Does Ebay International Shipping use Canada Post to deliver items shipped from US?

[fergua3]

I live in the GTA if that makes a difference, which it might....

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@marnotom! wrote:

You're probably not going to like this idea, but I think that a lot of your concerns about eIS could be addressed if Canada joined most of the industrialized world and had digital marketplaces such as eBay charge GST/HST/PST on international sales at Checkout the way they do for sales from Canadian sellers.

Think about it.  Given that there's a lot of merchandise that enters Canada duty-free now, the fact that the taxes have been collected at the point of purchase means that carriers don't have to do this and buyers no longer have to worry about who's handling the item and brokerage or processing charges from that carrier.

It would also mean that the marketplace would be able to add taxes paid to a refund made in the event of a remorse return or a dispute made through the Money-Back Guarantee as the taxes weren't collected by an outside agency.

We have to remember that eIS handles shipments to 200 or so countries and there's going to be regional differences in how shipments get handled by the carriers contracted out to handle them on behalf of EasyShip.  I think it's unreasonable to expect carrier-specific information on listing pages--especially for a country as geographically diverse as Canada--when the shipping costs are calculated by a computer algorithm that only knows so much about the item in the listing, and most of the time doesn't know exactly what the item is.  There are "learn more" links on listing pages where the eIS is listed as the shipping method that take buyers to a set of terms and conditions that are reasonably thorough given that it covers shipments to those 200-odd countries.

If taxes were collected by eBay at the time of sale--and this might happen with eIS regardless of what the feds do or don't do with the taxation of sales of casual/personal imports in the near future--it would likely make things closer to "hassle free" for you.

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@theoldestfart 

@marnotom! 

I think somehow I am missing why eIS is an improvement to the buyer experience

• There are items listed using it that should not be. 
• No way to filter it out other than open listings 1 at a time to confirm
• No way to know in advance how it will be shipped (critical information for secure delivery)
• No way to get a documented receipt for duties 
• No way to get them(duties, taxes,processing) refunded if it is required.
• No way to know the shipping service you will receive and if its cost warrants it
• Because it may or may not be bot driven you don't know if the shipping you are paying is accurate or fair
• Delivery option times(windows) are much slower than previous pre GSP/eIS  shipping (especially when you compare with Canada to USA shipping)
• Risk of another method being in play for end delivery (the unknown factor)...this can cause not being able to confirm when it will arrive or if the delivery will be secure.
• Risk of being out funds if the transaction goes off the rails
• Lastly,  and maybe most important, many buyers (usually newer ones) using this program will find out the shortcomings after they purchase. Not before. How many buyers are even going to know it is imparative to preview TOS in advance. (very closely)
• If I have interpreted any of the above improperly, my apologies
• Everyone's results/experiences will vary but these are issues that come to mind because they get routinely posted.

Maybe this program is better for US sellers but sure doesn't seem like it is for Canadian buyers and unfortunately it is the new go to option.

Miss the days when (US) sellers included a varity of shipping services and the buyer could use what they felt was the BEST option based on their requirements.

-Lotz

[theoldestfart]

Exactly @lotzofuniquegoodies . This type of treatment towards buyers on eBay frustrates me and is why eBay is only a last resort for me. I complain and complain to eBay and nothing changes. What has changed is the amount of items I purchase on eBay. 

[marnotom!]

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@theoldestfart wrote:

I order parts for fixing items for people.  That is one of the few things I use eBay for these days.  I have to let the customer know how long they will be without the item. If the item does not show up the customer gets **bleep**, rightfully so, and so do I. In this case, the item bought, lost say the 24 days waiting for an item to show up. I want to see if the item is progressing through the multitude of carriers that eBay shipping plans use so that if something comes up I can alert the customer of a possible issue in receiving the item as soon as possible.

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Okay, right, I seem to recall we've had this conversation before.  How often does it happen that the item doesn't arrive? And do you really have to check tracking on a daily basis?  That doesn't seem to be a particularly good use of your time.

[marnotom!]

