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!]

---

@biguglyram wrote:

I cant understand how i could be better to pay more money for shipping, watch my item leave 30 miles from canada border and do a 5 day tour in the usa so global shipping gets a cut. The result of this program is higher shipping costs and longer wait times. Product should have taken 6 days. I have an eta of 3 to 4 weeks. As ive purchased from this state before without gsp.
Some sellers are brain washed into thinking this is the only option for international shipping. What a joke. Cant wait to see you go!

---

I can't understand why people seem to think that their experience with the GSP will be the same that everyone who uses it.

I'm not crazy about the program either, but it's because sellers seem to be getting forced into the program unwittingly and as a result it's often used inappropriately or cluelessly.  The "after sale" care by Pitney Bowes is also wanting.

When the program is used properly, it can save Canadian buyers shipping costs, customs clearance costs and headaches of having to deal with third-parties clearing their items through customs.  Not all eBay items shipped from the United States to Canada are sent by letter mail (First Class International / Small Packet), after all.

As far as shipping time goes, I'm almost as far west in British Columbia as one can go, and I can't remember the last time I've had a mailed item from the United States reach me in less than a week unless it's been sent Express.  Two--occasionally three--weeks is typical for me.

My rule of thumb is one should use the GSP if it makes sense and they're willing to take a chance on its idiosyncrasies; one shouldn't use it if it doesn't and they're not.  You likely wouldn't buy from a seller shipping postcards as Express Mail packages without consulting them first about alternatives, and there's every chance that that seller could be just as clueless as some of those sellers you're dealing with.  

And why would you want to deal with a clueless seller?

[marnotom!]

---

@afantiques wrote:

Minor quibble, they need no authorisation from anyone as the packages are addressed to them.

---

Fair point, although Pitney Bowes has used the line about the feds in its help pages.

[afantiques]

That I have not seen.

It is a fact that even people who are paid to write accurate stuff get it wrong sometimes, or are given wrong information to relay (typically ebay CS staff)

[dw152]

I am in Canada. 

It's really simple. If an American or UK vendor offers Global shipping services, I simply

won't buy from them.

[marnotom!]

---

@afantiques wrote:

That I have not seen.

It is a fact that even people who are paid to write accurate stuff get it wrong sometimes, or are given wrong information to relay (typically ebay CS staff)

---

My recollection is that this was a page from the Pitney Bowes US website, but I can't find it now.  Quite a bit of time has passed since I saw it, though.

It was similar in structure to this Pitney Bowes page about the UK GSP, which incidentally also makes reference to instances where shipments will be repackaged:

http://www.pitneybowes.com/uk/support/ebay-support.html

[kenk101]

Why am I paying 10% $58.80 to the Global shipping Program for a order that  has no duty sales taxes or border fees as there is no taxes or duty payable at least the couriers like UPS or FedEx do not charge you their steep border fee for bring the purchase across the border when nothing is owing also USPS charges only when something is owing. Can anyone tell me exactly what I am getting for the $58.80 for importing fee?

[kenk101]

They Charged me 10% more ( $58.80) to pay nothing, maybe to just check the box duty and sales tax free item.

[kenk101]

If the item is from North America there is no duty under NAFTA only GST, PST or HST for some items if you use FedEx or UPS and there is no tax on the item you do not pay a border fee but the Global Shipping Program still charges in my case 10% $58.80 for nothing.

[femmefan1946]

It sounds as if your item was priced at about $585CDN before shipping is that about right?

The Canadian government charges applicable duty on items valued over $20CDN (~$16USD).

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/import/courier/menu-eng.html

Items that are made in Canada, Mexico, the USA or Chile are (mostly) not dutiable, because NAFTA, but are still taxable.

If the item is from North America

No.

If the item was manufactured in the NAFTA signatory countries there is no duty (usually), but not if they were purchased in a NAFTA country but manufactured elsewhere.

If $58.50 was the GSP import fee, about $5 of that is the Pitney Bowes service fee.*

Which province are you in?

Even items that are not dutiable are still liable for sales taxes, for example used items are not generally dutiable but are taxable.

Most of the complaints about duty being charged that we see, are actually about sales taxes.

also USPS charges only when something is owing.

USPS has nothing to do with Canadian duty or sales taxes.

These are collected by the Canadian Border Services Agency. And our postal service is called Canada Post.

Can anyone tell me exactly what I am getting for the $58.80 for importing fee?

Little or nothing.

