Buyers need a way to specify type of shipping

[riderfandave]

If nothing else, the Canada Post strike has hammered home the requirement that buyers need the ability to specifiy what type of shipping they want. Especially if the item is going through the eBay Global Shipping Program.

When I purchase an item, I want the ability to select how it's shipped to me. If a seller wants to use the postal service, that's up to them, they don't ship it to me anyway, they ship it to an eBay warehouse, and it gets shipped to me from there. If I specify FedEx, then eBay puts it on the FedEx truck.

I'm tired of my purchases being held hostage by Canada Post's overpaid workforce that has become irrelevant.

[marnotom!]

The US version of the Global Shipping Program (GSP) is no more.  It died a couple of years before Pitney Bowes pulled the plug on its logistics/eCommerce operations.  It's been replaced by what's been prosaically named "eBay International Shipping," or "eIS" for short.  The UK version of the Global Shipping Programme still appears to be operational under that name, however.

eIS works a bit differently when it comes to the handling of taxes and duties due on an item.  Whereas the GSP estimated and paid those charges on the buyer's behalf  and the buyer paid GSP back in the form of "import charges," eIS listings seem to be a bit of a hotch-potch of taxes/duties prepaid items. taxes/duties due on delivery items, and listings where the buyer is offered a choice between the two.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think the "due on delivery" shipments are ones where the postal service is involved in one way or another, whereas the shipments where the listings where taxes and duties are paid at Checkout use other carriers.  If you're adverse to having your items "held hostage" for payment of taxes and other customs fees due, you're probably better off choosing listings where you pay those fees at Checkout.

If your objection to items being "held hostage" at the post office/outlet is because Canada Post won't safe-drop them at the delivery address you give them. my experience is that carriers other than Canada Post will sometimes hold items for pickup as well, depending on the nature of the item and the method of shipment used.  Your mileage may vary.