Global Shipping program Canadian RIP OFF!!!

[1number1buyer]

Please be aware that the Global shipping program is a full scam. We all know that when a seller sends items using USPS directly to you, shipping cost is paid to USPS and it takes 1 week or so to arrive. The border does not charge taxes up to about 200.00 from my past orders and experiences. Now that Pitney Bowes is in the picture, Canadians now have a "middle man" grabbing cash on your shipping. I was victimized by this program and have learned from it. I am sharing this here. I ordered an item from  an Ebay seller who is just over the border from me. Due to Covid, I could not ship it to my US address depot and just go over and pick it up. If that was still available, I would have it in 3 days. My  item was sent to me using USPS or so I thought.  My item shipping cost was more than triple the cost in the USA. In the past, using USPS directly, it was around 30% more to Canada. Now I find my item went across the USA and is in some depot in Kentucky. The shipping time is now 3 weeks. There were "new"  fees that were added to the item over and above the shipping fees . Some kind of "export" fees that nobody seems to be able to understand where this is going.  So lets see how it worked before. To USA 2-3 days, and to Canada 1 week. Shipping paid to USPS and item cleared border with no charge. Now, with the new scam global shipping program, shipping fees triple, added "export" fees and 3 weeks delivery time.  It seems to be a great Canadian Rip Off.  I can have items sent to me from China withing two weeks with shipping charges kess than 5 dollars and never been charged tax at  customs.  This is a WARNING TO CANADIANS. You will be ripped off with thie new Pitney Bowes scam with Ebay. I will boycott any and all Pitney Bowes products and if stuck using Ebay for anything, I will have to clearly get an answer from a seller as to who will be shipping their item. The best way  is to stay away from sellers using this system. If you have any friends or family in the US,  ship it to them and have them forward it to you with USPS. The scam is an incredible slap in hte face to Canadians from Ebay and Pitney Bowes.  Thanks and good luck. 

[femmefan1946]

the negative of buying from sellers that use

the Global Shipping Program.

Sellers like the Program.

It offers them several advantages.

• It is a Seller Protection Program that protects them against non-delivery claims. They only have to deliver domestically (to Erlanger KY for US sellers).
• It protects them from the customs scam, where the buyer claims non-delivery, then picks up the item and uses the refund to pay the duty.
• It protects them from Damage in Transit /Not As Described disputes. GSP won't accept damaged parcels, those are returned to the seller. And damage between the GSP and the buyer is covered by the GSP.

Keep in mind that many US and UK sellers are profoundly xenophobic and paranoid.

Why do buyers keep using this service from sellers and then complain after the fact ?

• Because the item is not available  in Canada or on other sites. Or not as cheaply.
• Because they don't know that the GSP is a freight forwarding service.
• Because they have never paid duty (and sales tax) on a postally delivered item because the CSDA has been waiving those fees for years as being too expensive to collect on low value items.
• Because they don't realize there is a difference in the duty free allowance for cross-border shopping  ($200) and cross -border shipping ($150 /$40 for sales tax) (($20 before July first, 2020)).

[marnotom!]

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@noguffay0117 wrote:

Here it is in a nutshell. I have an item stuck with Pitney Bowes now for 16 days at Kentucky. 

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You don't know for sure if it's "stuck" in Kentucky.  There have been a few reports since the pandemic took hold of GSP-forwarded items not having further tracking information associated with them until a couple of days before arriving at their destination.

Tracking tells you where an item has been, not where it is.

Has the last estimated delivery date passed yet?

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@noguffay0117 wrote:

I am probably mostly done with eBay now. I have three items still stuck with the eBay GSP. Hopefully, I'll get them eventually. Had one seller rip me off by not even ever shipping the item to the global shipping center, using FedEx with tracking. They literally never received or scanned the item. Some scammy sellers are a bit stupid, yes. I got my money back, that's the only good thing about the program I can honestly say at the moment. 

