem to have all the answers.

What answers I have are because I have been watching this GSP develop since it was introduced about a year ago. I have read all the available information including the full terms and conditions, and I have followed posts on three countries boards.

In some limited circumstances it can be better value for buyers, principally with heavy items to low tax countries because the international shipping cost can be notably lower than USPS Priority international (the USPS parcel service for stuff over 4 pounds)

Generally speaking it is misapplied by sellers who either have little idea how the program works or do not even know they are offering it.

I don't defend or attack it, but I do object to the villagers getting the firewood together to burn a witch.

It is badly conceived and appallingly badly implemented by ebay with stealth marketing, but it is not the work of the devil, it is not a complicated fraud, it is not an attack on Canada and Canadian buyers, and I doubt it is at all profitable for anyone involved.

[renee596]

As a buyer I hate the new Global Shipping Program.  I only pay duty, taxes, brokerage fees on 1 in 10 packages.  Forcing me to prepay makes me angry because it adds up to way more than if I just dealt with this myself.  

The thing that makes me the most angry is this " if someone mails you an item worth CAN$20 or less, you don’t have to pay duty or taxes on the item."  This is straight from the Government of Canada.  Why are you charging me extra fees on items worth less than $20? 

I have also had sellers not be aware that the charges were that different so advertised shipping in the item description DOES NOT MATCH what is being charged.

I will not be buying from sellers who use this program, I wish I could filter results accordingly.

[pierrelebel]

"Why are you charging me extra fees on items worth less than $20? "

Sellers should NOT offer GSP on items worth less than $50 (as advised by eBay)

What you are charged by Pitney-Bowes (about $4/$5) is a handling fee and has nothing to do with taxes or duty.

As stated by so many so often, the system was never intended for those small transactions.

eBay sellers need to get better educated by eBay who has failed miserably to properly train sellers

[tocycles]

Hah! OK, 50 bucks on top of $75 is onerous but you can't top me. I was keen for a pair of $10 birkenstock shoes which by my USPS calculation would have cost $10 to ship from the USA to Canada . and the GSP shipping added $24. so what's that, 240% upcharge? Crazy. So, I wrote the seller saying I was sorry but I was boycotting all ebay sales that use GSP.  (she wrote back saying "no disrespect but she wasn't interested in my opinion" so there!)

what IS this GSP thing? I break my butt to ship at absolute cost whenever I sell anywhere. does GSP only apply to extra-US sales?

anyway, watch for a "boycottebayGSP.com" website where you can sign a petition and suggest actions that we can take to turn the tide on GSP.

[tocycles]

I am not a super frequent ebay buyer and only recently noticed that I was facing a wave of inflated shipping costs. It took me a while to figure out what was happening. GSP. this past week, facing a GSP $24 shipping charge on a pair of $10 shoes (which should have been USPS Shippable at $10 by my calcs) brought this GSP fiasco into sharp focus. It's just nuts. Ebay buyers are big boys. From years of painful experience, we generally know what we are facing in terms of costs and possible surcharges. (The ultimate irony is that for the lack of my bid, the $10 pair of shoes went unsold. So who benefited in this whole affair? not me (I don't have the shoes I wanted). Not the seller (they have shoes and no cash and have wasted their time). Ebay? relisting fees? maybe?

My suggestion goes further than a simple boycott. Write the sellers and tell them that you are boycotting their sale because they are using GSP (and that it is imposing exaggerated shipping costs on an item you would otherwise have purchased.) It'll take a while for this global movement to yield results, but then so did the anti-apartheid movement. And if we don't write individual sellers, they will never know that their item didn't sell because of GSP.

[pierrelebel]

"on a pair of $10 shoes"

As stated over and over again, GSP was not intended for transactions under $50

American sellers should not be using GSP for those transaction.  I continue to blame eBay for not properly educating American sellers in the use of GSP.

Canadian buyers should continue to avoid those American sellers offering GSP when it does not make economical sense.

[tocycles]

Late to the discussion here, but let me chime in....

"The GSP may actually be helping Canadian sellers be seen and selected by International buyers as they avoid GSP listings."

this may be so, pocomocomputing, but really, is it smart business to think sales are increasing when that increase is due not to a more competitive base price but because your shipping charges are slightly less than these artificially inflated GSP shipping prices? I don't think so.

this is classic Canadian business attitude - if we can't compete head to head, we'll hide behind protectionist duties or taxes. That's not free market economics at work and it's not sustainable.

I'll compete head-to-head, apples-to-apples or not at all thank you.

[tocycles]

"I don't see how anyone can get "ripped" with a GSP listing if they read it and decide whether or not the charges make sense to them.  Am I missing something here?"

the point is that while GSP shipping charges might be perfectly clear in a contractual sense, they FEEL like a rip off to the buyers who have to pay them. 

Imagine ebay came up with a shipping program that required gold plated packaging materials and so had to slap hundreds of more dollars onto the shipping charges. If they were clear in what they were doing, then it would be perfectly their right.

But from the reaction here and elsewhere GSP is a TERRIBLE business idea.

