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....

[msau4301]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

@msau4301 

Are you sure that is from 2023?   That appears to be an old article talking about Canadian sellers being able to print CP labels online which isn't anything new. I think that it is referring to us being able to print them through Paypal as we used to do. We could go through eBay which would take us to PP to print the label.  They do mention Paypal as an 'eBay company' so the article is definitely a few years old.  They also mentioning paying for labels through PP which obviously can't be done on .ca anymore.

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This is why I thought it was from this year, I realize it may not relate at all, but showed up during a google search  and date showed Feb 15, 2023 so I thought maybe was relevant, but then again maybe not. 

Pitney Bowes

https://www.investorrelations.pitneybowes.com › pitne...

Feb 15, 2023 — (NYSE: PBI) and Canada Post have partnered to provide a new online shipping solution for eBay Canada and PayPal customers. This new service ...

[fergua3]

yes but it would be nice to know before buying, rather than having to find out after the fact.  If my inexpensive item is going to come by courier and i'm going to get nailed with some huge brokerage fee, i want to know in advance because then i won't buy it.

I just don't get why Ebay, who say they are very concerned about giving a good buying experience, can't clearly outline how the program works to buyers.  Why is that so difficult?  They expect us sellers to be above board on everything.....why can't they hold themslves to the same standard?

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@marnotom! wrote:

I agree with @pjcdn2005's posts about the media release being about something other than eBay International Shipping and how eIS's terms and conditions for buyers are pretty similar to those for the GSP, including the part about Power of Attorney.  I don't think eBay International Standard has a set of T&C for buyers, however.  (I've never found one and I haven't purchased anything handled by that program.)

The rollout of the new eIS seems to share a lot in common with that of Managed Payments.  Both seem to be initially gradual transitions but that pace ramped up in a hurry once it was determined that things were going smoothly with the small percentage of users who transferred to the new system.  The bigger the pool of adopters (willing or unwilling) means a greater likelihood of undiscovered glitches being unearthed.

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I don't think it will happen. Just saying it would be nice if it did. Save the surprises. The concern would be something shipped with a courier with much higher customs processing fees(compared to CP) or the worry of difficulties with home deliveries. UPS now offers rescheduled delivery but at a cost per parcel. It's good you can back at the shipping cost stage. I think many will.

-Lotz

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

From a recent dot com discussion on EIS.

My first shipment after being switched over to EIS never made it to a customer in the Netherlands. The customer let me know he did not receive the CD and the tracking showed they attempted delivery(he has a mailbox), held it for 7 days without leaving him a notice to pick it up at the nearest pickup point, not was I notified there was a delivery problem. Ebay used a company called Asendia using their ePAQ plus service and they have poor service. The customer gets his other Cd's just fine. Please avoid using this company in the Netherlands. They told me is could take up to 12 weeks to get it back. I never hada problem with USPS international shipping.  

Something else I have a heard a few times. Infinite time for the item to be returned. 

-Lotz

[fergua3]

returns from Europe are usually shipped by sea and only when there is room, so they can sit a looong time before being shipped and then take weeks to get to this side of the ocean.  I had one from Germany take 6 months.

So it looks like Ebay is up to its old tricks of using cut rate, lowsy service couriers instead of the efficient and convenient postal system.  So much for their concerns about a great buyer experience.

[fergua3]

i just looked up Asendia and it says they usually use the local postal system for  delivery!  This applies to US, Canada, UK at least.  If true, wahoo.

quote: 

Asendia normally uses local postal services as their carriers, for example, Royal Mail in the UK, USPS in the USA, Canada Post in Canada, and Australia Post in Australia.

If this is the case and is true, then i will retract my bashing of Ebay.  🙂

[pjcdn2005]

I understand what you're saying.  I was concerned when EBay International standard delivery started and was using DHL as I thought that might mean extra charges like tax, duty and brokerage fees  on delivery.  But I don't recall anyone posting that they did pay extra.

[fergua3]

in my experience, DHL usually uses the domestic postal system for final delivery.

[pjcdn2005]

The google page does show 2023 which is odd but the actual story doesn't mention the year.   The first paragraph describes what we've already had for years so my  guess is that google goofed on their search page. 

[fergua3]

i've learned something new about EIS.  It charges GST/HST on the full price (item plus shipping cost).  Don't think there is a service charge.

[pjcdn2005]

I know that they used DHL for eBay international standard delivery. Is that what you are thinking of are have you ordered something since they implemented eBay international shipping?

[fergua3]

I've never heard of DHL being used.  It appears to me the package is handed from USPS to Ascendia, who then use Canada Post to deliver in Canada, as far as my research goes.  DHL may be for international sales, other than Canada, or for European sellers to Canada?

An update to my above comment about HST/GST being charged at checkout.  It doesn't seem to happen all the time.  I've done a few mock purchases, to see what the total charges would be and sometimes taxes are charged (HST/GST) and sometimes not.  It doesn't seem to be determined by the item's value, as i had lower priced ones get charged taxes sometimes and higher priced ones other times and no taxes on other similarly high and low priced items.

[fergua3]

One interesting wrinkle i've discovered with the tax sometimes being charged situation, is that sometimes, you are expected to commit to buying BEFORE you are given the total cost of the item.  There is just a tiny note saying additional fees to be charged at checkout, without stating how much those fees are.

This only happens about 1 time in 3.  But that has clearly gotta go.  Why should Ebay expect anyone to commit to buying without knowing what they are commiting to?  Give us the total cost up front, then we'll decide to buy or not.  Period.  No need to hide things.  Good buyer experience is priority.  Remember?

