Question about global shipping program

[Crosland]

I didn't realise I was offering this, and not entirely sure how it works.

 

The program info says "If your buyer buys multiple items from you as part of the same transaction, you can package the items together in the same box. However, if the same buyer makes several purchases (multiple transactions), package and post each item separately "

 

Edit

Does anyone know what is meant by "same transaction"? My buyer has won multiple individual auctions. If I send a combined invoice is that one transaction, or do I need to send each item separately? The latter would mean the buyer paying multiple local postage and multiple shipping fees to Ebay.

 

Question answered when I tried to send an invoice: "Error: The Global Shipping Programme already provides your buyer with an invoice for all applicable item, postage and import charges. Unfortunately, you can't edit these charges, even to offer a P&P discount."

 

Just have to wait for them to pay.

Edited January 29, 2020 by Crosland

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

My advice, based on personal experience as a buyer based in Spain, is to avoid the global shipping programme like the plague.

It's ridiculously expensive and ponderous, and the only items that I have lost have been via this., and they have stayed lost.

Personally I would search the internet for the best price, and depending upon who provides the best price, await it being collected or drop it off at a local agents shop. This method works for me with items my daughter sends out to me.

 

Mike. 

[petethemole]

As a seller I have turned it off on all my listings. I occasionally sell overseas and their price to the buyer is subtantially higher than regular P&P via Royal Mail.

[hayfield]

I like others have fallen foul of the GSP from eBay, initially being ignorant that it existed, then on one occasion not turning if off when creating a new lot. Took a lot of effort to reverse a sale so that a buyer did not have to pay exorbitant postage additional costs.

 

I would strongly advise anyone who sells items to go into their settings and turn this facility off 

 

I am happy to post abroad, but like all things it costs, I cannot see the costs incurred using GSP being of value to the buyer, and fear it could affect feedback from buyers.  

[Crosland]

I checked my shipping preferences and I am NOT enrolled in the GSP, and never will, yet items sold through it.

 

Is there a per listing setting? I damned if I can find it.

 

[Edit] OK, found it. Well hidden under what I thought were Royal Mail postage policies, and enabled by default.

 

Do I have to refuse point blank to sell internationally?

Edited January 29, 2020 by Crosland

[J. S. Bach]

The few items (mostly Bachmann Class 66s) that I won from the UK have been shipped via the Royal Mail small air parcel and have arrived here in ten to fourteen days with no problems and at a reasonable cost.

[hayfield]

To find the settings, highlight the bit at the top left saying hello to you and click on account settings

 

On the right hand side in the Account preferences click on site preferences

 

In post and packing click on postage preferences

 

Now at the top is GSP  turn it off

 

A bit long winded but worth it

[hayfield]

19 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

The few items (mostly Bachmann Class 66s) that I won from the UK have been shipped via the Royal Mail small air parcel and have arrived here in ten to fourteen days with no problems and at a reasonable cost.

 

 

Obviously not by GSP 

[Crosland]

1 hour ago, hayfield said:

To find the settings, highlight the bit at the top left saying hello to you and click on account settings

 

On the right hand side in the Account preferences click on site preferences

 

In post and packing click on postage preferences

 

Now at the top is GSP  turn it off

 

A bit long winded but worth it

 

Yeah. It was OFF 

 

I have now turned it on and off again and it now seems to be off when I start a new listing. I am not confident it will stay that way...

[hayfield]

1 minute ago, Crosland said:

 

Yeah. It was OFF 

 

I have now turned it on and off again and it now seems to be off when I start a new listing. I am not confident it will stay that way...

 

Mine has stayed off, so there is hope

[lofty1966]

It's an eBay scam to charge "import taxes".

Even when the item hasn't exceeded the import threshold they try and grab them.

Tried it once with me so I cancelled buying the item.

Will never bid on any item where the seller has listed with the GSP

[andyman7]

GSP is an exorbitant way to send and receove things but I would stop short of 'never' buying anything shipped with GSP - as long as the total is acceptable. I recently bought a Scalecraft kit that would cost around £50 here, it was listed as a Buy-It-Now at $12.99 (around a tenner) - so even £25 shipping made it worthwhile.

[Iain.d]

I’ll never buy anything that is sent via the GSP. I have done previously and then found after clicking the ‘commit to buy’ button that price on conclusion of the sale was higher than shown on a previous screen.

cheers,

Iain

[malcolmt]

I avoid GSP like the plague. Often the charges greatly exceed the value of the item and are much higher than postage for a similar item that I can order from say Hatton’s.  The so called import charges are ridiculous. Canada doesn’t really bother. I may be charged 5% Goods and Services Tax, although that’s the exception. 
 

Malcolm 

[Crosland]

We came to an alternative arrangement

[hayfield]

6 hours ago, malcolmt said:

I avoid GSP like the plague. Often the charges greatly exceed the value of the item and are much higher than postage for a similar item that I can order from say Hatton’s.  The so called import charges are ridiculous. Canada doesn’t really bother. I may be charged 5% Goods and Services Tax, although that’s the exception. 
 

