Global ship program

[michellebartley]

I want to buy an item from seller in the US and they told me they can't ship outside the US. They told me that I (myself) could do it thru the Global Shipping program. I dont fully understand.. Does this mean that "period" they wont ship outside US. Its a bit confusing.

[chezzy]

What does the item listing say - does it have any small print suggesting it is a 'global shipping/Pitney Bowes' listing? If the seller opted in or has been opted in it should show this. And If so I would expect you can just bid/buy as normal.

If it doesn't show any of those words and suggests the seller only ships to US then you might have to ask them to 'opt in' or find yourself a friend/contact you can have the item sent to within the US and then send onto you. Good luck with all this.

I have come across sellers where it 'looks' like they can ship overseas but that is only because the listing shows as a Global shipping/Pitney Bowes 'version' (they obviously opted in without knowing) yet they told me they don't ship overseas. It is a real pain and I won't 'support' these listings myself.

[harley_babes_hoard]

buy off someone else, simple.

I have never seen a buyer have as many problems as you do Michelle.

[chezzy]

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@harley_babes_hoard wrote:

buy off someone else, simple.

I have never seen a buyer have as many problems as you do Michelle.

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Even if 'Michelle' doesn't get enough advice from these boards to create better buying experiences for herself I am hoping my response might help other readers too....(am sure there is tons of info on the global shipping thing if one cares to look)

[2106greencat]

My advice for what it is worth - go elsewhere, if a seller does not offer, or expects a buyer, to organise OS shipment I would give them a wide berth.

As to GSP - steer clear, expensive and not as reliable as you would think for the price they charge.

[*crikey*mate*]

Hi Michelle.

It's great to see you here and asking questions so you can learn and make sense of some of the weird stuff that happens on eBay.

OK, the first thing, it sounds like your seller is a bit confused.

It is the seller who has to organize postage, the buyer can't do that (sometimes the buyer can organize a courier for a pick up item if the seller is prepared to work in with them)

The listing in which you are interested - Does it say "Does not ship to Australia"? If it does, it probably means the seller has chosen NOT to ship to Australia - could be for a lot of reasons - I don't post internationally - I don't know anything about it, I don't want to know anything about it - I have enough worries just thinking about posting domestically without worrying about internationally.

Maybe your seller is the same. If you haven't done it before, it can seem quite overwhelming, or maybe your seller did post internationally ihn the past and had a bad experience, so has decided against it now.

It could even be that the item in question is fraught with difficulties - might be questionable to import/export - might be super breakable.

I think your seller is politely telling you they don't WANT to post internationally - and they don't have to.

It's really good that you are communicating with your sellers and asking questions before you commit to purchase.

[michellebartley]

The listing states "May post to Australia", but that said I had a seller not long ago whose listing said "Will not post to Australia" and I wanted to buy the item and the seller then provided me with shipping cost no problem. I was quite surprised by that.

[michellebartley]

The email from the seller in the US said we do not sell outside US on Ebay and also said Ebay does have an international shipping program.

[*crikey*mate*]

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@michellebartley wrote:
The email from the seller in the US said we do not sell outside US on Ebay and also said Ebay does have an international shipping program.

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Michelle, I just came across a seller last night on the GSP. I messaged them and asked would they consider opting out of the GSP and using USPS.

They responded that they didn't ship internationally and couldn't understand why they kept getting questions from OS people.

I showed her her listing (screen shot) how we saw it.

She had no idea

It seems that there is a box already checked to opt into the GSP, but if they don't know or see it, they don't know to opt out.

If it says "will not post to australia" these sellers have set up their postage options correctly

where it says "may not ship to australia", they haven't

so in your case and judging by the sellers lack of knowledge about the GSP, I'd say she doesn't ship to Australia and has set up her listing incorrectlyu.

[chezzy]

Here is what I posted on another topic recently...in case anyone is interested:

I went digging around on the eBay US boards and found the steps needed for the seller to 'opt out' of the Global Shipping Program. I messaged my seller with that info and lo and behold I was soon able to use buy it now as normal (seller had not known the process to opt out prior to that). For anyone interested it appears to be:

(My eBay summary page)

account > site preferences > shipping preferences > Offer the Global Shipping Program > edit > no

You won't see those options on the Aussie ebay but if you are curious to see what it looks like yourself you can probably just log in via the ebay.com site and have a look (and spread the word to those US sellers who are willing to be flexible on the shipping situation).