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@theoldestfart wrote:

This type of treatment towards buyers on eBay frustrates me and is why eBay is only a last resort for me. I complain and complain to eBay and nothing changes. What has changed is the amount of items I purchase on eBay. 

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My experience with complaints is that the recipient of the complaints will be more receptive if my complaints are polite and measured and come with suggestions.  It also helps if I show some understanding of why they might be doing things the way that they are, such as why the eIS can't provide carrier-specific information on listing pages.  Is that what you're doing as well?

[theoldestfart]

I have gotten items not as described several times on eBay. Other times the item never showed up. I monitor shipments so that if something is not moving through the system and the customer calls me asking if I got the part yet I do not get caught flatfooted.  When I get items not as described I try to make the item work if at all possible since in most cases at least 3-4 weeks have transpired with me having the item from the customer.  If the item does not show up then I have to eat the cost of buying the item from a more expensive source.

I simply asked askeBay on Twitter as soon I stupidly purchased this item and I saw the UPS tracking #,  who is the last mile carrier in Canada. They never said answered the question or even offered up where I could find out. Only when I saw DHL handling the package did that trigger my memory about another purchase I made several years ago where the eBay tracking appeared to show that the item was not moving. 

In one or more weekly answer sessions with eBay a couple of year ago I mentioned the GSP and how the couriers they use here rarely tell you that they have received your item. When stuff goes through Mississauga it can get lost. I refer to that sorting center as a black hole at times. I need to know that parts ordered are progressing through the system.

[theoldestfart]

Just discovered that the item was released from Canada Customs. I owe $22.96 Duty and Taxes on a used item that was US $109.17 or C $154.18 which I have to pay on delivery.

"Sorry, you cannot pay your duty and taxes online for this package. You’ll have to pay at the door or post office."

Probably will not be delivered at my residence but instead will be sent to the nearest postal outlet in a Shopper's Drugmart here. A way overpriced purchase even more so now.

[marnotom!]

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@theoldestfart wrote:

A way overpriced purchase even more so now.

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If you had purchased the item from a Canadian eBay seller for C$154.18, what would you have had to pay in taxes?  My math says that f the sale is subject to BC PST and GST, that amount would have been roughly five bucks less in what you owe for customs, but I'm not sure of the makeup of the import charges for your sale.

[theoldestfart]

GST & PST here would be $18.50. Shipping would have been less in Canada. The thing is with Canadian purchases I know upfront the final cost.  If this was a Canadian purchase I would not have offered $ wise what I did to the US seller. 

I always have problems with US purchases I have to constantly convert the US $ plus the shipping and you never know if it will be hit with duty & taxes although with eIS and GSP it is safe that is a given. That is more troublesome if the item is an auction rather than a Buy It Now item since those figures are in flux.

[marnotom!]

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@theoldestfart wrote:

GST & PST here would be $18.50. Shipping would have been less in Canada. The thing is with Canadian purchases I know upfront the final cost.  If this was a Canadian purchase I would not have offered $ wise what I did to the US seller. 

I always have problems with US purchases I have to constantly convert the US $ plus the shipping and you never know if it will be hit with duty & taxes although with eIS and GSP it is safe that is a given.

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Which is why I suggested earlier in this thread that you might find purchasing from the US easier if Canadian buyers on digital marketplaces were charged taxes at the time of payment on sales from non-Canadian sellers, the way it's done in countries and regions such as the US, Australia, the UK, the EU and Norway.

One of the blurbs I saw on eIS a while back was something to the effect that at some point, the program is going to give buyers the option of paying taxes and duty at Checkout rather than on delivery, but I'm wondering if the pre-pay option may come with a bit of a cost to it for countries such as ours where eBay doesn't already collect taxes at Checkout.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@marnotom! wrote:

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@theoldestfart wrote:

GST & PST here would be $18.50. Shipping would have been less in Canada. The thing is with Canadian purchases I know upfront the final cost.  If this was a Canadian purchase I would not have offered $ wise what I did to the US seller. 

