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could someone explain eBay's Global Shipping program please

2icebitn

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Someone who's used it. Do I specify a shipping charge domestically, and the buyer deals with ebay to get it from their shipping center to them?
 
Have you listed an auction with this service already? If not, I'd recommend just don't use it. I haven't been on the sending end of it but I've been on the receiving end a few times and it stinks. It really stinks.
 
You have just a domestic shipping rate, then if someone overseas buys it through the GSP, you send the package to the regional shipping center and eBay takes care of the rest. They charge a really premium price for this, so I'm told. According to a few buyers, it appears worse at first as VAT, duty, etc. is factored in to what eBay charges the buyer. Assuming you'd have filled out the customs form honestly, it's apparently not a huge difference between GSP and regular international shipping + paying the required fees.

When the GSP came about, I saw it as an eBay money grab and continued selling to international buyers directly, since the customs forms aren't *that* hard to deal with. I now use the GSP exclusively due to too many overseas scammers. It's apparently a popular one to let the item sit at the local post office, waiting on fees to be paid, and claim that the item never arrived. eBay will force a refund out of the seller, since tracking correctly shows that the item is not delivered. The buyer then usually goes and pays their VAT/duty/whatever and gets the item, plus the refund, and they're only out the fees. I had this happen to me several times and decided I was done playing that game. With the GSP, it's considered done from the seller's end as long as it makes it to the regional shipping center intact.

I believe eBay knows about this scam and is intentionally not helping sellers who get caught up in it, in order to push them toward the GSP. In one of the scam cases I was involved in as a seller, the eBay customer service rep actually told me that it wouldn't be an issue if I were using the GSP. So there's that.
 
Like Glitch, I also exclusively use the GSP for international sales. Has been great. I only pay to sent to the UK shipping centre. So far in about 100 or so sales, I've had one buyer report that an item was damaged on arrival. Ebay took responsibility right away and refunded the buyer without any effect on my account.

As a buyer, I can see all fees upfront and seems on par with normal customs fees and charges. I've received a couple of items that were damaged and again, Ebay issued a full refund quickly.
 
I never had an issue with the service. I don't know what it looks like on the buyers end, but as a seller it's convenient. You ship domestically with tracking to a global shipping site (seems to always be Kansas) and they in turn bill and ship out international. They never lost a package on their end.
 
.....I haven't been on the sending end of it but I've been on the receiving end a few times and it stinks. It really stinks.

Out of interest Why does it stink ?, I've only been on the receiving end once when i bought from a seller in the USA and it worked out realy well for me.
 
I've received damaged items that were repackaged by GSP. The seller had packaged them properly, but eBay deemed the packaging too large and repackaged them.
 
I've received damaged items that were repackaged by GSP. The seller had packaged them properly, but eBay deemed the packaging too large and repackaged them.

I've *heard* of that happening as well, though on the first few GSP sales I did ask the buyers about whether the item was in the packaging I sent it in. In those first few cases, eBay had just relabeled my boxes and sent them on. This was for largeish items as I first started using the GSP on those.
 
I've *heard* of that happening as well, though on the first few GSP sales I did ask the buyers about whether the item was in the packaging I sent it in. In those first few cases, eBay had just relabeled my boxes and sent them on. This was for largeish items as I first started using the GSP on those.

I've had it happen half a dozen times. Or I've dealt with half a dozen dishonest sellers, which I doubt. But it's been a few years so maybe it's different now.
 
I recently used it to buy a MCA video board from a USA vendor. I thought it was great. If the item had been shipped outside the program I would have had to pay about £12.00 to Royal Mail for them to collect the TAX owing. Sometimes it appears expensive, but once all the charges are added in its not bad.
 
I now use the GSP exclusively due to too many overseas scammers

I hadn't considered that at all. I was about to stop using the GSP to ship but now I'm reconsidering. Can you provide some more details on what was scammed? Was it items over $100, under $100? What kinds of items (I'm assuming your boards)? What destinations were the scammiest?
 
