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.

[bobenis]

Haha yeah 5:29am to 4:49pm 🙂 That was PB's owning up to their end of the "international priority" part of the deal. From there it is travelling on a snail's back.

[bobenis]

Wow....so they JUST cleared customs after a total of 9 days!? =( Now they still have to make their way from ON to BC...this sucks.

[afantiques]

Still pretty brisk for freight, but just brain fade on my part.

[bobenis]

Just to show CP does show a "released from customs for processing by Canada Post" notification.

[marnotom!]

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@bobenis wrote:

Wow....so they JUST cleared customs after a total of 9 days!? =( Now they still have to make their way from ON to BC...this sucks.

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Well, remember AF's hypothesis that the item may have been delayed because somebody in Mississauga may have been trying to figure out if it needed to be processed through customs or not.

Looking at the tracking for my wife's item, it took one day to reach Mississauga from Kentucky and it cleared customs the same day.

I'm guessing that Pitney Bowes is trying out a new carrier for smaller items and there are wrinkles still to be worked out.  Keep us posted.

[bobenis]

I hope that is not the case because if so then it is being mailed via 1st Class when it should be going Xpresspost once it hits Canada. Having it sent Priority from the seller to PB to ensure they are covered only to have PB send it to Canada via the slowest and cheapest route is counterproductive AND a contradiction to ebay stating the item is shipped to you via Priority International.

Canada Post uses the same method by which it was shipping within the US to Canada. 1st Class ends up going reg mail once in Canada but Priority is taken over via Xpresspost to ensure the same level of speed.

Now, I wonder if I were to buy an item from Hawaii via the GSP, does PB handle it in Hawaii and then forwards it on from there or would the seller have to ship it to KY, flying right over BC only to have it shipped all the way from the east coast back to the west again? That would take ages....

[afantiques]

ebay stating the item is shipped to you via Priority International.

Ebay soes not say this.

They sey International Priority shipping, which means nothing. Priority International is a USPS mail class. This alsp means nothing, in effect, since there is no surface mail to have priority over any more, but there is an important distinction here.

You were never promised Priority International  or that the item would be sent expresspost in Canada.

[bobenis]

Sorry but you are wrong. 

Regardless of what they do, ebay CLEARLY states International Priority Shipping to Canada.

It says it right in the auction BEFORE you buy it thus part of a binding contract. 

In a court they would lose. 

[femmefan1946]

I once saw a merchant on our Mall cover his windows with brown paper  and signs that said EVERYTHING FOR SALE!!

Which got him lots of customers who happily bought at his regular prices.

Because 'for sale' is not the same as 'on sale'.

Words have very particular meanings.

That Canada Post has a Priority Post service does not mean it is identical to the USPS Priority Mail service.

We really are not attacking you.

We just find it strange that Pitney Bowes is using what has to be an expensive service (USPS) instead of the freight forwarding bulk services we have been hearing about for several years.

[afantiques]

You miss the point of the earlier post. They do say international priority shipping, but the term is meaningless, legally the word priority would be be described as puffery, and not actually descriptive of anything specific.

Priority International = a class of USPS shipping.

International Priority = whatever they want it to mean.

In a court they would not lose, for the reason I state above would be adequate defense, no specific service is promised. You would not win a case hinging on mis-description because a breakfast cereal called 'Golden Granules' was no gold, nor did it contain any gold, or even look very golden. The sellers defence would be that the word golden is puffery, a word used to influence the attractiveness of the product conveying no specific meaning. As a non lawyer would say, it's just advertising.

[afantiques]

I think he could have used 'On Sale' since this is the normal state of affairs for a shop, items are on sale inside.

The prosecution argument would be that the term On Sale implies, due to linguistic drift, that they are offered at a discount but I do not think this argument would prevail. The defense that the items were in fact on sale in the normal meaning of the word would trump any implied meaning.

But really, not likely to be a problem, the brown paper was the charm. Hide the stuff and it's got to be worth finding.

[bobenis]

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@afantiques wrote:

You miss the point of the earlier post. They do say international priority shipping, but the term is meaningless, legally the word priority would be be described as puffery, and not actually descriptive of anything specific.

Priority International = a class of USPS shipping.

International Priority = whatever they want it to mean.

In a court they would not lose, for the reason I state above would be adequate defense, no specific service is promised. You would not win a case hinging on mis-description because a breakfast cereal called 'Golden Granules' was no gold, nor did it contain any gold, or even look very golden. The sellers defence would be that the word golden is puffery, a word used to influence the attractiveness of the product conveying no specific meaning. As a non lawyer would say, it's just advertising.

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Disagree on the simple ideology of the meaning of the word "priority".

If in court it was shown and proven that the item was shipped ground and/or the slowest and most economical route then that would indeed contradict the useage of the word "priority". 

[bobenis]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

I once saw a merchant on our Mall cover his windows with brown paper  and signs that said EVERYTHING FOR SALE!!

Which got him lots of customers who happily bought at his regular prices.

Because 'for sale' is not the same as 'on sale'.