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I'm betting that if you had purchased the two items not sold by the clueless in February, you wouldn't be posting most of what you just did.  The pandemic has hit most cheaper shipping services pretty hard.  (Yes, I would consider the GSP a "cheaper" shipping service compared to an international Express-Next-Day-Delivery type service.)  My wife had two items sent to her from the United States by regular mail in cheque envelopes by the same seller at the same time.  They didn't arrive at the same time, but both took about a month to reach her.  This is simple, regular mail with no customs form or anything like that.

Amazon can wield a lot more control over the shipping process than eBay does.  In effect, Amazon is iOS while eBay is Android in terms of the flexibility allowed its sellers and control over the buying/selling process.

[marnotom!]

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@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

@15westcoast 

What has boggled my mind since first using the program and then seeing  the neverending stream of complaints is how no one from eBay has ever attempted to address those concerns.

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Ultimately, it's up to Pitney Bowes to address those concerns, not eBay.  eBay can advise Pitney Bowes, but I doubt it can do much more than that.

Some elements of the program have been tweaked to help stressed out or confused buyers.  In the beginning, all items had import charges levied on them, even those within the tax/duty-free threshold.  People didn't understand that "import charges" weren't just taxes and duties.  So now "import charges" are folded into the shipping charges for items within the tax/duty-free threshold.

A problem with the program from day one that was eventually rectified was the lack of online viewable tracking information, even though all it really does is give buyers warm fuzzies or mild cardiac arrests.

I think most other concerns with the program are the product of not reading or understanding the terms and conditions of the program, and unfortunately, sellers enrolled in the program aren't really subjected to any sort of terms and conditions, so many of them use the GSP improperly.  Buyers also don't bother clicking on the "learn more" or "i for information" button on GSP listings, so they don't know that they should be checking to make sure that the seller hasn't fudged up listing the item with the GSP.

I don't know how eBay or Pitney Bowes can address the fact that buyers and sellers don't read.  I think when the GSP was developed, Pitney Bowes wildly overestimated the amount of knowledge the typical non-US eBayer has about the process of importing goods on an individual or casual basis.

[noguffay0117]

Actually I probably wouldn't have started complaining about my present circumstances with all the eBay purchases, if I hadn't been "attempted" ripped off by a seller. Trust me when I tell you, I have used eBay a lot in the past, a real lot. I have never been "attempted" ripped off by a seller, in all that time. So that really got my back up and worried about the remaining deliveries. Then I had a seller not ship my item for over a week after creating the shipping label/tracking #, Another one got turned around back to the seller (according to him, he resent it) So I have four shipments in limbo hell right now.

I have not been using eBay for some time now (extensively over the last year or so) and have been mostly using amazon. I had to use eBay for these rare items this time, and will probably use eBay for such occasions going forward. But I will avoid it where I can.

Bad sellers are definitely the bane to eBay's future success. 

[marnotom!]

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@noguffay0117 wrote:

Actually I probably wouldn't have started complaining about my present circumstances with all the eBay purchases, if I hadn't been "attempted" ripped off by a seller. Trust me when I tell you, I have used eBay a lot in the past, a real lot. I have never been "attempted" ripped off by a seller, in all that time. So that really got my back up and worried about the remaining deliveries. Then I had a seller not ship my item for over a week after creating the shipping label/tracking #, Another one got turned around back to the seller (according to him, he resent it) So I have four shipments in limbo hell right now.

I have not been using eBay for some time now (extensively over the last year or so) and have been mostly using amazon. I had to use eBay for these rare items this time, and will probably use eBay for such occasions going forward. But I will avoid it where I can.

Bad sellers are definitely the bane to eBay's future success. 

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Back in eBay's early days, my wife bought several items from a seller that suddenly "went bad" and stopped shipping.  Their negative feedback mounted.  I suspect something happened to the seller and there was nobody else who could pick up the pieces and complete their sales.

