@latique101 wrote:Aargh! Marnotom, please compare your first and second sentences. The first says that the PB fees INCLUDE taxes and duties. Second sentence contradicts that. Makes for bafflegab.
You're not reading closely enough.
First sentence: You're paying "import charges" and not taxes and duties.
Elaboration: You're paying a fistful of money to Pitney Bowes for a variety of things that fall under what they term "import charges". Part of the import charges are the taxes and duties (if applicable) that Pitney Bowes pays on your behalf. You're paying Pitney Bowes back, but you're not paying the taxes and duty.
It's a bit like lending your car to your friend who tops up the tank at Petro Canada, paying with a credit card, and you pay them back in cash. Your friend is the one who's going to be on record with Petro Canada and the credit card issuer as having paid the gas, the taxes, and so forth, not you. Similar deal with GSP items. Pitney Bowes will be on record as having imported the item into Canada and paid the taxes and duty owing.
@latique101 wrote:
In addition the informative link for the GPS right above the pricing in the auction page says "Duties". If not import, what on earth does it mean. ? It means that if PB is not required to pay duty - which is for all electronics and used items, I must get some money back!
Now you're not making sense. Many electronic items aren't subject to duty and as long as the seller lists the item in a way that the GSP-bot can figure out that it's duty-free in Canada, the import charges won't include a calculation for duty. That laundry list of charges I think you found is just what might make up the import charges levied by Pitney Bowes.
Here are the additional charges for me in BC for a cell phone selling for US$240:
Pitney Bowes would be charged 5% GST on the phone, or US$12. I pay them back the US$12 plus US$5.60 that goes towards various customs processing and clearance charges, as described in the laundry list. Nothing is earmarked for duty.
@latique101 wrote:
So why does Paypal give me one payment for the item, to go to the seller, and the other combining shipping and import fees to PB? The seller has no idea what is charged by the forwarder/trucker. BTW I live in Montreal, where PB has an office, but the truck is going to Missassauga, ON. So where is the truck, tracking should tell me.
The Global Shipping Program is supposed to make selling to non-US (and non-UK) buyers as "easy" as shipping to a domestic US (and UK) buyer. The seller receives payment for the item plus their shipping charge as they would for a sale to a domestic buyer, PB receives payment for the stuff they deal with.
As far as the freight truck goes, it takes less than twelve hours for it to go from Erlanger to a the Big Canada Post Mail Sorting Facility in Mississauga. I don't see how items on that truck could be scanned while on that relatively short journey or why they'd need to be.
@latique101 wrote:
Another BTW - it seems, from eBay.com chatroom, that US sourced items end up in PB UK, even if the actual destination is Germany. He end up paying duties into UK, and then again to Germany. No recourse to recover. Nice. How did eBay, that started as a easy buy/ sell device to millions end up in such **bleep**.
There have been some complaints of that in the early days of the GSP, but the posters never followed up with more information that could have explained why that should have happened. Flash forward to 2018 and situations of double sets of customs-related charges have been explained by sellers sending the item directly to the buyer and bypassing the GSP process entirely.
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