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.

[reallynicestamps]

items which claimed "free shipping"

Free Shipping is never free.

It really means the seller's shipping costs are included in the asking price.

However, international shipping is expensive.

Free Shipping therefore usually ONLY is on Domestic Shipping.

To see how much you will be charged, use the Shipping tab on the listing and look at costs to your country.

On Auctions, it's trickier, because the program doesn't know the final price of the item.

As a result, the GSP import fees cannot be shown until the auction is over.

Fortunately only about 15% of listings are now auctions, and most of those have a Buy It Now option.

[marnotom!]

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@butterman_1999wrote:

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• 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.

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.                   

Sorry to cherry-pick your post a bit, @butterman_1999, but like @reallynicestamps, I'm also mystified by your experiences of having to pay twice for taxes, duty and processing/brokerage.

I know the regulars on this board must be sick of me saying it, but it bears repeating and boldfacing:  The Global Shipping Program is really just a glorified forwarding program.  That's why all items sent through it should end up in a warehouse in Kentucky first.  They then (usually) get shipped up to Mississauga as part of a freight shipment, which is then broken up and the item is then sent to its destination--usually by mail--by the logistics company contracted to handle the GSP shipment.  (That's why there's a Canadian return address on GSP items and no customs forms.  It's the address of the logistics company, and the item has pre-cleared customs.)

Keeping in mind this is a forwarding program we're talking about, I don't know how sending the item by USPS would eliminate the possibility of being charged twice for taxes and duty, as items sent by mail go through the customs inspection progress when they hit Canadian soil, and theoretically anything with a declared value of C$20 or more can be shwacked with taxes, duty and a C$10 Canada Post processing fee.   GSP items go through all the customs rigamarole while in Kentucky.

@As @reallynicestamps says, if you've been charged twice for taxes/duty/etc. for a GSP shipment, and I assume that's once when you're paying for the item and once again to receive the item, your seller has messed up and sent the item directly to you instead of to the Kentucky warehouse.

[allyummystuff]

I am not new on eBay but I recently bought an item that I thought was one price and realized afterwards that the GSP had been used to calculate the total.What exactly is the charge? I cannot find the fee used anywhere.I also used the buy it now option but the entire amounts were not shown until afterwards.I should know better.i will expect to be told that I overlooked the fees but that they were there somewhere "Whatmis the actual fee structure used. The item was $88.00 us, and my fault for not checking things better, but the total had a $17.49 US import fee.I never buy from buyer using this program but this was via an email from eBay showing an item that had closed but was registed.I did not see the GSP connected with his seller.Via PayPal, it went from buy it now to here is your total and that was it.I did it too quickly and I thought maybe it was conversion from US to Canadian dollars.Turned out to be $157.00 Canadian , for an$88.00 US item.Did not see it clearly itemized.

[momcqueen]

The de minimus for import into Canada by mail for most categories of items is $20 CAD. Anything valued at more than that is taxable by law.

[1986puma]

except it takes much longer to get it and you pay brokerage fees.

[momcqueen]

Unless you’re brokering yourself, you’re always paying a ‘brokerage’ fee or administrative fee. As a matter of fact, the ‘brokerage fee’ portion charged by the GSP is significantly less than that which is charged by couriers.

[reallynicestamps]

The item was $88.00 us, and my fault for not checking things better, but the total had a $17.49 US import fee.

The 'import fees' are an amount charged by the forwarder (Global Shipping Program which is run by Pitney Bowes).

They cover:

• duty-- Usually not very much, but charged on items base on place of manufacture (not purchase, NAFTA is not part of this) and what the item is.
• SALES TAXES - most of the fee and up to 15 % of the entire payment
• a service fee of about $5 USD.

So your $88USD purchase is about $105.60 CDN

Add 15% HST $15.85 CDN and $6CDN service fee.

And there is a duty free item with $21.85 CDN / $17.48USD in 'import fees'.

If your seller had chosen to ship via USPS First Class International Parcel, it is possible that CBSA may have overlooked it, as the do 93% of small, low value imports.

But it was $100, so that is less likely.

The same duty would have been charged and the same sales taxes, but the Canada Post 'service fee' would have been $9.95.

These fees would have been charged before the parcel was handed over to you on your doorstep or at the PO.

It gets confusing because there are two currencies involved and it's not always clear from a post which currency is being reported.

I won't even get into why technically you did not pay duty and sales tax. There isn't enough aspirin in the world.

The GSP is a Seller Protection Program.

It has no great value to the buyer, especially in Canada where our duty-free allowance is so low.

[marnotom!]

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@allyummystuff wrote:

I am not new on eBay but I recently bought an item that I thought was one price and realized afterwards that the GSP had been used to calculate the total.What exactly is the charge? I cannot find the fee used anywhere.I also used the buy it now option but the entire amounts were not shown until afterwards.I should know better.i will expect to be told that I overlooked the fees but that they were there somewhere. 

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Were you browsing and buying on the .com site rather than the .ca site?  Listings where the GSP has been applied will not display import charges when viewed on eBay.com.  There's only a note in the "Shipping and Handling" section that states that import charges will be viewable at checkout.