Words have very particular meanings.

That Canada Post has a Priority Post service does not mean it is identical to the USPS Priority Mail service.

We really are not attacking you.

We just find it strange that Pitney Bowes is using what has to be an expensive service (USPS) instead of the freight forwarding bulk services we have been hearing about for several years.

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Anything that comes in from anywhere in the world as an express or priority delivery Canada Post passes on that item in their equivalent service. 

That is mandatory otherwise all the postal services would be in serious trouble offering guaranteed time frames and delivery speeds (Express, Priority, etc) to specific countries if, in those countries, they just turned around and transferred it on via snail mail. 

I have even consistently noticed CP using Xpresspost for 1st Class from the US as the new US labels have a little international "Post Expres" badge on them now thus they treat it as Xpresspost. 

Every parcel I have received that has that badge on it arrives via Xpresspost, which is awesome. 

[marnotom!]

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@bobenis wrote:

Every parcel I have received that has that badge on it arrives via Xpresspost, which is awesome. 

I have even consistently noticed CP using Xpresspost for 1st Class from the US as the new US labels have a little international "Post Expres" badge on them now thus they treat it as Xpresspost. 

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Many First Class Package International items are now shipped with delivery confirmation.  USPS calls it "eDELCON".  

The only way Canada Post seems to be able to handle these items on its end is by putting them in the Xpresspost stream.

[bobenis]

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@marnotom! wrote:

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@bobenis wrote:

Every parcel I have received that has that badge on it arrives via Xpresspost, which is awesome. 

I have even consistently noticed CP using Xpresspost for 1st Class from the US as the new US labels have a little international "Post Expres" badge on them now thus they treat it as Xpresspost. 

---

Many First Class Package International items are now shipped with delivery confirmation.  USPS calls it "eDELCON".  

The only way Canada Post seems to be able to handle these items on its end is by putting them in the Xpresspost stream.

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Which is A OK with me! 

[bobenis]

Now I wonder how Hawaii orders are handled with the GSP?

It would be mental for them to ship it to KY...

I might just have to use Ship It To. 

[marnotom!]

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@bobenis wrote:

Now I wonder how Hawaii orders are handled with the GSP?

It would be mental for them to ship it to KY...

I might just have to use Ship It To. 

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Last I checked, Hawaii was still considered part of the United States and wouldn't qualify for GSP shipping from US sellers.  UK sellers, sure, but those sellers don't ship GSP items to Kentucky.

[bobenis]

You misunderstood me I think.

What I meant is if I buy a jacket, let's say, and the seller is in Hawaii and uses the GSP, would that seller have to send the item all the way to KY (right over BC to boot) and then to Ontario and on to me or would they ship the item within Hawaii (since PB is in HI too) and on to the international destination from there?

The latter makes more sense time wise but ebay doesn't seem to concerned about that aspect now do they lol. 

[marnotom!]

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@bobenis wrote:

You misunderstood me I think.

What I meant is if I buy a jacket, let's say, and the seller is in Hawaii and uses the GSP, would that seller have to send the item all the way to KY (right over BC to boot) and then to Ontario and on to me or would they ship the item within Hawaii (since PB is in HI too) and on to the international destination from there?

The latter makes more sense time wise but ebay doesn't seem to concerned about that aspect now do they lol. 

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Depending on the shipping methods used, an item in Hawaii could conceivably reach Kentucky in a shorter time than one sent from a point on the mainland.

The reason why stuff gets shipped to Kentucky is to consolidate items into large freight shipments.  I doubt there'd be much GSP freight to Canada to consolidate in Honolulu.

Are you aware that letter mail in many--if not most--centres in British Columbia is now sent to Richmond to be processed?  That means that if I send a letter to someone across the street from me, it has to take a round-trip ferry ride from Vancouver Island to be sorted before my neighbour receives it.

[pocomocomputing]

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@marnotom! wrote:

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@bobenis wrote:

You misunderstood me I think.

What I meant is if I buy a jacket, let's say, and the seller is in Hawaii and uses the GSP, would that seller have to send the item all the way to KY (right over BC to boot) and then to Ontario and on to me or would they ship the item within Hawaii (since PB is in HI too) and on to the international destination from there?

The latter makes more sense time wise but ebay doesn't seem to concerned about that aspect now do they lol. 

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Depending on the shipping methods used, an item in Hawaii could conceivably reach Kentucky in a shorter time than one sent from a point on the mainland.

The reason why stuff gets shipped to Kentucky is to consolidate items into large freight shipments.  I doubt there'd be much GSP freight to Canada to consolidate in Honolulu.

Are you aware that letter mail in many--if not most--centres in British Columbia is now sent to Richmond to be processed?  That means that if I send a letter to someone across the street from me, it has to take a round-trip ferry ride from Vancouver Island to be sorted before my neighbour receives it.

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When I was in Whistler, BC, a really small resort town as you know, the post office there has two red boxes outside, one labeled local mail and one for the rest of BC. So it appears to me that some cities as you said keep their local mail and sort it locally. This was a couple of years ago.