Global Shipping via Kentucky

[kennuck42]

Canadian ebay buyers. Tell seller you don't want him/her to use Global Shipping. It's horrific. Item goes to Kentucky warehouse where it can sit for weeks. Pitney Bowes runs it and they are doing a terrible job. My experiences have all been bad. Costs more and takes way longer.

[marnotom!]

The tricky thing here is that for listings where the GSP has been applied, the seller can't simply change the shipping method to accommodate a buyer.  The whole listing has to be scrubbed and re-done, and some sellers probably aren't prepared to do that.

I carefully choose my listings where GSP is used and it seems to be working out so far, although I've only purchased one GSP-forwarded item since the world went sideways in March 2020.  (It went fine.)

You may want to revive this .com (US) discussion board thread from a few weeks ago and express your concerns there.  Be specific about the types of delays you're seeing and the costs involved.  It may open a few eyes:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Adding-GSP-should-I-do-it/td-p/31931225/

[reallynicestamps]

Keep in mind that the GSP is a Seller Protection program and has nothing to do with the buyer's preferences.

It is also designed to encourage xenophobic US sellers to ship internationally since they only have to "pay" for cheap tracked domestic shipping.

All the other "shipping" costs are borne by Pitney Bowes/GSP.

A US seller can be encouraged to set up a new private listing for a buyer, using USPS  First Class International Package, but costs are not going to be any lower if at all.

Remember most of those "import fees" will be paying Canadian sales taxes on items valued over $40Cdn(~$52US).

In terms of shipping time, USPS does not seem to be recovering well from the stresss of COVID. There is a current thread about holdups of months at the Chicago terminal, which has been a trouble spot for years.
I suspect this problem will continue until the new USPS Board of Governors gets rid of Trump appointee, Louid deJoy, whose proclamations (no overtime, destruction of sorting machines, removal of postboxes) were designed to slow down and make a mockery of USPS 's proud standards.

[ronweebro]

Do you know of a way to combine items from the same seller using the GSP.  I'm trying to buy 6 different items from the same seller and it's charging ludicrous freight amounts because every item is shipped individually.

[marnotom!]

The GSP "officially" doesn't support combined shipping.  However, while I haven't tried it myself, some buyers in the past have reported they've had some success using the "cart" function to reduce shipping costs for GSP-forwarded items from the same seller.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@marnotom! wrote:

The GSP "officially" doesn't support combined shipping.  However, while I haven't tried it myself, some buyers in the past have reported they've had some success using the "cart" function to reduce shipping costs for GSP-forwarded items from the same seller.

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Careful typing that out loud about the cart function. That "feature" may abruptly poof automagically. Like Sheryl sings...."If it makes you happy, it can't be all bad."

-Lotz

[pjcdn2005]

When you put each item in a cart and pay for all at the same time, the international shipping cost...the part that the gsp is charging, will be combined.  However, unless the seller has free domestic shipping,  each item will also have a shipping charge for shipping to the gsp hub and that amount can't be combined. 

But if the seller is willing..they can do one listing for the items that you want to purchase and combine the shipping in the listing. That way, both international and domestic shipping will be combined.

Hope that makes sense.

[pjcdn2005]

The gsp does 'officially' combine shipping for the international part of the shipping cost as long as the cart is used.

[marnotom!]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

The gsp does 'officially' combine shipping for the international part of the shipping cost as long as the cart is used.

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Thanks, PJ.  That certainly wasn't the case in the early days of the GSP and the GSP's terms and conditions for buyers made note of that.  A quick scan of the .ca site's version of the GSP's terms and conditions for buyers suggests that that information has been eliminated, despite it supposedly being last updated in 2014.  (I suspect someone forgot to update the update information!)

Rip van Marno strikes again.

[luv4orphans]

I live in the Ottawa area and in the last 4-5 months the global shipping program has been quite good.  A couple of the items got here within a week so I would say that's good coming from somewhere in the US.

The only problem I got was one envelope arrived here empty and the other one which was a small electronic motor arrived here with a broken wire. All thanks to the GSP and their carelessness with packages.

I am by no means a big fan of that program. I much preferred when items shipped directly to us and most times we did not have to pay the import taxes. Now everything is taxed.  I was looking at items from the US today though and still noticing import charges being added on to $35 - $50 items. I thought the amount had to be $150 CDN now before they tacked that tax on.  Certainly doesn't appear like that. 