I always have problems with US purchases I have to constantly convert the US $ plus the shipping and you never know if it will be hit with duty & taxes although with eIS and GSP it is safe that is a given.

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Which is why I suggested earlier in this thread that you might find purchasing from the US easier if Canadian buyers on digital marketplaces were charged taxes at the time of payment on sales from non-Canadian sellers, the way it's done in countries and regions such as the US, Australia, the UK, the EU and Norway.

One of the blurbs I saw on eIS a while back was something to the effect that at some point, the program is going to give buyers the option of paying taxes and duty at Checkout rather than on delivery, but I'm wondering if the pre-pay option may come with a bit of a cost to it for countries such as ours where eBay doesn't already collect taxes at Checkout.

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@marnotom! 

I believe when eIS was first announced they implied there would be an option to be pay at delivery or in advance at checkout. Did that get reworked into 1 or the other( somehow as per the seller settings??) but no way for a buyer to choose how they would prefer? It does sound like this new program is causing major concerns for both sellers and buyers if you review the dot com board on the subject. I think for many its not knowing what to expect will happen that is causing the majority of grief. Remember when it was the best surprise was no surprise?

-Lotz

[theoldestfart]

What would be extremely useful on a product listing would be to show in Canadian funds the total of everything aka in-the-door price.  This would include the current item price (whether it's the current bid price or the Buy It Now price if it's that type of listing) plus the cost of shipping plus the cost of duties and taxes (if that is included).  When GSP was more prevalent I would have always sit there with a calculator adding up those 3 numbers to see whether the item was a deal or not. 

This would be more useful when one does a search. Even sorting by price+shipping lowest doesn't give you an idea of the total cost. The shipping $ is in smaller text and sometimes where sellers have been known to gouge buyers.

[fergua3]

the fact that the purchase was shipped EIS has nothing to do with your Customs charges. If the seller had shipped direct to you via USPS you would have been charged the same on a $150CAD purchase from the US.  Under $100 will often get through Customs uncharged, but over normally gets charged.  Sometimes during the busy Christmas season you can have purchases not be charged taxes by Customs on amounts up to $200-ish but not this time of year.

just be glad Canada Post took the item through Customs and not DHL or some other courier....then you'd have something to complain about.  Taxes plus a $35+ brokerage fee plus a percentage of the items value.

[fergua3]

wow, the difference between Parcelsapp tracking and Ebay and DHL's tracking is astonishing.  Ebay still shows 'Tracking number privided by DHL' which has been the same for days,   DHL's own website shows 'no item found' and Parcelsapp shows over a dozen tracking updates from DHL concluding with 'item processed through export center', meaning it's on it's way to Canada.  Even shows the destination and expected arrival date to Canada.

[theoldestfart]

In all my years of buying items on eBay I have never had items shipped via USPS assessed customs or taxes. I have had stuff under the GSP assessed fees and when I asked eBay at the time, what those fees were and how much GST & PST they could not tell me.  In the case of the GSP, all items were sub $100 and were for repairs. 

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@fergua3 wrote:

just be glad Canada Post took the item through Customs and not DHL or some other courier....then you'd have something to complain about.  Taxes plus a $35+ brokerage fee plus a percentage of the items value.

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I agree with that and UPS antics are not any better. Pay now before the driver shows up otherwise there will be a collection fee tacked on.

[theoldestfart]

In your case DHL tracking page https://webtrack.dhlglobalmail.com/home does not show your item.?I know that the eBay tracking info takes about 3 days to update from other carriers.

[fergua3]

that link does show it enroute.  I was using DHL Ecommmerce tracking and it shows 'not item found'. 

Anyway, Parcelsapp tracking is great....although it does show 'item received' date as May 3,  which is strange since i didn't purchase it until May 6 and it wasn't shipped til May 10..

[marnotom!]

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@theoldestfart wrote:

In all my years of buying items on eBay I have never had items shipped via USPS assessed customs or taxes. I have had stuff under the GSP assessed fees and when I asked eBay at the time, what those fees were and how much GST & PST they could not tell me.  In the case of the GSP, all items were sub $100 and were for repairs. 

