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.

[pierrelebel]

"I assume the money I paid to Pitney Bowes will be forwarded to the seller to help ease the pain as they are the ones who handled the shipping to me and now the import fees as well."

No.  PayPal cannot do that.  The money will be refunded to you since you made the payment to Pitney Bowes and the service was not provided.

[afantiques]

Just to let everyone know what happened in my case - ebay support told me to open a resolution ticket as item not as described and pay UPS their $94 and the seller would have to cover that as they were the ones who made the mistake in this situation.

That is in my opinion, nonsense, and the sort of thing you get from a CS rep making it up as they go along.

If you pay the UPS charge that is that. There is no way that ebay could or would force the seller to refund you this. A not as described ticket is not appropriate as you do not have the item, it is at present 'Not Received'

I am willing to bet that if you call again you will get some other different advice,

There are two conjoined problems here, and there is no combined answer to them.

The first is that the seller did not use the GSP.  This is something that ebay  CS should be able to sort out, the GSP can tell that the service paid for was never used and they can make a refund of the full GSP charges.

The second and entirely separate problem is that the seller used UPS ground as the shipping method, probably not knowing as most Canadians know to their cost; that this is a terribly expensive way for the buyer, with the import and brokerage fees.

If you pay these charges there is noway to reclaim them from anyone. I'd say it is unlikely that the seller would be willng to stump up the money and there is no way to make them do so.

It might be interesting to  see what two separate enquiries to ebay CS would produce, one asking about the unused GSP payment and the other, with no mention of the GSP problem, asking about the seller using a shipping method they did not mention in the listing,and one that differed gratly in the cost to you ofrom the method they did specify.

There are threads about UPS ground charges on this board, do a search and see how others coped.

[betty-art]

There is NOTHING GOOD or Beneficial about the GSP.  It makes everything more expensive with NO BENIFIT.  It should be scraped!

[betty-art]

Simple solution, DO NOT BUY FROM ANY SELLER USING THE GSP.  And have them ship USPS 1st class mail.  DONE!

[steait]

I'm an International buyer from Denmark, I buy IT equipment and there is no duty on IT equipment imports to Denmark.

to answer the question briefly:

• What has worked well for you with the Global Shipping Program?

Nothing, it is a SCAM 100% bull**bleep**

• Any ideas to help improve the experience for Canadian buyers?

I'll add International buyers - remove your GLOBAL SCAM PROGRAM or make it optional for the buyer.

• What has deterred you from buying items offered using the Global Shipping Program?

Legally there is no duty or GST/HST/VAT whatever you want to call it on IT equipment imports to Denmark when you are a company, you are trying to SCAM me, hurt my business and steal my money illegally. SHAME on your eBay.

• How have you managed to search for items outside the program?

Avoid eBay as much as possible, only buy strictly necessary items here - avoid US sellers as much as possible and NEVER ever buy from anyone using your GLOBAL SCAM PROGRAM.

eBay you are still the biggest, so people use you most but your time will come and a competitor will rise and overtake you - it's just a matter of time with your customer service and attitude.

[afantiques]

Denmark has the same import rules as the rest of the EU, and in any case it is irrelevant as the items enter the EU through the UK, the tax is paid in the UK and the items travel to Denmark as EU goods with freedom of movement.

In general the import charges are simply the equivalent of local sales taxes and are not 'duty' as such. I have never heard of a sales tax exemption of used IT equipment. (Technically, the items would be zero rated for VAT in the same way books are.)

Now that the dust has settled a bit it is clear that the main problem with the GSP  is inappropriate use by sellers, and lack of positive steps by ebay to limit inappropriate use.

[lumbercanada]

How is it the GSP shipping center in KY doesn't give you any paper work for TAX purposes like any other shipping company in the WORLD! USPS, FEDEX, UPS etc ALL give you a detailed receipt! GSP gives you absolutely nothing. If buying for my business there are tax exemptions we can claim, but alas there is no valid paper work to claim the tax.

They're clearly more then a middle man so where is the paperwork? GSP centers have been known to repack items. They essentially are re shipping and collecting their SCAM fee. Furthermore items that clearly fall under NAFTA are still being charged import fees and taxes. When certain items under NAFTA are exempt from any extra charges, besides basic shipping. Examples certain goods from Mexico are 100% exempt from any duties and tariffs! Yet good old GSP you're illegally paying taxes and import fees on those exact items which were exempt in the first place!

Love how they get away with running this illegal scam.

[pierrelebel]

"If buying for my business"

The terms of GSP clearly state that the service is for individuals only for personal use, NOT FOR BUSINESS.

In other words, if you need to buy a product for your business, do not buy from a seller using GSP.

The same question seems to be asked and answered every week on this thread.

"under NAFTA are exempt from any extra charges"

NAFTA deals with duty and tariff, not consumption taxes GST/HST/PST..

[merino514]

Pitney & Bowes are a real pain in the neck when buying on Ebay why do sellers do business with them ? What a Brain Fart those guys are (Pitney & Bowes) so to all you sellers out there you won't have my cash anymore if your using the global shipment program.

[mr.elmwood]

All PB does is sell the postage, nothing else.

[brandedandsigned]

The real question is....
If there is no import duty between US and Canada but still, Import charges are paid by canadian buyers,

WHO THE HELL IS POCKETING THE **bleep** MONEY?????

