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.

[wackoshopper]

It took once from me and I knew I would never purchase from any seller using a program that charges for things that are not related to me while I still get charge duty and tax's. So what am I charge for? Big scam!

[wackoshopper]

I am sorry but this program is a total rip off to line brokerage fee's and eBay pockets. 

I have never got charged import fee's from my own country Canada. Just duties and tax's. I have spend thousands of dollars a year on eBay. eBay is taking advantage of sellers that have not read the fine print or just are ignorant to what is really happening here.

I, by mistake, bought on item and paid $38.00, a brooch. It was going to cost me $27+ dollars to get it to me which is a bloody joke because I could get that same item for $6.85 by First Class International with tracking. I wrote the seller and told them I was not buying the item. She said she could not switch it and did not know how. She also stated that the program was confusing to her when she signed up. That's what eBay wants sellers that are ignorant to the problems with the program because they are making more money with this new rip off program.

• What has worked well for you with the Global Shipping Program?
• Nothing, not a thing!

• Any ideas to help improve the experience for Canadian buyers?
• You thought up the scam, you fix it. I can always go to other sites to purchase lots. And there are auction house that I already go to.

• What has deterred you from buying items offered using the Global Shipping Program?
• I am being scammed out of money that I would not even pay. My country charges duty and tax's on bigger items (not one brooch) and that charge is still smaller then what this program is ripping you off for.

• How have you managed to search for items outside the program?
• I went to another site. Or only buy from people not in the program. Since it is to limiting I am finding that eBay no longer really wants my business. So this spring back to more auction houses instead of sitting on my computer. Your lose eBay not mine. 

[wackoshopper]

Don't hold your breath.

[wackoshopper]

Pitney Bowes is not charging for taxes & duty. In there own literature eBay states under "Buying an item through the Global Shipping Program" that,
"Import charges include certain fees, such as export classification, importation risk premium, and variance fees, which are assessed by the global shipping provider as part of the services provided by the Global Shipping Program. These fees are in addition to the customs duties and taxes imposed by country.

You got that"These fees are in addition to the customs duties and taxes imposed by country."

[wackoshopper]

I should have guessed that this was an were opting you in with out sellers knowledge.

[wackoshopper]

Speaks volumes does it not?

[wackoshopper]

Because we are all international.

[007steveb16]

---

@wackoshopper wrote:
I do buy Canadian, I buy world wide.

---

My post was not directed at you.

[007steveb16]

---

@wackoshopper wrote:
Its not just Canadians it Europeans to boot. You thing other international countries will be using this. No way, its a scam.

---

Again, my post was in no way directed at you. It was a response to someone saying they were going to "quit" eBay because of the GSP.

[marnotom!]

---

@007steveb16 wrote:

Again, my post was in no way directed at you. It was a response to someone saying they were going to "quit" eBay because of the GSP.

---

 Posts that are in response to other posts but don't have a quote to refer to are a bit like the sound of one hand clapping...

[trond5718]

I paid USD 44.38 to Pitney Bowes for importing from US to Finland, plus USD 6 to the seller in postage, altoghether USD 50.38 in total shipping and taxation costs for a small light item that cost USD 58.85. 

These costs was not specified in the original listing!

I had to ask Pitney Bowes by e-mail for a specification on the import taxes, and they were only USD 11.77 payed to GB as VAT, not my own country.

In other words, the cost of shipping for was USD 38.61 for a small package which would have cost me approximately USD 15 to ship the other way as a registered letter. And it took one week longer !

In other words quite a lot of the money that otherwise would have become an income for my country went instead to some tax-heaven - Pitney Bowes does tax planning too.

My promise: I will only buy things from Ebay in the future, which is impossible-impossible to find other places, and which i desperately-desperately need. I learnt a lesson from this.

[trond5718]

And they are not specified, and you do not get to know which country.

[007steveb16]

---

@marnotom! wrote:

---

@007steveb16 wrote:

Again, my post was in no way directed at you. It was a response to someone saying they were going to "quit" eBay because of the GSP.

