Questions about the Global Shipping Program

[kalvin@ebay.com]

Do you have questions about the Global Shipping Program? Please post here & I'll do my best to track those answers down for you!

If you have any comments about the program, use this forum instead.

Thanks,

[n_blades78]

OK Folks. I'm not going to rifle through hundreds of pages of comments. You all know the issues with GSP. Here's my concerns.

Global Shipping Program, from my perspective as a Canadian Buyer is a complete rip-off. It's a great concept though. Paying up-front for shipping, brokerage, duties and taxes and having nothing to worry about but to wait and receive your package by priority international tracked mail service is attractive on the cover. It is passed-off to Ebay.com members in the USA as an easy and very convenient way to facilitate international transactions. We've seen comments that many US sellers think GSP is mandatory, not voluntary. I've heard from US Sellers that certainly believe it's more convenient to them than worrying about filling-out export documentation on their items. So it is convenient for the Seller. 

Here's the Problem. It is NOT convenient for the (Canadian) Buyer. I won't speak for other foreign countries. 

1. Priority International mail is more expensive than First Class International, but it is no faster delivered to you. This is because every package has to go through Canada Customs. My experience is that there is no benefit to the buyer to pay more for the same level of service. 

2. Your package is shipped by Pitney Bowes using US Postal Service and arrives at the Canadian Destination via Canada Post. When you ship a package internationally, the postal system websites basically tell you step-for-step how to complete docs for international shipments. As I mentioned, the package arrives no sooner.

3. Canada Post does the customs entry for you when you receive an international arrival the regular way. You are not charged brokerage fees. If there are any duties or taxes applicable, the post office collects them and remits them on your behalf to the federal government. Therefore the GSP is rendered completely useless for that reason, and costs much more also for that reason.

4. Items that are Made in the USA or Mexico are not subject to import duties. Therefore with the GSP, you are paying unnecessary duty on an item, and you have no method to recover that up front cost.

So, at least for the Canadian Buyer, the Global Shipping Program is nothing but a hassle, as waste of time, and an unnecessary cost. But - it's making big profits for Ebay and Pitney Bowes, I bet.

I see lots and lots of complaints from frustrated ebay members about the GSP. My personal policy is to Not purchase an item that is listed with GSP (unless the combined cost is still the best option). I encourage any seller I contact to opt out of the program. So why, after 2 years of complaining, has Ebay and Pitney Bowes done Nothing to address the concerns of members? 

This is, in effect, an International Trade Barrier.

This is nothing new to any of you. To me, the next logical step is this:

How do eBay.ca members force eBay to address our concerns and modify the GSP to better suit our needs, or better, scrap the GSP for Canadian destinations? What can we do to enact the change we want? 

[pierrelebel]

"How do eBay.ca members force eBay to address our concerns and modify the GSP to better suit our needs, or better, scrap the GSP for Canadian destinations? What can we do to enact the change we want? "

The concerns have been expressed and staff and management at eBay.ca are fully aware of it.  As you stated the program is meant to help American sellers sell outside their borders. It does not take Canadian buyers (about 2% of all eBay) into account.

One of the most important change made to the program in the last three years is the ability of American sellers to exempt Canadian buyers from the program:

To customize your Global Shipping Program preferences by country:

1. Go to My eBay > Account > Site Preferences.

2. Click Show to the right of the Shipping Preferences section.

3. Click Edit to the right of Offer the Global Shipping Program.

4. Select the Allow me to customize international shipping by country checkbox.

5. Click Submit.

6. In the International shipping section of your listing, select the shipping services you'd like to use for specific countries. You can add up to 4 international shipping options in addition to the Global Shipping Program.

   http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/shipping-globally.html#opt_out

   The problem is to convince American sellers - who love the simplicity of the program - to remove Canada from the program.  There is nothing eBay can or will do about it.  The decision has to be made by the seller.

   In the meantime, most Canadian buyers should simply avoid purchasing most items offered through the program.