[marnotom!]

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@fergua3 wrote:

I've never heard of DHL being used.

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It's mentioned as one of the "shipping partners" in eIS's buyer terms and conditions, and those T&C also suggest "other international carrier services" may also be employed:

https://pages.ebay.com/internationalshippingprogram/buyer/terms/

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@fergua3 wrote:

One interesting wrinkle i've discovered with the tax sometimes being charged situation, is that sometimes, you are expected to commit to buying BEFORE you are given the total cost of the item.  There is just a tiny note saying additional fees to be charged at checkout, without stating how much those fees are.

This only happens about 1 time in 3.  But that has clearly gotta go.  Why should Ebay expect anyone to commit to buying without knowing what they are commiting to?  Give us the total cost up front, then we'll decide to buy or not.  Period.  No need to hide things.  Good buyer experience is priority.  Remember?

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You can't get an iron-clad quote on the "additional charges" until you confirm the address the item is going to be shipped to, and that's done at Checkout.  The country and postal code you use with the listing page may not necessarily be the one that's used at Checkout.  Having said that, late in the game for the GSP there was a note that the "import charges" displayed on the listing page were "estimated and confirmed at checkout" so perhaps there's room for something like that here if what the GSP did was proven to be effective.  It may not have been.

[fergua3]

yeah, i recognized the address may change at checkout but then why do sometimes they show the taxes being added before cmmitting to buy and other times not?    A more sensible approach would be to do what Amazon does and show the taxes to the buyer's current registered address with a disclaimer that they may change if the address changes.

Since Ebay is already showing the taxes to the buyer's current  registered address sometimes, it is well within their ability to simply do it all the time. 

I doubt they are trying to sneak extra fees in by requiring the buyer to commit to buying first but many will perceive it that way.  Transparency is always the best policy.

I was all set to make an Ebay purchase using EIS but my distrust of the system had motivated me to look diligantly online, and i eventually found the item i wanted from a non ebay etailer for a couple of dollars less and they ship using USPS, so i bought from them.   It is in Ebay's best interest to make this new EIS as buyer friendly as possible,  not just make it seller friendly.

[pjcdn2005]

It is in Ebay's best interest to make this new EIS as buyer friendly as possible, not just make it seller friendly.

Well said!

[marnotom!]

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@fergua3 wrote:

yeah, i recognized the address may change at checkout but then why do sometimes they show the taxes being added before cmmitting to buy and other times not?   

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The promotion on eIS stated that it was initially going to be strictly a DDU (Delivered Duty Unpaid) service initially, and down the line buyers would have the option of DDU or DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) for an item handled by eIS.  

I haven't seen any listings where a choice has been given to the buyer yet, so I'm thinking there may be a change of plan or experiment going on to see if Canadian buyers (at least) show any discernable preference between the two methods of dealing with taxes and duties owing.

Remember, eBay is already charging and collecting VAT/GST at Checkout independently of eIS for a number of countries, so I suspect there are some suits out there interested in knowing what we outliers in Canada would prefer.

[fergua3]

That may explain why i am seeing different results on different mock purchases.  They may be trying out 3 diffferent systems.  Not sure that's a good idea, but that may be what they are doing.

You won't see anything in the listings indicating collection of taxes, at least not that i can find.  The only way to see what is going on is to click 'buy it now'.  Then you will be taken to one of 3 pages, in my experience.  You will either just see a regular payment page, where you choose payment method and pay, or you will see a regular payment page but with HST/GST added to the total, or you will see the COMMIT TO BUYING page which shows no totals and tells you te expect extra charges at the next step, without stating how much those charges will be.   I have not tried a mock purchase using the cart, so i don't know what  happens there.

[marnotom!]

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@fergua3 wrote:

You won't see anything in the listings indicating collection of taxes, at least not that i can find.  

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Interesting.  This is an example of a listing page where it's stated that an eIS-forwarded item "may be subject to duties and taxes upon delivery":

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to locate my examples of listings where it was stated--also below the item location--that there would be no taxes and duties charged at delivery, or some such.  And I'm pretty sure I "mock bought" that item and found that there was nothing charged at Checkout, either.

Perhaps our differing experiences viewing listings are part of the experiment?  Or maybe I just unearthed a glitch with my "no additional charges" find that's now been fixed?

[nboo1]

FYI - as of 03 April it appears that the prohibition you've noted on shipping to P.O. Boxes; hence, Canada Post appears to have come to a hard stop. This is of particular concern to those with rural addresses. As you've noted under the GSP the P.O. Box was not an issue. Under the eIS I also still received orders without issue through Canada Post - until 03 April. As of that date I recevied a series of eBay notices to provide my physical address which I did. Then eBay came back with delightful little clips from Google Maps saying my home location does not exist. I did clarify to them it most definitely does and that if they paid attention to the clip they sent and zeroed in to the cross streets that is precisely where my physical address was. The language from eBay then became unclear as to whether they couldn't find the location or, as the remote location would require it to be turned over to Canada Post (which is the norm for any courier package to this location CP know whom everyone is and how to put the pickup notice in the right box), their service provider did not want to turn it over to Canada Post. As of today (25 April), eBay has started sending me refunds for the transactions in question saying the item is not able to be exported.  So the waters are definitely muddy and after 25000 or so transactions on eBay over 25 years I am officially "on the beach" until they sort this fiasco out.