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.

[stephenr1733]

I think this sums up the disadvantages of GSP for Canadian buyers very nicely. I think the big advantage of this system is for Pitney-Bowles and eBay. Pitney-Bowles gets a cut of all transactions using the system and I presume this is really a way eBay to make a profit from buyers and not just sellers. I rarely even look at items using this system. If I really want an item that is listed as using  this system I email the seller and tell them that I will bid on condition that they use USPS first class international and I ask how much they can ship for. I am also making a big effort to find Canadian sellers who carry items I'm interested in. Steve R

[g$drummer]

I have to agree with the comments about the Global Shipping Program. Living in Canada I have made hundreds of purchases from Ebay, but will no longer being doing so. Not sure who's pocketing this cash grab for these" import fees" . I have made many purchases without paying any additional Fees. Its very unfortunate for Canadian buyers as well as anyone overseas. I think the US sellers will loose out too.  Kijjiji here I come...........

[afantiques]

Not sure who's pocketing this cash grab for these" import fees" .

It's the Canadian government,in fact.

Provincial revenue collection is the big winner with this scheme. They are getting the cash it was not worth collecting from postal items.

[mpit7628]

Hello everyone.  I debated whether to post a message on the forum but what the heck.  Here goes!  Yesterday a auction for a reborn doll was coming to a end which I had been bidding on.  Another bidder was also bidding  and it took a few bids to finally over bid them but I did, bidding a little more than I should but I really liked the doll.  I was winning with just seconds to go and then the doll was gone, sniped away by someone who hadn't bid once during the entire listing.  Snipers are evil!  Not a care in the world how this makes other bidders feel.  After the initial feelings of anger and frustration I moved on and started looking again.  I recently also made a purchase of a vintage Christening gown for a old doll I have.   I enquired about the size at one point before purchase also mentioning that I live in Canada.  I received the message with the size.  I purchased the gown and at time of purchase I left a message again stating I live in Canada.  I receive a message from the seller saying they will ship the next day to my "Kentucky " address.  I message back stating I don't live in Kentucky as I have already stated.  Next thing I know I'm getting a message from the seller letting me know it has been shipped to a Kentucky address.  I message back that there is some confusion with my address going on.  They are stating that my pay pal account shows a Kentucky address.  News to me!  I checked and I am still living here in B.C. according to my address.  I get a message from the seller saying "ooops"   Now she doesn't know where the gown is going.  My take is she has it being shipping to The Global Shipping warehouse in Kentucky where it will be inspected , a new shipping label will be attached and then shipped to me.  I am just guessing.  All I know about Global Shipping is that I don't like it.  It would sure help if eBay would explain the rules of shipping to sellers so things like this don't happen.  I'm not sure if I will ever see the gown.  I also received a message from a seller in Quebec who I purchased a vintage camera from 1912.  I kept my eye on the tracking after not receiving it after a couple of weeks.  The tracking on the twenty sixth of January showed it had been processed in Richmond B.C. and was out for delivery.  As of yesterday the seller let me know the camera had been returned to him.  He explained that there was a pay pal  postage labelling problem.  How could this camera be shipped across the country to within a hour and a half from me before Canada post sees a problem with the shipping label and ships it back to Quebec?  Some ones asleep at the switch!!  This was my eBay experience yesterday!  Fun, fun, fun!  Sorry my rant is so long, it was a long day!

[nubian_treasures]

Snipers are smart. They bid at the last seconds to prevent anyone else from upping their bid.

Sniping is ebay legal.

"Avoiding being outbid in the final minutes

Placing a high bid in the closing seconds of an auction-style listing is called "sniping" within the eBay community. Sniping is part of the eBay experience, and all bids placed before a listing ends are valid, even if they're placed one second before the listing ends."

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/buy/outbid.html

You were bidding on a popular item. There's bound to be a lot of competition.

The auction always goes to the highest bidder no matter when their bid is placed.

"Not a care in the world how this makes other bidders feel. "

Why should the other bidders' feelings matter? Auctions are competitions to win an item. There are no feelings involved.

