eBay's International shipping service

[Brock]

I give up.

 

Cheers, Howard

 

If it's any consolation, I'm Canadian, too, and I also feel your pain.

 

And I still hate the Global Shipping Program.

[Mike NL]

Since I'd live in the Netherlands I will just add my experience with eBay's GSP to this thread as well. Finally I found a good place to share in public with US readers . Although a lot has been said about GSP already it can never hurt to share experiences.

 

Fortunately I live in the Netherlands for which I rarely experience problems with USPS shipping from the US (only one lost in about 50 shipments since last 6 months against about 10 shipments with GSP of which 3 damaged and 2 lost). I've also had my share of discussions with eBay sellers about GSP and for me it basically has come to a point that I also avoid all comic book listings that offer GSP unless the total is still within the acceptable price or the seller is willing to cooperate in some way.

 

My only exception for GSP are items like statues. I received three statues last year which all arrived damaged (painful since these were all limited and discontinued). All of them were fully refunded by Pitney Bowes through PayPal. For NL these items get an import rate of 21%. This rate matches the GSP import rate calculation more or less. So for larger breakable items that fall in our Dutch 21% import rate and which have to be shipped separately anyway the GSP works perfect (except after 3 claims PayPal called me to deliver an official taxation report for the damages. I can't blame them ). Come to think of it, 3 out of 4 statues arrived damaged with GSP. Insanely bad performance if you ask me, but at least they were insured.

 

The drawback for the GSP comes for items like comic books. GSP has some major flaws here. Firstly, combined shipping of multiple listed items is not possible for international addresses. I've had many discussions with eBay's support desk in the US. They said it is possible and I proved them it really is not (I joined forces with a seller against eBay to proof I was right). Due to this behavior each item gets it's own expensive GSP costs. Secondly, GSP uses the same import rate calculation for every type of item (+/- 21%). For NL a comic book falls in the lower 6% import rate. So with the GSP the Dutch buyers pay 15% more import costs than they actually should. Note that import costs are calculated over the total amount including shipping costs.

 

And as a last remark: GSP is extremely slow compared to USPS. With USPS it takes about 12 days for delivery. With GSP it takes at least 3 weeks or more.

 

Just a fyi: For fast shipping to the Netherlands it doesn't matter what type of USPS service you use (First Class or Priority). They are all delivered in about 12 days. Even if they say First Class or Priority is faster. It really doesn't matter. I've experienced that in most cases the cheaper service is often delivered a day faster. Just pick the cheaper one which has tracking and insurance. It saves us all a load of money. Remember that import charges are also calculated on the shipping costs. So the higher the shipping costs, the higher the import costs.

 

I've a perfect example this week where two packages with both one comic from different sellers in almost the same US area were shipped the same day (Jan 10th), one using USPS First Class International padded envelope (charged me $12 for shipping), the other using USPS Priority International (charged me $48 for shipping). The $12 package was delivered yesterday, the $48 package is still on it's way.

 

I hope this is helpful information for US sellers

[Ryan.]

This thread is definitely giving me something to think about. I've never had problems selling internationally here on the boards but ebay has proven to be a total gamble.

[EdRod68]

I have resisted using the Global Shipping Program until recent experience with foreign buyers has convinced me to move to using it for international buyers.

 

Up until this past fall I had sold many books to buyers in countries all over the world with zero issues...until the last few international buyers the past few months.

 

I state clearly in all my listings that I ship only Priority Mail Express International or Priority Mail International as these are easy to track and I can insure the package for the full purchase price (I pay the insurance myself, I do not ask the buyer to)...this way if anything happens to the book in shipping or God forbid it gets lost, the buyer and I are covered.

 

One buyer was vocal about how much the shipping cost... well it was spelled out in clear language what the shipping method was, don't like it? Don't bid or better yet, contact me prior to the end of the auction and paying and maybe we could have worked something out... nope... just ding me in the feedback comment without even bothering to contact me...

 

The last one was demanding a partial refund because he had to pay import duties on his book.... sorry, not my problem, I finally had to call Ebay to get in front on the issue if he decided to try a charge back....

 

So, thanks to the last several international buyers, I will be moving the Global Shipping Program... it is just not worth my time anymore dealing with these buyers... let Ebay handle it....

[Zevgoli]

"I'm also in Ontario and can see that Howard needs to research some banking tools"

 

 

If you're talking about building up a US dollar account, yes that could be useful when the two are close to par. Also to combat costs, I get sellers to mail a lot of eBay stuff to a friend in the U.S, who then brings them over the border for me. This saves $$$ in postal charges over the years.

 

Cheers, Howard

[fastballspecial]

Funny, I have never had an issue from a buyer internationally. Most buyers are just plain happy to get the books they want because so many sellers wont even ship to them.

 

The only real issue was when I sold some comics to a buyer in Saudi and he was nervous about every detail because it can have some real ramifications there.

 

[Mijael.Levy]

I accidentally listed an item internationally and it sold and the buyer paid before I caught it.

 

I stopped shipping overseas after getting hosed on a sale that I know the person got the package but there was no way for me to prove otherwise so I had to refund their payment and I was out the book.

 

Anyone have any good experience with this as I am now in a spot where I have to fulfill the sale?

 

by looking at the Ebay blocked user list here i see the problem is not precisely international , you can get ripped off everywhere now ...