"Resealed by Global Shipping Program"

[Oniontart]

Now I'm scared. My Mimic is coming via that global shipping program and I really hope it will be okay.
I haven't bought anything that has GSP before so there was already difficulties cause apparently the seller
I bought the pony has never dealt with it and all those weird address and such :/

[banditpony]

Now I'm scared. My Mimic is coming via that global shipping program and I really hope it will be okay.
I haven't bought anything that has GSP before so there was already difficulties cause apparently the seller
I bought the pony has never dealt with it and all those weird address and such :/

I know a lot of people complain about it, but I've never had issues with it. It's a safe bet that more items arrive safe, than damaged. As for eBay, i would rather deal with gsp then some of the other middleman services.

My husband has even sent out a large photo scanner (had to be 20lbs) and it got to half way across the world safely.

[Oniontart]

Now I'm scared. My Mimic is coming via that global shipping program and I really hope it will be okay.
I haven't bought anything that has GSP before so there was already difficulties cause apparently the seller
I bought the pony has never dealt with it and all those weird address and such :/

I know a lot of people complain about it, but I've never had issues with it. It's a safe bet that more items arrive safe, than damaged. As for eBay, i would rather deal with gsp then some of the other middleman services.

My husband has even sent out a large photo scanner (had to be 20lbs) and it got to half way across the world safely.

Okay that's good to hear, thank you Now little more relieved and eagerly waiting my beautiful Mimic to arrive

[Loona]

oh my, this does not sound good at all... another reason not to use the GSP. I have never purchased anything via it because the postage always comes out to be ridiculously high, but knowing that the package also gets opened and repackaged (and not for the better, despite claiming that) has just made me even more certain in that I will never use it.
too bad because in the past half a year or so I'm encountering more and more sellers who state that refuse to ship international without it I hope sooner or later they will realise it is not doing them any good - they not only lose potential buyers, they also put their reputation at risk (if the GSP does poor repackaging the buyer will ding their stars/feedback).

ETA: I've just complained about all this to hubby, and he said the next time I encounter a seller who refuses to send without GSP I should go and send them a link this thread with all the seller-risky experiences. sad but true, that is actually an idea worth keeping in mind :/

[LadyMoondancer]

Another thing to be aware of, as a buyer, is that the GSP will NOT let sellers combine shipping on multiple wins.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Avoid the Global Shipping Program at all costs.  Anyone who is vaguely aware of how the postal system works does NOT need to use it! 

But I can understand the appeal for those who haven't had cause to use a stamp since 1999 when they popped that AOL floppy disk into their computer. 

[nhal039]

Ughh just another reason to hate ebay, its like the dont take enough in fees already... might as well sting the buyer and seller a little more. Rhanks for the heads up, never will i pay from this program

[Taffeta]

Avoid the Global Shipping Program at all costs.  Anyone who is vaguely aware of how the postal system works does NOT need to use it! 

But I can understand the appeal for those who haven't had cause to use a stamp since 1999 when they popped that AOL floppy disk into their computer. 

I've had some fun with the GSP this week. Or rather,the last 2 weeks, since my ebay account announced to me that an item that was coming GSP (ugh) was delivered to me on 7th August. It wasn't. I asked Ebay about it, and they confirmed that they knew it hadn't been - but didn't bother to change it on my account and told me to file a report against the seller because it hadn't arrived. Now why would I do that? What has the seller done wrong, exactly? I know some sellers have chosen GSP but a lot were opted in without even realising it. I bought something from someone a while back and she said that every time she changed her listing it came back on automatically and she had to then go in to take it off. Very annoying. So obviously, I didn't file against the seller. I know GSP takes ages, so I decided to wait. I'm not punishing a seller for the stupid slowness of the GSP.

So anyway, my parcel finally arrived today, a week after it would have done had I had it shipped via normal priority mail. The items were not damaged; there was a resealed label on it but nothing had been tampered with. I haven't (yet, there are 2 other things in the post coming that way ><) had anything damaged by the GSP, and our local courier who handles it is nice and fairly reliable, so those are good things - but overall I hate it and wish Ebay had never used it.

There's also the customs charges issue, where they charge us double the actual value of the item's import tax as the UK borders would charge it, so that's another bugbear of mine. (When I spoke to that seller I mentioned above, I would've paid something like $90 on GSP's calculations. She took the GSP off for me, and I bid, and she sent it. Customs didn't deem it worth taxing when they examined it, and so I didn't pay ANY fee. UK Customs have the right to decide that. Ebay doesn't, in my view, and especially not Ebay in another country!

