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.

[marnotom!]

---

@steve95780 wrote:

Way to lose a customer Ebay. I recently bid on and purchased an item from a seller 4 hrs away from me. I am in BC, Canada and seller is in Kent, WA.  Didn't realize how high the shipping charges were with this global shipping program. But that was my fault for not checking first.  No big deal, I thought, at least I get it quickly.  Not so, 15 days later I am still waiting as the item got shipped across the US to Kentucky, then up to Ontario and is slowly meandering back to the West coast.  What a joke.  Aside from the excessive shipping costs involved, the most annoying part is that other items in the past have gotten to me via USPS quickly and for a fraction of the cost.  Needless to say, I will not be making any more purchases where the global ship program is involved.  As an aside I made a purchase 2 days later through a competitor and was pleasantly surprised when my shipping was only 1/3 of the cost (and waived)  and the item arrived 4 days after I purchased it.  The dissatisfaction with the delivery system has dramatically tainted the  purchase experience. 

---

While I can understand your frustration with the Global Shipping Program, it does strike me that you might have been able to avoid this frustration had you read the listing a bit more closely.  You've already admitted you didn't notice the shipping price.  Also on the listing page is a delivery time estimate and links to further information on the GSP which explain how it works.  It's really just a forwarding system with a few more bells and whistles and better buyer protection than most independent forwarding agents.

I've only purchased two items that were shipped through the program, but it worked well for those particular purchases.  There are many instances where it doesn't make sense to use it, but the same can be said for other methods of shipment as well.

For what it's worth, I'm in BC as well, on Vancouver Island.  When I mail a letter to someone in the same town as me, Canada Post trucks it to Vancouver to be processed before sending it back to the Island.  Many towns in the southern interior have their mail trucked to Vancouver for sorting, too.  The GSP isn't the only game in town that uses a centralized delivery model.  

[sunmadmurf]

Pitney Bowes is charging import tax on exempt items. The Canada Revenue Service should audit their activities. Who is getting this money? NOT the CRA .
The global shipping program is a cash grab. I will no longer purchase from sellers using this program. Who needs to pay twice the cost for shipping? Who wants to wait 3 times as long to receive their purchase ?

[femmefan1946]

This has been reported from time to time.

Most of the reports are from coin buyers. Apparently collectible coins, as well as bullion are not dutiable.

They are however taxable.

Pitney Bowes does not technically charge duty and tax. They charge 'import fees' which they use to pay applicable duty and tax, based on the seller's description and sometimes on having opened and assessed the package, then repacking it badly.

Items that are manufactured in the USA are usually not dutiable. They are still taxable.

Items that are manufactured elsewhere, but purchased in the USA are dutiable and taxable.

All of which is too complicated for the kind of paranoid seller who will only ship with the protection of the GSP, which is a Seller Protection Program and has little value to buyers.

Who is getting this money? NOT the CRA .

If you have any proof that Pitney Bowes is NOT remitting the collected duty and taxes to the CRA, I am sure the revenuers would be pleased to have that information.

The GSP is a bad program, poorly designed, badly explained and atrociously implemented. 

You can try to appeal the fees collected for duty and and sales tax to Pitney Bowes.

I think the address was given somewhere upstream.

[objopt]

  I 've read through about 1/2 of the comments about the global shipping program and what I am amazed about is how polite, most of you are. Ebay likes to foster goodwill and a community sort of spirit, so this politeness fits in well with their smiley faced ethic. However, that ethic, allows them to not really listen very well, to act like puppets because they can just thank you and move on.  I'm pretty sure Kalvin is a puppet.

 Pitney Bowes are lining their pockets with the gsp and until that changes, nothing will change with the gsp, so in order to get rid of the gsp, buyers have to use it judiciously, when necessary  and not let one single fragment of a mistake get by. People  generally let shipping or packing mistakes slip by.  Don't. Take the time to rattle chains and claim a refund a.s.a.p. The seller will seldom pay to have the item shipped back, will get frustrated with Pitney Bowes and ebay  and all those shipping blunders  and complaints will add up to ebay taking a long hard look at the program and hopefully, tell Pitney Bowes to take a hike.....and Kalvin will be out of a job, probably too.

[momcqueen]

---

wrote:

  I 've read through about 1/2 of the comments about the global shipping program and what I am amazed about is how polite, most of you are.....

---

You read 153 webpages of comments? How long did that take you? There is an average of five posts per page so that's 765 unique comments. The rest of us should be impressed by your determination. 

[momcqueen]

And that's just this one thread... 

[reallynicestamps]

I'm pretty sure Kalvin is a puppet.

Well, not exactly. Kalvin is (was, he's moved on ) an employee of eBay. His responses are marked as such.

Our current employees who drop in here are @tyler.ebay  and @happy_pigeon.

Pitney Bowes are lining their pockets with the gsp

Yes.

They were hired to develop and run a re-shipping/freight forwarding program for eBay.

I doubt they designed it to lose money, or even as a break even business.

The seller will seldom pay to have the item shipped back,

The point of the GSP is that it is a Seller Protection Program.

The seller's duty for delivery ends at the doorstep of the GSP plant in Kentucky.

