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.

[arlene_v]

---

@pierrelebel wrote:

From the federal government:

.

No duty is payable on goods imported for personal use, if it is marked as “made in Canada, the USA, or Mexico”, or if there is no marking or labelling indicating that it was made somewhere other than Canada, the USA, or Mexico.

---

So, why does it appear as if these earrings have been "schwacked" with duty?

I can't find any other way to make sense of the "import charges" otherwise.

PS This really does feel like the twilight zone!

[pierrelebel]

"So, why does it appear as if these earrings have been "schwacked" with duty?"

I do not know.

"appear"?

What is the listing number?

[pierrelebel]

I found a few items produced by Marie and Jose Barrerra and offered by American sellers. 

I could not find a single one of them offering GSP.

[arlene_v]

290995497336

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Jose-Maria-Barrera-for-Avon-Mayan-Style-Clip-Earrings-NIB-1994-signed-/290995...

LOL - maybe it would help it I'd spelled Barrera correctly in my earlier post!!

[pierrelebel]

As stated earlier, no GSP is offered in that listing.

Where did you get the impression duty was being charged?

[rick31797]

---

@pierrelebel wrote:

As stated earlier, no GSP is offered in that listing.

Where did you get the impression duty was being charged?

---

the auction indeed has GSP.

Jose Maria Barrera for Avon Mayan Style Clip Earrings **NIB**1994 signed

| Add to watch list

Top-rated seller

cjbedu (308 )

100% Positive feedback

• Consistently receives highest buyers' ratings
• Ships items quickly
• Has earned a track record of excellent service

Save this seller

See other items

Visit store:

 cjbedu

AdChoice

 

Item condition:

--

“**NEW** Never been worn, Mint Condition, Clip earrings. New in Box.”

Price:

US $95.00

Approximately C $100.92

1 watcher

Add to watch list 

100% positiveFeedback

Global Shipping Program

This item will be shipped through the Global Shipping Program and includes international tracking. Learn more

Shipping:

US $24.28 (approx. C $25.79) International Priority Shipping to Canada  |See details

Item location:

Clermont, Florida, United States

Ships to:

United States and many other countries | See details

Import charges:

US $25.50 (amount confirmed at checkout)  

Delivery:

Estimated within 6-11 business days 

Includes international tracking

Payments:

 | See payment information

[arlene_v]

Pierre, please read post number 1238 by Marnotom!

I don't know why you are not able to see this listing at a GSP listing, it is evident that Marno - seemingly a regular poster here on this thread is able to see what I am seeing ...as I say this is becoming very twilight zone like.

Also, Marno suggested that duty may have been applied to explain the "import charges" ..so this is what gave rise to that issue.

I agree with him/her on that score.

What can I say ... I  have heard of strange glitches on Ebay with listings not showing, but this really does take the cake.

[marnotom!]

I see GSP associated with that listing just fine, Pierre.  I'm not sure why you don't.  Have you got your shipping location set for the United States, perhaps?  😄

As I stated earlier, the country of manufacture for the earrings is stated as "unknown".  If the seller had stated the country of manufacture as the United States, the import charges for the earrings would likely be a lot lower.

[arlene_v]

Rick and Marno  -thank you for posting that ....

I thought I was losing the plot here for a moment!  

[pierrelebel]

" Have you got your shipping location set for the United States, perhaps?"

BINGO ! 

I was checking another seller's shipping problems and forgot to change the address back to Ontario.

Sorry about that.

Now I see the listing with GSP.  The import charge does include 10% duty and relevant GST/HST because the listing states:

"

Country of Manufacture:

Unknown"

[afantiques]

The quote from the import duty notes says they have an option  not to charge duty if the items are not labelled as coming from a non NAFTA country.

The GSP shippers have no such latitude, they have to assume that unless the item is specifically exempt it is specifically dutiable. The seller has the option of getting that specific exemption by entering a country of manufacture and unless they do so they do not get the exemption.

It is the seller's mistake but since there is NO  effective education of sellers as to the importance of this and other details to their customers, you will continue to see inflated import charges.

Incidentally, these charges will not benefit the shippers, the items will be manifested as 'Unknown origin', and charged accordingly on customs clearance. The only beneficiary will be the Canadian Revenue.

[arlene_v]

So it would "appear" that duty is more of an issue than it seems at first, then? How many sellers do  you think bother to check where an item was made?

How often do you think "unknown" will be entered as a place of manufacture simply because it is easier? I'm going to guess that most sellers using this program have no idea at all that their description is determining whether a Canadian buyer might be paying unnecessary duty.