"It would sure help if eBay would explain the rules of shipping to sellers so things like this don't happen."

They do. Your seller didn't read them.

http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/ship-smart/advanced-shipping/Global-Shipping-Program/index.h...

[reallynicestamps]

TL'DR

I receive a message from the seller saying they will ship the next day to my "Kentucky " address. 

Don't panic.

The KY address is as you guessed the Global Shipping Program.

There is a chance the dress will be inspected and repacked, but more likely it will just be readdressed, put on a truck and shipped to Canada. Once in Canada, it will be reshipped, probably by Canada Post to your doorstep.

You will have nothing to pay on your doorstep* because all applicable costs of importing were paid when you made your payment .

If the item had been send USPS/Canada Post,you might have been paying slightly more** to your postie on delivery

*While used clothing does not attract duty, there would be GST/HST/PST collected for your province and a $5ish service charge for Pitney Bowes, who run the program.

** While CBSA tends to ignore lowvalue packages, the duty and sales tax is still supposed to be paid. When these are charged, Canada Post's service fee is $9.95

[mpit7628]

Anyone that has bid on anything on eBay has probably been sniped.  We all know it's within eBay's rules.  So are the programs out there for automatic sniping but to me it still seems some what unethical.  Sure eBay is big business but some of us out here are purchasing items just to collect or for hobbies.  You mentioned that there are no feelings involved when shopping on eBay.  Well, maybe not on the part of the snipers and other buyers and sellers who are just doing business but I sure know how I "feel" when I have been sniped and I can tell you it "is" frustrating.  Also, I don't believe eBay has done a good job at all explaining the global shipping program to American sellers.  At the very least they should telling sellers using this program to makes themselves informed on how to use it.  As I have found out  many don't.    How can you explain all the listings on eBay.ca placed by American sellers who use G.S. that don't even realize their listing is showing up outside of the  U.S.  The women that I bought the gown from didn't even know where she shipped it to.  Now since she realized she messed up she is not answering any of my messages.  Tracking today shows it is now in Erlanger, Kentucky I suspect at Pitney Bowes so it is being shipped.  Hopefully it will come to me from there.

[huggy-time]

Ebay doesn't care much about Cdn's. I know this isn't the constructive language asked for but its my view after many years on the site. I won't use the GSP because its strikes me as a form of a cash grab esp when so much used clothing is involved in these sales. From my own experience, only new electronics such as cameras were subject to inspections at the border. The battery charger I got for my laptop through a Chinese Seller on Ebay made it through without a second glance from Canada Customs. Why a Cdn buyer should be at the mercy of an American company like Pitney Bowes is beyond me.  

[mpit7628]

My last message went by the wayside when my cat stepped on my mouse!  What I was going to say was that I finally heard from the seller of the Christening gown and her last comment in the message was " I don't  know anything about Global Shipping"  That says it all in a nut shell.  She doesn't even realize she used this shipping.

[femmefan1946]

We all know it's within eBay's rules.  So are the programs out there for automatic sniping but to me it still seems some what unethical.

This is an international marketplace.

DH collects in a field where most of the enthusiasts, dealers and supply are in Australia.

He uses a sniping service to bid in auctions that close at 2am when he is asleep or when he might be working. His bids are executed by an electronic service and he pays that service a fee for their work.

Should all Australian auctions close when North Americans are awake and at their computers?

The high bidder wins.

If you want to win, bid more than the sniper.

[bmwnut635]

Feel free to copy and paste to ill informed sellers!

"Hi,
I'm interested in buying this item but I'm not interested in getting robbed by the global shipping program. Would you consider selling and shipping USPS without the GSP thieves involved?
If so, what would shipping costs be to Canada?

Thanks!"

[pierrelebel]

Great message.

However, it would be more effective without using the words "robbed" and "thieves"

[berubegirl]

Our opinion is that you chose exactly the right wording to describe ebay's global scamming oops mean shipping program.