[pjcdn2005]

My question concerns opting out of the GSP during the make an offer option.  I recently placed an offer that specifically requested that the seller NOT use the GPS.  My offer was accepted, so I made my payment through Paypal & I was charged $14.37 US to Pitney Bowes anyway!   When I contacted the seller, they didn't know how to remedy the situation but have mailed directly to me as I requested, using USPS.  The seller would normally mail to Pitney Bowes when using the GPS, correct?  The seller has acted in good faith so I have no complaint with them however can I get a refund from Paypal for services NOT rendered by Pitney Bowes?

Thanks,

Heather

You should be able to get a refund for the international shipping part of the shipping cost and for the import fees. I'm not what the best way is to do that. I would probably phone ebay and ask for a gsp specialist. They will probably ask you to tell them your problem first. Just give the details...you paid import fees and international shipping charges but the seller shipped directly to you and you would like a refund. There's no point in explaining all the rest. You  might have to give them the tracking number that the seller gave to you.

The seller would have received only the amount that she charged to ship to the gsp depot in Kentucky so unless you paid them something extra, they probably had to pay extra to ship directly to you in Canada. If you haven't already done so, you should ask them what the extra cost was so that you can reimburse them.

[afantiques]

1. Priority International mail is more expensive than First Class International, but it is no faster delivered to you. This is because every package has to go through Canada Customs. My experience is that there is no benefit to the buyer to pay more for the same level of service. 

Items are sent as freight, not mail.The probably deliberately confusing words are International Priority. The mail service is called Priority International. Both wordings are more or less meaningless since there is no similar service to take priority over. Once upon a time, there was USPS surface mail.Priority was airmail  and faster. Now it is just meaningless puffery used because it sounds good.

2. Your package is shipped by Pitney Bowes using US Postal Service and arrives at the Canadian Destination via Canada Post. When you ship a package internationally, the postal system websites basically tell you step-for-step how to complete docs for international shipments. As I mentioned, the package arrives no sooner.

As noted above,PB does not use any USPS mail services. Items are sent in bulk as freight, and clear customs in bulk using a cargo manifest, not individual inspection and clearance. In theory this should be quicker, but there are consequences. The main consequence is that the manifest must be accurate. In effect PB is the customs inspector. The manifest is accepted as accurate because PB is trusted to prepare the manifest accurately. Losing this trusted status would effectively put them out of the international freight business, so the are forced to be super careful, hence problems with opening packages and disallowing items that would almost certainly slip through by mail.

3. Canada Post does the customs entry for you when you receive an international arrival the regular way. You are not charged brokerage fees. If there are any duties or taxes applicable, the post office collects them and remits them on your behalf to the federal government. Therefore the GSP is rendered completely useless for that reason, and costs much more also for that reason.

The Post Office charges about $10 brokerage fee for collecting any payments due, the PB brokerage fee is about $5. It is true that all postal stuff that is not taxed is not fee paying, whereas all PB shipmets are charged the $5. If there is no import charge it is added to the shipping cost.

4. Items that are Made in the USA or Mexico are not subject to import duties. Therefore with the GSP, you are paying unnecessary duty on an item, and you have no method to recover that up front cost.

If a seller correctly includes a country of origin, NAFTA stuff avoids duty but is still taxable with import sales taxes.

PB will attempt to find the country of origin of stuff if it not included in item specifics, hence some unpacking. In general US sellers have no idea whatsoever of the importance of country of origin, or of accurate weight and dimensions, the lack of which will lead to a guesstimated shipping charge based on average for category.

Canada is the only country in the GSP that has delivery by the national postal service as standard, all other countries use a local courier service for final delivery.

[00nevermind00]

Items are sent as freight, not mail.The probably deliberately confusing words are International Priority. The mail service is called Priority International.

I also think that the confusion is deliberate even though it is a snake-oil-salesman tactic unworthy of large, well-established companies such as eBay and PB.

