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.

[mastiff519]

Hi Still There --

I have contacted several sellers with a request to ship outside the GSP. Most had no idea they were in the program, didn't know how it worked against the buyer and NONE had any idea how to get out of Global once they were trapped in it.  Now I don't bother asking any more. I just buy from someone who offers reasonable shipping via First Class. And sometimes I let a seller know that I will not deal with them because they ship with GSP. Maybe if more buyers did this we could get the GSP scrapped.

[i*m-still-here]

mastiff:  I get that.

For me this is my job and so it's just part of the day's work and so I make the effort.

Do you really think that the program would be scrapped if we refused to buy from seller's using the GSP?

It's a thought, but I doubt it's gonna happen that way.

The complaints about he GSP we see here on the board are just the tip of the iceberg.

The vast majority of buyers are not even aware that this board exists, and so think of the problems it's causing for Canadians and yet it multiplies.

Every day I encounter more listings listed via the GSP, and isn't that sending the message loud and clear?

Do Canadian buyers matter?  Not so much.

[intergalacticwalrus]

This Global Shipping Program scam appears to exist only to give customers to that Pitney Bowes company.

I still fail to see any advantage to using this program, it creates unnecessary overhead between the seller and buyer, including redundant charges to the buyer, of dubious legality.

And it's not just about being charged extra, this superfluous handling overhead also increases chances for problems, as I am having right now with a shipping mismatch that was clearly caused by Pitney Bowes!!! (check the other big GSP thread for my problem)

I'm still looking for a valid explanation as to why this needs to exist. All I've heard so far is "it avoids surprise customs charges on delivery" which is a completely illogical justification, as it is obviously always more cost efficient to take chances with those surprise costs rather than being forced to give money to a company that will always charge us no matter what.

This is a serious failing of eBay and I will certainly give them less business now. I will also avoid any GSP from now on, and inform sellers whenever I skipped one of their listings because of it.

[pierrelebel]

"I'm still looking for a valid explanation as to why this needs to exist."

From the eBay.ca country manager last week:

"Global shipping is great in theory because it opens up more inventory to Canada that previously only shipped to the USA."

He then went on with: "But there are lots of very valid buyer concerns and confusion around the implementation that we have today. We're listening, the Global shipping team is listening, and we're already working on buyer experience improvements that we hope will address some of those concerns."

And that is basically what Global Shipping Program is all about: helping American sellers sell and ship outside their borders.

[intergalacticwalrus]

What utter nonsense. If a US seller couldn't be bothered to ship internationally, they were probably not worth buying from to begin with. They just made it worse for all buyers, just for the sake of these few incompetent sellers. Brilliant.

[marnotom!]

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@intergalacticwalrus wrote:

What utter nonsense. If a US seller couldn't be bothered to ship internationally, they were probably not worth buying from to begin with. They just made it worse for all buyers, just for the sake of these few incompetent sellers. Brilliant.

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Just out of curiosity, Walrus, what impelled you to purchase from a seller using the GSP?  A lot of what you have issues with, particularly the charges, you knew about prior to making the purchase, no?

[jinglekell]

Hi PJ.  Your question about combined shipping rules is a good one. 

Items sold under the worldwide ID have shipping weights between 12 & 32 pounds.  Weight, insurance coverage, excellent delivery record and inexpensive shipping costs relative to USPS make FedEx Ground the winning choice.  FedEx's costs are rolled into the price and listings are offered as "free" shipping.

Since the three items were "free" domestic shipping, I don't know whether domestic shipping is also combined and/or discounted.  If you'd like me to set up a test-run GSP listing with combined shipping rules, I'm happy to experiment with you. 

And PJ, thanks for posting how to activate combined shipping on Canadian ebay.  I'd like to post your instructions in my listings so bidders can save themselves money and frustration.  Thanks again, that's very valuable information.

To the poster who asked for an update on the combined shipment to Canada -- please know it worked brilliantly.  The dishware was shipped from California for "free", arrived in Kentucky 4 days later....and was *miraculously* delivered to an island in Hudson's Bay within 4 days of arriving in Kentucky.  The auction ended in early December. 

Best part:  the buyer in Hudson's Bay estimated he saved approximately $180 from using GSP over USPS and is buying another set of vintage dishes!

[jinglekell]

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@jinglekell wrote:

Hi PJ.  Your question about combined shipping rules is a good one. 

Items sold under the worldwide ID have shipping weights between 12 & 32 pounds.  Weight, insurance coverage, excellent delivery record and inexpensive shipping costs relative to USPS make FedEx Ground the winning choice.  FedEx's costs are rolled into the price and listings are offered as "free" shipping.

Since the three items were "free" domestic shipping, I don't know whether domestic shipping is also combined and/or discounted.  If you'd like me to set up a test-run GSP listing with combined shipping rules, I'm happy to experiment with you. 

And PJ, thanks for posting how to activate combined shipping on Canadian ebay.  I'd like to post your instructions in my listings so bidders can save themselves money and frustration.  Thanks again, that's very valuable information.

To the poster who asked for an update on the combined shipment to Canada -- please know it worked brilliantly.  The dishware was shipped from California for "free", arrived in Kentucky 4 days later....and was *miraculously* delivered to an island in Hudson's Bay within 4 days of arriving in Kentucky.  The auction ended in early December. 

Best part:  the buyer in Hudson's Bay estimated he saved approximately $180 from using GSP over USPS and is buying another set of vintage dishes!

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$180 = $108.  

[marnotom!]

Interesting.  Thanks for passing that along Jinglekell.