[afantiques]

The words may strike you as right but they would strike an average seller as a bit green crayony. Lose them for something neutral or just omit entirely.

[00nevermind00]

---

@resabed01 wrote:

Feel free to copy and paste to ill informed sellers!

"Hi,
I'm interested in buying this item but I'm not interested in getting robbed by the global shipping program. Would you consider selling and shipping USPS without the GSP thieves involved?
If so, what would shipping costs be to Canada?

Thanks!"

---

I reworded your suggested message a bit:

"Hi,
I'm interested in buying this item but I would prefer not to use the GSP, which is very expensive for Canadians. Would you consider selling and shipping USPS instead of using the GSP?
If so, what would shipping costs be to Canada?

Thanks!"

Put yourself in the seller's shoes for a moment. Which message would you prefer to receive and which one would you be more willing to respond favourably to?

If the item is light and small enough to travel by First Class Mail International, you could also mention that e-delcon is now available to Canada on FCMI packages.

[5-4-3-mystars]

hi  there okay heres the thing if i continue to buy cds the way i did before,lots/boxes/singles, it will cost me hundreds of dollars more to buy from down south. a single card worth 15 dollars now costs  30.00. sure i can buy from a dealer who has not joined the program,but that deminshes my available chances of good dealers.,up in canada buying and than selling has a unique set of issues , one being a lot of usa sellers just dont sell up north! combine that with all the extra monies that pitney bowes gets.  you can forget buying down south. sure i can buy  and have it sent to usa address, but thats my time and time is money. awhile back we had people gouging shipping costs,that was fixed,than we had ebay wanting free shipping,that was money poor up here. now we have global canadian money loosing program.   whats next, my hobby is quickly taking an ugly downturn.   hopefully we will survive      dave

[dasia143]

An example of where the GSP import charge may be higher than required by Canada Customs, and the shipping’s expensive, too:

400600946273 camera battery

I recently bought a battery like this, plus a charger, from B&H Photo Video in the USA. In addition to shipping of $9.50, they levied what they call a “landing cost” of $10.79 for both items. All the components of the landing cost (duties, brokerage, handling) were clearly set out and visible before I confirmed the purchase. In my opinion the GSP should be this transparent.

If I had wanted to buy another component from the same seller, as I did with B&H, I would have had to pay the GSP shipping twice since you can’t combine shipping.

The GSP is a very user-unfriendly system. I’m actively looking for alternatives, and highly recommend B&H for photography items.

[brandedandsigned]

I am a Canadian buyer and seller.

For the past few weeks, I have been buying from the USA and I have just noticed the prevalence of the GSP. I have had a lot of back and forth conversations, not all of them nice, with users of the program. Here are my thoughts on the subject.

         Yes!  When you bid low, the shipping charge goes up and the duty/ customs fee goes down. Clearly a scam!

         Yes!  The shipping delay imposed by the central shipping station increases the shipping time. In my case X2 !!!

         Yes!  The sellers I have talked to don't know how it works and were ''OPTED'' in by ''DEFAULT'' .

         Yes!  The fees are an amalgamate of many things. Service charges, brokering charges, shipping charges, etc. But they seem t                      to move up or down individually to push up the total on the Pitney-Bowes bill.

         Yes!  The two bills that you get (one from the seller, one from Pitneu-Bowes) are mor than confusing. After looking over at a few                     of them, I see nothing that I can relly on. Costs for different charges are just all over the place. NO consistency except                             EXTRA CHARGE !!!!

          No!  I don't want to buy anything from anyone using that program. I might have to, but I will do so with extreme reluctance and                         when faced with no other choice. 

What can you expect as a Canadian buying from the US or the UK if going through the GSP ? Easy, Extra shipping delay, extra cost on shipping AND extra duty or import fees. So, NOTHING GOOD. All it is is a way for eBay to finally charge the buyers a fee.

[pocitos57]

I never get charged anything when items come from u.s. they're shipped and I receive in my mail box no taxes no import charges nothing just the item. I only buy from sellers that use USPS.