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.

[walker0017]

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pierrelebel wrote:

Here we go again.  Did we not cover the same nonsense a few weeks ago?

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Wow, maybe this was covered for you but some of the people posting here have not posted here before and being that there are over 1853 posts covering 90 or so pages chances are that they have not had the benefit of being one of the first people such as yourself posting on this topic  and chances are probably didn't read every single post so why don't you cut them some slack. Besides people are allowed to vent their frustrations about this bloody useless program and besides so what if their perceptions are not as factual as you might like, the idea is that we ultimately want every Canadian buyer to post their good or bad comments about the GSP here and not be scared off by the "Here we go again crowd" and maybe just maybe eBay will start taking us seriously.

[mycollectablethings]

I have posted on the ebay.com community boards about how the GSP is detrimental to US sellers, having a negative impact on their international sales. I've also mentioned on the .com boards that many Canadian buyers are boycotting sellers that use GSP. I'll tell you that my post on the .com boards about GSP and Canadian buyers have been moved by the admins to the ebay.ca boards. Looks like eBay is trying their hardest to keep all of the GSP negativity away from the US sellers.

[rick31797]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

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@rick31797 wrote:

The person here that ask a US seller to ship USPS instead of GSP, and by dropping the GSP the Seller charged her 50.00 shipping instead of 30.00... What does dropping the GSP have to do with increasing the shipping..I would have told them to shove it.....

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PB gets bulk shipping discounts so when they ship an item they pay a totally different price then an individual seller so it is not unusual that the shipping price would change. In some cases the shipping price might go down...especially if the seller uses USPS first class but there are times when the price can go up...especially for heavier items.

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I have been around ebay for awhile now and have seen most everything when it comes to the shipping game.. If somebody is selling a guitar out of California, i have a pretty good idea what the shipping cost will be sent by way of USPS.. As i have had many shipped to me from all parts of the USA.

If someone is selling a guitar and in there GSP listing they have a shipping cost of 75.00.. but agree`s the ship it too me without using GSP for 105.00 , then its a simple scam, i know better, and dont really care about PB Bilk shipping , you sound like a relative to marnotom and pierrelebel,they are both here trying to sugar coat the GSP ,

[marnotom!]

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@i*m-still-here wrote:

As far as I can tell, the GSP is about 1.5 years old.

That's aged by eBay standards and plenty of time to get it right, and so that must mean that ebay feels that they've hit on something good.

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Granted, PayPal wasn't originally an eBay company, but it still took several years for it to get where it is today in terms of transparency and customer service.  In addition, it took several years and a lot of tweaking afterwards

for it to be available for Canadians to use with Canadian credit cards and bank accounts.

Perhaps that's why some of us who have been using eBay for some time are less filled with vitriol about the Global Shipping Program.  The Global Shipping Program, like PayPal, is travelling through some not very well chartered waters here and making policies and creating systems that have few precidents.  There are going to be glitches along the way, but when you're dealing with a plethora of international laws they're not going to be resolved quickly.  Remember, this is the Global Shipping Program, not the Canadian Shipping Program.  What may solve some Canadian issues may do little to resolve issues in, say, Germany.

As the Voice of Reason often says: "Patience."

[marnotom!]

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@hope81026 wrote:

With all due respect. It seems to me that you are simply refusing to accept what Pierre is saying. This program costs Canadians so much more that it is ridiculous to arge it is not. We can all see here. Canadians are not mindless fools.

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As I've noted on this board already, I purchased a $135 Smartphone through the GSP.  The shipping cost seemed fair to me at less than $12 and the "import charges" actually came to less than the GST and PST I'd have to pay if I bought it at a store.  I'll let everyone know how the sale pans out in the end.  That is, if I actually receive the item and if I do, if it's in the condition stated on the listing page.

Yes, shipping through the GSP can be expensive if the seller doesn't ship all that cheaply within the U.S. in the first place, but a lot of items don't make a lot of sense to purchase on eBay even if they're shipped by mail from the United States.  It is what it is.

[marnotom!]