Certainly not revenue canada...

So will we ever have an honest answer here?
Please cut the corporate

[brandedandsigned]

We are not buying from any sellers using gsp... We sometimes email them to explain what gsp is all about and many of them have no clue what it is really... Some have opted out and we made the purchase...

Some say its easier for them... That might have been true before but now, US sellers have option of first class with tracking sat reasonable price. Seller education needed Ebay...

[brandedandsigned]

AAll PB does is sell the postage, nothing else.....

Wrong...
Look at the listings...it clearly states that gsp is for import duty...
In paypal there is a charge for shiping either paiid by buyer or seller... And then pitney bowes take their cut....supposedly for import charges...
But when there is no import charges, who is pocketing the money?

[afantiques]

If there is no import duty between US and Canada but still, Import charges are paid by canadian buyers,

WHO THE HELL IS POCKETING THE **bleep** MONEY?????

Certainly not revenue canada...

So will we ever have an honest answer here?

The honest answer (which must have been posted a hundred times by now) is that anything over $20 declared value is liable to an import tax the same as the consumption tax (GST/ HST) in the province it is destined for. This is not a 'duty' or 'tariff' payment. In effect it is simply the sales tax you'd be paying if yoiu bought locally.

The GSP 'brokerage fee for handling the parcel is about $5,half of what the Canadian Post Office charges for the same service if tax is charged on a postal import.

Since many postal items legally due to be taxed are not charged, the extra funds form GSP imports are going to the Canadian Government and I am sure are very welcome, when it's time for drinks all round for the Honourable Members.

[reallynicestamps]

If there is no import duty between US and Canada but still, Import charges are paid by canadian buyers,

Start with the 'if".

In many circumstances there are import charges on imports from the USA (and Mexico and Chile the other two members of NAFTA).

Import fees are not (only) duty.

They are made up of 'applicable' duty/ customs fees.

PLUS

Sales taxes (GST/HST/PST).

PLUS

And a service fee charged by PitneyBowes (and by Canada Post or UPS or FedEc)

Import fees are applied to imports valued over $20CDN (about $16USD)

Duty is applicable to items imported from the USA but manufactured in non-NAFTA countries.

[oragex]

Ebay states on their site : " It's against our rules to have unreasonable shipping charges in a listing"

Well, the Global Shipping program does just that.  Let's watch listing 261922945830.  Normally with regular post this will ship for $3-$4 to Canada.  But instead, I will have to pay $15 with no import fees.  Which will make me not bid on the item, which will make the seller have one less bid on his listing, so he will sell for less.  Bad choice for all the seller, the buyer and the Ebay, at the end.

[pierrelebel]

Your post, like many similar posts, highlights one of the major problem with the program.

It was never intended for low priced items.  From the beginning, three years ago, eBay suggested sellers use the program for items averaging more than US$50.00 in value.

Unfortunately, many sellers find it too darn easy to use the program (no cost and no risk to them) with total disregard for the buyer.

[00nevermind00]

---

@pierrelebel wrote:

Your post, like many similar posts, highlights one of the major problem with the program.

It was never intended for low priced items.  From the beginning, three years ago, eBay suggested sellers use the program for items averaging more than US$50.00 in value.

Unfortunately, many sellers find it too darn easy to use the program (no cost and no risk to them) with total disregard for the buyer.

---

Actually, eBay picked that $50 figure out of the sky several weeks or months into the program, after an unending flood of complaints from international buyers. It was the first of a few half-baked attempts to placate outraged international buyers. Other such attempts were the possibility of taking up to 4 countries out of the GSP when selecting that option and the convoluted use of the shopping cart to combine shipping.

I think that they were caught totally off-guard by the number and intensity of the complaints and only came up with these in order to make it look like the good folks at the GSP cared at least a little about international buyers. Because none of those "improvements" were ever explained very well (or at all) and we still see $5.00 light-weight, low-fraud items listed with GSP with depressing regularity.

[onemarathonmom]

I am not impressed with the GSP and Pitney Bowes.  The shipping costs are more than I have ever paid to bring items in from the states, it is taking far too long to get my items ( I am still waiting on 2 items that are in KY that were shipped 2 weeks ago), and the import fees are bogus. 

Most of what I purchase is not subject to customs because it is under $50.  I am also suspicious of the "import fees" definition because depending on what and where your items is from, as to how much you would pay for "import fees" which, when I spoke to Canada Revenue Agency and Canada Customs, import fee is their definition for Customs Tax and Excise.  So PB is ripping us off in more ways than one.

As of today, I will be curtailing my Ebay shopping and looking to deal with the seller directly,  Amazon or other websites that will provide me with what I want, when I want it and how I want it shipped.  I just purchased a book through Abebooks for $55 and $10 shipping from Texas, that same item on Ebay was $120 and $45 for shipping.  It is a no brainer.

Cindy

[afantiques]

Most of what I purchase is not subject to customs because it is under $50.

The figure is actually Can$20, about $16 US. In practice postal imports under $100 seem to pass untaxed but no such blind eye exists for freight imports, which is how GSP items enter the country, as freight.

There are no bogus charges, but there are charges that importing by post would avoid.

Ask sellers of items you are interested in to switch off the GSP and send to you direct.