If a seller correctly includes a country of origin, NAFTA stuff avoids duty but is still taxable with import sales taxes.

PB will attempt to find the country of origin of stuff if it not included in item specifics, hence some unpacking.

It should be noted that even if the item is found to have been made in a NAFTA country, the buyer does not get a refund for the duty charges. For eBay/PB, it all evens out because some buyers get undercharged for whatever reason. But the buyer doesn't care about "other buyers"; he/she only cares about his/her own transaction. This is one of the things that lead to cries of "scam" and "rip-off" which we still see with depressing regularity. No one likes to be told "aw shucks!" when they have been overcharged.

In general US sellers have no idea whatsoever of the importance of country of origin, or of accurate weight and dimensions, the lack of which will lead to a guesstimated shipping charge based on average for category.

Especially the ones who are still getting enrolled without knowing anything about it. Another snake-oil-salesman tactic.

Since eBay/PB won't make this field mandatory, the least they could do would be to refund the buyer for any overcharges due to the seller not specifying the country of origin! But of course, we know that buyer experience counted for less than nothing when devising this scheme.

[arlene_v]

Yes, it is too bad that overcharges for duty aren't reimbursed. I've only bought a handful of items via this program (maybe 3 or 4) but, in each case the package has been opened by PB and resealed, I am guessing to check for place of manufacture (an aside, the items are shoddily repacked and this program is about as unprofessional as it gets)

They seem to do this routinely where the place of manufacture info is lacking, so I guess that the adjustment to the duty is made at that point. However the buyer doesn't see a cent. No surprise.

If anyone from PB or eBay bothered to read this thread they might try to do something about this. But no, over 2 years or later and still nothing has been done. Instead they waste money, time and resources opening and resealing parcels in KY. I swear a baboon could have devised a smarter program than this (no offense to baboons)

[lorraine_carol]

Good Morning...for those (including myself) who do not like the GSP, please send a cordial email stating dissatisfaction/complaints to ebay.ca. At present most likely nothing will be done about it, but one thing is for certain, nothing will be done about it 

<b>

IF

</b>

we don't express our thoughts/opinions.

<br>

For now, ask sellers to remove the GSP. In your request  include the info that Pierre posted:

<br>To customize your Global Shipping Program preferences by country:
1.	Go to My eBay > Account > Site Preferences.
2.	Click Show to the right of the Shipping Preferences section.
3.	Click Edit to the right of Offer the Global Shipping Program.
4.	Select the Allow me to customize international shipping by country checkbox.
5.	Click Submit.
6.	In the International shipping section of your listing, select the shipping services you'd like to use for specific countries. You can add up to 4 international shipping options in addition to the Global Shipping Program.
 http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/shipping-globally.html#opt_out

[lorraine_carol]

YIKES! Sorry about the html...tried to edit but the time to do so ran out.

[happyyakman]

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Can I steal the texas one? Pretty please??

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Go ham.

So the part arrived (defective, but that's another story). It was locked up in a supermailbox by Canada Post, and I didn't pay a cent over and above what I sent to P-B.

So other than waiting for the thing to travel to Ottawa from NY via KY, and paying a surcharge that I may not have had to pay if the box had been sent via USPS directly to me, the GSP experience was certainly not terrible. Dog slow, paying for brokerage is odious, but it was definitely less bad than what would've happened if he'd sent it via UPS.

[vanhalendlrband]

Oh man this topic is freaking me out.

My item just got to erlanger 4d ago and say its been shipped to international destination. Lets hope!

Payed a hundred bucks for it so hope it doesnt disappear or not show up for a month. Says its expected between sep30-oct07 so lets hope.

One question, will it actually come in regular mail ie: through my mail slot? That would be sweet.

A suggestion for canadians, and any UK sellers, buy from the UK. I had items come in 5 days through regular mail. No word of a lie. 5 measley days for regular mail from the UK. I guess because we are commonwealth? No idea but its been great on several occaisons and always faster than usa

[femmefan1946]

The 'international destination' is Canada. So no worries.

hope it doesnt disappear or not show up for a month. Says its expected between sep30-oct07

It probably will.