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@mater721 wrote:

Careful - marnotom will be replying to your post in no time, saying it's your duty to pay taxes and duty...

‎

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Why would I mention taxes and duty when the post is about shipping charges?  😄

[marnotom!]

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@rick31797 wrote:

As I've pointed out elsewhere, sometimes the GSP works out to be a relatively good deal in the shipping cost department, particularly if the seller offers "free" domestic shipping.

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not when you ask a us seller to ship USPS , and they tell you yes but only if i raise the shipping price 30.00 ..

that's not a good deal, and what good is free domestic shipping to  a Canadian buyer..

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A GSP seller who offers "free" domestic shipping will see their listings only charged the GSP's shipping charge, not the GSP's shipping charge plus a charge from the seller for shipping the item to Erlanger, KY.  That's what good free domestic shipping can be to a Canadian buyer.

[marnotom!]

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@walker0017 wrote:

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@pierrelebel wrote:

Here we go again.  Did we not cover the same nonsense a few weeks ago?

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Wow, maybe this was covered for you but some of the people posting here have not posted here before and being that there are over 1853 posts covering 90 or so pages chances are that they have not had the benefit of being one of the first people such as yourself posting on this topic  and chances are probably didn't read every single post so why don't you cut them some slack. Besides people are allowed to vent their frustrations about this bloody useless program and besides so what if their perceptions are not as factual as you might like, the idea is that we ultimately want every Canadian buyer to post their good or bad comments about the GSP here and not be scared off by the "Here we go again crowd" and maybe just maybe eBay will start taking us seriously.

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Walker, you may have missed it, but the same poster made the same claim a few weeks ago.  That's why Pierre said "Here we go again."

[marnotom!]

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@mapletree4433 wrote:

It's caps , because he is yelling. And no one is listening.

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The Aesop fable about the boy who cried "wolf" comes to mind.

[i*m-still-here]

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@marnotom! wrote:

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Granted, PayPal wasn't originally an eBay company, ............................................. 

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Here we go again!

Ever eager to prove something.

[marnotom!]

You don't like history lessons?

[mater721]

Because you always find a way to take a new posters frustrations with GSP and turn it around to somehow we "don't understand".

It's almost as if you like to hear yourself "talk".

My first post ever on this board, and of course you were the first to chime in ..."you're saying that it's a "scam" that the GSP ensures that taxes are collected and remitted on items purchased through the program". Of course you fail to account for the part of my post that indicates before GSP I had never had to pay duty ot taxes on low-priced items.

At times you may think you are "educating" posters by posting links to GSP T&C, etc.  Or maybe, just maybe... it's annoying and condescending.  You pick parts of posts out of context and ignore the rest.

[walker0017]

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marnotom! wrote:

Walker, you may have missed it, but the same poster made the same claim a few weeks ago.  That's why Pierre said "Here we go again."

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It does not matter if it was or wasn't the same poster, as there are many other new posters who read this and now will not bother to post because of that "Here we go again" statement which not only has scared them off from posting their comments but will also give the impression that this discussion board is now only for a select few who have been posting here from the beginning.  I am not saying it is but that is the impression it can give to someone new. Unfortunately there are others that are demonstrating even less tolerance lately.

As I stated earlier some people are posting their rants and because of the emotions involved they tend to not be thinking logically and are only venting nothing more and as an experienced poster Pierre should have seen it for what it was and ignored it.

[marnotom!]

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@mater721 wrote:

Because you always find a way to take a new posters frustrations with GSP and turn it around to somehow we "don't understand".

It's almost as if you like to hear yourself "talk".

My first post ever on this board, and of course you were the first to chime in ..."you're saying that it's a "scam" that the GSP ensures that taxes are collected and remitted on items purchased through the program". Of course you fail to account for the part of my post that indicates before GSP I had never had to pay duty ot taxes on low-priced items.

At times you may think you are "educating" posters by posting links to GSP T&C, etc.  Or maybe, just maybe... it's annoying and condescending.  You pick parts of posts out of context and ignore the rest.

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My experience is that people give the impression that they've posted more than the thoughts they've actually expressed on the GSP and/or they don't read or understand the entirety of my thoughts.