---

 Posts that are in response to other posts but don't have a quote to refer to are a bit like the sound of one hand clapping...

---

My post was originally in a separate thread that was moved by moderators into this giant jumble of GSP talk....

[afantiques]

I had to ask Pitney Bowes by e-mail for a specification on the import taxes, and they were only USD 11.77 payed to GB as VAT, not my own country.

This is interesting as it tends to support my theory that items enter the EU through a UK hub (West Midlands Airport) and are then distributed as internal EU items. The UK is no tax haven but it is probable the volume of GSP items to Finland does not justify direct transport there.

[afantiques]

These costs was not specified in the original listing!

Can you give the item number to check this? It should be impossible to buy without seeing the full costs at least twice.

[freeman11ca]

My only complaint with Global Shipping Program is the way they chose the worst courier here in Canada to deliver my package. They used CanPar, and that courier head office never returned my calls about my parcel, and even they could not call the local terminal on the phone and they can only track the parcel by computer the same way as me. CanPar is cheap and unreliable, they only deliver out packages twice a week, but he wanted to deliver my package to my home next Monday when it was already in the terminal a good two days ago on Wednesday! I had to arrange to meet him in the nearest city 15 minutes drive from here yesterday (Thursday) so I can finally get my package! I'll never use Global Shipping Program ever again, this service does not fit into online shopping, and I can't see how anybody can benefit from this in Canada!

[marnotom!]

---

@freeman11ca wrote:

My only complaint with Global Shipping Program is the way they chose the worst courier here in Canada to deliver my package. They used CanPar, and that courier head office never returned my calls about my parcel, and even they could not call the local terminal on the phone and they can only track the parcel by computer the same way as me. CanPar is cheap and unreliable, they only deliver out packages twice a week, but he wanted to deliver my package to my home next Monday when it was already in the terminal a good two days ago on Wednesday! I had to arrange to meet him in the nearest city 15 minutes drive from here yesterday (Thursday) so I can finally get my package! 

---

Interesting.  Canpar does deliver to my small town on Vancouver Island, but for whatever reason the GSP item I recently purchased from Florida was handled by Canpar between Etobicoke and Vancouver and then transferred to Canada Post for the final leg of its journey.

How big was your package?  (I know, I know, that sounds...off.)  Mine was oversized-letter sized.

[freeman11ca]

My parcel is a medium flat rate box from the USPS. It was first sent by USPS from Cincinnati to a GSP terminal in Erlanger, Kentucky, then crossed over the border to Etobicoke where is was handled by CanPar for the rest of the journey. CanPar can only deliver to the homes twice a week, I had to go to the nearest city to pick it up and their service on the phone with the head office was awful while there is no way to communicate to the nearby terminal!

I can't understand why GSP won't use a better courier for my delivery like UPS, Purolator, FedEx or Canada Post, except maybe CanPar is the cheapest of all couriers.

[queenpalmer]

I am certainly concerned with GSP.  Whenever I see an item of interest for sale or auction I check to see if GSP applies.  Many times I have contacted the USA seller offering GSP and asked them to use USPS.  A lot of them were not aware that they were under the thumb of GSP.  A few said they would not budge from what was on the listing.  I responded to them by stating I would not buy from sellers if they did not use USPS.  I have recently bought from USA sellers who had GSP listed, but they opted for a sale via USPS. 

I thank them for their desire to make a sale and accommodate the buyer.   

[golf6969]

kalvin@ebay.com wrote:

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.

The biggest scam I have seen. Have not purchased anything on Ebay from the USA  since it was put in. Click on the auction to see why.

A $55.00 hat that has a $20 shipping charge and $40 import fee to Canada!

Seriously, the fees are more then the auction bid price!

Please explain why I would bid on this item?????????

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/2014-New-York-Islanders-NHL-Stadium-Series-Knit-Pom-Hat-LIMITED-EDITION-RARE-...