This is not a program for buyers. It is a Seller Protection Program set up to encourage paranoid US (and later UK) sellers to ship internationally.

It attracts mostly unsophisticated and xenophobic sellers and is best avoided.

*Canada Post would charge $9.95 and couriers like UPS would charge about $25 for the same type of service.

[nerakmontreal2011]

I cancelled a whole bunch of purchases (to my detriment as a buyer) because I hadn't realized that import charges were now a thing! It used to be a bargain to shop on ebay but now, with the usd exchange; exhorbitant mailing costs (of many sellers) and import charges....I don't buy much from ebay anymore. Instead, I go to the used clothing stores. 

Ebay has surely lost a ton of business

[00nevermind00]

---

@nerakmontreal2011 wrote:

I cancelled a whole bunch of purchases (to my detriment as a buyer) because I hadn't realized that import charges were now a thing! It used to be a bargain to shop on ebay but now, with the usd exchange; exhorbitant mailing costs (of many sellers) and import charges....I don't buy much from ebay anymore. Instead, I go to the used clothing stores. 

Ebay has surely lost a ton of business

---

Don't use "Gallery View" to search for items.  Use "List View" instead (the view setting can be changed in the upper right-hand corner of your search screen).

With List View, all the GSP items will have a pale grey font blurb which reads "Customs services and international tracking provided", which makes it easy to weed them out since you can simply skip over them.

Ebay has not lost a ton of business. If the GSP wasn't profitable, it would have been scrapped a long time ago. But unfortunately, it is. The program was not designed with Canadian buyers in mind. The best thing you can do is to return the favor by ignoring all GSP listings. But why punish good sellers who make an effort to offer direct shipping to their Canadian buyers?

[aleziss]

URGH... not only GSP is expensive, the total calculated value INCLUDING the global shipping program price was lower then what I actually paid though paypal (paid a couple $ more once on paypal). Tune this up so it matches what we will actually pay.

But really what makes me soooo mad is that it's the third time I've been using this program (which I hate) and EACH time I was not home, the parcel was left on my porch, plain view from the street and it COULD have easily been stolen.

Why in the blue hell UPS does not take it back when there is nobody home so we can pick up the parcel later ?

For the price we are paying for that GSP program, it's awefully design... try to claim a stolen parcel when the tracking says delivered... this is ridiculous...

When I receive items that are not sent to the GSP, I get a sticker on my door saying to pick up the parcel at the sorting facility... But using GSP (which is supposed to simplify and secure things), we get our parcel left on our door step, left there all day and on top of that, ebay total pricing is still lower than what we will actually pay once we process through paypal...

[marnotom!]

---

@aleziss wrote:

Why in the blue hell UPS does not take it back when there is nobody home so we can pick up the parcel later ?

For the price we are paying for that GSP program, it's awefully design... try to claim a stolen parcel when the tracking says delivered... this is ridiculous...

When I receive items that are not sent to the GSP, I get a sticker on my door saying to pick up the parcel at the sorting facility... But using GSP (which is supposed to simplify and secure things), we get our parcel left on our door step, left there all day and on top of that, ebay total pricing is still lower than what we will actually pay once we process through paypal...

---

My guess is that the UPS shipping method used by whoever processes the item once it's in Canada is a bit different than the one used to ship items directly from the merchant to you.  It's probably cheaper, and part of what keeps it cheap is the "drop it off and run" aspect of it.

Also keep in mind that not all of us live in cities where there's a UPS sorting facility located.  Picking up a package wouldn't necessarily be the walk in the park that you're suggesting.

By the way, where did you get the idea that the GSP is supposed to "simplify and secure things" for buyers?

[5831donald]

gentlemen  my purchase4 was sent through pitney-bowes  their charges were way too tmuch and until I can get a seller to arrange a different shipping method  you will find my account 5831donald will be unused .I am also notifying paypal that I will not be using them  if they ever send funds to pitney-bowes  A very disappointed member Donald E. Murray

[reallynicestamps]

The Global Shipping Program is a Seller Protection program.

It is not designed to be useful to buyers in any way.

The extra fees you paid go mostly to the Canadian government in the form of customs on items valued over $20CDN* and sales taxes. The GSP/Pitney Bowes takes about a $5USD service charge.

It's a pain in the badonka-donk, but it is legal and there is no reason to believe Pitney Bowes is not forwarding the appropriate amounts to the Canadian government.

BTW- boycotting sellers who use the GSP is easier if you :

• do NOT shop on a mobile device
• do NOT Search using Gallery View.