With this in mind, I still don't understand your reasoning that the GSP is a "scam" because it collects taxes and duty owing on a personal import from the United States, and I don't know what the fact that you've "never" had to pay taxes or duty on low-priced items has to do with anything.  This is in the context of what you just posted.

If having to pay taxes and duty due on a personal import is your beef with the GSP, surely your concerns are more with laws governing personal imports than it is with the Global Shipping Program?

[gabrielacorona]

Maybe we could get this thread back on track, so that new people showing up here will be encouraged to post, without having to figure out what people are carping about.

As a Canadian buyer, the GSP is awful. Not because the exact nature of the charges is hidden, but because it's so outrageously expensive. I buy all kinds of stuff on eBay, and it's been several years since Canada Post has charged me anything -- not even GST. It gets delivered, or the card appears in the mailbox, and I pick it up. Easy. Also, GSP shipments seem to be considerably slower. What's good about this? Does eBay want to choke off sales to Canada? I hope they're making their coin from it, because from the customer's perspective, it's awful.

[i*m-still-here]

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@marnotom! wrote:

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My experience is that people give the impression .......................................... etc. etc. etc. ..............................................

etc. etc. etc.  .....................

surely your concerns are more with laws governing personal imports than it is with the Global Shipping Program?

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Here we go again!   

[walker0017]

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I*m-still-here wrote:Here we go again!

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Seriously?

Is that the most intelligent comment you can come up with?

All of us may not agree with what each other says but lets leave the grade school theatrics out of it. Our disagreement is with eBay, PBI and their administration of the GSP not with each other as it only serves eBay's interests. And yes I am wholly against this program but flying off the handle and throwing childish comments is not going to get my point across and neither will yours.

[mater721]

"If having to pay taxes and duty due on a personal import is your beef with the GSP, surely your concerns are more with laws governing personal imports than it is with the Global Shipping Program?"

Nope. 

Those laws are there.  Unlikely anything I can do to change that.  GSP on the other hand... see my response to you previously, re-pasted below...

Subject to (CBSA) and guaranteed (GSP) are not the same thing.

The threshold may be $20, but in practice, it really is $50-$100. Over $100 you are now gambling against the house.

"no mention is made of Canada Post's ten buck processing charge"

Personally, I'd rather take the chance of occasionally being charged the $10 + duty than paying PBI fess/duties on all my GSP purchases. In the long run, with purchases under $100, Canadian buyers will come out with short end of the stick. You can keep mentioning duties and taxes, but the fact is, we don't end up paying this the majority of the time on smaller purchases.  We just don't.

[marnotom!]

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@mater721 wrote:

"If having to pay taxes and duty due on a personal import is your beef with the GSP, surely your concerns are more with laws governing personal imports than it is with the Global Shipping Program?"

Nope. 

Those laws are there.  Unlikely anything I can do to change that.  GSP on the other hand... see my response to you previously, re-pasted below...

Subject to (CBSA) and guaranteed (GSP) are not the same thing.

The threshold may be $20, but in practice, it really is $50-$100. Over $100 you are now gambling against the house.

"no mention is made of Canada Post's ten buck processing charge"

Personally, I'd rather take the chance of occasionally being charged the $10 + duty than paying PBI fess/duties on all my GSP purchases. In the long run, with purchases under $100, Canadian buyers will come out with short end of the stick. You can keep mentioning duties and taxes, but the fact is, we don't end up paying this the majority of the time on smaller purchases.  We just don't.

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Strange how you complain that I'm selective about my responses to posts, yet you've done just that and not explained how this makes the GSP a "scam".

I agree that the fact that the GSP charges taxes (and duty) on personal imports makes the program an unattractive proposition for the typical Canadian eBay purchaser of modestly-priced items from the United States.  But I think that faulting the GSP for trying to do what's legally expected of it is a mug's game.  It's akin to someone complaining about how Walmart charges sales taxes when that person's accustomed to purchasing items from garage sales or swap meets where the vendors aren't registered to collect those taxes.