I recently used it to buy a MCA video board from a USA vendor. I thought it was great. If the item had been shipped outside the program I would have had to pay about £12.00 to Royal Mail for them to collect the TAX owing. Sometimes it appears expensive, but once all the charges are added in its not bad.

Yup in some cases it can work out cheaper for the buyer to go via the GSP, it may take a little longer to get to it's destination but worth it.
 
As far as Ebay goes I only ever bought international goods from Japan (import games) and I only sell stuff in the US.
 
One caveat about the GSP is that they will seize items they deem dangerous to ship. Unfortunately that includes all vacuum tubes. I've had two parcels that they refused to forward - they do let you keep your payment from the buyer, and do refund the buyer. Sadly in both cases the tubes were relatively rare and not easily replaced - unfortunate as nothing about them was actually dangerous (no Hg, Th etc).
 
I hadn't considered that at all. I was about to stop using the GSP to ship but now I'm reconsidering. Can you provide some more details on what was scammed? Was it items over $100, under $100? What kinds of items (I'm assuming your boards)? What destinations were the scammiest?

Most of the cases were in the UK, with one in Europe (forget the country) and one I think in South Korea. One case was a good number of XT-IDE boards. To add insult to injury, the same seller then decided to remove my copyright info from the rev 3 layout and run their own boards (they did eventually comply with the license and make the source files available). Another was for two assembled boards, I forget if they were XT-IDEs or S-100. I had one that the buyer backpedaled on their claim after the customs status changed to something reflecting that money was owed by the recipient. The case in South Korea was an IBM PS/2 Model 30 with a bunch of the reference documentation, buyer claimed that the box didn't have anything in it and that they were refusing to pay customs on those grounds (postal receipt showed that the box weighed over 20 pounds when shipped, I forget if eBay closed the case or the buyer dropped it). There are a few more I don't remember the specifics of.

Most overseas transactions go fine (I still sell directly to international customers on Tindie, but Tindie is much more reasonable about not just giving buyers their money with no proof). It's just that I don't exactly make much on most of the kits I offer, and the boards are pretty much break even, so one or two scams is enough to make me consider stopping international sales altogether.
 
Wait, then what happens to the parcel? If both parties get to keep their money, do they just... destroy it?

I never got a straight answer, I'd guess it might go to some auction or get destroyed. Apparently Ebay uses Pitney-Bowes to run the GSP, so really have very little to do with the actual day-to-day operation.

One package was a really tightly matched quad of 6BQ5/EL84's, the other were a trio of Eimac T35 transmitting triodes. Sad to think where they are now.

- Gary
 
I've only been on the receiving end of the GSP, but they have a serious problem here in Norway because they use the carrier with absolutely worst routines and customer service for delivery around here. I mean, they're probably the cheapest option, but I've had several horror stories of things being sent to the wrong post office, returned without notice, and people being charged additional processing fees for shipments that weren't even applicable for import fees to begin with... Heck, I almost lost a package myself two weeks ago because I did not get a notice of it having arrived at the post office.

At the local student group I'm volunteering with, we don't buy from ebay anymore because of the global shipping program.
 
I'm only aware of receiving a GSP shipment from Ebay once, though there may have been others and I just didn't notice. In this case it was packaged by the shipping centre and very amateurishly so, with no attempt at padding whatsoever. It was a heavy professional microscope and it was damaged beyond repair. I did get my money back though.

I wonder, is GSP where they have the "duty" listed as included? If so that's sometimes a scam when it comes to US/Canada shipping because there is no duty on electronics.

Somewhat off topic, but the duty scam is used by FedEX when shipping to Canada. They call you up and tell you if you want to receive the item you have to pay over the phone with your credit card before they will deliver. My recent experience is an extra $49 charge from them which they claim is for "duty" (over and above the original $35 shipping charged by the vendor). This is for a 1lb. electronic item shipped three weeks ago from US. I urge vendors to not use FedEX if shipping to Canada - it just doesn't work. This is not my first such experience with them, but it was the only option in this case and I foolishly crossed my fingers and hoped it would work this time. I order a lot of stuff from US and all other shipping options work fine.
 
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