If it doesn't you can open an Item Not Received Dispute in the Resolution Centre at the bottom of every page.

In my experience it takes about 20 days for an item to arrive in Canada from the USA or from Canada. The delivery date is from Canada Post and can be optimistic.

will it actually come in regular mail ie: through my mail slot?

Most GSP items are delivered by Canada Post. Larger items are sometimes Canada Post and sometimes, in urban areas, CanPar.

If the item is large and you are not home, the delivery person will leave a note about where and when it can be picked up.

from the UK. I had items come in 5 days through regular mail.

I usually say 15 days, but the big difference is that European sellers tend to use Air Mail for overseas shipments. Asians don't (allow 30 days) and North Americans don't (thus 20 days).

Commonwealth privileges seem to have died under Margaret Thatcher or thereabouts.

[vanhalendlrband]

Well as long as it doesnt disappear ill be happy after what i read here lol

only a few cds for a game in a jewel case so not very big at all.

[00nevermind00]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

from the UK. I had items come in 5 days through regular mail.

I usually say 15 days, but the big difference is that European sellers tend to use Air Mail for overseas shipments. Asians don't (allow 30 days) and North Americans don't (thus 20 days).

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The USPS discontinued all ground and sea options to international destinations a number of years ago. So anything sent internationally by US sellers is travelling by air.

I used to buy a lot from both the UK and the US and it has also been my experience that packages usually arrive faster from the UK. Go figure!

[00nevermind00]

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@vanhalendlrband wrote:
Well as long as it doesnt disappear ill be happy after what i read here lol

only a few cds for a game in a jewel case so not very big at all.

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I'm sure most things sent via the GSP travel safely. People come to the boards when they have a problem, not when everything went smoothly. So you get a lopsided view of things here.

That said, the GSP is still a horrible program in most instances from a Canadian buyer's point of view.

[arlene_v]

I recently ordered a smallish appliance via the GSP.

The seller contacted me today and is concerned. She has been tracking the parcel and the last update (28/09) states that the item is in Erlanger ...with the ominous message "EXCEPTION: DESTROY_DMG-DESTROY/OTHER"

I'm not particularly concerned because I know that I will receive a full refund should this in fact be the case, but just curious since I have not heard from PB, I would like to reassure the seller that all is well She seems to be babysitting this parcel and checking the tracking.

How long does it take PB to issue a refund if the item is damaged at the warehouse and will PB initiate a refund or do I wait for it not to arrive?

TIA.

[afantiques]

What sort of appliance was it? This moght be relevant to its fate at Erlanger.

You should get a message from the GSP about this, I'd just wait.

[arlene_v]

Thanks AF. I'll just wait it out, I'm not overly concerned but the seller is quite worried.

[panther1987viper]

Can someone help me I purchased an item it hasn't arrived and its about 2-3 weeks late. I can't contact the seller because the item on my buying list has not tabs, pictures anymore. Although it says it payed

[pierrelebel]

"I can't contact the seller"

Yes you can.  Send an email to the seller at the address where you made your PayPal payment.  The information is available from your PayPal "details" page.

[arlene_v]

Well it seems that the small counter top  appliance I ordered via the GSP for a very good price is not to be mine after all. Oh well.

The latest update now states "Prohibited item for shipping" and "Exception". 

If this has happened to other buyers here, can anyone tell me how long it will take PB to issue a refund and do I have to initiate the refund (ie file an Item not Received claim) or  will it be done by PB/eBay automatically?

The estimated due date provided for delivery has passed and it has been 10 days since the item arrived in Kentucky and the first message re the item being "problematic" occurred.

I have no doubt that I'll get a full refund, just not sure what the process is.

Pretty dismal performance on the part of the GSP when both seller and buyer are not sure what the heck is going on.