This was in the days before eBay's Money Back Guarantee.  My wife used Billpoint, which was then eBay's house payment system, to pay for her items.  Billpoint didn't have its own buyer protection scheme; instead, buyers were encouraged to file chargebacks with their credit card issuers in the event something went amiss with their purchases.  We tried doing that, only to get caught in a Catch-22.  Our credit card issuer insisted that we work things out with the merchant--in this case, Billpoint--first.  Billpoint just told us to file the chargeback with the credit card issuer.  After considerable back and forth, I finally sent a tersely worded fax to the bank quoting VISA Canada's fraud protection propaganda and insisted that the bank follow VISA Canada's directives.  We finally got the charges reversed, but we weren't happy with the bank and we switched VISA issuers shortly after that.

My point is is that it's a lot easier now to get eBay to step in and assist buyers having difficulties with sellers (much to some sellers' collective chagrin).  I'm somewhat envious of the position you're in when it comes to filing claims for non-delivery.  To me, avoiding eBay because of one seller who didn't even successfully defraud you is a bit like avoiding the West Edmonton Mall because a counter clerk at New York Fries almost gave you the wrong change.  You're missing out on a world of decent merchants selling great merchandise out there.  I appreciate that because we're living in "pandemic times" right now, your anxiety levels are pretty high and everything seems to be going to Hades in a handbasket right now, but try to step back and give yourself some mental and emotional breathing room.

For what it's worth, one of the reasons we eBayers ended up with the GSP was because of a similar attitude exhibited from a lot of US sellers selling internationally.  Many of them had hundreds of successful international sales under their belt until they had one that went south for whatever reason and they found themselves surprised that they had no "protection" from eBay or PayPal for this sale.  Despite the loss being a drop in the bucket compared to the amount they had made from other international sales, they stopped selling internationally.  I can't help but wonder if they stopped selling on eBay altogether once they got a domestic sale that went bad and the "protection" for that sale was weak to non-existent.

[1number1buyer]

Just received 4 items from China and no sales tax at the post office. I doubt you will see any change. I have never been charged tax on mailed in items under 200 US in the past 10 years. You won't see any posts in the future on taxed items, won't happen.

[reallynicestamps]

I think the magic  words there are "at the post office".

CBSA has had an informal policy of not bothering with postal imports of low value or low bulk, on the basis that it would cost more to assess and collect the fees than could be collected.

That started when the $20 duty free allowance was in effect. That CBSA is still doing it when values are over $150 duty free /$40 tax-free  -- although that should only be from USA /Mexico. We don't have free trade with China.

[reallynicestamps]

CBSA was doing more with Chinese imports when the fentanyl  crisis hit.
They may do more since that has re-emerged here in BC partly because the border to the USA is closed to personal travel (mostly) and supplies are coming in from Asia again.

And with one thing and another China is less likely to be cooperative this time around.

[darak10]

to paraphrase Jim Reeves, "welcome to our world, won't you come on in..." 

in other words, join the club.  There are not enough Canadians on here to make them change this as it was intended to serve and kiss the posteriors of crankypants American sellers.  When US dollar buying power comes into play, money talks and brown sugar walks.  

The problem for ebay though is most Canadians just laugh out loud when we see these US to Canada shipping prices on listings from US sellers.  We just take it at face value and look elsewhere for what we've come to buy.   Americans complain, complain, complain, and wont let it go til something changes...Canadians accept, accept, accept...let it go, and move on to the next seller with a non ridiculous shipping rate.  I recently paid $13 euros w/ tracking from a seller in France and it took 6 days to get here.  Same with a German seller, 6 euros registered and it took 5 bloody days to get here.  We'll all be gone off buying from European sellers before the Americans know we are gone, not like they care or anything.   

[highland.2112]

Thank you sellers, for not knowingly subscribing to the Global Shipping Program. Despite the fact that the GSP has convinced me to curtail my purchasing on e ba y by 80%, I will still buy from you non-conformist GSPers! Best wishes to you all!

