Global Shipping Program

[puukikautti]

There still isn't nearly enough discussion on how ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE the Global Shipping Program is from a buyer's point of view. Shame on you Ebay, for letting your paying customers be ripped off by the GSP.  It absolutely sucks!

It is a guarantee for agonizingly slow delivery, very high shipping price and often very confusing or even non-functional tracking of delivery. After many experiences with GSP, I am now doing the majority of my transactions using other channels. So, Ebay, you are losing the majority of this customer's business due to GSP.

[phono_0490xxxxxx]

ditto @puukikautti

Plus... there is no buyer Feedback possible on this 'product' [other than a Google review of the provider Pitney Bowes International ] on ebay.

Don't try to post a Neut. or Neg. on an item transaction FB even if the item was lost, slow delivery, damaged, or confiscated due to the GSP mal handling, because ebay will remove that feedback.

The only reviews you will find are attached to the sales blurb pages, and they are all so glowing of this sham.

[puukikautti]

Yes...it is beyond me how a big multi-national company with a fairly good reputation like Ebay let's another company destroy it's reputation like that.

Pitney Bowes are ripoff artists, plain and simple. 

[7606dennis]

While I can understand much of the issues many buyers have with the the GSP scheme, it should be remembered that many of the sellers that utilize it only do so because they have decided that they were tired of the hassles involved in shipping overseas when selling on eBay.  The scheme itself, appears to be a effort by eBay to entice sellers that had ceased overseas trading, to resume doing so by using their scheme.  So it would come down to either have such a system, although maybe not a good one, or buyers not having access to those sellers anyway.

Of course, whether eBay designed the scheme well or chose a good company to partner with in running it, may be a whole other matter.

Oh by the way, when it comes to eBay's paying customers, those would be the sellers, since buyers are pay nothing to eBay because eBay sells nothing to consumers.

[phono_0490xxxxxx]

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@7606dennis wrote:

While I can understand much of the issues many buyers have with the the GSP scheme < thats many issues and many buyers >, it should be remembered that many of the sellers that utilize it only do so because they have decided that they were tired of the hassles involved in shipping overseas when selling on eBay.  < what part of using USPS 1st Class International with eDELCON and filling in a CN22 form is a 'hassle? Same effort required to ship to GSP, in fact.

The scheme itself, appears to be a effort by eBay to entice sellers that had ceased overseas trading, to resume doing so by using their scheme.  < the scheme/program is a con job and the sales pitch by ebay does not include any contradictions to it's use by including a buyers perspective. The seller has no idea of the cost to the buyer. 

So it would come down to either have such a system, although maybe not a good one, or buyers not having access to those sellers anyway. < non-use of the GSP does not preclude a buyers access to a sellers goods IF the seller choses to ship the item direcly to the buyer via a cheaper, safer and quicker method.

Of course, whether eBay designed the scheme well or chose a good company to partner with in running it, may be a whole other matter. < You got this right. But, why does ebay need to get into bed with this Pitney Bowes Int. [PB] entity anyway? What other connections are there between ebay and PB? 

Oh by the way, when it comes to eBay's paying customers, those would be the sellers, since buyers are pay nothing to eBay because eBay sells nothing to consumers. < ebay do sell a product [by their own admission] that a seller factors into their price to buyer [they should].  In the context of the post you reply to, ebay do by this program allow buyer [paying customers of the GSP] rip-off. ebay do 'sell' this program to sellers and buyers through marketing that is deficent in providing adequate information for the full assesment of merits. 

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 @puukikautti

Don't buy it.

I won't.

[flyerfandan999]

So far the GSP has worked very well for me.

Just sold a tool set for a bit less than $1000 to a Buyer in rural Finland, he was tickled pink with the whole process:)

[bofoste-59]

I will happily pay any seller a premium not to use the Global Shipping program.

GSP  (Pitney Bowes) tracking is worthless. Even the U.S. Postal Service tracking is light years ahead of these folks.

In each instance that I've received something through the GSP packaging has been inadequate. Wasting my time and money repairing a purchase is a poor use of my resources. I do not feel that I can fairly complain about or return an item to a seller when I don't know who or what entity is responsible for damage due to a poorly thought out parcel .

I've purchased a number of high end items from Japan where the GSP is apparently not available. Purchasing through equivalent sellers (say a 99.5% or better rating) Ive never had a problem. Not once.

If the next very hard to find item is offered by a seller who insists on using the GSP I'm done with Ebay. It will be a better use of my time to search elsewhere.

[fab_finds4u]

I disagree about a very high shipping cost if you mean high compared to seller shipping. 

How does P-B rip you off?  

A seller doing the shipping can charge retail shipping rates and add a handling charge.  It appears to me P-B is doing the same thing AND NOTHING MORE.

So how is that being ripped off? 

P-B charges  retail carrier rates or less and they sometimes add a handling fee for brokering the shipping.  A seller's handling fee is built into the shipping charge or it could be part of the item cost. It is HIDDEN.   P-B's handling fees goes into the Import fee so if the item isn't subject to an Import Fee if may appear you're being ripped off.    Sometimes P-B   doesn't add a handling fee.   Some sellers also don't add a handling fee.  At this point I'd say it's either-or.   

The only difference in PB and the seller shipping is you pay duties up front with GSP.  P-B clears customs and pays the fees/duty/tariffs/tax  so nothing is due at delivery

 P-B  doesn't perform their services for free.    They have a shipping center to maintain and employees to pay that open, inspect and relabel your item and ship it to you.  If anything they might charge retail rates to ship and not pass the discount along.  That's allowed.  

Where it does make a difference to your pocketbook is you pay Domestic shipping from the seller's location to KY shipping in addition to International Shipping when it's in GSP.   But that is not PB "ripping you off."  Ripped off is being charged too much for something or charged for something you didn't get.  To avoid paying domestic shipping find a seller that offers free US shipping.  

Then the only real drawback is delivery time is a little longer when it's GSP because it has to go to KY  first.  A few days longer to deliver isn't a rip off.