International Sale

[bigmotormania]

Good morning.

So I got an offer last night, and in the offer review page it says shipping to Canada with International Priority Shipping, Where my concern comes in is that I use the GSP, and it's selected on that particular listing, and I use the GSP for a reason.

It's never shown me shipping like that, and especially not a shipping method I didn't even have on the listing, so my question being, is this just what it shows when an international buyer makes an offer on an item? Due to a sever downturn in sales I can't really afford to decline this offer, but I don't ship direct internationally.

[skatesave]

Be very sure that you know that Pitney Bowes is going to charge your customer a nonsense fee for brokerage.

If the item that you are selling is over $100.00 USD, your Canadian customer will be charged an extra $35.00 by Pitney Bowes for nothing, and they will also have to pay Canadian Duty, as Canadians are only allowed about $20.00 per shipment.  They are also going to pay 5 Times the shipping price than would normally occur by using Global Priority.

it's a slippery slope using GSP and not one that I would  ever go down

[bigmotormania]

I've been round and round ad infinitum on these boards about the cost of the GSP, which isn't what I was asking. 

I want to know why it's not showing as GSP on the offer page and why it's showing a shipping method I wasn't offering, and if that's just the method the GSP uses.

To my knowledge a buyer knows full well what they will be charged for shipping before they buy the item.

[skatesave]

It's showing GSP  because ebay has made that your Default Setting in your internal choices.  It's happend to all of us.

You have to go into your internal defaults and unclick the GSP Box.

[penguins_dont_fly · Accepted solution]

"International Priority" is what GSP calls itself. Your item sold through the GSP.  The shipping address will be Erlanger, KY.

"Priority Mail International" is the USPS.

[bigmotormania]

---

@penguins_dont_fly wrote:

"International Priority" is what GSP calls itself. Your item sold through the GSP.  The shipping address will be Erlanger, KY.

"Priority Mail International" is the USPS.

---

Thanks.

I accepted their offer and they paid and I was kind of surprised with my experience with the GSP that they only charged the buyer $24.00 for shipping. Which seems like a lot, but considering I've had customers pay well over $100 for international shipping on top of a $200+ item.

[penguins_dont_fly]

@bigmotormania

This is one of your own listings 🙂 I changed my location to Canada ...

[bubbleman2010]

Most sellers don't realize GSP is far cheaper than if they were shipping the item themselves and using GSP you're auto protected for a INR dispute....

[bigmotormania]

---

@bubbleman2010 wrote:

Most sellers don't realize GSP is far cheaper than if they were shipping the item themselves and using GSP you're auto protected for a INR dispute....

---

Historically (in my experience) shipping through the GSP has been quite expensive for my buyers, this is actually the first time I've had a GSP purchase that cost the buyer less than $40. 

However, that second bit about being protected from INR disputes as well as a couple other benefits such as not having to deal with customs forms and other such things are the exact reason I use the GSP, on my end it's no different than a normal domestic purchase.

[bubbleman2010]

The way I figure it being a nice guy and saving a buyer some shipping costs they never take that into account when they file a INR dispute they want the entire amount back being a nice guy never crosses their mind. The GSP business would be a total flop,but international buyers fellow countrymen taking advantage of the system will insure it will continue to grow...

[bubbleman2010]

International transactions ran at a 30% INR rate pre GSP. That rate has dropped to zero over the last three years seems when a third party is involved the items arrive just fine...

[bigmotormania]

---

@bubbleman2010 wrote:

International transactions ran at a 30% INR rate pre GSP. That rate has dropped to zero over the last three years seems when a third party is involved the items arrive just fine...

---

One possible factor could be that through the GSP it might be harder to claim INR, since the GSP program has to cover any INR refunds, so they defend it more aggressively and have more leverage than your average seller might. 

Just a thought, also perhaps since with the GSP if there was any malicious intent towards a seller (probably a factor of <1% but still a possible factor) it wouldn't work since the only thing that would affect the buyer would be a SNAD and from what I've seen a lot of sellers would rather just give a partial or full refund and tell them to keep the product than drop the money for a return, for cheap(er) items, anyway.

I don't know, all I know is I've yet to have any issues with the GSP, and my customers always get their items safe and sound and leave good feedback.

[bubbleman2010]

The biggest problem pre GSP was dealing with customs hangers you could see the item sitting in customs waiting to be picked up in would come a INR dispute and ebay would refuse to look at any info refund the buyer and within hours of the refund being issued the item was picked up from customs...

[bubbleman2010]

I sold a uber rare coro duet bumble set for $600.00 sent to France watched it set in customs in comes the INR dispute out goes $635.00 and item was picked up 5 hours later and relisted on ebay 24 hours later for $800.00 and sold 48 hours later..... ebays response that sometimes happens in eccommerce...

[bigmotormania]

I can see that being an issue, when I started selling on eBay was long after the GSP had been put in. 

As far as I can see it, on that front, half of that problem was the scammer, and the other half was not customs, but eBay (and by proxy, PayPal) for not instituting some form of protection that gave a time frame after the claim was "resolved" where if the item was claimed from customs within that time frame then it would auto refund the seller and flag the scammer.

Of course this is probably vastly easier said than done, and it's kind of irrelevant at this point either way, but still, from what I've been able to tell by the stories I've been told by sellers who have been around a lot longer than I, a lot of scamming issues could have been easily solved by just a little work on eBay / PayPals part.