[marnotom!]

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@luv4orphans wrote:

I was looking at items from the US today though and still noticing import charges being added on to $35 - $50 items. I thought the amount had to be $150 CDN now before they tacked that tax on.  Certainly doesn't appear like that.

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C$150 is the duty-free threshold.  The tax-free threshold is C$20 for items sent by mail, C$40 for items sent by courier.

[m.sou]

how long did your packages take from
the time it arrived in erlanger to arrive in ottawa, on average?

[emadd_2228]

Hi there,

I'm trying to purchase my first ebay item from the US and get it to our place in Ottawa.  The seller is suggesting GSP.  How do the fees work?  We pay shipping to Kentucky and then again to Ottawa?

[pjcdn2005]

Yes, you may shipping to Kentucky and then to Canada. The listing should tell you the total shipping charge, it doesn't show you each portion. If the seller doesn't have their listing set up with gsp already, they need to do so before you purchase. 

[reallynicestamps]

The GSP seems expensive to some Canadian buyers because the shipping fees include both postage AND Canadian import fees.

These are better for the USA than the rest of the world, because with the latest iteration of NAFTA, we have a duty free allowance of $150Cdn  /$105USD, and a sales tax free allowance of $40Cdn.

If your purchase is over $40Cdn, you will pay ON HST on the purchase. If your purchase is over $150Cdn, you will pay whatever the duty would be.  (https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/travel-voyage/dte-acl/est-cal-eng.html) It's up to you as the importer/buyer to know what those rates will be.

But the GSP works that out for you (and the seller) and the seller will not ship until the entire amount price, shipping, duty, taxes , is paid. The import fees include a small ~$%USD service charge.

The seller isn't suggesting the GSP.  Either they have the shipping set for that, or they don't. It's not something easily changed.

If they are willing to sell but not sure how to do it, you can let them know that USPS First Class International Parcel (Canada) has the tracking they are looking for and that when they print the USPS label through eBay, the label will automatically fill out the customs information. 

[reallynicestamps]

When you ship via USPS, you will be paying those import fees on your doorstep plus a $9.95Cdn service fee to Canada Post.

[reallynicestamps]

ZOMBIE THREAD FROM JUNE 2021

The problem with zombie threads is that the information in them is often out of date and incorrect.

For example our duty-free allowance for US imports rose from $20 to $150 in July 2021.

[marnotom!]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

The GSP seems expensive to some Canadian buyers because the shipping fees include both postage AND Canadian import fees.

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Generally speaking, the GSP's import charges are a separate line item and noted separately on the listing page.  There was some experimentation a few years ago where the import charges were lumped in with the shipping charges and "$0.00" would show up for the import charges, but I don't think this is happening now.

The shipping charges are generally high on listings where the GSP is used when the seller doesn't provide adequate information on the item's size and weight, leaving the GSP "bot" to guess or apply a category average.  They may also be high if the seller uses a pricey shipping method to get the item to Kentucky, as the GSP's shipping charge is actually the sum of the seller's charge for getting the item to Kentucky and the GSP's charge for getting the item from Kentucky to the buyer.

From my experience, the GSP's charges (i.e. without the seller's own shipping charges) tend to be competitive with USPS Priority to Canada for most items, and USPS First Class International for cell phones.

[chatar7299]

You are so right, and the sellers do not know they are shipping internationnaly. I had two items that were broken beyond repairs and when I ask the seller if she was aware that the package came to Canada through 3 different carriers, she was horrified. She said it was the first time the any items she shipped were ever broken in shipping. It seems like they are throwing the boxes on a wall and try to see in how many pieces they can break those into. It was crazy

[reallynicestamps]

It would be more useful to see the packaging, than the contents.

Because pretty well all terminals (postal or courier) are working on the basis that any item should be packed to withstand being dropped two feet from one conveyor belt to another and then having a 50 lb parcel dropped on top of that.

Which would be bubblewrap and/or peanuts and double boxing for china ornaments.

I doubt any carrier used by GSP is any better. The package would have arrived in Erlanger in good shape (on the outside at least) or they would have rejected it.