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.

[anglia51]

No of course not your not going to cancel because you don't have a dog in the fight your a seller so you have everything to gain. More buyers the better your chances to sell. I am a buyer & have everything to loose including my time contacting every seller to see if they will change the listing just for me. It's been over a year since i bought anything & don't intend on changing that policy anytime soon.

[ciny2k]

So really, what you're saying is: you're **bleep** off because you can't swoop into an auction and snap something up with mere seconds to go, because the listings are all GSP.  Too bad.  There's no way you can justify *not* contacting a seller and requesting that the listing has the shipping method altered, since it takes under a minute. Write it out once, cut and paste -  it only takes seconds to do this. You can sit back on your high horse, while the rest of us enlighten the US sellers. That's fine, but don't kid yourself, and think you're accomplishing anything. And don't sell us short by mocking us - because we're the ones that are making a difference, by letting the US sellers know what's going on. 

[justthesaxman]

I am waiting for a item that is my first experience using this Global program. I am in Vancouver, Canada and the item was in San Francisco. I am baffled why the item is now in Cincinnati OH ? If this had gone USPS  I would have had it delivered and paid Taxes to my Mail Person by the 19th. Apparently the delivery is planned for the 27th though it says it is out for delivery today in Cincinnati ? It is a rare and expensive item so I am worried. If this is on its way to me it has travelled a extra 2000 miles seems ridiculous.

[lpwasy]

I bought a pocket watch dial on ebay,  item and envelope packaging weighed 3oz.  GSP shipping to Canada $13.41

I bought a pocket watch in Florida from "Buddy's Auctions", they shipped it to Canada in a box 7"X10"X4" for $10.95.

That ebay shipping calculator is just mean. 

The buffalo may no longer roam here but you  can frequently hear some discouraging words from ebay buyers.

[reid4311]

GSP = Great Swindling Program!

I buy CDs from eBay.co.uk where the GSP virus has now taken over! Last Monday I won 2 discs from a seller in Gillingham for a grand total of 5.50 Pounds or about $9.73.

This morning I checked his listings and he has joined that ill-advised crowd.

Now less than one week later it will cost me $27.64 to send one disc!

See ya' Pete, it was nice while it lasted!

[ht707red]

for participating on the Global Shipping import shame

[pierrelebel]

eBay offers the program to American sellers to make it easier for them to export from the USA.

Sellers are free to use it or not.

Buyers are free to buy from listings offering GSP or simply ignore them.

I ignore such listings and suggest you do the same.

[reid4311]

Yes I choose to ignore. Last week I bought 2 cds from a chap in England. He did not ship to Canada but agreed to when asked and later sent me an invoice for the cost of the discs plus around $9.75 CDN. for postage. He then said any time I wanted something I was welcome. 

Yesterday I thought I'd have a look at his latest offerings and discovered that the G.S.P. virus had invaded the U.K.

He had signed on for it and now 1 cd to Canada was going to set me back a whopping $26.44!

Sorry Pete, it was fun while it lasted!

[00nevermind00]

The UK version of the GSP is now "available" to Canadian buyers. Please try and contain your excitement (/sarcasm)

I went over on the UK site, checked a few items and came out of it with some "interesting" results. It appears that if you find an item shipping from the UK with the GSP, you should have it sent to your US address, if you have one, rather than to your Canadian one. There seems to be a £4 (more or less) discrepancy in the shipping charges (NOTHING to do with the "import" charges) for the items that I have checked. A GSP item that ships for £14 to Canada typically ships for £10 to the US. I tried this with items too cheap to attract import taxes in either country and also with items expensive enough to be taxable in both. The £4 discrepancy was there in all cases.

I know it won't happen, but I would really love to see the GSP team explain this one. Meanwhile, my contempt for this lame program keeps growing...

[reid4311]

Maybe the difference is in the rate of exchange since at the moment the U.S. greenback is stronger than ours by 10 or 12 cents on the dollar.

[pierrelebel]

"The £4 discrepancy was there in all cases.  I know it won't happen, but I would really love to see the GSP team explain this one."

The GSP team does not and will not explain anything.  You have not seen on this thread  anyone from eBay in several months.

Now, if you are willing to put aside your contempt for the program for a few minutes, let me try to explain why the £4 additional shipping charge makes sense.  Of course as a Canadian I do not like the idea to pay £4 more than an American for the same item coming from the same seller but there is a valid explanation for the charge when a seller used GSP.  There would be no difference if the seller shipped directly.

First, when dealing with GSP we have to put aside any concept that Pitney Bowes shipping charge have anything to do with postal rates.  You cannot compare the two.

American buyers benefit from their larger purchases.

For example, PB will move 100 items from the UK to the USA in one shipment while shipping 10 to Canada.  Their cost of moving 100 items across the pond is much lower individually than moving only 10.  It is all about volume.

Then, once on this side of the Atlantic, individual parcels are shipped individually.  We all know - and we do not like it - that on average the cost of shipping within the USA is lower than shipping within Canada.

So, when you combine the cost savings of shipping much larger shipments from the UK to the USA with the additional cost differential of shipping domestically in each country, Pitney Bowes arrives at $6/$7 or so (£4) savings for the American buyers.

That is the difference you see in listings on eBay.uk for sellers using GSP.