On neither of these does the warning

Customs services and international tracking provided

appear.

* If you think $20 is ludicrously low for imports you can write you MP at

MP

House of Commons

OTTAWA ON

K1A 0A6

The envelope does not require a stamp. Just write OHMS in the upper right corner.

[oscar3379]

I placed an order for a MacBook Pro mid July and arrived towards the end of that month to my home in Vancouver.  I received an email notifying me that the laptop was delivered and "thank you for your purchase".   Laptop price was $500usd.  The issue was that I was on holidays when the laptop got dropped off in front of my house in a busy traffic area, I was quite lucky my neighbour was kind enough to bring in the package into his place when he saw it and new I was on holidays.   I was horrified to see GSP does not require signature on delivery of a computer!  Since I was not home I was certain they would simply leave an 'intent of delivery' slip on my front door, and I could just simply pick it up the following week.

Since I was still on holidays when the packaged delivered, I opened a case to trace it.  Within a couple of hours I got a 'roboanswer' indicating it was decided that I was not eligible for a refund, when I had never requested a refund.   I sent another message asking to trace the package.   The seller told me he has no control of nothing in shipping since is all handled by GSP,  and eBay indicated that the option of signature requirements need to be arranged with the seller.    In other words, if my computer had really gone missing, I would have been out of luck with no recourse.

On initial purchase eBay gave a misleading shipping charge, once I checked out, I got the real GSP ship charge.   

Anyone buying outside USA, must determine the real ship charge, and arrange signature receipt requirements before the purchase.   I still gave the seller 5 stars as the computer is excellent and am pretty happy with it.   Delivery could really have ended in tragedy.

[afantiques]

arrange signature receipt requirements before the purchase.

This is simply not possible with GSP items. Provision of a relatively safe place to leave packages such as a lidded box outside your door might be an idea.

and eBay indicated that the option of signature requirements need to be arranged with the seller.

It is absolutely typical that any advice given by ebay reps about GSP matters is wrong, because the routine CS advisor is only trained in non GSP transactions, and they just do not realise that what they are saying is complete nonsense.

Users do not realise that this is the case (why should they) and assume they have been correctly advised.

Experienced posters can often deduce from clues that a question may be about a GSP matter even if the poster does not mention it, but it is too much to hope that ebay reps should be so perceptive.

[reallynicestamps]

Another poster worked this out for buyers who have not yet received their GSP shipment.
TRACKING SYSTEM FOR GSP
It's not user friendly... But I found how to track your package via the global shipping program, once it gets to Canada you need to:
- Log on to eBay.ca
- Under the My eBay menu select Purchase History
- Under your orders find the specific order.  It should have something like the following:
        Estimated delivery Mon, Jan 11 - Thu, Jan 21
        Tracking number: Tracking number UPAAB000000#########
- Click on the UPA number.  This should open up a Shipment Details window, which should contain something like this:
     This shipment has been transferred to CPC for delivery to the final destination # 70351#########
-Click on the Canada Post number to see where the Canada Post Tracking history and expected delivery

[bof_is_back]

Wish I'd known all this about the GSP before making my last purchase.

Been over a week now and could have walked there quicker and picked up the item!!

I guess it's lesson learned......don't buy from a seller using the GSP in future.

Thanks people!

[reallynicestamps]

A week?

I guess you don't buy mail order often?

I allow 20 days for delivery from North America and 30 days from Asia, and I almost never buy where the GSP is in play.

If anything, the GSP should make things move a little faster, since customs and sales tax are assessed before you pay and the parcel flies across the border.

Occasionally we see routing from a seller to the GSP plant in Kentucky posted here. Usually the parcel is  there within 48 hours. At which point tracking ceases to be transparent.

Another poster worked this out for buyers who have not yet received their GSP shipment.
TRACKING SYSTEM FOR GSP
It's not user friendly... But I found how to track your package via the global shipping program, once it gets to Canada you need to:
- Log on to eBay.ca
- Under the My eBay menu select Purchase History
- Under your orders find the specific order.  It should have something like the following:
        Estimated delivery Mon, Jan 11 - Thu, Jan 21
        Tracking number: Tracking number UPAAB000000#########
- Click on the UPA number.  This should open up a Shipment Details window, which should contain something like this:
     This shipment has been transferred to CPC for delivery to the final destination # 70351#########
-Click on the Canada Post number to see where the Canada Post Tracking history and expected delivery