eBay

toronto_rose · ‎07-27-2020

Packages were delivered to the Erlanger, KY (by USPS and FedEx) a week ago, since then not a pip, no email, nothing, all stuck at that alleged warehouse. Are they closed due to the pandemic?

theghostoffm · ‎07-27-2020

If its any comfort to you, I am also in the big smoke and my orders are also progressively taking longer and longer to process a shipment and get it out the door at the GSP center in KY. A month or so back, it was taking 1 to 3 business days. Today, I have an order that's been sitting there in receiving, untouched for a full week, as of this writing.

I'm assuming that because of the shift to far more on-line shopping, these sorts of businesses are getting slammed and likely didn't build their processing centers to deal with Christmas level X 5 volume levels. They likely are also finding shortages of people willing to work in such hectic environments, day in, day out. The news stories I've seen of the working conditions in places like Amazon processing centers, (which eBay should never be confused with, thank g-d), as being nightmarish off-shore like conditions.

So they're under a genuine strain and still managing to not let it completely get away from themselves. I, an often picky and petulant customer when it comes to shipping screw-ups, while understanding and sharing in your angst, I also have to give them an understanding pass on raising my anger levels any higher at them. Really, they're very likely doing as best they can under the new general conditions....imho 🙂

Cheers! 🙂

toronto_rose · ‎07-27-2020

Agreed, up to the shameless pricing of the GSP. There appear to be no shortage of gouging the shipping prices, sometimes close or at the same level as FedEx and/or UPS Ground, including the brokerage fees.

There's no excuse for charging an obscene amount of money, and not delivering to their own, self imposed, standards and deadlines.

I have another story with a package that made it from Ohio to Toronto, USPS to Erlanger in 3 days, one week of sitting there, then handed over to another company (Globegistics) which did absolutely nothing for two weeks, then cared to hand over the package to (guess who?) USPS, which handed it over to Canada Post, which finally delivered, five weeks after the shipping date. All instead of shipping the **bleep** thing by USPS, to start with, for 1/3 the cost.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎07-27-2020

tyler@ebay

Do you have any answers for these fine folks or can we mostly blame it on a Covid 19 GSP/Customs backlog? For the most part buyers find out the ifs, ands and buts regarding these programs after they have placed an order. Sadly, not before.

-Lotz

esclyons · ‎07-27-2020

try asking the seller if they will ship direct to you, through usps, it doesn't hurt to ask,,, at least it will come direct, and not have to go through the hoops, set up by ebay.. which is a total fail...

Just wondering, if ebay has ever did the math, on how much they refund, to buyers for late items..

And yet they still plow through it??? makes you wonder,, who's bottom line does it come from, ebay's or gsp's,,

toronto_rose · ‎07-27-2020

Smart sellers take the advantage of the GSP. It’s convenient for them, because their responsibility ends when the item is delivered to the GSP centre. Otherwise, they are responsible for delivery to my door.

reallynicestamps · ‎07-27-2020

up to the shameless pricing of the GSP. There appear to be no shortage of gouging the shipping prices, sometimes close or at the same level as FedEx and/or UPS Ground, including the brokerage fees.

The seller sets the shipping price from him to Erlanger.

Some sellers instead charge the USPS cost for international shipping even though they will only pay for domestic shipping. And shipping to Canada is actually lower than "international rates".

The duty is set by Canada. The sales tax is set by your province.

As long as the seller describes the item properly. It would be very helpful if eBay added HS code as an Item Specific and would not allow international shipping without the code being filled in.

The usually seen difference is ~$5 US and that is the "service fee" charged by Pitney Bowes who run the GSP for eBay.

It's hard to pinpoint because PB/GSP does not give a line item analysis for each shipment.
Certainly GSP has an advantage because they are shipping across the border in bulk with a manifest, instead of one at a time.

I suspect a lot of the fuss over GSP will disappear when the new higher duty-free allowance for NAFTA manufactured goods becomes the norm. We're still seeing shipments from before the rate changed on July 1 from $20Cdn to $150Cdn.

Then the new complaints will be about items purchased but not produced in the USA and above all about the sales tax which starts at a declared value of $40Cdn.

I would like to see an example of inflated shipping prices -- preferably including what the shipment is and where it was manufactured.

