@pierrelebel wrote:
"Why bother...?"
Once again, let me post the message from the country manager at eBay.ca ten days ago:
"The purpose of this thread is to collect information and insights around the Global Shipping program, and is being monitored by the Global Shipping team directly. My Toronto-based team and I have regular meetings with this team as well, and we refer often to the discussion threads.
Global shipping is great in theory because it opens up more inventory to Canada that previously only shipped to the USA. 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."
It is pretty clear to me that eBay has no intention to answer every question or comment. That is not their purpose on this board. eBay is looking at the long term - getting comments from users now and eventually, maybe, improve the program so it works or end it.
"We're looking into it" is the last words of any bureaucracy into any problem of this sort. The GSP team, country manager, etc will be up to their eyeballs in miles thick of spools of red tape to see any changes happen to the programme due to the legalities, policy change (both of which will need the legal dept from potentially both eBay/PBI), website changes (need eBay's development team), involving the company boards to sign off on any changes, so on and so forth.
On the surface of this situation, it may seem as easy as changing website code, changing terms of service, adding more pages, adding lines on invoices, etc, etc. But deep down behind the scenes, programmes like the GSP are like a train without breaks, the only real way for a programme to be changed successfully is to add breaks before the programme really takes hold and starts rolling. This time has unfortunately passed for the GSP. Jobs have been created around it, contracts have been created around it, corporate culture has been created around it, so on and so forth — to change the GSP now is like rebuilding a train while it it moving at 100 MPH. It ends up being deemed too expensive and too risky. The only changes now are additions to the programme which add layers of abstraction that will complicate the programme and make it even harder for eBay employees and users alike to understand.
The easier thing is to simply tell users "We're looking into it" and provide a false sense of hope while making busywork. I still hope however that eBay eventually proves me wrong and shows that it can be atypical as far as corporations are concerned, demonstrating it can be a dynamic company with dynamic policy. I fear however that external influences upon it (namely PBI) may interfere given PBI is an old-style company with old-style ideals..
I have a feeling that PBI is the white elephant of this whole situation and will make it impossible for the GSP to change with pushing its own agenda onto eBay users and eBay itself by way of contracts to which nobody can turn down lest PBI pulls out of the arrangement and makes eBay have to lay off the GSP-related employees and spend money revising the website to remove the programme along with revising the contracts, etc. Ripe for blackmail indeed.
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