A new year, the same old discussions...
It's actually Pitney Bowes who has chosen not to make the claims process transparent, in my view. I doubt there are very few people on eBay USA staff who have any knowledge of international commerce and how straightforward it can be to simply mail something of modest value to Canada. eBay.com is simply letting Pitney Bowes run the GSP show, assuming that PB knows better than eBay does. If somebody at eBay expresses concern to PB about the complaints about the GSP, PB can simply dismiss us as no-nothing hosers. Johnny and Janey Q. Canuck, after all, can't touch PB's experience in logistics and eCommerce, even if PB has only been doing this for a relatively short portion of the company's existence.
Since we are having these discussions on the Buyer Central board, we have to look at things from a buyer's point of view. Most buyers don't give two figs who is ultimately responsible for the GSP. If they receive a damaged item, or no item, or a different item from the one they ordered, they want to be able to get a FULL refund with no hassles. Is that too much to ask? I don't think it should be.
These boards are operated by Lithium but they are run on eBay's site, so Lithium has to do as eBay says. The same should apply to PB and its half-baked GSP. When you use someone else's playground, you play by their rules. Plain and simple. So it's eBay's fault, not PB's, if the claims process is so convoluted.
PB could not operate the gsp here without ebay's permission so in my view, anything that PB does in relation to the gsp, is with ebay's blessings.It is up to ebay to make sure that the process is easy to understand for both sellers and buyers. Personally I think that it is also up to ebay to make it beneficial to both but I'm not sure that is possible in all cases.
Many buyer irritants could be removed without too much of a hassle. How difficult would it be to have a pop-up window appear when a buyer has clicked the "Buy" button for a GSP item, to advise them to use the cart should they wish to purchase more from the same seller?
How difficult would it be to also have a pop-up window appear when a buyer opens a claim for a GSP item, advising them of the process? A similar window could also open when a buyer tries contacting a seller after a GSP sale is completed.
How difficult would it be to change the words "International Priority Shipping" to avoid the (seemingly intentional) confusion with Priority International? And how difficult would it be to remove the promise of end-to-end tracking since it is obviously not being fulfilled?
How difficult would it be to stop enrolling sellers into the program by stealth?
How difficult would it be to make the country exclusion process better known to sellers and easier to implement on listings?
How difficult would it be to make the $50 "good fit" cut-off something more than mere words to placate angry international buyers, and have a warning for sellers who are about to list totally unsuited items with the GSP?
To be fair, some progress does seem to have been made. I recently saw a post on the US boards from a seller who was unhappy that he was being blocked by eBay from listing some of his items with the GSP. As it turned out, those items were all guitars. So maybe, just maybe, something is finally being done about this problem. Mind you, it could be because this one is hurting PB/Ebay where they don't want to be hurt and not because of buyer disappointment.
Yes, a new year, the same old discussions...
(Edited for typos)
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(except Pitney-Bowes).
