eBay continues to rip-off Canadians, and, at some US Sellers expense in 2021

[softailswail]

I’m tired of being ripped off by eBay. To make matters worse, I’m being punished for pointing out the truth. My messages aren’t being allowed through to sellers. And, I’m blocked from making offers to sellers I’ve never purchased from?? All because of being honest and enlightening some US sellers (the meat and potatoes, guys) that are, falsely, guided, under the impression, they are selling and offering their potential international buyers (via the global shipping program), FREE INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING!! Never mind EBay collecting UNNECESSARY IMPORT FEES on top, when these fees aren’t warranted or collected on Canadian soil, especially for used items!! What a hoax and insult to everyone! Shame on eBay for riding on the tail feathers of the innocent and less fortunate, trying to buy and sell at REASONABLE PRICES! Who’s getting rich here?

[reallynicestamps]

Are you somehow under the impression that we don't pay duty (and more usually Sales Taxes) on imports from the USA?

That's not what NAFTA (or the newNAFTA) is about.

CBSA being clear thinking public servants realized that assessing and collecting duty and sale taxes on $20 (~$15USD) items cost the taxpayer more than they could possibly collect.

So on postal imports, they just ignored anything valued under about $100Cdn. They were doing this from at least the turn of the millennium until 2020.

But couriers like UPS and GSP/Pitney Bowes are not government run. They HAVE to collect those duties.

UPS did it on the doorstep and charged $25 or so as a "customs brokerage fee".  GSP collects an "import fee" which includes enough to cover duty, sales tax and about $5US as a service fee before the seller is told to ship.

And the GSP has nothing to do with "free shipping". It is a Seller Protection Program aimed at paranoid and xenophobic US and UK sellers.

As of July1, 2020, imports from the USA (But NOT other nations)  became duty free if valued under $150 and sales tax free if valued under $40.

Complaints about GSP dropped like a stone in July 2020. (They were replaced by complaints about slow delivery since COVID obviously had nothing to do with transit being slowed by sick workers and airplanes that were not flying.)

So you are not only wrong, you have been wrong for years and you have not kept up to date with changes to Canadian duty and sales taxes.

Try harder, sonny.

[marnotom!]

Given that the Global Shipping Program has been around since 2013, I think those running it (i.e. Pitney Bowes) would have figured out by now that the import charges the program charges are "unnecessary".  The thing is, as @reallynicestamps points out, those charges are legit and necessary.

A few points about the GSP you may want to consider to make the program make more sense to you.  You can still hate the program and know this stuff:

1.  The GSP actually pays taxes and duty (applicable) on the buyer's behalf.  The "import charges" are an estimate generated by a bot that are made up of the money the bot calculates need to be paid back to Pitney Bowes.

2.  The Global Shipping Program is a glorified forwarding service.  This is why everything, destined to anywhere served by the program is shipped to Kentucky first.  This means you're paying the seller to have your item sent to Kentucky and paying the GSP to send the item to you from Kentucky.  Generally speaking, the GSP's charges are pretty competitive with USPS as long as the seller provides enough information to the bot for calculating an accurate shipping rate.  If the seller is using a pricey shipping method for getting the item to Kentucky, that can increase the overall shipping price considerably for a non-US buyer.