eBay

kalvin@ebay.com · ‎09-26-2013

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.

~Kalvin
eBay.ca Community Manager

kalvin@ebay.com

psinanan · ‎09-04-2015

The Ebay Global Shipping Program is GARBAGE!

shipping costs are higher than if using any other shipping service

shipping time is about double that of any other shipping service at the same price.

If I want to opt out of the GSP, I have to go back and forth with the seller until it is sorted (ie. Waste my time with several emails back and forth).

at the payment stage, there should be a clearly visible option to say 'No Global Shipping Program'. What would be even better, is if Ebay users could specify in their profile/homepage that GSP is unwanted.

Then there is the Ebay customer service/contact us page, which is totally useless. It is impossible to get a contact for ebay regarding this issue. One has to just select a number of different unrelated options in order to get to a phone number or email just to contact ebay. I suspect the contact page is designed to stop Ebay users from actually contacting ebay.

amateur hour at ebay

femmefan1946 · ‎09-04-2015

There is.

Each listing using the GSP has these words:

Customs services and international tracking provided

It should be noted that these words do not appear in Search when the customer is shopping on a mobile device or in Gallery mode.

Personally, I would advise anyone shopping on eBay to use a laptop or desktop to read the ENTIRE description rather than buying impulsively from a phone, where most of the seller's careful description is not available.

In addition, when the buyer checks out, the 'import fees' are clearly spelled out.

The buyer can stop right there and the transaction ends.

For most low value (under ~$100USD) transactions, GSP is not suitable, since the bureaucrats at CBSA seem to have made the sensible decision to ignore most parcels valued under about that amount. They decided that collecting duty and sales taxes on item valued at $20CDN (about $15.50USD) was more expensive than the money they could collect.

Couriers like GSP/PB or UPS must obey the law and collect duty and sales taxes. It is the $20 maximum that is the problem in my opinion, it should be raised to $200 like cross-border shoppers get.

GSP or not, I find most of my US and Canadian purchases take about 20 days to arrive, sometimes less, rarely more. (European purchase average about 15 days, Asian about 30 days.)

marnotom! · ‎09-04-2015

@psinanan wrote:

The Ebay Global Shipping Program is GARBAGE!

shipping costs are higher than if using any other shipping service

shipping time is about double that of any other shipping service at the same price.

One of the big considerations with the Global Shipping Program is that it's actually more like a forwarding service as it doesn't deal with the complete process of shipping the item from the seller to the buyer. If eBay or PitneyBowes had named it "The Global Forwarding Program" or something similar, it may have served to set buyers' expectations a little more appropriately. Keep in mind that the first leg of the journey involves the item being shipped by the seller to Kentucky, and if the seller uses an expensive but slow means to get the item there that's going to affect your overall charges and wait time as much as the GSP would.

@psinanan wrote:

If I want to opt out of the GSP, I have to go back and forth with the seller until it is sorted (ie. Waste my time with several emails back and forth).

at the payment stage, there should be a clearly visible option to say 'No Global Shipping Program'. What would be even better, is if Ebay users could specify in their profile/homepage that GSP is unwanted.

As already pointed out, there are clues on listing pages and search results pages that will help you flag an item forwarded through the Global Shipping Program. I'm not sure I'm fully understanding what you mean about an option at the payment stage as the shipping method is theoretically set by the seller and many US sellers likely wouldn't ship directly to Canada without the GSP. In fact, a good number of sellers who have the GSP set up on their listings appear to be unaware that it's there, so that may be one reason why you have to deal with a lot of "back and forth" with sellers in order to get them to ship directly to Canada: they've likely never shipped outside of the United States in their lives, so they're going to need a lot of hand-holding and reassurance.

spidey*pig · ‎09-07-2015

GSP is complete garbage.

They overcharge Canadians for shipping & a provide garbage service.

They repackage items to be less protected.

I will do my best to avoid GSP shipping & Pitney Bowes in the future.

Why does eBay allow this garbage service on here where Canadians are getting gouged by them.

The guy with the Yoda picture on his profile here must work for Pitney Bowes with all his ridiculous laughable comments sticking up for those crooks.

pierrelebel · ‎09-07-2015

"The guy with the Yoda picture on his profile here must work for Pitney Bowes with all his ridiculous laughable comments sticking up for those crooks. "

If you take the time to read this thread started two years ago you will find my comments at the very beginning - the first reply in fact. I am not sure how you can conclude "... ridiculous laughable comments sticking up for those crooks."