I know they exist because I once paid about $17 to import a $2 comic book with GSP, although again that was basically down to the seller who charged Priority Mail International shipping rates to ship from CA to KY. There were no duty or tax charges, nor was there a service charge.

jdj53 · ‎07-28-2020

A week to ten days seems to be the new normal at Erlanger. My last two GSP packages arrived last week, each spent eight to ten days in Erlanger. If I ask an American seller if he will ship USPS rather than through GSP, and he says no, I now move on. Tired of doing the same thing over and over, and getting the same result. My last four orders have been from Canadian sellers. One arrived from Winnipeg in five days, including the weekend, one arrived yesterday in three days, one from Calgary will be delivered today, and one shipped from Vancouver yesterday. If everyone stopped using GSP (they won’t of course), it would eventually grind to a halt, and sellers would perhaps start getting comfortable with direct international shipping.

pjcdn2005 · ‎07-28-2020

@reallynicestamps

The seller sets the shipping price from him to Erlanger.

Some sellers instead charge the USPS cost for international shipping even though they will only pay for domestic shipping. And shipping to Canada is actually lower than "international rates".

That's not possible. Sellers do not have the option to set any type of international shipping cost or method when they use the gsp. The buyer is charged the same cost that any buyer in Kentucky would pay for shipping PLUS the international shipping portion that the gsp adds on.

toronto_rose · ‎07-28-2020

PLUS an outrageous "See import charges at checkout " which is never specified upfront. This does NOT necessary include the sales tax, sometimes that's charged separately. I don't understand (and I suppose I'm not alone) why isn't everything listed upfront, in particular for fixed price items. Import fees should be known, sales tax is also known for each buyer province, based on his EBay account.

I'm suspecting the GSP is now one of the EBay cash cows, but hey, that's me.

marnotom! · ‎07-28-2020

Now that eBay is rolling out an alternative international shipping service (International Standard Delivery / eBay Send), it's now slightly more obvious that all the GSP really is is a glorified forwarding service. You're paying for two sets of shipping charges, one from the seller and the other from the GSP, and the shipping service the seller uses for getting the item to Kentucky can have a significant overall impact on the total shipping charge, so comparisons to other carriers such as FedEx and UPS are of the apples and oranges variety.

Another factor affecting the shipping price is the fact that the GSP's shipping charges aren't calculated by a human being, but a bot that's reliant on accurate information on the nature of the item being provided by the seller. The bot doesn't "know" what the item is exactly, just its category and sub-category, and--if the seller has done their job properly--its shipping size/weight. If the seller miscategorizes the item and/or doesn't provide information on its shipping size/weight, the bot has to take a guess or apply an average based on the item's category. Averages being averages, this means that larger items can have astonishing low shipping prices and smaller items have disproportionately high shipping charges.

Information provided by the seller is also important for the calculation of the "import charges" you're repaying to the GSP. (I say "repaying" because Pitney Bowes, DBA "the Global Shipping Program" is responsible for paying taxes, duties and customs-related fees for a GSP shipment. The "import charges" are your way of paying Pitney Bowes back.) The item's country of manufacture is very important for the calculation of duty. If the item is duty-free to Canada if manufactured in a particular country Canada has an agreement with but the seller doesn't note its country of manufacture under "item specifics," the bot factors in duty when calculating the estimated "import charges." Yes, when all is said and done, "import charges" are estimates, calculated in a manner that going to cover Pitney Bowes' ass-ets as best as possible.

theoldestfart · ‎07-31-2020

I have a purchase sitting in Erlanger for 6 days and there is no way in heck it is going to get to Canada in 4 days. Then there is a chance the item arrives damaged or does not show up at all.

I have another item coming from CA and that is being shipped via USPS and I bet that one will beat the GSP (which was shipped 3 day before the USPS one) to Canada.

I wished the heck eBay would give us buyers the ability to simply eliminate GSP items. I am not about to ask each prospective seller whether they will ship to Canada via USPS.

marnotom! · ‎07-31-2020

@theoldestfart wrote:

I wished the heck eBay would give us buyers the ability to simply eliminate GSP items. I am not about to ask each prospective seller whether they will ship to Canada via USPS.

Do your searching on a laptop or desktop computer. View your search results in "list view" rather than gallery view. Look out for this message coming up in the listing summary. Avoid that listing; the item is being forwarded through the GSP.

Having said that, it does kinda astound me that people purchase an item that's being handled by a forwarding service and expect it to arrive as quickly or quicker than an item that's being shipped more directly to them.

Once eBay's International Standard Delivery service (AKA "eBay Send") becomes more established, I can see that we're going to have to explain to many irked Canadian buyers the whys and how comes of how international mail consolidators generally take longer to reach them than items shipped through the conventional letter mail and parcel streams.

theoldestfart · ‎07-31-2020

Thanks for the search suggestions.

I knew past experience with the GSP imposed perhaps a 3-day delay on an item being sent to Canada but this latest one has now reached a week. There is no way in heck I will see this item by Aug4th which is the estimated earliest date and the other date is Aug 10th and even that may be cutting it close.

