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.

[Anonymous]

I see that we now are on 22 pages here and not to mention more and more similar issues about GSP in the discussion Boards. 

It shows the GSP is a real hot issue and many buyers in Canada are not happy.  Pity whoever "invented" this horrible program in the first place when it should never started in the first place and should leave the sellers alone for them to decide the shipping costs and leave us Canadian buyers risks to pay for the customs fees (actually almost never!).

[afantiques]

   If the buyer is 100% covered then why is it that this person over in Japan was left out to  dry and was told that since the item was not insured that his $400 circuit boards were going to be covered to a max of $100 due to shipping damage

I did lkook at that rambling video, and the concrete information he gives is simply not enough to come to any conclusions. He has made up his mind about something he does not understand, and rambles on for 20 minutes or so.

[afantiques]

You might take a look at this thread that specifically covers the topic of returns.

http://community.ebay.com/t5/International-Trading/GSP-and-returns/m-p/17781721#M11079

[pierrelebel]

By Ina Steiner
EcommerceBytes.com
December 02, 2013

Recognizing that sellers who might be interested in its Global Shipping Program (GSP) may want more flexibility in the program than it currently offers, eBay has added some flexibility to the program. It now allows sellers to use their own shipping service for up to four locations, and use the GSP program for all other countries.

eBay's GSP is a customized freight forwarding program. For listings of sellers who opt in to the program, international shoppers see the cost of the item plus the full domestic and international shipping charges as well as taxes, duties and custom charges. When buyers purchase a GSP item, the seller sends the item to a domestic location and eBay's proxy, Pitney Bowes, is then responsible for international delivery to the buyer.

For more: http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y13/m12/i02/s03

[pierrelebel]

Personally, I think GSP will remain a problem for eBay until such time as the fees and charges (shipping, duty, taxes) are made clearly visible to buyers, prior to and at time of payment.

[patken123]

Let's agree on something here,most Canadian buyers main complaint with GSP is that it makes the low price items  too expensive ,in other words,things used to cost less without the GSP.

I know you are going to say all the charges/ taxes are legit (we just used to get away with not paying) and you are right but you must agree ,regardless of whether we should or should not get away with paying them,we do pay now 100% of the time.

The existence to GSP is a deterrent for shoppers(not the clarity of charges) . whether the charges should be more visible and clear is no consolation to a buyer, it only makes the buyers see them quicker and run away faster.

[afantiques]

Personally, I think GSP will remain a problem for eBay until such time as the fees and charges (shipping, duty, taxes) are made clearly visible to buyers, prior to and at time of payment.

They are clearly visible on every GSP item I have looked at. I'd say your comment could be rephrased

Personally, I think GSP will remain a problem for eBay until such time as the fees and charges (shipping, duty, taxes) are made clearly visible to sellers.

If sellers had an easy way to see these fees (there is an easy way, but it's only easy if you know it) they would at least know what they are showing international customers, it would make them aware they were enrolled, and might make them think 'Surely there is a better way?'

On the US boards many posts reflect users bafflement  when they sell an item through the GSP they did not know they were offering.

[pierrelebel]

"They are clearly visible on every GSP item I have looked at."

???

Show me one.

All I see is a total for import charges (if the item is priced at US$19+).  I have never seen an actual breakdown of how much is actually charged for duty (if applicable), consumption tax (GST/HST/PST), and Pitney-Bowes charges

When the item is low priced, the listing does not show an "import charge" as the Pitney-Bowes fee is included with the shipping charge.

[icecutters_hockeycards]

I only buy from Canadian sellers now.  Shipping from the US has quickly risen out of control - GSP or not.  Ebay has made a mistake by not thinking things through properly and I have little faith that things will improve.   The opening of every package is also intrusive and impracticable and obviously not working if you believe in all the reports of broken goods. 

[pierrelebel]

"most Canadian buyers main complaint with GSP is that it makes the low price items  too expensive...'

That is correct in most instances.

Hopefully, American sellers will now have the flexibility to remove Canada from GSP and that will solve the problem for Canadians.

In the meantime, hopefully eBay will take the time to properly educate American sellers as to when not to use GSP.

[afantiques]

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/shipping-globally.html#offering

Reading these pages it seems that you could in fact offer, for example, your four shipping options, eg FCMI, Priority, Express and Fedex, to all the countries in the GSP with the exception of those you consider 'unsafe', so it could happen that you offer GSP to Russia only.

[afantiques]

The opening of every package is also intrusive and impracticable and obviously not working if you believe in all the reports of broken goods.

The opening of every package is beyond unlikely. At the possible package opening stage the goods are already the responsibility of the reshipper. They'd be unlikely to try to cost themselves money. Any repackaging would be more likely to be toward more, not less safety.

[icecutters_hockeycards]

No.

[patken123]

Hopefully, American sellers will now have the flexibility to remove Canada from GSP and that will solve the problem for Canadians.

I hope so , Canadians  are fed up with the higher prices just because we live here in CANADA. ebay was the main source for us to get "fairer" prices ,more like what American pay but GSP ruined it in a big way by removing all the expected savings.