Worse, especially with the guitars that are deemed to be non-CITES compliant, there is a very good chance that they are destroyed.

Just as ivory captured from poachers is destroyed.

not let one single fragment of a mistake get by. People  generally let shipping or packing mistakes slip by.  Don't.

Absolutely.

It's unfortunate that Pitney Bowes is such a giant company. They can afford to pay for their mistakes.

We busybodies members who post here often tell unhappy customers with late deliveries that they can Dispute and get their refund, and that when the purchase eventually gets to them (since most of the problems are delays) PB doesn't want it back.

Which is unlike sellers who are shipping more directly.

BTW- Kalvin was well respected by the Boardies here as a pretty straight talker. He isn't here any more because he was promoted.

[jocadu]

Correction, most Canadians will use it, but only once and then never again as its expensive, slow and unresponsive to customer concerns!

[jocadu]

Same here for me. I am in BC and purchased a camera from Seattle (150 miles away). Not only is it going via Kentucky and Ontario but is apparently being held for an additional 5 days while they determine if an ordnary Fuji camera is a prohibited item ! I will never use GSP again...

[clemon03]

I have purchased items from sellers using the GSP, but not happily, and I'll be thinking long and hard before doing it again. As many have already posted, two shipping fees for one item is ridiculous, as is the often doubled shipping time. I recently purchased an item from a seller outside of Detroit, MI. I am located in SW Ontario, Canada - about 2 hours from Detroit by car. My package shipped from Michigan SOUTH to Kentucky, then back North to Ontario, taking two weeks to arrive. I should have simply jumped in the car and gone to fetch it in person.

As far as I can tell, sellers opt for the GSP to avoid filling in "difficult" customs forms, or as a passive-aggressive way to deter international buyers. To the former group, I question whether you're smart enough to be allowed to sell anything to anyone. To the latter, if you don't want to sell outside of the US, make that clear in your listings so that buyers outside the CONUS can't see, let alone bid on, your items.

To eBay.com: I thought the original intent of eBay as an online entity was to facilitate global buying and selling? The GSP, while generating income for eBay,com/Pitney Bowes, runs counter to this founding philosophy, actively working to create a protectionist, US-only market. Shake your corporate head and get back in the game!

[femmefan1946]

I think you should consider posting this on the dotCOM Boards, since few US sellers ever come here.

And most Canadian member would agree on most of your points.

Shipping through GSP seems very strange, but their hub and spoke system is used by many companies as a cost saver (Yes!). These include both Canada Post and USPS. And every airline you ever flew on.

https://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/flight/modern/airline3.htm

[marnotom!]

---

@clemon03wrote:

I have purchased items from sellers using the GSP, but not happily, and I'll be thinking long and hard before doing it again. As many have already posted, two shipping fees for one item is ridiculous, as is the often doubled shipping time. I recently purchased an item from a seller outside of Detroit, MI. I am located in SW Ontario, Canada - about 2 hours from Detroit by car. My package shipped from Michigan SOUTH to Kentucky, then back North to Ontario, taking two weeks to arrive. I should have simply jumped in the car and gone to fetch it in person.

As far as I can tell, sellers opt for the GSP to avoid filling in "difficult" customs forms, or as a passive-aggressive way to deter international buyers. To the former group, I question whether you're smart enough to be allowed to sell anything to anyone. To the latter, if you don't want to sell outside of the US, make that clear in your listings so that buyers outside the CONUS can't see, let alone bid on, your items.

To eBay.com: I thought the original intent of eBay as an online entity was to facilitate global buying and selling? The GSP, while generating income for eBay,com/Pitney Bowes, runs counter to this founding philosophy, actively working to create a protectionist, US-only market. Shake your corporate head and get back in the game!

---

The Global Shipping Program is a glorified forwarding program.  Items have to go to a centralized hub (in this case, Erlanger, Kentucky) in order to be directed to their final destination.

eBay has tried for years to encourage US (and UK) sellers to ship beyond their borders, but with little success.  The notion of "seller protection" has been drummed so firmly into the heads of those unable to think critically or analytically that it's left some sellers unable to consider that there may be other ways of doing things.  To ship an item outside of the US either means not getting the same level of "protection" as a domestic sale, or else using a super-stupid overkill shipping method to get that "protection".

Hence, the implementation of the Global Shipping Program.

Something else to consider is that in many instances, the Global Shipping Program is offered to non-US buyers not because the seller has knowingly opted into the program, but because eBay has automatically applied the program to the listing. 

[bobenis]

Agreed

[teeny*tiny*vintage]

I wish someone would teach the GSP  employees how to CAREFULLY open a package for inspection ... someone opened the paper envelope my dvd was mailed in with a really sharp knife or box cutter (right through the middle back of the envelope) and in doing so cut through the plastic and the "liner" notes on the back of the case ... such a pity as it was one of the "rare" few copies of the movie that didn't have ex library stickers or writing or other flaws to the case and now it's pretty well ruined.  Thank goodness the person opening the envelope didn't put some real muscle into it or I could have kissed the actual DVD good bye too ....

