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.

[chimera148]

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@walker0017 wrote:
If they follow through this is a good thing, but why didn't they post something like this on this discussion board. Regardless IMO this is good news .

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It's quite a mess for some sellers, too, through no fault of their own.

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping-Returns/Global-shipping-program-to-Canada-messed-up/qaq-p/2338...

 

[chimera148]

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@chimera148 wrote:

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@walker0017 wrote:
If they follow through this is a good thing, but why didn't they post something like this on this discussion board. Regardless IMO this is good news .

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It's quite a mess for some sellers, too, through no fault of their own.

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping-Returns/Global-shipping-program-to-Canada-messed-up/qaq-p/2338...

 

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Trying to correct the link :

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping-Returns/Global-shipping-to-Canada-messed-up/qaq-p/23383520/com...  

[femmefan1946]

But only if the GSP is used.

What would make sense would be an automatic Block when a seller tries to use GSP for items selling under $20 and a Warning Box ( like the Nazi and Native American goods ones) for items under $50.

Just telling sellers to use USPS (or a courier like UPS if they are feeling cruel) for these items

[mater721]

"What would make sense would be an automatic Block when a seller tries to use GSP for items selling under $20 and a Warning Box ( like the Nazi and Native American goods ones) for items under $50."

Make it so!

[ukrockhopper]

A lot of US sellers have lost purchases from me because of the Global Shipping Program.

Where I live items under the value of £400 ($630 approx) are exempt from import charges.  Yet because of GSP, import charges are routinely added to items deliverable to my area but well beneath the £400 threshold . That is in no way justifiable. No way.

I now avoid buying from any seller who is signed up to the GSP, because I refuse to be forced to pay an import tax which does not apply to me country.

That's neither a positive thing for buyers or for Ebay.

[pierrelebel]

" I refuse to be forced to pay an import tax which does not apply to me country."

???

All British buyers pay VAT upon receipt of parcels from overseas (except for low value parcels).

https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/overview

[afantiques]

Maybe the poster lives in the Channel Islands?

[simus35]

GSP is the worst I never see. I order something over 1000$ US money than delivery in Canada. and when I receive the parkage they left in front my door(it was synthesizer and hard to find). I ask my wife why you didn't enter the parkage inside the house and she told me no one knock or ring at the door. and to put on the top of this story is was a rainy days.. I was lucky no one stole it and I was lucky it was not broke but some of the peanut Styrofoam was stock inside the keyboard(past trought under the key) lucky I 'm a good tech.I send  a message to the seller and he told me he never package the synth like that.those people from GSP are idiot

EBAY YOU NEED TO STOP USING THIS **bleep**PY COMPAGNY

FOR ALL USER FROM OUTSIDE USA WE NEED TO BOYCOTT EBAY

[kstjm5]

Three months ago, I received a box that was supposed to include four glass ornaments.  When I opened the box there were no Styrofoam peanuts, the extremely rare ornament was not in the box, two were broken, so I was left with one ornament that survived.  Pitney Bowes were mad at me because I made a complaint against their packaging before.  They removed in the past half the peanuts in the boxes, but this time it was all of them.  I contacted the seller and he told me that he did not care and that it was Pitney Bowes fault.  I answered that it was his fault because he chose to keep using their service after I warned them of what they did before.

[mater721]

It is unfortunate and unfair that you had a terrible transaction with GSP / PB.

Since you had a previous bad experience using that program, I would think you would stay away from it.

It is likely though that the seller will not be held responsible if the package made it to PB with items intact...

[micaylah]

As a Canadian I will never ever purchase from a vendor that uses the GSP. Plain and simple. I learned the first few times that I was getting ripped off.

Some Sellers will remove the GSP if you wish to "buy now". They get my repeat business.

[Anonymous]

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@micaylah wrote:

As a Canadian I will never ever purchase from a vendor that uses the GSP. Plain and simple. I learned the first few times that I was getting ripped off.

Some Sellers will remove the GSP if you wish to "buy now". They get my repeat business.