More and more sellers are using it, though. Because I know a lot have been opted in, I cant really rant about or at them - but I have to say, the ones who only ship internationally via the GSP and say it in their auction descriptions are not getting my money. They're too lazy to go visit a post office, so I'm too lazy to bid on their items.

I've never understood that argument anyway, since I have to go to the PO to post everything xD.

[Ringlets]

Adding another experience to this since I had an MIB item arrive this weekend (via GSP). Surprisingly there were no import charges even listed on ebay (the item was from the US)   so that was weird but good  (in fact since the last time I posted on this thread I had a few items arrive that used the dreaded GSP but I didn't have to pay any customs fees when I did the ebay check out   However it (and the previous one) did take a long time to get to me after it arrived in the UK. It arrived from the US super fast, went right through customs..and then I waited and waited ...
The item arrived safely with the resealed .GSP (blah blah) sticker on it but wow the tape they used to reseal it? if there had been loose items in there it might not have held them in , it was coming off! thankfully the item was large and not damaged as I said but they didn't do a good job of re-sealing.

[daffodil101]

Ugh.  It is super frustrating, every second seller has it and about half of them will not post any other way.  I'm not sure what difference it makes to them, does ebay come to their homes and collect the parcel for them?  Such a nightmare, and so many good ponies I have to turn down.  That's the way everything seems to be going... big corporations like ebay get a monopoly, then once you're reliant on them start making life hard for everyone and find ever new ways to squeeze out every last dollar... I bet some CEO is laughing at us right now, lol.  *rant over*

[Taffeta]

I'm not sure if it is better or worse than the days 4 in 5 sellers shipped to US only. Pony I received yesterday arrived with her box stinking of car exhaust fumes. Pony also affected. Highly doubt this was the seller as 24 hours in air has greatly improved the issue. Totally  believe it was GSP.

If the seller was signed up for it without asking then I don't blame them, but any seller who uses it to make shipping more convenient for them at our expense Im afraid I look on with a tremendous sense of contempt. Shipping internationally is so much easier these days, and there is a lot more protection than the cash in the mail days of old. Unless there is a serious physical reason like disability that prevents going to a PO, or the item is too big and unwieldy to send for less than a small fortune, to me there is no excuse to not ship overseas.

I saw a lot of accessories recently from Canada. Pony wear. Seller shipped to US and Canada but nowhere else as 'shipping was too high'. On ponywear. Which a buyer would pay shipping on. Large playsets, fair enough, but Ponywear? It's really just an excuse.

[MikeysGrrrl]

I'm not sure if it is better or worse than the days 4 in 5 sellers shipped to US only. Pony I received yesterday arrived with her box stinking of car exhaust fumes. Pony also affected. Highly doubt this was the seller as 24 hours in air has greatly improved the issue. Totally  believe it was GSP.

If the seller was signed up for it without asking then I don't blame them, but any seller who uses it to make shipping more convenient for them at our expense Im afraid I look on with a tremendous sense of contempt. Shipping internationally is so much easier these days, and there is a lot more protection than the cash in the mail days of old. Unless there is a serious physical reason like disability that prevents going to a PO, or the item is too big and unwieldy to send for less than a small fortune, to me there is no excuse to not ship overseas.

I saw a lot of accessories recently from Canada. Pony wear. Seller shipped to US and Canada but nowhere else as 'shipping was too high'. On ponywear. Which a buyer would pay shipping on. Large playsets, fair enough, but Ponywear? It's really just an excuse.

I completely understand where you're coming from. Every time I look something up on ebay about 75% of the listings only off gsp for shipping, it really puts me off from purchasing from them considering how the shipping is 2-3x as much not including the import fees. I usually take the time to message a seller and ask if they offer regular USPS shipping if it's an item I really want. Most sellers respond back with a no, but I have had some success with it. Many sellers don't even know that they are enrolled in that program.

As far as Canadian sellers not wanting to ship outside Canada and the US, I think I can help explain that a little better. Sending parcels from Canada to pretty much anywhere overseas it's extremely expensive to begin with, once you factor in tracking, it's unlikely someone would purchase from you. As an example, I recently took part in a swap on the arena and my partners box was heading to Singapore, the shipping cost was $60 for regular airmail, had I added the tracking on, it would've cost me another $70 Our postal system and the prices of services here are ridiculous.

[LadyMoondancer]

Having looked at eBay's boards, there seem to be two kinds of sellers that use the GSP. 

Some of them just don't know any better.  They are opted in and are like "Oh.  Okay."  They cannot see how much it costs their buyers (like, they literally can't see how much the buyer pays for shipping) and basically don't know anything about the program.