[justthesaxman]

It is actually 4600 miles of shipping distance needlessly and it will take 3 weeks to go from San Fran to Vancouver BC, 3 days by USPS Priority. I won't bother ordering items with this again.

[justthesaxman]

And I will let sellers know -I won't be bidding on or buying items with GSP !

[00nevermind00]

---

@pierrelebel wrote:

Now, if you are willing to put aside your contempt for the program for a few minutes, let me try to explain why the £4 additional shipping charge makes sense.  Of course as a Canadian I do not like the idea to pay £4 more than an American for the same item coming from the same seller but there is a valid explanation for the charge when a seller used GSP.  There would be no difference if the seller shipped directly.

First, when dealing with GSP we have to put aside any concept that Pitney Bowes shipping charge have anything to do with postal rates.  You cannot compare the two.

American buyers benefit from their larger purchases.

For example, PB will move 100 items from the UK to the USA in one shipment while shipping 10 to Canada.  Their cost of moving 100 items across the pond is much lower individually than moving only 10.  It is all about volume.

Then, once on this side of the Atlantic, individual parcels are shipped individually.  We all know - and we do not like it - that on average the cost of shipping within the USA is lower than shipping within Canada.

So, when you combine the cost savings of shipping much larger shipments from the UK to the USA with the additional cost differential of shipping domestically in each country, Pitney Bowes arrives at $6/$7 or so (£4) savings for the American buyers.

That is the difference you see in listings on eBay.uk for sellers using GSP.

---

I didn't even have to put aside my contempt for the GSP to see that this makes sense. Thank you for the explanation.

The GSP rates really are all over the place. When conducting my little experiment on the UK site, I accidentally clicked Belgium instead of Canada at one point, and this allowed me to discover that the UK to Belgium GSP shipping on one item was higher than to the US. I know that Belgium is a small country, but they're a lot closer to the UK geographically!
I hope for eBay's sake that this program is gaining new buyers for them, because it sure is alienating quite a few!

[pierrelebel]

"I know that Belgium is a small country, but they're a lot closer to the UK geographically!"

The answer is in your comment.

Distance has little to do with it.  Belgium is a small country and most likely very few shipments would be handled by PB when compared to the USA.  There is no volume savings.

It is all about volume. Americans benefit from their collective volume. The rest of the world... oh well...

For example, to move a container from point A to point B costs $2,500.

If you have 1,000 items in your container, each cost $2.50; if you only have 500, each cost $5.00,  if you only have 100, each cost $25.00

I am confident you get the drift.

[mater721]

"The buffalo may no longer roam here but you  can frequently hear some discouraging words from ebay buyers."

Gotta admit, I'm not sure I'm understanding this.

[mater721]

"No of course not your not going to cancel because you don't have a dog in the fight your a seller so you have everything to gain. More buyers the better your chances to sell. I am a buyer & have everything to loose including my time contacting every seller to see if they will change the listing just for me. It's been over a year since i bought anything & don't intend on changing that policy anytime soon."

I'm a buyer, and I don't understand your position at all - makes no sense. Just avoid the GSP sellers.

And you seem to have not completely left ebay - you still have an account - even if all you are doing is posting.

[rubiscobav]

I have recently found this appalling GSP system again having been stung earlier in the year before I even knew what it was.

I have found 4 items that I like from a US seller, to be sent to the UK. Each item is approx $89 but the postage ($15) and 'import charges' ($23.22 - but to be accurately calculated only on check out!) amount to an additional 43% on items that are already at full market price. 

The items are over 100 years old and each of a value below the threshold for any import VAT into the UK. As I work in the Antique trade I know that VAT is only charged at 5% in any case. However these items are for my personal collection and not related to my dealing in a different field. 

So what are the import charges actually for then? The Pitney Bowes small print includes 'other charges' which seems an egregious evasion. (Perhaps they are for mooring charges for the Director's yacht in Monte Carlo?). I tried to get a breakdown for the item I bought earlier - but never got an answer.

The items are very small and could be shipped in a letter for just a few dollars - and insured separately. I have bought hundreds of such items over the years and only one has ever gone missing. I have never had any customs charges for such items (not because I was 'lucky' but because there aren't any!).

Most of these items are of much lower value and I can simply avoid any seller using the GSP and buy from someone else which is possible most of the time - though in this case the items are rare, though specialised, and I would have liked to buy them - but the 43% surcharge makes them simply uncompetitive.

Surely there must be an alternative to this scam?

The sellers are likely to lose out significantly as well, as buyers follow the free market and go elsewhere. In my case the seller is genuine, (small scale/private collector) and has nice things but seems unaware of the strong disincentive of the scheme - and in this case has lost sales. The same seller has two other items still for sale that I passed by six months ago for the same reason. 

I rarely buy items on ebay for my dealing specialty - but under this system it would be financial suicide as the GSP surcharge removes any potential for a reselling profit (one would struggle to make a 43% profit in most cases!)

Any advice on this new parasitism?

[pierrelebel]

"Any advice on this new parasitism?"

Yes, simply avoid listings offering the Global Shipping Service (GSP).

[ciny2k]

"And you seem to have not completely left ebay - you still have an account - even if all you are doing is posting."

And buying too, rotflmfao! Darn that feedback, people can see when purchases are made: 10 in the past 12 months. So much for all the chest-pounding. Some people *do* like to stir the pot.