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I second that. No Global Scamming Program for me, ever.

[ziv321]

Hey,

Just going to chip in about this program as an Israeli eBay user for around 8 years now.

eBay has become completely useless for me as far as US sellers, as most of them use the GSP sadly.

Let's take this laptop for example:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/XPS-12-Convertible-Ultrabook-4th-Gen-i5-4200U-128GB-SSD-1080p-Win-8-1-Touch-...

Item price:

$645.99

Shipping price:

$65.42 (Which is also a bit overpriced, sellers shipping the item independently would be able to ship it for around $40 using USPS priority from my experience)

All is fine until now.

And then:

Import charges:

$273.11

The import charges are a whopping 42% of the item's price.

And then, guess what? The item arrives to Israel as a value of $711 for which I have to pay the ACTUAL import charges (18% of the item in this case, per our customs department)

And for what PBI charges $273 here? For repackaging the item to make it weigh less and ship it? No thanks. I have switched to B&H photo video for most of my purchases, they ship with UPS 3-6 business days for about 40% cheaper (basically without the made up import charges).

I hope this thing falls apart one day and eBay will actually be fair again.

[mater721]

If that is a GSP listing, the charges seem odd.

What we see in Canada are...

1) Item price (self explanatory) +

2) Shipping (cost of shipping from seller to PB) +

3) Import Charges (cost of shipping from PB to buyer and customs fees)

We would never have any charges at the door.

But maybe Israel has different import policies - does not sound like a good deal at all.

Or... did maybe the seller send directly to you - by-passing PB - even though charging you GSP fees?

[afantiques]

The import charges are a whopping 42% of the item's price.

And then, guess what? The item arrives to Israel as a value of $711 for which I have to pay the ACTUAL import charges (18% of the item in this case, per our customs department)

Have you still got the packaging? It would show by the labels if it came via GSP or direct to you from the seller. Was there a customs form on the packaging? What company delivered the package.?

If the item was sent without using the GSP you should be able tio reciaim the unused GSP fees but it will mean going through a specialist customer service agent, and the only way to do this is to get on to a regular customer service agent and asj them to refer the case to a specialist GSP agent.

In theory what you describe should be impossible for a correctly sent package.

[dura2404]

I do not understand why this service is being used my latest shipment has been sent to the eastern part of the US and I live in central Canada Saskatchewan  when I get shipments on USPS from California they come north then east and usually in 6 working days Also I have ordered $1000.00 s worth  of parts from the US and not payed any import duty taxes or broker fees in years It may be cheaper in the long run but the service is poor a lot of the time you have problems tracing shipments because there are multiple carriers Plus as I have said my latest shipment has gone further east than where I live what sense does that make  The only thing that I see is that it is a service that is a rip off they are making money on a useless service as in import fees

[afantiques]

my latest shipment has gone further east than where I live what sense does that make

Google 'Hub and Spoke shipping model'

[vidamae13]

Since e-bay obviously loves the Global Shipping Program and is never going to get rid of it - Is there any way to filter out sellers using GSP when you do a search for items?  It wastes so much time doing a search for an item and then having to look at each individual auction to see if the seller is using GSP.

[pocomocomputing]

Make sure you set the view in search to List View and not Gallery View. In List View you will see a line saying Custom Services and International Tracking provided, these are GSP items. No need to then open all listings, just the ones without to see and read the listing details.

[cdnbluebelle]

I recently tried to purchase 4 sets of curtains from a seller in the U.S. valued at $16.95 per pair and imagine my surprise when the posting showed NO Shipping to Canada. I had bought 3 sets from the same seller a couple of months ago and was very disappointed. I contacted the seller and expressed my disappointment. Well, she was surprised too because she did not make that change to her listing. She contacted ebay and was told THEY had made the decision to remove the option to sell or buy an item to Canadian buyers valued at less than $25. They based this decision on complaints from international buyers about the high cost of Global Shipping however they did not notify sellers or buyers. Personally, I think this stinks....