For two years I have consistently stated that GSP was not "Canadian buyer friendly" and should be avoided by most Canadian buyers in most instances.

"I will do my best to avoid GSP shipping & Pitney Bowes in the future."

That is the correct approach for most Canadian buyers in most instances.

afantiques · ‎09-08-2015

They repackage items to be less protected.

This statement is nonsense, at the time they have the items they are also responsible for their safe arrival.

Reducing the chances of this would be foolish.

Certainly this is not done at the UK GSP depot, I have visited the depot and examined the process there. I also asked the manager of the US facility who was there in the UK at the time about the US practices and they are the same. Both plants are under her overall management.

00nevermind00 · ‎09-08-2015

@afantiques wrote:

Certainly this is not done at the UK GSP depot, I have visited the depot and examined the process there. I also asked the manager of the US facility who was there in the UK at the time about the US practices and they are the same. Both plants are under her overall management.

Did you tell her about the many complaints for shoddy repackaging AF? I don't know about the UK hub, but the oafs at the Erlanger distribution center seem to be handling people's purchases pretty roughly. That is simply unacceptable, especially in view of how much the buyers pay for this "service".

walker0017 · ‎09-08-2015

@afantiques wrote:
They repackage items to be less protected.

This statement is nonsense, at the time they have the items they are also responsible for their safe arrival.

Reducing the chances of this would be foolish.

Certainly this is not done at the UK GSP depot, I have visited the depot and examined the process there. I also asked the manager of the US facility who was there in the UK at the time about the US practices and they are the same. Both plants are under her overall management.

While I can appreciate your statement on what you personally saw which leaves no doubt that the GSP dist. center in the UK is properly run I doubt very much this manager or any other manager is going to admit to anyone not employed by PB the shoddy practices of repackaging items to reduce weight and all the other antics done in Kentucky and have been commented upon by numerous buyers on this forum. It all comes down to credibility and trust and quite frankly PB has none when it comes to this as they have been mucking it up for 3 years.

afantiques · ‎09-09-2015

the shoddy practices of repackaging items to reduce weight and all the other antics done in Kentucky and have been commented upon by numerous buyers on this forum.

The main problem with this theory of repackaging is that it makes no sense whatsoever. Any weight saving would be offset by extra labour costs and reimbursements for damaged items.

What I did see was a random selection of items coming in from sellers, and just how badly many were packaged. I saw some effort to improve packing, and none whatsoever to reduce it.

It seems 20% of incoming packages had no GSP routing number in the address, and some parcels had no clue at all as to what they were or even who the seller was. The biggest problem was seller incompetence.

I expect the same proportion of seller incompetence from US sellers and I expect the ratio of problem items received

walker0017 · ‎09-09-2015

@afantiques wrote:
the shoddy practices of repackaging items to reduce weight and all the other antics done in Kentucky and have been commented upon by numerous buyers on this forum.

The main problem with this theory of repackaging is that it makes no sense whatsoever. Any weight saving would be offset by extra labour costs and reimbursements for damaged items.

What I did see was a random selection of items coming in from sellers, and just how badly many were packaged. I saw some effort to improve packing, and none whatsoever to reduce it.

It seems 20% of incoming packages had no GSP routing number in the address, and some parcels had no clue at all as to what they were or even who the seller was. The biggest problem was seller incompetence.

I expect the same proportion of seller incompetence from US sellers and I expect the ratio of problem items received

As I indicated earlier the UK depot will be run differently as there are different work ethics the same cannot be said for the Erlanger depot especially concerning repackaging as everyone here has read. Although you may be totally correct about 20% US seller incompetence or IMO only US seller indifference to packaging as long as they are getting their money, I strongly suspect that % is higher mostly because of the different type of work ethics between US and UK workers.

00nevermind00 · ‎09-09-2015

I decided to take a bit of time today to go on the .com Weekly chat in order to raise some of our GSP concerns. I'm certainly not going to hold my breath for anything to happen but I figured that the most I had to lose was a bit of time. And you just never know...

My post is #14 on the first page of today's chat:

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Weekly-Chat-with-eBay-Staff/Weekly-Chat-with-the-eBay-Community-Septemb...

afantiques · ‎09-10-2015

the same cannot be said for the Erlanger depot especially concerning repackaging as everyone here has read.

Everyone here has read a lot of things that simply are not true.

