Gsp Scam , Theft of items for upsale ,misinformation, negligence

[bleckbazar]

1 . why do ebay customer service, tell me only after the fact of encountering an issue, that no items at all weapon or knife related should be purchased through gsp.   is there anywhere a warning that no  weapons at all are permissable with gsp?   no,   you are only informed of this by ebay customer service. it is common knowledge to them but they do not advertise it. even though it may be a legal item, they will not allow it.

2. why do they say the item can or will be returned to the seller. and then decide the item will not be returned. (after a considerable wait in which time the item could already have been liquidated)

3. why did they say once its deemed restricted they cant return ship it? when they themselves will be shipping it again as they liquidate the item.

4. why liquidate the item to someone else when the seller is willing to buy it back.

5. why ruin a transaction , when the item could be returned and shipped with the appropriate usps inteded method, as ebay gsp was used only because ebay pushed it through, -when the offer was accepted pending shipping.

6. why do only certain desirable weapons apear for me to purchase with gsp but not all weapons. and why are only the desirable weapons confiscated?  is it an employee, or is it the whole financial scheme to confiscate the upsale-able items and let the items that would create a loss go through.

7. will you inform us who the reseller will be and put us in contact so we can get the item back?

8.how do we report when an item is confiscated? to have it looked into to make shure it was legitimate and not just confiscated because somebody wants to resell it.

9. why allow these items to be resold at a profit? if you realize, it will  enrage the original buyer, and portray ebay as crooked.

10. this is not the item i had issue with , but 1  example i have

294021029844

164753585110

11. Gsp team will not  speak to me over the phone.   via email-  they will not answer my specific questions,  they gave me some generic policy excuses that made no sence, and now refuse to answer me,  ebay customer service agreed they didnt answer my questions, and is still attempting to get me in contact with the gsp logistics team. 

12. are they afraid to let me speak with a supervisor or manager? is that why they wont let me? because they are doing something they souldnt?

[reallynicestamps]

1. Not all knives.

And remember the GSP is pre-clearing your purchases for CBSA-- if the knife is prohibted by Canada, the seller may be unaware.

Sellers are not required to know the import regulations for the 178 countries in the world.  This is the responsiblity of the importer/buyer.

https://www.ebay.ca/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-items/knives-policy?id=5047&st=12&pos=4&quer...

2.The GSP does not return items to the seller. Too expensive (many large companies simply write off problem shipments.

Some items are destroyed. There was a painful thread or two about five years back about valuable guitars that were not forwarded because the instrument used rare woods.

Some are sold through liquidators, because insurance doesn't cover all costs.

The item would not go back to the seller. She doesn't own it and she has been paid for it.

3. Things that are legal in the USA may not be legal here. Kinder Eggs and assault weapons come to mind.

4. She can attend the liquidation auction. Mostly because that kind of detail is too expensive.

5. The SELLER chose the GSP, which is a Seller Protection program.

6. 7. . 8. .... Oh for heavens sakes. It's a thing. There will be another one along in a minute.

Read the eBay and CBSA pages about prohibited items/weapons.

You got your money back and learned a life lesson about research.

[marnotom!]

If you're looking at listings on a laptop or desktop computer, you should see a link in the form of a question mark that you can mouse over.  A pop up window appears that takes you to terms and conditions for buyers using the Global Shipping Program.  It doesn't spell out what items are prohibited or restricted through the program, but it does spell out what happens to undeliverable items:

https://pages.ebay.ca/shipping/globalshipping/buyer-tnc.html

The GSP is a forwarding service.  Other US-based forwarding services I've looked into tend to be unwilling to forward weapons or items that have the potential to be weaponized (if that's a word) to other countries.  This may be because of carrier restrictions and/or the United States' uneasy relationship with the rest of the world when it comes to matters of national security.  While the item you purchased may have been considered an "antique," that potential unfortunately exists, and because your item was likely listed as an "antique" it didn't get automatically flagged as problematic when your seller listed it, that is, if listings in categories that the GSP doesn't support actually do get flagged when the seller creates them.  (They're supposed to.)

