eBay Global Shipping Program - All Sellers Are Now Opted In

[Star-Watcher]

For those of you who sell on eBay, with the recent change in the user agreement, you have been enrolled in their travesty of a Global Shipping Program.  This is more expensive for your international customers, and could be costly to your business.  And even worse, there have been a lot of reports of items being mishandled by the workers at the reshipping center, and eBay is not taking any responsibility for items damaged or lost, even though they say that you are protected.

If you want to reclaim control of your operations, you need to go to to your My eBay page, click on Account - Site Preferences, and hit Edit under Offer the Global Shipping Program.  There you can opt back out of this idiocy.

[MikeysGrrrl]

Thanks for the heads up, I'm not seeing it on our account, but I'm going to keep an eye out.
I despise that shipping program, the rates are insane.
We've bought over 400 items in the last 18 months, with 50 being $100 or more, and only 3 times have we ever had to pay duties or import charges. Yet with that program even a $5 item gets a huge shipping price and import charges auto added on.
We refuse to buy from sellers that use that program, which I'm so sorry if some of the members here use it, but it's just far too expensive and not worth it.

[HawaiianRain]

Odd, I wasn't opted in. Mine still says no.

[Rosencrantz]

Oh man, me and a seller had a problem with that. The seller was great, but I had to phone ebay to get a refund for my global shipping after she cancelled it (she was trying to see if that would get me the refund, and she relisted it with proper shipping and I bought it again).

[Ringlets]

Thanks for the heads up
 We arent dealing with this in the Uk ATM but it sounds like the potential for issues with it makes it a nuisance (as well as being more expensive )

[ponylady]

I made sure a couple months back when they launched this that I was opted out for it. It's the most ridiculous thing yet that Ebay has come up with.

[MikeysGrrrl]

I was doing research on the GSp this morning, the site wide thing looks like it only effects those in the US (please fix it) or those that list and use ebay.com vs ebay.ca and ebay.co.uk

I was reading about how the GSP doesn't cover taxes or import duties, what it does is cover the cost of shipping which is always $5-$10 more than shipping with USPS, Canada Post Handling Fee and the GSP third party brokerage fee. What?

Please anyone explain how this is the way to go? I cannot believe how many sellers use this program. I will never buy from a seller who uses this, it makes the cost of an item almost 3 times the price sometimes.

[bluerose9978]

I made sure to go into my preferences and check that I wasn't on this! I've seen way too many complaints!

[Galactica]

I tried it out- and it was so expensive for buyers that I opted back out.

Also- be careful when you are setting up your auction- maybe it has been like this a while (I admit I don't sell on ebay often) but if you opt out of their shipping program-  they automatically enter 2lbs for your item unless you go in and make specific adjustments...  I think it catches a lot of sellers unawares...

[StoryDreamer]

I had it opted in (not by choice) and fixed that. Thank you for the heads up!

[MaronaPossessed]

Wasn't opted in, but thank you for the heads up!

[banditpony]

Confused on just what's horrible about it.
From what I understand, it's been completely fine for my husband. :/

[MikeysGrrrl]

Confused on just what's horrible about it.
From what I understand, it's been completely fine for my husband. :/

There are several things about the program that people don't like.
1. Apparently the 3rd party shipper opens and repackages products
2. Shipping is 2x the amount for the buyer as opposed to other shipping methods
3. They automatically add on what they call "import" charges, which in reality is a brokering fee for the 3rd party shipper and a handling fee for the country it's going to.
I'll say that out of 400+ purchases in the last year, I've paid custom fees upon delivery 3 times.
The Global Shipping Program states that if you shop with a seller using that program that you will NOT have to pay anything extra for your purchase when it arrives. However that's completely false, several people have been charged extra fees like taxes and such, even though they were assured otherwise.

We refuse to buy from sellers that use that program, which sucks because there is alot of stuff that we want to get, and it seems as though only those sellers offer it. But when you're looking at a pair of say $25 jeans, and then $25 for shipping, plus another $10-$15 for import charges, it doesn't seem like such a wonderful deal anymore.

USPS shipping is cheaper, even with the tracking, I don't understand why a seller would prefer the GSP through ebay.

However living in Canada that's not an option for us here unless we use ebay.com, which I don't because the majority of sellers only ship within the US.

So to each their own.

[Sebby6]

I probably wouldn't buy from a seller with that option either

[ponylady]

Thanks for your input Mikkeys girl