@afantiques wrote:
(snip)
This is something they simply don't know about and are very unlikely to come across accidentally.
... as it requires an external perspective on the item (e.g. country and postal code) to see these, and until a buyer submits a postal code for the seller to enter, they can't possibly know how much the GSP software is going to charge on the item.
... Just like many sellers are unlikely to come across the FAQ eBay set up in an attempt to to pacify us who are affected wrongly by the GSP but have no recourse against the programme or to dispute the programme's operation, calculations or findings.
... Just like many sellers are unlikely to see material that isn't delivered into their email/eBay inboxes or displayed as they log in.
... Just like many sellers are unlikely to see material that isn't a shiny advertisement promoting the programme as a gift from their diety.
... Just like many sellers are unlikely to see the GSP charges
... Just like many sellers are completely unaware they're opted into the programme
... Just like many sellers are completely unaware that PBI is levying separate charges against the buyers
The problem is that the bets have been made and we already have lost as eBay/PBI has rigged the house rules against international buyers. They hold the mass communication tools to eBay members, they hold the advertising templates issued to sellers about the programme, they hold the FAQs and how importantly they're placed on the site, they make the forums nothing but a footnote on the site, they attempt to compact all GSP discussion into minimal threads possible on their forums in an attempt to reduce the appearance of complaints under the guise .
Take note how impossible it is to have decernable conversation in this thread, this thread has essentially between 2 and 6 conversations going in it at any one time and has devolved into a cacophony of noise, no doubt what eBay management has hoped to accomplish to make it impossible to get any valid conversation done or to coordinate effective action against the programme. This is why people keep posting new threads about the GSP, because these very threads are no longer communicative or conductive and are just patterned nosie of the same stuff being repeated over and over and over and over.***
The cornerstone of communication in these issues is ensuring you're able to affirmatively communicate in an effective way to spread information quickly and efficiently to the target group and get feedback on the matters, the difficulty here is since eBay holds the cards of most of those tools and they're unlikely to use those tools for the "good" of International buyers in this matter. We need to be more inventive in our communications than approaching sellers one by one as such is not going to effectively damage the GSP's effectiveness numbers that eBay management uses to determine the direction of the programme. For every 1 seller anyone here communicates to, eBay has used their tools to get ~20 or more new members into the programme. New members who will be tomorrow's power sellers.
One can't seriously expect a seller who has a life outside of eBay to be as knowledgeable about eBay, PBI, the eBay website or any of its programmes as the various eBay aficionados on even this very forum, I'd hazard to say most sellers on eBay aren't professional sellers, they just have some extra stuff they have they want to convert to cash in an easy manner without the risks of a pawn shop, eBay is easy for them or they sell through eBay to supplement their dayjob. eBay currently is too complex for the average seller to be aware of all of the policies and how various programmes work in full, or even to be aware of how the website itself works.
Footnote: *** Every time I look at this thread I feel a sense of de-ja-vu, I ask myself "Hasn't this stuff already been talked about 5.. 10 pages back?" Why? Because a thread like this simply cannot be navigated and people most likely are forgetting this very stuff has already been talked about to great extent. If this thread were a meeting, its minutes would be impossible to write up.