Malcolm 

 

For sellers eBay have reduced commission greatly with their targeted offers, so they think of ways to increase revenue. Personally I cannot see the benefit of the buyer paying both the sender to post it to eBay then Ebay to forward it on. For me as a seller there is little difference between posting an item to an address in the UK or abroad, massive benefit to potential buyers from abroad in postage savings

[Neil]

On 29/01/2020 at 15:51, hayfield said:

To find the settings, highlight the bit at the top left saying hello to you and click on account settings

 

On the right hand side in the Account preferences click on site preferences

 

In post and packing click on postage preferences

 

Now at the top is GSP  turn it off

 

A bit long winded but worth it

 

Thank you John, simple steps and easy to follow, I've now opted out of the scheme. As a buyer I wonder if this is why some items I've bought from other EU countries in the past have had postal charges far in excess of what I know it would cost to post to them from the UK?

[njee20]

I've sold loads of things via the GSP. If someone approached me directly I'd consider doing a deal outside of eBay (edit: ie shipping directly, not doing the whole transaction outside of eBay), but seemingly there are enough buyers who are happy with it.

 

Just this week I sent a pair of wagons to New Zealand. I've sold plenty of stuff to the US and Japan too.

Edited January 31, 2020 by njee20

[hayfield]

28 minutes ago, njee20 said:

I've sold loads of things via the GSP. If someone approached me directly I'd consider doing a deal outside of eBay (edit: ie shipping directly, not doing the whole transaction outside of eBay), but seemingly there are enough buyers who are happy with it.

 

Just this week I sent a pair of wagons to New Zealand. I've sold plenty of stuff to the US and Japan too.

 

 

 Just look at the cost difference between you doing it direct and the combined cost of your postage and the GPS,from what I have seen it will save your buyers 2/3rds on postage

 

When I bid on an eBay item I work out its total value to me, deduct postage which nets out to my maximum bid. The cheaper the postage the more I can bid

 

Secondly I have found the higher the postage the cheaper I can get an item for. High postage costs frightens potential buyers off. I can think of my 2 best buys having very high postage and after including the postage they both were a steal.

[njee20]

I don't advertise foreign postage, and it's often not that cheap. If a buyer came to me and said "hey, can you give me a better price for shipping to X country?" then I'd look, but that's never happened. I've not got a clue what people are being charged for shipping, but I had one guy buy 4 different lots over the course of a month or two - I actually contacted him and suggested he may like to contact me direct and I'd try and get a better price, but he was happy with GSP. The fact that quite a few of my lots go abroad (overwhelmingly UK N gauge models) suggests that it's not the devil's work as some seem to think.

Items are buy now, so it's not the case that I'd get more money if I didn't go GSP. One thing I've noticed is that GSP buyers very rarely 'offer', they just pay full Buy Now price. I don't know if they ever have the ability to offer like a domestic buyer. PayPal fees are higher though.

 

[hayfield]

If the items are light then the airmail costs are not much more than large letter, small packets slightly dearer

 

up to 100g   1.06 verses 3.45

up to 250g   1.50 verses 5.00

up to 500g   1.97 verses 6.80

 

If you start combining UK postage + GSP its an awful lot more, for heavier items I state the weight and note that airmail would be expensive. I just feel with the 2 items that slipped through and one we were able to cancel it was very expensive

 

[Andy Hayter]

I always include shipping cost in the level at which I will bid.  This disadvantages GS sellers.  I have also found that the GS shipping cost augments after the auction has completed - even when I am the only bidder, so it cannot be linked to some sort of insurance against the final sales price.

 

I really fell foul once when a regular seller that I used, inadvertently switched on (or had switched on for him) GS.  Because we did regular sales/purchases I knew the shipping cost would be around £2.50 and was surprised to find it augmented to £9.50 - this for a £3 purchase.  He apologised and I switched to delivery to a UK address because there was no way to switch it of after the auction was complete.  

 

Like others I find GS slow, very expensive and the only items that have ever gone adrift have been those where the seller has used GS.

[GWR-fan]

GPS treats every sale as a commercial international freight transaction,  including shipper and brokerage fees and import taxes on items sent overseas.  Like others I would never use a U.K. seller that offered it.  An example an eBay seller had a couple of small decals I was interested in barely larger than a postage stamp.  When I enquired why shipping for those four decals was GBP23.95, the seller responded that he had no idea that the shipping invoiced was so high and cancelled the listing and reissued with Royal Mail postage GBP1.95.

[cessna152towser]

I sold a job lot of five Hornby wagons this morning on eBay.uk to a German buyer.   Listed as country of manufacture unknown as they were a mix of four made in UK and one made in China.   Sale price to highest bidder was  26.08 plus 3.20 domestic postage but I see that the buyer has to pay 13.06 postage (presumably an add on for shipping by eBay from their English GSP base to Germany) plus 9.20 import charges which I assume relates to the Chinese product as items manufactured in UK should go into EU tariff free under the withdrawal agreement.   I am committed to GSP as I do not have the buyer's address in Germany so posted the items this afternoon.  My stepdaughter will be here on a short holiday from Germany next week and I am thinking it would have been far cheaper for the buyer if I could have sent the items back to Germany in her luggage so she could have posted them in Germany.    It seems sad that eBay GSP charges for the buyer are so high!

[Andy Hayter]

Import charges includes VAT, which is due, plus a commission for making the collection (I have been charged variously between 8€ and 15€ ( £ 6.50 - £13) for collections of equivalent value to the customs/tax authorities by other companies.  £9.20 does not seem excessive, although you might argue the postage costs are high.