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I haven't been as lucky as you when buying on eBay.  The tax/duty-free limit was originally C$20 when I first joined eBay in the late '90s and I'd say about half my qualifying purchases got "dinged" until the Harper era, when "dings" suddenly became a rareity.  The tax/duty-free limit for couriered items originating from the US was upped to C$40 with CUSMA.  I don't know anything about a C$100 limit for items used in repairs, but as with eIS, the GSP wasn't designed with commercial shipments in mind, either.

The "import charges" on a GSP shipment were a computer-created estimate based on what little information on the nature of the item was provided to eBay.  It was the mechanism for repaying the taxes, duties, and sundry customs charges that Pitney Bowes was on record as having paid as "importer."  As far as I recall, the estimate did not include calculations for PST for shipments to buyers located in PST+GST provinces.

[marnotom!]

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@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

I believe when eIS was first announced they implied there would be an option to be pay at delivery or in advance at checkout. Did that get reworked into 1 or the other( somehow as per the seller settings??) but no way for a buyer to choose how they would prefer? It does sound like this new program is causing major concerns for both sellers and buyers if you review the dot com board on the subject. I think for many its not knowing what to expect will happen that is causing the majority of grief. Remember when it was the best surprise was no surprise?

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Given that eIS is still being rolled out (as far as I know) and eISD hasn't been mothballed yet, I would have though that it's too early in the game to start offering buyers the choice of how they want taxes/duties handled.  However, while I haven't seen listings offering a choice to me, I found one listing that indicated that there would be no taxes/duties on delivery (despite having values above the C$40 de minimis), a small handful that indicated that taxes and duties will be added at checkout, and the bulk being that taxes and duties might be payable upon delivery.

Just a wild guess, but I think the fact that Canada is not one of the eIS-supported countries eBay is already set up to collect VAT and GST from at Checkout (for non-domestic sales) may be messing things up a bit.

[fergua3]

ok, so there have been no updates on the Parcelsapp tracking site for a few days.  I didn't think anything of it but just for something to do i checked the DHL tracking link theoldestfart posted above.  And that was very informative.  DHL has now handed my package off to USPS and there was a new USPS tracking number posted on DHL's site.  I checked it on USPS tracking site and the package is now in Toronto, has cleared Customs and will probably be delivered today or tomorrow!

I should note there have been zero updates on Ebay's tracking of my purchase since May 10 when they provided me with the DHL tracking number.  No progress updates of any kind and no new USPS tracking number (which is the same tracking number being used by Canada Post btw).  

So, while the EIS service seems to be decent, Ebay has got to do a better job of updating information to the buyer.

[theoldestfart]

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@fergua3 wrote:

ok, so there have been no updates on the Parcelsapp tracking site for a few days.  I didn't think anything of it but just for something to do i checked the DHL tracking link theoldestfart posted above.  And that was very informative.  DHL has now handed my package off to USPS and there was a new USPS tracking number posted on DHL's site.  I checked it on USPS tracking site and the package is now in Toronto, has cleared Customs and will probably be delivered today or tomorrow!

I should note there have been zero updates on Ebay's tracking of my purchase since May 10 when they provided me with the DHL tracking number.  No progress updates of any kind and no new USPS tracking number (which is the same tracking number being used by Canada Post btw).  

So, while the EIS service seems to be decent, Ebay has got to do a better job of updating information to the buyer.

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This is what got me frustrated with an eIS years ago. The ebay tracking showed that it was put in a sack and said nothing for over a week. It then reported Canada Post had the item. This was a DHL handled shipment from California to Winnipeg.

With my current eIS, eBay shows it cleared Canada Customs on May 14th. eBay tracking still shows the DHL tracking # and never mentioned the USPS/Canada Post tracking number.  ParcelsApp site has in the past with other shipments (non eBay) also shown the USPS/Canada Post tracking # on the right-hand margin of the results. It does not do that if I use the DHL tracking # for my eIS item.