What company in their right minds wants to go to such lengths to alienate any segment of their customer base?

so, in brief, while It may not technically be a rip off, it sure does seem idiotic.

and dumb business practices make a company ripe for imitation and eventually competition.

That might seem improbable given ebay's market dominance,  but them RIM used to dominated too.

[rick31797]

What answers I have are because I have been watching this GSP develop since it was introduced about a year ago. I have read all the available information including the full terms and conditions, and I have followed posts on three countries boards.

In some limited circumstances it can be better value for buyers, principally with heavy items to low tax countries because the international shipping cost can be notably lower than USPS Priority international (the USPS parcel service for stuff over 4 pounds)

Without actually doing a survey, on what the international buyers thought of the GSP after there purchase and received the item, i don't know just following posts , your finding would be that accurate.

A good test if a seller was open for it, is too buy the same product twice, and have it sent GSP, and have the other one sent USPS, and record shipping times and total cost..this would be a very conclusive test..

[marnotom!]

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@pjstock wrote:

Hah! OK, 50 bucks on top of $75 is onerous but you can't top me. I was keen for a pair of $10 birkenstock shoes which by my USPS calculation would have cost $10 to ship from the USA to Canada . and the GSP shipping added $24. so what's that, 240% upcharge? Crazy. So, I wrote the seller saying I was sorry but I was boycotting all ebay sales that use GSP.  (she wrote back saying "no disrespect but she wasn't interested in my opinion" so there!)

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Something to keep in mind is that the GSP shipping charges are actually two shipping charges.  The first charge is what the seller is charging the GSP (and thus, you) for shipping the item to the Global Shipping Center in Kentucky.  The second charge is what the GSP is charging you for shipping the item from Kentucky to where you are.

So if you find a seller who's using a rather pricey method for shipping their items within the U.S., it's going to have quite an effect on your shipping charges.  On the other hand, if you find a seller who offers "free" shipping within the U.S., you can sometimes get a pretty good deal on GSP shipping, particularly on larger items that can't be shipped by First Class International (the U.S. letter mail equivalent of Canada Post's small packet service).

Some basic info on the GSP can be found on this help page:

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/buy/shipping-globally.html

[afantiques]

Without actually doing a survey, on what the international buyers thought of the GSP after there purchase and received the item, i don't know just following posts , your finding would be that accurate.

I have followed up reports with the buyers by additional posts or private messages, and seen quite a few examples of tracking for GSP shipments. I make no pretense of accuracy, but in general I have seen quite a lot of this.

A good test if a seller was open for it, is too buy the same product twice, and have it sent GSP, and have the other one sent USPS, and record shipping times and total cost..this would be a very conclusive test.

Too small a sample, and it is not really the point. It is pointless looking at lightweight low cost items because no sensible person would buy them this way (GSP). What would be interesting would be results of purchases by buyers in countries where postal deliveries are notoriously slow, like Russia.

PS if quoting an earlier post, paste, highlight and hit the italic button makes it easier to sort out who said what.

[afantiques]

As stated over and over again, GSP was not intended for transactions under $50

I don't think they thought it through that far, the mention of $50 and up came in fairly recently and is I think reactive, not part of the original plan.

The advertising still refers to $50 plus for experienced sellers and any items for beginners. Unless it has been changed in the last few days.

They are still not making any real effort to address the problem of inappropriate use.

[patken123]

I fully understand your anger with GSP but It would make more sense and might sound less "tiring" if you said:

Do not buy low priced items from US sellers who ship with GSP without fully read and understand the shipping cost ,instead try to find a seller who is not with GSP(although nowadays it is harder and harder) or just shop within Canada and pay  no brokerage fee.

[rick31797]

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@afantiques wrote:

Without actually doing a survey, on what the international buyers thought of the GSP after there purchase and received the item, i don't know just following posts , your finding would be that accurate.

I have followed up reports with the buyers by additional posts or private messages, and seen quite a few examples of tracking for GSP shipments. I make no pretense of accuracy, but in general I have seen quite a lot of this.

A good test if a seller was open for it, is too buy the same product twice, and have it sent GSP, and have the other one sent USPS, and record shipping times and total cost..this would be a very conclusive test.

Too small a sample, and it is not really the point. It is pointless looking at lightweight low cost items because no sensible person would buy them this way (GSP). What would be interesting would be results of purchases by buyers in countries where postal deliveries are notoriously slow, like Russia.

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My test didn't really specify small samples, you could buy very large items, and compare, GSP VS  USPS , you cannot really get an accurate reading by following buyers around , there are just too many variables to consider..The bottom line is always cost to the buyer, everybody i have had dealings with always chooses the lowest shipping rate, they would rather pay less and wait for the item...

So for buyers money is king, and a test like this even if the GSP Package got too the buyer faster then sent USPS, But the cost were less using USPS , via, Canada Customs,BUYERS  would choose USPS..They will take money over service.

Its about the money, and remember shipping  USPS through Canada Customs has all ready proven themselves, GSP has been in effect a year and it still is not be excepted with open arms, and its because the old way was not broken,GSP has to be better then Canada Customs and they have not proven that.