If you go into your PayPal account, you'll see two charges associated with your item.  One charges is the one levied by the seller for the item and the shipping cost from their location to the Global Shipping Center in Erlanger, Kentucky.  The other charge is levied by Pitney Bowes (adminstrators of the Global Shipping Program) and that charge consists of Pitney Bowes' charge for shipping your item from Kentucky to you, plus the import charges.

In some instances, listings where the GSP has been applied will show import charges of "$0.00".  This means that those charges have been added to the shipping charge instead.

Go back to the listing page for your item and make sure you're looking at it on the .ca site and not the .com site.  The import charges should be on there unless they've been added to the shipping charge.  They may be a few cents off of what you actually paid if the exchange rate is different than on the day you paid, but you should get a rough idea of the breakdown of the charges.

[wwgerber]

the GSP is garbage for Canada, will not buy any more items sold by anyone using it.

the forced fees are minor, but its the extra week it takes for a package to actually get shipped that sucks, my most recent shows flip flopping states, seems a little inefficient, and they've had it almost a week before it made it into the hands of USPS, the tracking numbers dont work with the carriers either.

the GSP has made ebay a last resort for purchasing anything.

[momcqueen]

If you want to avoid the Global Shipping Program, it's easy to do. There are literally millions of sellers on ebay and maybe one to two per cent use the GSP in some form or another. 

Search by filtering Canada Only to start. It's at the bottom left.

[annandrew-37]

I have received an order from e-bay presumably in the U.S. and e-bay/globalshipping added $25 to an already paid-up shipping fee.  roytanlonlt (?) added $13 to the order. Needless to say I won't be ordering ANYTHING from the States again, oh well it keeps ME honest only ordering from my own country.

[marnotom!]

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@annandrew-37wrote:

I have received an order from e-bay presumably in the U.S. and e-bay/globalshipping added $25 to an already paid-up shipping fee.  roytanlonlt (?) added $13 to the order. Needless to say I won't be ordering ANYTHING from the States again, oh well it keeps ME honest only ordering from my own country.

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I doubt that anything was added to the order.  You just didn't note the payment split at checkout or in your emails from eBay.

Having said that, I'm confused about your point about somebody (the seller?) adding thirteen bucks to your order.  Sellers can't do that.  Perhaps that was the seller's charge for shipping the item to the Global Shipping Center in Kentucky?

I'd really need to see the listing and a description of your PayPal charges to get a sense of what you were supposed to be charged.

[villagetime]

Global shipping is just another way to get ebay more money, charging customs fees on stuff that is duty free, makes me avoid most US sellers

[momcqueen]

@villagetime wrote:

Global shipping is just another way to get ebay more money, charging customs fees on stuff that is duty free, makes me avoid most US sellers

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As has been said many times before now, duty-free does not equal tax-free. Even if it was free of duty, that's only part of it, Canadians still pay sales tax on most items valued at more than $20 CAD (the legal de minimus) of items imported by mail into Canada. It's the law.

Aside from that, ebay doesn't get paid for this, per se. The handling fee is collected by Pitney Bowes and Pitney Bowes changes about half the second least expensive handling fee for collecting these taxes. Canada Post's handling fee is $9.95 while most couriers change $20 And then add a percentage of the item value on top of that. Importing a $40-item by courier into Canada can cost you as a buyer another $35 in import fees which makes what the Global Shipping Program charges for you look good. 

[momcqueen]

Correction: ...."Pitney Bowes charges about half...." typo, should not say 'changes' there.

[retrobytz]

If you doubt American sellers pad their shipping for profit you're in a fantasy world.

[marnotom!]

Seeing as we're not discussing the topic of American sellers padding their shipping charges, I don't think it matters what I believe on this subject.

[martlab999]

And why when i'm buying something fron USA the shipping cost with USPS is twice expensive and 2 times minimum slower than Canada post

[jcurrie78]

my experience is Ive been burned twice as a buyer with GSP.

1. I bought from a seller who didn't know what global shipping was.... i paid and she claimed i was a scammer... and the $ that showed up in her paypal wasn't enough to ship to canada and it wasn't the agreed upon rate. She also tried to manually ship the package just to the global shipping center zip code even tho I don't have a zip code at all but a postal code.  Big mess... it took a long time to straiten out... she wouldn't believe a word i said thought i was a scammer... even tho i was telling her to contact ebay.

2. I added 3 items to my cart from the same seller (who used the GSP). At checkout I clicked the request for combine shipping quote button.... then an ebay error code comes up. I am then stuck with these 3 items in my cart. I ask seller to bypass GSP, they say no. I cant del them out of my cart, it says i agreed to purchase....and tells me to pay asap. Now I have an unpaid claim opened against me. Luckly this seller is letting me out of the sale. but some might not.

I say F GSP, no combined deals, rip off prices, buyer pays more, less sales, its all bad. Nother way to be gouged.

[momcqueen]

Without the Global Shipping Program, these products wouldn’t have been available to you to buy, period. The only USA-based sellers who get opted-in are not the ones prepared to export any other way. They don’t want to ship internationally, the GSP allows them to do so without risk. If you don’t like the Global Shipping Program, that’s fine. But it’s hardly eBay to blame for American xenophobia.