Do the majority of the US sellers using GSP know of the delays that the service adds to their items? I had another seller who was using eBay send and was not even aware of the shipping costs being imposed for Canadians on the item he was selling

reallynicestamps · ‎07-31-2020

Every now and then an aggrieved buyer will post the actual tracking of a slow moving package.

It's been my observation that often USPS is the slow leg.

That the Erlanger plant does not have a full staff over weekends, causing delays of two days in processing. That goes for holidays too.

And Canada Post is none too swift either.

EBay gives you a window for delivery. It is best for your anxiety not to look at tracking until that window closes.

If the package actually is late, you can open a Not Received dispute with an eBay GSP specialist through the Resolution Centre.

If the purchase arrives after you are refunded, GSP does not want it back.

marnotom! · ‎07-31-2020

@theoldestfart wrote:

Thanks for the search suggestions.

You're welcome!

@theoldestfart wrote:

I knew past experience with the GSP imposed perhaps a 3-day delay on an item being sent to Canada but this latest one has now reached a week. There is no way in heck I will see this item by Aug4th which is the estimated earliest date and the other date is Aug 10th and even that may be cutting it close.

Do the majority of the US sellers using GSP know of the delays that the service adds to their items? I had another seller who was using eBay send and was not even aware of the shipping costs being imposed for Canadians on the item he was selling

There have been a few reports of people being pretty surprised by how quickly their GSP-forwarded items reached them after the shipments got to Canada, so don't write off your purchase just yet. Having said that, 3 August is a statutory holiday in some provinces, and that may put a kink in your item's transport. I don't think the bot calculating delivery dates takes holidays into consideration, no matter what shipping method is employed.

I'd say a lot of US sellers using the Global Shipping Program are, first of all, unaware that it's been applied to their listings (the opt-in process was kinda sneakily/messily done back in the day) and they probably don't give a second glance at the address in Kentucky to which they're shipping. Of those who are aware they're using it, I'd say a good proportion of them haven't done their homework on it and as a result, haven't optimized their business practices to use it to its best advantage. And, let's face it, international sales make up such a small proportion of most US sellers' sales that they're probably not going to bother trying making such tweaks.

Remember, it's called the Global Shipping Program, not the Canada Shipping Program, serving about 100 other countries besides ours. Online purchasing has gone through the roof since the early days of the pandemic, and when I watch this ~~propaganda~~ promotional video of the Global Shipping Center in action, I get the sense that that airport warehouse in Kentucky is probably pretty overwhelmed right now:

https://youtu.be/gWbsFb6Yx6c

(See if you can spot the big rig sporting the Canpar logo.)

theoldestfart · ‎08-03-2020

Yup saw the Canpar trailer at about :36 mark lol.

So unless Erlanger has built a transporter that can beam my parcel to my coordinates there is no way in heck I will see it the week of Aug 2nd. It still shows "Customs Documentation and Labeling" as of July 31st a week after Erlanger got the parcel. I bet it will be next week before I see that item. I wonder if the other item which was shipped 3 days after the GSP item will beat it here. That item appears to be using EasyShip from CA. The race is on rolls eyes 😉

marnotom! · ‎08-03-2020

@theoldestfart wrote:

So unless Erlanger has built a transporter that can beam my parcel to my coordinates there is no way in heck I will see it the week of Aug 2nd. It still shows "Customs Documentation and Labeling" as of July 31st a week after Erlanger got the parcel. I bet it will be next week before I see that item. I wonder if the other item which was shipped 3 days after the GSP item will beat it here. That item appears to be using EasyShip from CA. The race is on rolls eyes 😉

EasyShip? Uh, oh. They're pretty heavily involved in eBay's International Standard Delivery program (see earlier post). Is "international standard delivery" the shipping method stated in the listing? What are the estimated delivery dates?

theoldestfart · ‎08-03-2020

The GSP item listing said "Delivery: Estimated within 11-16 business days" as oi July 23rd and was shipped from GA to Erlanger in two days. Ebay said "Tuesday, Aug 4, 2020 - Monday, Aug 10, 2020" but I just got an email that apparently the item has escaped Erlanger and is supposedly on its way. Hope it is well rested from its 10 day stay over there in Erlanger. 😉

The EasyShip item said "Estimated delivery within 19-39 business days" as of July 26th and its current status is "IN TRANSIT TO DESTINATION COUNTRY " from CA. Ebay says "Friday, Aug 21, 2020 - Monday, Sep 21, 2020" as expected delivery date. Apparently using "USPS First Class Mail International / First Class Package International Service"

Seems expected delivery dates are generated by throwing darts at a dart board.