[marnotom!]

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@highland.2112 wrote:

Thank you sellers, for not knowingly subscribing to the Global Shipping Program. Despite the fact that the GSP has convinced me to curtail my purchasing on e ba y by 80%, I will still buy from you non-conformist GSPers! Best wishes to you all!

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I regret to inform you that you unknowingly posted this to the Canadian discussion boards where the US sellers you want to reach won't see your message.  😂

[sonometrics]

My recent experience with GSC

On Feb 11 I bought some electronics from a US seller. Price was $80 US. Package was smaller than half a shoe-box. Weight - 1.65 lbs. Ebay confirmation email said the shipping was $18 US, total charged to paypal was $98 US. On Feb 17 another email from Ebay - item arrived at global shipping center. The next day, another email - item has left the GSC. On Feb 19 another email - item has cleared customs and is now out for delivery with the carrier. The box has a CN22 Customs declaration sticker with the vendor as the FROM and my address in Canada as the TO. The value of $80 US is correctly shown on the form. There are 1 or 2 layers of more labels under what I see. On a corner of the label is stuck a smaller sticker - a Canada Post Xpresspost sticker with tracking number dated Feb 23. The CanPost website is still able to show me tracking details - the item was delivered on Feb 25. I paid nothing additional to the carrier when it was delivered. 14 day delivery time. Original conf. email said estimated delivery Feb 21 - 27.

On May 25 I bought another electrical item (from a different vendor) in the US. $24 USD + $12 Shipping + $7 Import charges (the first item above did not have this "Import Charges" line). Total charged to paypal - $43 US. Estimated delivery June 6 - 16. Item arrives at GSC June 2, leaves GSC June 3, clears customs June 4. I don't have the package handy so off-hand I don't know when I got it, but it did come a short time later, again Canada Post. I got an email on June 10 from ebay asking to rate the product.

[reallynicestamps]

That's the normal experience.

Seller-> USPS-> Erlanger->customs cleared-> sent to Canada-> Canada Post.

Transit time 10-20 days.

It has been longer since March, probably due to the pandemic, but we only hear of the bad experiences. I watch from the opposite direction Canada to USA (no GSP involved)  and both tracked packages and untracked (with delivery reckoned from when the buyer leaves FB) is running to 30 days about a week longer than normal times.

It is annoying that sometimes the import fees are a line item and sometimes they are included as shipping.

There doesn't seem to be any reason for which one happens.

[johnthefoxx]

It is a full blown scam, no need to mince words...

I mostly order internationaly used parts from private sellers, most of the stuff is not taxable and they arbitrarely put fees on it and just pocket them.


I lost an item, not the sellers fault, pitney's fault, never was able to make a claim to get my money back ebay kept harrasing the seller but he had proof he shipped it so they just kept closing the cases.

[brettjet38]

...you can repeat things as much as you like to the "Sheeple"!!

BUYERS DO NOT, nor do most people!

READ THE DETAILS BEFORE YOU PURCHASE YOUR "TAT"!!

The never-ending RANT about the GSP that has been in service for years already! If it makes you mad, do not buy from a SELLER using it!? 

END OFF!!

.

...as for myself, I do purchase from a SELLER using GPS if the "Lot" is large and the "deal" is good, who cares about a few dollars extra...

[marnotom!]

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@johnthefoxx wrote:

I mostly order internationaly used parts from private sellers, most of the stuff is not taxable and they arbitrarely put fees on it and just pocket them.

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Based on what you've told us so far, I haven't seen anything that suggests that these "parts" are not subject to tax.

"used" doesn't make a difference to whether or not an item is subject to tax as a casual import

"private seller" (assuming you mean "private individual" as opposed to a "business") doesn't make a different to whether or not an item is subject to tax as a casual import

"international seller," well, you get the idea.

If the item is subject to tax purchased as new or used from a Canadian seller registered to collect provincial sales taxes and/or GST-HST, it's subject to being taxed as a casual import.