There is no nonsense filter on the internet and peer review is not very effective, there seem to be far more people willing to propagate rumour, slander and nonsense than there are boring people who say, 'Let's stick to the facts'.

What the sailor said is never evidence.

As for the work ethic, well, who knows, but I really doubt that there is all that much difference

afantiques · ‎09-10-2015

Well said, and probably well ignored.

walker0017 · ‎09-10-2015

@afantiques wrote:
the same cannot be said for the Erlanger depot especially concerning repackaging as everyone here has read.

Everyone here has read a lot of things that simply are not true.

There is no nonsense filter on the internet and peer review is not very effective, there seem to be far more people willing to propagate rumour, slander and nonsense than there are boring people who say, 'Let's stick to the facts'.

What the sailor said is never evidence.

As for the work ethic, well, who knows, but I really doubt that there is all that much difference

So you are calling all those who have posted on this site stating that the items they received had been repackaged resulting in damage to their items liars? Other than your visit which is starting to appear to be one that was carefully orchestrated to put PB in a positive light, what evidence do you have that proves all these posters are not telling the truth? The word of a PB depot manager?, seriously, that is not evidence that's PR propaganda.

So lets stick to the facts, various buyers have posted here stating that items they have gotten through the GSP program were poorly repackaged at Erlanger resulting in damage to their goods, that is a fact. Now we have you stating that after touring the PB depot and talking to some manager who says they look after both the UK and Erlanger depot that they do not repackage items poorly and it is all the seller's fault. Now that is a hard one, granted there is probably a small percentage that do package poorly but personally I have a hard time believing some managerial stooge who's job is to always only show their company in a positive light so I will stick with the various buyers here and not PB since being honest and open is not something they are capable of.

chimera148 · ‎09-10-2015

walker0017 wrote:

.......it is all the seller's fault.

Unfortunately the seller has often been the "fall guy", the one wrongly taking the blame, since the programs inception. Even though the seller may not know that they are even enrolled in the program.

marnotom! · ‎09-10-2015

@walker0017 wrote:

So you are calling all those who have posted on this site stating that the items they received had been repackaged resulting in damage to their items liars? Other than your visit which is starting to appear to be one that was carefully orchestrated to put PB in a positive light, what evidence do you have that proves all these posters are not telling the truth? The word of a PB depot manager?

Are you saying that you're a troll? It's typical modus operandi of one to open their remarks by accusing the other party of suggesting that others are liars.

At no point did AF make any observations associated with the recipients of goods damaged through the GSP, did he?

walker0017 · ‎09-10-2015

@marnotom! wrote:
@walker0017 wrote:
So you are calling all those who have posted on this site stating that the items they received had been repackaged resulting in damage to their items liars? Other than your visit which is starting to appear to be one that was carefully orchestrated to put PB in a positive light, what evidence do you have that proves all these posters are not telling the truth? The word of a PB depot manager?

Are you saying that you're a troll? It's typical modus operandi of one to open their remarks by accusing the other party of suggesting that others are liars.

At no point did AF make any observations associated with the recipients of goods damaged through the GSP, did he?

Yes AF did if you had have fully read what AF stated and any buyer knows, something of which you are not.

marnotom! · ‎09-10-2015

@walker0017 wrote:

Yes AF did if you had have fully read what AF stated . . .

What AF was discussing was the theory (or, more accurately, hypothesis) that goods were being underpackaged by the Global Shipping Center. If you have a quote from him where he was accusing buyers of making untrue stories of receiving damaged goods, please provide it.

walker0017 wrote:

and any buyer knows, something of which you are not.

Oh, dear. Now I appear to be accused of stealing the last two mobile phones I obtained through eBay, it seems. 😄

00nevermind00 · ‎09-10-2015

@afantiques wrote:
Well said, and probably well ignored.

I am well aware of that. Unfortunately! But I just had to say it. Maybe it will do some good by alerting some sellers that they may be enrolled by stealth. And maybe, just maybe, someone at PB/GSP could decide to act on it. Although I'm not about to start holding my breath anytime soon!

fh991586 · ‎09-13-2015

Both times I bought something under the GSP I got damaged items, and no tracking during shipping. It was high quality posters sold by the original editor who has been in business for more than 25 years. Therefore, I strongly suspect the lack of protection & creases in over-rolling happened while the original package was opened and re-sealed in Erlanger Ky. Now I just brush aside any item that was entered into the GSP.