When all is said and done, however, importers are responsible for ensuring that their imports conform to the laws of their country and the terms and conditions of the carrier used.  Sorry this happened to you.  This information is available on eBay but the site is going through a renovation of sorts right now and it's harder to locate.  I generally find I can find what information I need on the nuts and bolts of eBay better with a Google search than a search on the eBay sites.

[bleckbazar]

So some knives / swords are aloud to be listed with GSP. ???
But Yet, all weapons are stopped by the shipping center regardless if they are legal in the purchasing country.

As was stated many times after the fact ,anything that can resemble a weapon is not aloud. Ebay never tells anyone this before hand. You are left to review the policies on weapons and determine its eligible. Just to have ebay take it anyways.

Having the item returned is cleary an option in the policy. That I would like to request. But the request doesn't get passed on.
Ebay policy also states that gsp items cant be resold for a profit commercially. And yet this is what they do.

I am very curious under what circumstances they actually send the item back.

[bleckbazar]

I am also very curious how they determine if its an item they will resell?
Perhaps they decide its an item to resell because it valuable.... And perhaps they only select these valuable items to confiscate . to balance the books. To many opportunities for the members of the system to abuse this program.

I learned never think your guna get a good price on a gsp item. Because if ebay realized it could have sold for much more. They will take it.

[bleckbazar]

@ really nice stamps. You said i learned a lesson about doing research. Well i did my research before hand. And determined my item was eligible. So the lesson i learned about doing research is. It doesnt matter what the stated rules and policies are as determined by research, ebay has blanket restrictions additional, that they don't tell people about. And that is negligence. And telling people the item can be returned is misinformation. And allowing confiscating otherwise legal objects to balance the books is fraud . if i new before hand. All weapons no matter what will be confiscated and if i new it would never be returned to the seller if there was a shipping issue . then i would not have used Gsp.

[marnotom!]

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@bleckbazar wrote:

tSo some knives / swords are aloud to be listed with GSP. ???
But Yet, all weapons are stopped by the shipping center regardless if they are legal in the purchasing country.

The legality of the item isn't the issue.  Beer is a perfectly legal (though restricted) substance, but you're not allowed to send it in the mail because it would be dangerous and foolish to do so.  The sword you purchased may be legal to own in Canada, but that doesn't mean that a carrier in the United States is willing or able to ship it.

Most of the frontline workers at the Global Shipping Center in Kentucky aren't experts in customs laws in the hundred or so countries served by the Global Shipping Program.  It's likely a combination of keeping things simple and straightforward for these workers and not getting on the bad side of the carriers contracted by the GSP that has led to knives and swords being prohibited items.

I don't see anything that suggests you actually consulted a page on the GSP when you did your research on this.  Here's one:

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/shipping-items/setting-shipping-options/global-shipping-program?id...

You'll see a note at the end of the "restricted categories and prohibited items" section that it states that it's not a full list and that a seller listing in a restricted category should see a .  If your sword was listed under "Antiques" or "Collectibles," the GSP bot wouldn't have caught it and prevented the seller from listing it.  In fact, I don't think there's a listing category that would trigger a message to a seller trying to list a knife or sword through the GSP.

However, if you do a Google search for "global shipping program knives", you'll see lots of eBay threads about this restriction.

[cleaninghouseinc]

Then when you get refunded for the purchase in USD back to Canadian funds they skim money from you on the currency conversion fees.  They charge a higher rate on the purchase and then the refund comes in at a lower rate.  I lost over $100 now because of paypal charging fees and the sellers either trying to sell something they don't actually have or are not able to actually ship the item thru the GSP.  No one takes accountability except for the buyer who has lost money on the transaction.  Ebay and Paypal just point fingers at each other.  IT's a scam. 

[bleckbazar]

I agree they skim a small amount on ny last few refunds. It must add up

[marnotom!]

Refund losses due to currency exchange are pretty much par for the course for any US dollar transaction paid with converted Canadian dollars.  It's not just a GSP thing.