[afantiques]

I certainly cannot disagree with that.

[marnotom!]

---

@arlene_v wrote:

So it would "appear" that duty is more of an issue than it seems at first, then? How many sellers do  you think bother to check where an item was made?

How often do you think "unknown" will be entered as a place of manufacture simply because it is easier? I'm going to guess that most sellers using this program have no idea at all that their description is determining whether a Canadian buyer might be paying unnecessary duty.

---

The GSP terms and conditions for sellers state that the item's country of origin/manufacture, if known, should be noted in the Item Specifics section of the listing.

I haven't seen too many GSP listings where the item's country of manufacture is stated, period, let alone marked as "unknown".  I think this is why a lot of packages get opened by the Global Shipping Center upon receipt in Kentucky, because the sellers haven't bothered providing any sort of information along these lines.  The GSC does need this information for the customs manifest.

[arlene_v]

And here we have a true slap in the face to all Canadians.

For your consideration is this lovely antique Birks 14k diamond bar pin/brooch note the "import charges" to get a Canadian made antique item back home ...a whopping $84.15 (US). According to the nifty calculator supplied by Marno the actual taxes owing on this is closer to $52 (Canadian), except of course for that pesky duty this has attracted due to the place of manufacture not having been provided.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/ANTIQUE-ELEGANT-35-45-DIAMONDS-18K-PLATINUM-14K-BIRKS-BAR-PIN-BROOCH-/1611861...

I read this in the verbiage in the GSP conditions re any overpayments by buyers:   "You will not request, and you will not receive, a refund for the difference, if any, between Program Fees paid by you and actual costs to Pitney Bowes in the event that actual shipping and/or import costs are less than the amounts paid by you."

That a large corporation like Ebay can unleash a program like this, managed by US sellers who have absolutely no idea of the complexity of customs, duties, tariffs etc and yet are essentially responsible for determining how much  we get to pay our Government in duty, tax and tariffs ...well that is very, very disturbing.

I wonder if the CBC would be interested in doing a bit of investigative journalism into this disgrace of a program?

[arlene_v]

And another question of course raises its head here ..if all items are checked centrally - what happens to these unnecessary amounts paid for duty not actually owing if they are not refunded to the buyer?

[arlene_v]

---

AF, I just read your earlier post where  you mention that all overpayments in taxes go to  our Government... well that answers my last rather paranoid post!

I guess regulars here are quite familiar with the "GSP mania" that grips new posters like me when we come to the board and go on and on about this program ...

I can only imagine how this must get very tiresome after a while ... in my case I blame it entirely on the foul weather and being homebound today I have gone a bit mad it seems!

[afantiques]

arlene, your comments are moderate in general (by board standards) and theoretically justified. The GSP system is simply not sophisticated enough to deal with this 'duty' problem on a case by case basis, so it has just the two settings, full on or full off.

If the seller does not supply the information there is no way that some modestly paid worker in Erlanger, Kentucky would have  any idea where a Birks jewellery item was made. If it does not say USA  on the box, it's 'foreign'.

This is  likely to be a problem for Canadian buyers only. Most other countries do not consider charging any import duty on items below about $200 value although import sales taxes may kick in at $20 or so, resulting in most  items only having import sales taxes attached. It seems Canada has different rules, possibly pierre or marno can provide chapter and verse.

To throw another cat in the pigeon loft, most countries that charge import sales taxes add the carriage cost to the declared value before calculating the tax payable (but only if the item alone has a value over the threshold). I will have to do a bit of work to figure out how this is applied to GSP items.

[marnotom!]

Duty would kick in at the same declared dollar amount as taxes, AF.

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/import/postal-postale/duty-droits-eng.html

[spiritofgreywolf]

I purchased a couple items from a seller in the US and my items were shipped through the GSP program seeing I am in Canada, it took quite some time to receive my package, it was shipped on the 18th of December and I got it on the 3rd of January, and when I did  I was not pleased with the condition. The package was ripped and falling apart, tape was torn. There was no packing in the box to keep my two items from being tossed around except for one piece of paper. There was a note inside which read package was opened and inspected. I paid close to $50 US to have this shipped and I feel that it should have arrived in much better condition. I haven't installed either units yet but seeing the condition of the box I am worried that there may be damage done to the internals of the units. I don’t want to go through the trouble of installing only to find they are defective. I contacted the seller and he advised me to open a case with E-Bay but I could not find a topic which matched mine. He also advised me that my item would have been opened and repacked, and in this case it was a **bleep**py job done. Any help that can be given to me I would be thankful. I have pictures of the package as I received it.

Derrick