I note the "program rules" for the GSP state that sellers may not combine orders in a single shipment to the Global Shipping Center.  I wonder if this is different than "combining items"?  After all, your buyer just had one order.

Having said that, eBay Canada doesn't support a "shopping cart".  eBay UK has a "shopping basket" but I wonder if it works in conjunction with eBay.com?

[max_rawhide]

I live in Europe and in October bid on an item from a US seller. I'v done this many times, but this time there was something new. The GSP.

My country has import tax regulation. Items with a value above 22 euro (about $ 30) are liable to get charged taxes.

Knowing this, I made sure my maximum bid was below 22 euro, and to my surprise I won the auction with a selling price of $ 27 -- well below the import tax regulation.

Happily I wanted to pay and suddenly was confronted with an additional charge by e-bay of  $ 15  for import taxes.

Again, the selling price was according to law, free of import tax, but GSP charged it anyway.

Contacted local e-bay and the end message was basically: live with it.

So, thanks to GSP I've had the following:

- a higher shipping charge

- a confused seller who didn't understand why I gave him one address and he received another from e-bay.

- a slower than normal delivery: US to Europe is between one and two weeks, now it was close to a month (actually two months, because the seller made a mistake)

- an additional charge of $ 15 for import taxes that didn't apply.

My conclusion: don't buy in the US or ask if sellers want to ship without the GSP. Because even if an item should be charged import taxes you're better off without GSP. 1) sometimes packaged slip through customs, 2) GSP can charge more than the actual import taxes, and 3) shipping by GSP is more expensive than normal shipping

I REALLY HATE THIS GOD AWEFUL SYSTEM !!!

Buying on e-bay used to be fun. And now we have GSP.

[afantiques]

About a year ago the import tax threshold for EU was reduce to 18 Euros.

http://www.dutycalculator.com/help_center/Import-duty-and-taxes-explained-in-a-nutshell/

[antiqurcats]

This will limit the number of pieces I buy on ebay if every single piece I buy from one seller is to be shipped seperately. Those using the global shipping program will also find their sales decreasing if this is the practice. One other point, living in Canada it takes longer for a parcel to arrive using this system then regular post by roughly 5 business days.

[max_rawhide]

That's for the UK.

The UK is part of Europe but that doesn't mean every country in Europe has the same regulations as the UK.

Where I live -- and I just checked again -- the import tax treshold is still 22 euro.




But maybe that's why the GSP works with the incorrect 18 euro treshold. It may be correct for one or two countries, but it doesn't apply to all countries.

[afantiques]

I have seen evidence that EU imports are cleared inward to the EU in Britain, then transhipped with of course no further taxes to wherever they have to go.

[intergalacticwalrus]

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@marnotom! wrote:

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@intergalacticwalrus wrote:

What utter nonsense. If a US seller couldn't be bothered to ship internationally, they were probably not worth buying from to begin with. They just made it worse for all buyers, just for the sake of these few incompetent sellers. Brilliant.

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Just out of curiosity, Walrus, what impelled you to purchase from a seller using the GSP?  A lot of what you have issues with, particularly the charges, you knew about prior to making the purchase, no?

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What are you saying? That because I willingly bought into a GSP listing, I have waived my right to complain about it?

Are you a shill for Pitney Bowes? Also, have you read the last paragraph, where I *do* mention that I refuse to buy GSP listings ever again?

Not to mention that the part about knowing the charges prior to purchase is not even true, you only get an "estimate" prior to committing to buy so you really have no way to know exactly how much it will cost until after it's too late. This is another huge problem about GSP.

[max_rawhide]

I have never in more than ten years of buying online, have received an item that was charged or cleared by anything else than the local customs agency.

Everytime I buy from the US without the GSP, items don't come through the UK but directly to my own country. This is with both e-bay purchases and when bought from stores.


But it is possible that GSP ships through the UK and thus uses the UK customs treshold. But this would be purely a GSP thing and not the normal procedure. With normal shipping I've never had a package arrive through the UK. Never!

And that still doesn't make it right. Customs are charged and due in the country where the package is delivered, not in an in between stop.



But that's simply another argument against how GSP operates.

[afantiques]

I have never in more than ten years of buying online, have received an item that was charged or cleared by anything else than the local customs agency.

You have not dealt with the GSP before.

The consignment is handled as commercial freight, which is quite different from the postal system.

I imagine the carriers deal with the EU airport and customs broker that gives them the best deal, overall. They would balance factors like proportion of load that need further shipping, country specific VAT rates, speed of clearance, transport costs etc, to work out the best logistical deal. This is where it can get quite complicated, and even more out of the experience of buyers who have only bought items sent by post.

[pjcdn2005]

I have never in more than ten years of buying online, have received an item that was charged or cleared by anything else than the local customs agency.

Unfortunately, the practice of charging duty and taxes at the time of ordering is becoming quite common.  Many U.S. based companies do that including Neiman Marcus, Macy's Amazon.com, Coach, LL Bean and many more. I try to avoid companies that do that but it is becoming more difficult.

[arlene_v]

 We can all  live with paying legitimate sales tax and  duty .... but seeing duty slapped on items that are exempt under NAFTA  sticks in the craw. Doesn't look good either when Ebay and PBI stand by knowing that this is happening and do naught to remedy the situation.  

[marnotom!]

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@arlene_v wrote:

We can all  live with paying legitimate sales tax and  duty .... but seeing duty slapped on items that are exempt under NAFTA  sticks in the craw. Doesn't look good either when Ebay and PBI stand by knowing that this is happening and do naught to remedy the situation.  

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I guess it was too much to ask sellers to categorize their items properly and to provide the relevant information on country of origin ...  😉