@lundon44 wrote:
Just about to lose my 3rd package through GSP.
You've probably booked it out of these discussion boards, @lundon44, but I'll post a few thoughts on your post just in case you haven't or in case somebody else finds the information remotely useful.
By the way, I'm guessing you're referring to the old Global Shipping Program rather than the newer eBay International Shipping system because you've used the old program in the past and had success with it, amirite?
@lundon44 wrote:
I buy collectibles from US sellers to Canada through eBay and often I either find insane deals or I snag something "rare" which is a must-buy. And with my luck, 3 of these items now have been "lost" because of GSP. Worst part is, the last 2 times the item was actually confirmed to be at their international shipping centre but for some reason they didn't have my address. Apparently all they needed was the seller to intervene and confirm it. But that's too much work, the sellers just close the case and have eBay refund me.
So we know that two of those items weren't actually lost, but they had to go through some sort of confirmation process in which the sellers refused to participate. This is the first I've heard of something like that, to be honest, and I wouldn't mind a bit more information on these situations if you come back and feel comfortable sharing it. At any rate, I'm not sure why you're blaming eBay International Shipping for what appears to be seller failure to understand and work with a system that they've presumably agreed to use.
@lundon44 wrote:
Honestly, I don't know why the global shipping program exists. It has zero benefit to the buyer and 100% benefit to the seller. Not only does it take 3x longer to receive items in Canada from the US. But the cost of shipping is also 2-3x more than if they just dropped the package off themselves at post office. And why does it need to be re-routed!? Honestly, it's the only service that actually loses packages. I'm at the point now where if a seller refuses to ship something outside of GSP then I refuse to buy it.
eBay International Shipping and the GSP (it's still a thing in the UK) are glorified forwarding services. Buyers can opt to use their own forwarding services to have items held for pickup or for forwarding if they don't want to use the seller's choice of shipping, but they forego most of eBay's Money Back Guarantee protections if they go that route.
Yes, using direct USPS shipping can be a bit faster than going through this forwarding scheme, but as you note, eIS has a lot of incentives for sellers to use it. In fact, eIS has more protections and benefits for sellers than domestic sales.
There's a lot of ignorance, fear, apprehension, and some paranoia over international shipping expressed on the US eBay discussion boards. If eIS didn't exist, I suspect that most US sellers wouldn't have their items offered for international shipping at all and buyers like you would have no choice but to have a US address on file and have their items sent to that address for pickup or forwarding if they wanted them badly enough.
In fact, you might want to start searching with your location set to a US ZIP code. Items that can't be forwarded through eIS are sometimes resold by a third party to help eIS pay for handling the dead-ended shipment, but that party may not ship outside of the United States. If those items are being sold on eBay, you just might find them again. . .
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