The others are the sellers who are worried about scammers.  One of the big talking points is that eBay claims that with the GSP, if an item is broken or lost in transit, the seller will be off the hook for refunds and / or negative feedback.  Since some sellers get hit with "My item arrived broken, now give me a refund and let me keep the item" scams a lot, this is appealing.

Of course this is also on eBay's head, since they would not have massive buyer scamming problems if they let sellers leave negative feedback like they used to.

And it's not even accurate to say that a seller is "safe" using GSP, as seen by Taffeta's experience:

I asked Ebay about it, and they confirmed that they knew it hadn't been - but didn't bother to change it on my account and told me to file a report against the seller because it hadn't arrived.

The people running the GSP are not technically "eBay", they are a company called Pitney-Bowes, and there seems to be very little communication / transparency between eBay and Pitney-Bowes.  So it's easier for either of them to blame the seller than to investigate.

[Taffeta]

@MikeysGrrrl...I know CanadaPost have rhat reputation, but I have had 4 beautifully packaged and promptly shipped MIB ponies from Canada in the last 3 months. Shipping, factoring exchange rate and such, was less than if I had tried to send those items to Canada. I guess what I am saying is that most buyers who shop overseas know shipping will be up on domestic costs and deal with it accordingly. I cannot imagine the cost of shipping ponywear would be more than my MIP ponies cost, and the seller ought to give the buyer the choice as to whether or not it costs too much. People don't factor in exchange rates when they make such sweeping judgements. It is always harder for UK folk to sell at a meaningful rate because of the pound, I remember people complaining at the retail price of Holly Dash because £5 is more than $5 in conversion. On the flipside, it also means what is deemed 'expensive' shipping may not seem as expensive in £. It isn't as crazy as the days when £1 was almost $2, but there is still an impact. I never buy in $CDN so am not sure of the equivalent. However new size constraints on UK postage means a jump in cost from £20 to £66 for the same weight if the combined measurements go over 90cm. That's going from $30 to $100 over 1 lousy cm. Given that I suspect Canada Post is actually fine in comparison...

What makes it all the more frustrating is that there are many pony items of all generations not available outside of North America, yet the majority of sellers who don't ship internationally or who use GSP remain there (though UK ebay now also uses GSP ). I saw one state that the buyer had to arrange gsp on the item themselves if they wanted it shipped abroad, and I also find that friendly questions about shipping often get ignored -not even a polite refusal.

Its been a bugbear of mine for some time, too, that a few collectors will buy internationally and expect to be catered to but if the situation is reversed they will ship within their own country only. Now with GSP it has just become more expensive again to shop from abroad.

And yes, as LM said, Ebay's first advice to me was file against the seller. I have also seen on ebay's boards people saying that the only way you can get a proper refund is to do that. It isn't any different to the seller protection, takes longer and the resealing means items are more likely to get damaged. Even sending cash was less annoying than this.

[prancingstag]

Nothing has gone astray, but I've been buying a fair bit from the UK in the past few months and the GSP is starting to really annoy me. Seems like most sellers have it as the automatic option. GSP refuses to ship to my P.O. Box and demands a street address. I contact the seller via "request total" and ask politely if they will consider an exception for me. No, they refuse to use another method for international shipping. I have to have it sent to my home address, and I'm out of the house between 6am - 6pm most weekdays at work. The GSP automatically has "Permission to leave in a secure area out of the weather" i.e. on my front deck on the doormat in clear view of a very busy road. Luckily one box that was left during the day was rather small and not stolen, and the other package my dad was able to receive as he does shift work and happened to be home during the day. I now have to obsessively check for when the delivery date is, and then plan BEFORE that, because all GSP items have arrived one day before the earliest estimate. This could be completely avoided if they would just ship via a regular method to my P.O. Box and it would be held at the local office in their nice, safe, secure back room until I can pick it up on the weekend. I don't know what I'll do if anything goes missing, because the seller is not fully at fault, and corporations don't give a crap if your limited edition item is trashed. You can get the money back, but never mind the emotional investment.

The worst though was an item "resealed" by the GSP. It was a small stuffed animal of under 200g, wrapped in a layer of tissue paper, and put in a plastic satchel. I don't understand how it could possibly have been repackaged to weigh less, but the good old GSP decided to try. They cut a slit in the side with a blade, realised they couldn't scam a few bucks out of it, and then just slapped their "resealed" sticker over the cut, which was an inch longer on either side than the sticker was. Lucky my bunny wasn't gutted by their box cutter and didn't fall out in the mail.