Ebay Global Shipping

[auggiedoggy]

BEGIN RANT:

As a "foreign" buyer (Canadian) that idiotic GSP forces me to pay import fees on top of shipping costs. In fact, it forces me to pay these inane import charges on inexpensive items that Canada Customs don't even give a rat's ass about. GSP is evil and must be eradicated. Canada Customs is fully capable of making the appropriate decisions on what requires import fees to be paid by Canadian citizens and what does not.

END RANT

[SikSyko]

Originally Posted by auggiedoggy

BEGIN RANT:

As a "foreign" buyer (Canadian) that idiotic GSP forces me to pay import fees on top of shipping costs. In fact, it forces me to pay these inane import charges on inexpensive items that Canada Customs don't even give a rat's ass about. GSP is evil and must be eradicated. Canada Customs is fully capable of making the appropriate decisions on what requires import fees to be paid by Canadian citizens and what does not.

END RANT

+1

[MikeKam]

Originally Posted by auggiedoggy

BEGIN RANT:

As a "foreign" buyer (Canadian) that idiotic GSP forces me to pay import fees on top of shipping costs. In fact, it forces me to pay these inane import charges on inexpensive items that Canada Customs don't even give a rat's ass about. GSP is evil and must be eradicated. Canada Customs is fully capable of making the appropriate decisions on what requires import fees to be paid by Canadian citizens and what does not.

END RANT

Preach.

[h2oya311]

Scott -

interesting that you brought this up. I just sold two inexpensive JD McCarthy PCs on eBay to a Canadian buyer. I'm worried that he won't even be able to combine shipping on the two (separate lots). I sold them for a whopping $11. I asked him to summarize his xp for me so I can remove the program from my listings if the charges are exorbitant. Given the Canadian feedback above, I'll assume the answer is that they are, in fact, EXORBITANT!!

Anyone care to give an example of what it costs you so I can assess whether to remove them from my listings going forward?

[Runscott]

Thanks for the feedback, Derek.

Ebay sent me an email awhile back, announcing their new global program and asking if I wanted to use it. It sounded like a huge mess to me, and even if they handled shipping, I would still have to deal with returns and complaints about items sitting in customs. I refused the offer, but they updated my shipping policy anyway.

A few months prior to that, I discovered that I had TWO shipping policies being used across my listings. Needless to say, I never created either of them. I discovered the problem because of a customer issue, and to fix it, had to work with ebay on the phone. The customer rep had no idea how to fix the problem, but we guessed until we got it done.

So the take-home message is to occasionally spot-check your listings to make sure ebay hasn't modified your settings to make you 'more customer friendly'.

[D.P.Johnson]

Do Canadian sellers have a GSP, or is this program strictly for U.S. sellers???

[auggiedoggy]

Originally Posted by D.P.Johnson

Do Canadian sellers have a GSP, or is this program strictly for U.S. sellers???

Although I'm primarily a collector I have sold a lot of my collection over the last year or so and the first time I became aware of such a thing was when buying from American sellers. Safe to say this is only for sellers in the USA.

[Bob Lemke]

I generaly don't use the GSP option, but on certain items that should appeal to international buyers, I add this to the item description . . .

"I am opening this item to international bidders with the proviso that if it won by an overseas bidder, it will be shipped via eBay's Global Shipping Program. Utilization of this service will add significant postage and possibly customs costs to the buyer and increase its time in transit. I have no control over these factors and have no information on what the added charges will be. Please keep this in mind when bidding."

I've tried a time or two to find out what fees and extra postage GSP will be adding to the winning bid, but eBay keeps that information very well hidden.
On the other hand, if an international bidder wins, I don't have to deal with the usual hassles of a "foreign" transaction.

[mantleman]

The Ebay GSP is absolutely ridiculous for Canadian Buyers. I get the idea but it is so impracticle. Prepay the import fees is preposterous. When we buy from the USA we take our chances with the import fees.......usually only having to pay them 10-25% percent of the time. I am not even sure the sellers are aware of what the total shipping and import fees the GSP is charging when they list an item. I have had "estimates" at $52 for shipping and import fees combineed on a $40 item.

Ridiculous



Andy

[D.P.Johnson]

Originally Posted by auggiedoggy

Although I'm primarily a collector I have sold a lot of my collection over the last year or so and the first time I became aware of such a thing was when buying from American sellers. Safe to say this is only for sellers in the USA.

Interesting. Thank you. Perhaps ebay will one day make the GSP "customizable" to exclude Canadian buyers...

[Runscott]

Bob - that is exactly what I was looking for. Perhaps I will slowly begin updating my listings with that added to the description.

Thanks.

[ooo-ribay]

Thanks for the heads up on this, Scott.

I don't sell a ton and I THINK I have declined to participate in the GSP, but it wouldn't shock me if ebay just did whatever they thought was best