[afantiques]

I think it will only be a few sophisticated sellers who would have the sense to do this and it it is likely they will have avoided the GSP in the first place. It will do nothing for the generality of the US sellers, who  probably think most mail to Canada is eaten by wolves, along with the mailmen.

[i*m-still-here]

For a few months they added an option to email the seller for shipping charges even when the item was listed via the GSP.

That was nice fix.

Now they've either moved that option or removed it again.  If they've moved it I've not been able to find it again.

That helped a lot………. but now it's back to the same old process of prompting sellers who have agreed to ship without the GSP how to invoice via paypal.

Since most of the sellers I buy from who use the GSP are newbies it's always so tedious.

Many think that if they invoice via paypal that it's about eBay fee avoidance.

[theoldestfart]

The opening of every package is beyond unlikely. At the possible package opening stage the goods are already the responsibility of the reshipper. They'd be unlikely to try to cost themselves money. Any repackaging would be more likely to be toward more, not less safety.

If the seller did not indicate the country of origin of an item then the package has to be opened to determine the country of origin of the item to assess if there are any duties due.

The reshipper in this case PB is not on the hook for the entire amount that the buyer spent on item. These fees are the actual cost of the item, shipping costs, import costs. PB is simply on the hook for the actual cost of the item and possibly the GST & PST of the item. The actual PB clearance fee along with the shipping cost is not refundable is it?

If an item is damaged in shipping, the damage could of occurred with USPS or with the second leg of the journey which usually is Canada Post. It could be a result of poor packing by the shipper. The damage could be evident by squashed packaging or may not be without opening the box. 

If the damage was caused on the Canada Post leg of the shipment then isn't Canada Post responsible for the damage and would not the buyer have to lodge a claim with Canada post or with the seller?

If PB deemed that the original box was too large and they repacked it into a smaller box how would the buyer know whether in fact that this repacking was the cause of damage to the product? The original packaging material and container used by the seller would no longer be around to be examined by the buyer.

If an item is damaged is the buyer still not required at his expense to ship said item back using traceable means? 

[rick31797]

This has nothing to do with GSP, but I have followed quite a few posts in the past on internet forums about a buyer receiving damaged goods, and 100 percent of the time, it was not the shippers fault, it always came down to the item not be packed properly. that is the loop hole that private shippers use, so it ends up, the seller blames the shipper for the damage, the shipper blames the seller for not packing it properly and the buyer is stuck in the middle with his damaged item..Dont be fooled there really is not any insurance for damage, it will be up to the seller and buyer to work it out..

[walker0017]

After seeing the additional "import Fees" being charged for items coming to Canada I no longer buy from anyone who participates in this rip off and when leaving feed back I also mention that the seller is Canada friendly by not using the GSP.  I strongly suggest all buyers from Canada boycott any seller who uses this program and pass on to any other buyers. To any sellers on this rip off program please reconsider since you will lose sales to other buyers as I have no problem paying a bit more for an item to a seller who is not part of this program. This GSP is nothing but a deceptive method of gouging sellers more with no additional benefit to either the buyer or seller, what does this GSP do that the USPS does not do now, absolutely nothing the GSP costs buyers more. 

[afantiques]

The reshipper in this case PB is not on the hook for the entire amount that the buyer spent on item. These fees are the actual cost of the item, shipping costs, import costs. PB is simply on the hook for the actual cost of the item and possibly the GST & PST of the item. The actual PB clearance fee along with the shipping cost is not refundable is it?

The buyer gets a complete refund, the seller is left with what they were paid.

If an item is damaged in shipping, the damage could of occurred with USPS or with the second leg of the journey which usually is Canada Post. It could be a result of poor packing by the shipper. The damage could be evident by squashed packaging or may not be without opening the box. 

If the item is received in KY damaged, it's on the seller, after that responsibilty rests on the reshipper till safe delivery, no matter what agencies are used to deliver.

If the damage was caused on the Canada Post leg of the shipment then isn't Canada Post responsible for the damage and would not the buyer have to lodge a claim with Canada post or with the seller?

No, the reshipper has the contract with the delivery agency, not the buyer.

If PB deemed that the original box was too large and they repacked it into a smaller box how would the buyer know whether in fact that this repacking was the cause of damage to the product? The original packaging material and container used by the seller would no longer be around to be examined by the buyer.

This would not be a problem for the buyer, if it is damaged on the reshipper's leg of the journey it is the responsibility of the reshipper.

If an item is damaged is the buyer still not required at his expense to ship said item back using traceable means?

It seems that no return is needed in case of damage claims. This is pretty sensible as the damaged item is likely to be useless or of very little value anyway.

The statements I have made above are digested from statements by ebay reps, much of the same is to be found in this thread with some ebay input. It may be a case of theory and practice being quite different, due to the almost unlimited foul-up potential of ebay buyers and sellers, and the system itself, but there do need to be some ground rules before you can see how reality compares with theory.

http://community.ebay.com/t5/International-Trading/GSP-and-returns/m-p/17781721#M11079

which in itself refers to this thread

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

It would be interesting to hear some experiences of damage claims made and the results.