[momcqueen]

If the GSP has opened a package, they leave a sticker on the box. Did your parcel have this sticker?

[teeny*tiny*vintage]

It has an "ebay pitney bowes global ecommerce resealed by the global shipping program" sticker over the tape they used to reseal the cut open envelope ... I have sent off an email directly to pitney bowes to express my disappointment with the damage done to the item , maybe I'll get an apology out of it or something.

[momcqueen]

If you open an Item Not As Described Case due to damage caused by the GSP inspection, they will refund your money and probably let you keep this. The key is that your seller has to NOT refund it for you or take responsibility for damage they didn’t cause. You’ll have to escalate it. They don’t get into trouble that way. But GSP inspection is never supposed to damage an item.

[momcqueen]

At least this has been the process of problems such as this, historically. For myself as a buyer. Process may have changed since then.

[butterman_1999]

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

As a seller, nothing at all. As a buyer, on rare occasions has it prevented me from paying additional import duty taxes but those were very rare

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

Allow the possibility to use a different program (such as regular USPS for shipments from the US to Cdn)  which will not double-charge on the shipping/import taxes.

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

After realizing that I would end up paying either twice the shipping charges or twice the import duty taxes, I have become very reluctant to purchase from sellers who ship only using the GSP (Global Shipping Program). I have passed out on many items due to this.

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

I will always prioritize sellers who do not use the program, so I often search for alternative sellers who may sell similar items via different shipping methods.

I am essentially replying to a closed "rant" elsewhere on these discussion boards about the GSP being a "scam". Although I would not go so far as to rant in a similar fashion, I will say that on quite a few occasions I have had unpleasant surprises when picking up parcels at the postal office depot, where they would essentially "hold at ransom" my package(s) if I did not pay the "extra" charges which were not clearly described upon original purchase.

Basically items which claimed "free shipping" and did not mention any additional shippping charges ended up with shipping costs required to be paid upon delivery by the buyer (i.e. me) - the postal outlet workers unable to offer any explanation other than a mention that they have instructions to collect said money from the person attempting to pick up the parcel.

Very similarly were import duty taxes - the GSP said that the extra fees were to clean any import duty costs, but upon delivery of parcel, I would often need to re-pay said fees even though during the buying process it was made clear that these GSP costs were to cover the import duties.

Examples such as these have sometimes made the purchase of some items anywhere between 25% to 100% more expensive than the original listed/purchased price. Once I realized that the GSP was not advantageous to the buyer in Canada, I began searching for alternatives.

Granted it may be quite hassle-free for many sellers, but from my experience, it has not been a very pleasant string of transactions which are not necessarly the fault of the seller. I can understand how sellers may wish for a less-painstakingly time-consuming experience for their own selves, but in most cases I prefer to "de-brokerage" my packages myself directly at the customs offices for they are often much lower/a fraction of the cost of transport and shipping companies. Once a world-wide well known shipping company tried to charge me $95 in brokerage fees, but when I was able to do go through customs directly (after the shipping company returned the parcels to customs), it ended up costing me about $8 in total. I recall how shocked the customs employee was when I told my tale, and literally could not comprehend how said shipping company would even attempt to justify such a high cost of "brokerage" fees.

[reallynicestamps]

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

Allow the possibility to use a different program (such as regular USPS for shipments from the US to Cdn)  which will not double-charge on the shipping/import taxes.

I have two comments here.

1.) The Global Shipping Program is a Seller Protection program. It is not designed to do anything for buyers, no matter what eBay says.

As a result, while shoppers are allowed to ask sellers to use a different shipping method, the sellers are naturally reluctant to give up what has been sold to them as protection against the evil-doers outside of the lower 48 states.

Also it's extra work to make a completely new listing. Most US sellers don't much care about non-US sales.

But if you see something you don't want shipped by GSP, which in my opinion is practically everything, go ahead and ask.

2.) Double-charge?

The GSP always must charge the Canadian duty and, more often, sales taxes on imports. They also add a ~$5 service fee. (Half that of Canada Post*, for the record.)

If that's the 'double charge' you are talking about, remember that Parliament has not changed the duty-free allowance since the 1980s. It is $20Cdn or about $16USD.

Anything with a higher declared value can be assessed and charged.

The GSP charges these 'import fees' before the seller even ships, as part of your cost. If the seller used a courier (like UPS) or the postal system*, the same fees would be charged on your doorstep, before the shipment was handed over.

If you are getting charged on your doorstep, in addition to the import fees charged by GSP, your sellers have been doing you wrong.

If the seller just ships directly to you, ignoring the GSP, you will be charged by the new carrier,a nd because the GSP charges upfront, not when they have the parcel in their hands, they don't know that they have not handled it. So you are still charged the GSP import fees.

This is a SELLER error.

The seller MUST cancel the transaction (as Buyer Request) upload a new listing without GSP processing  or both will end up being paid by the buyer.

Is this what has been happening to you?

*CBSA and Canada Post have an informal agreement that it is foolish to do the assessment on low value items where less could be collected than it would cost to do the collecting.  Many Canadians are unaware of the $20 duty-free allowance and believe it to be much higher.