If your sellers are miscategorizing their items, that may affect the calculation of taxes, duties and sundry fees by the GSP bot, as the bot only has the item's category to go on, not the listing itself.

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@johnthefoxx wrote:

I lost an item, not the sellers fault, pitney's fault, never was able to make a claim to get my money back ebay kept harrasing the seller but he had proof he shipped it so they just kept closing the cases.

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There are lots of posts about successful claims of non-delivery made with the GSP.  I'm suspecting the problem is that whoever handled the claim was unaware that the item was forwarded from the Global Shipping Program in Kentucky.  Because the item likely showed as "delivered" in Kentucky (proof of shipment isn't enough to refute a claim of non-delivery), the claim was closed based on that.  When one files a claim of non-delivery for a GSP item,  one has to be pretty explicit in their description of the problem that the item was handled by the GSP so it gets handled properly by customer service.

[andyandted]

Regardless of all that has been said, the GSP program has some big problems including lack of information sent to buyers, the program just appeared and US sellers in particular were not educated on what it does. There needs to be a whole lot more sharing of information between Pitney Bowes and buyers of items who time and again are left wondering where in Erlanger purgatory their item is.There also seems to be a disconnect regarding how Canadians have historically purchased items from the USA and the policies implemented by eBay and Pitney Bowes regarding customs and duty.  

[marnotom!]

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@andyandted wrote:

Regardless of all that has been said, the GSP program has some big problems including lack of information sent to buyers. . .

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There are links to the Global Shipping Program's terms and conditions for buyers on every listing page where the program is earmarked to be used as part of the shipping process.  Yes, they're lengthy, but it's not impossible to tease out relevant information with the "find in page" function on one's browser.

I will grant that the process of filing a claim for an item that is not received or not as described (i.e. damaged) on Pitney Bowes' watch is not explained at all.  I'm guessing that somebody quite rightly figured out that there's several volunteer rubes on eBay that can coach buyers through this process.

Everything else, as far as I can tell, can be extrapolated from the terms and conditions.

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@andyandted wrote:

The program just appeared and US sellers in particular were not educated on what it does. 

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My recollection from seven years ago when the program was first unleashed is that there was quite a lot of fanfare on the .com site about this program.  The big difference between then and now is that sellers are no longer subject to "terms and conditions" the way buyers are, but a set of best practices and guidelines, which I suppose makes sense as sellers are not paying into the program the way buyers are.

In addition, there's mention of the program in the eBay.com user agreement.  If sellers choose not to read up on that, there's not much eBay or Pitney Bowes can do about that.

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@andyandted wrote:

There needs to be a whole lot more sharing of information between Pitney Bowes and buyers of items who time and again are left wondering where in Erlanger purgatory their item is.

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A not-received item is a not-received item.  Knowing "where in Erlanger purgatory their item is" isn't going to change that fact, is it?

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@andyandted wrote:

There also seems to be a disconnect regarding how Canadians have historically purchased items from the USA and the policies implemented by eBay and Pitney Bowes regarding customs and duty.  

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Could you elaborate on this point?  Are you referring to the fact that for the past dozen or so years, Canadians have been able to get away without taxes and duties charged on many items sent by mail that should have had those charges levied on them?

[wendy_ann_lynn]

It’s been frustrating particularly when somethings Made in USA, I try and explain this to the seller and they refuse to turn off the GSP.

Longtime eBay sellers use to ship via USPS which was quick, inexpensive and I never once was charged duty at Canada Post. Furthermore, how can the government collect duties & taxes on used clothing? It’s double dipping imo.

The Global Shipping Program has ruined eBay for Canadians and btw, US Sellers DO NOT SEE THE ADDITIONAL FEES!

[byto253]

GPS and UPS ground, both have sticker shock when you use them unknowingly.  The full cost is not disclosed up front and you got zinged.  Just like that first UPS delivery that hurt, learn from this one.