Pitney Bowes and Global Shipping Program

[kelsy-gemstone]

It is unfortunate that these days most USA sellers on eBay choose the Global Shipping Program for sales to Canada.  That way the cost of shipping is higher, and it takes much longer to deliver bought items.

In my experience, Pitney Bowes who runs that shipping program, ought to be one of the most inefficient shippers in North America. Their dispatch center in Erlanger KY consistently takes up to 4 days to print a customs declaration label for Canada, and stick it onto the package.  That's a task that should not take longer that 5 minutes to complete even when filling the customs declaration by hand.

I do not think eBay should be proud of their business affiliation with Pitney Bowes.

[reallynicestamps]

In my opinion the Global Shipping program is just a way to collect more taxes.

The GSP is run by Pitney Bowes. As a courier, GSP/PB, like UPS or FedEX, has to assess and charge the importer any Canadian duty or sales taxes applicable.

The GSP does this at point of sale, before the seller is even instructed to ship.

Other couriers do it on delivery.

So yes, the Canadian government wants to collect duty and sales taxes on imports.

 still charging taxes on items less than $100 when the limit was raised a few years back already.

For imports from overseas the duty and tax free allowance is still the $20 it has been since the mid-80s. This includes the UK, where eBaydotcodotUK  also has the GSP available as a Seller Protection.

Under the newest version of NAFTA, imports from the USA have a duty free allowance of $150 and a tax free allowance of $40. In most cases, there is no duty and what the buyer is paying is made  up of the sales taxes and the ~$5 GSP service charge.

It is also indeed slower, on average about 3 weeks to get from USA to my location in Canada.

I've been selling by mail order since the 1970s, and three weeks has been the norm for delivery for all that time, whether I was shipping wood stoves or postage stamps or books. Nearly 50 years and it hasn't speeded up in all that time.

It is also a royal pain to combine shipping as the program is only set up to buy one thing at at time.

If you put your purchases into your shopping cart before buying, the GSP does let your seller adjust THEIR part of the shipping cost.

However, many seller offer Free Shipping, which means that the seller's cost of shipping has been folded into the asking price for the item.

Normally they create one new listing for the multiple items that I might want to buy. But it is a tedious time consuming process and creates a lot of work for the seller, just not ideal.

Yes. It is. Thus the shopping cart option.

Another thing is that they open EVERYTHING. ... This is always the case.

Just no.

Thisis a stupid urban myth.

The minimum wage in Kentucky is $7.25 an hour. How long do you think it takes a line worker to open inspect and repack ever single item that goes by him? How much do you think PB/GSP profits from that process? How much does PB/GSP spend daily in supplying packaging materials to make sure the packing is worse?

It's all about collecting taxes and finding things that should not be shipped over international borders.

Yes.

Some years ago CBSA was stopping low value imports from China, in part to slow the importation of fentanyl.

[prismwave]

I have to respectfully disagree with you on several of your replies. Yes Pitney Bowes charges the fees up front, but they do it on every purchase, whether it is warranted or not based on the duty free and import limit. So it is more costly since just having them touch it incurs a fee. Secondly, the shopping cart method does not work, I have tried it many times, the shipping fee just doubles. Third, they DO open everything, all my parcels are continuously opened. It is not a myth. I have had damaged goods because of their careless checking. I have had a lot of items shipping from USA before the Global shipping program and they never took 3 weeks, except in a few instances when things actually got lost. I have purchased a LOT of items, I have been on ebay over 20 years and my score is over 6000 as a buyer. So I am speaking from experience. I have seen many things change in those 20 years as far as shipping goes and policies go. The Global Shipping program is a complete money grab from the tax perspective and adding a carrier service that is simply not needed. And now there are new regulations coming in for sellers in the USA for paypal income limits and in Canada they are now charging sales taxes up front on each purchase whether or not the seller is registered as a business. I know thingss can't stay the same but they are making it harder for people to do e-commerce. Thank you for your comments and wish you well.

[marnotom!]

The Global Shipping Program is being phased out and replaced by a scheme that is touted as being less expensive but still providing a lot of perks and incentives for sellers. None of us has any idea how it will be for speed, but as a general rule I allow two weeks minimum for non-express shipments from the US to reach me and don’t get too worried about their whereabouts if less than a month has passed since they were sent off.

Having said that, customs declaration labels don’t get affixed to items forwarded by the Global Shipping Program. I’m wondering if you’re thinking of the other international shipping program currently available to US sellers where customs charges are paid at the time of delivery rather than in advance.

[reallynicestamps]

I've been selling by mail order since the late '70s and like you I don't get worried about delivery for at least three weeks or even a month for goods coming or going in North America. At one time, delivery was faster with Europe than with North America.

[prismwave]

In my opinion the Global Shipping program is just a way to collect more taxes. I have been on ebay for 20 years and I am not impressed with it as a buyer in Canada. The shipping cost is indeed higher, still charging taxes on items less than $100 when the limit was raised a few years back already. It is also indeed slower, on average about 3 weeks to get from USA to my location in Canada. It is also a royal pain to combine shipping as the program is only set up to buy one thing at at time. Sellers have to come up with creative solutions to get around that problem, or refund excess shipping fees which takes 3 days to post to my credit card. Normally they create one new listing for the multiple items that I might want to buy. But it is a tedious time consuming process and creates a lot of work for the seller, just not ideal. Another thing is that they open EVERYTHING. The seller has nicely packaged it up but often receive things in less than good wrapping, clearly having been disturbed by inspection along the way. This is always the case. I have had things damaged by this process and in some cases wondered how things never fell out of the package as it wasn't sealed properly. As a collector this is very disheartening. So if the seller only uses global shipping program I usually don't bother, unless it is an item I really can't get another way. I don't have hope that whatever they replace it with will be any better. It's all about collecting taxes and finding things that should not be shipped over international borders.

[leaky-bucket-labs]

yep...items are beat to junk getting thrown around the country unnecessarily.

And it wastes resources and fuel for negative gains