@mario909 wrote:
I'm always surprise when I inform a seller the cost i have to pay when the seller use GLOBAL SHIPPING PROGRAM to deliever his merchandise to Canada. I understood many sellers use that service without knowledge. The seller has posted an item less than $5 and he use Global shipping program who fix the shipping at more than $20USD. UNREASONNABLE.
Many sellers opted into the program many years ago by clicking on an acceptance button that they thought was meant to mean that they accepted an update to the user agreement, but it was actually an agreement to use the GSP. And even now, the user agreement has a clause that I interpret to mean that eBay can apply the GSP to certain listings if it "wants".
The GSP is a forwarding service, meaning that the shipping price you see is actually two shipping charges: the seller's charge for shipping the item to the forwarding base in Kentucky, and then the GSP's shipping charge on top of that. The GSP bases its shipping charge on information the seller provides on the item's size and weight, not the price of the item. Shipping charges are never based on the price of the item. If the seller doesn't provide any information or enough information or inaccurate information on the item's size and weight, the bot is going to calculate a rubbish shipping charge based on the category in which the seller listed the item.
Having said all that, I just looked up the US Postal Service rates for shipping a 250 gram package from Kentucky to my postal code and the cheapest rate it came up with was US$22.10. Without knowing the size of the item you have in mind or your location, I don't know if that's a fair comparison or not, but it certainly looks as though the GSP is competitive, and that's with the seller's shipping charge on top of the GSP's charge!
@mario909 wrote:
At the end it's not interested to buy from US. I know US is a bigger country than Canada but I think US sellers miss good opportunities to enlarge their sales by including Canada with unreasonnable shipping fees.
Many years ago, I did an informal survey of US sellers on the eBay.com discussion boards and came to the conclusion that whether US sellers who ship to just about every country out there or if they just ship to a handful, the outcome is generally the same: sales to Canada make up a very small proportion of their total sales. As you suggest, we have about one-tenth of the population of the United States. What we don't buy from US sellers will likely be purchased eventually by a US buyer anyway.
@mario909 wrote:
Another point : Global Shipping program indicate ''including custum duty '' to explain their pricing. But folks, there is no custum fees under $700 following the agreement USA/Canada
The duty-free limit for "casual imports" shipped by courier (which is what the GSP is considered as stuff makes it over the border in a big Purolator or Canpar truck) is C$140. The tax-free limit is C$40. Most "import charges" on GSP shipments are made up of an estimate of GST/HST and various customs processing charges that amount to around four to five US bucks. Actually, for a US$5 item, the processing charges are added to the shipping charge, which may be one reason why the shipping charge on that item you're looking at appears to be so out of line.
This isn't intended as a defence of the program, you understand. I just find that if you understand the ways of your enemy, you can use this information better to your advantage. I've found that cell phones have been a great fit for the GSP and they've never been repacked.
