The GSP company Pitney Bowes is absolutely killing my purchases from the USA .

[ken6311_2008]

I'm not sure if this a complaint about ebay OR this terrible GSP company called "Pitney Bowes " , or both ? Ever since this arrangement came into existence my purchases from USA sellers has by necessity plummeted to an all time low because of highly inflated shipping costs ,and totally ridiculous constraints on international shipping . Pitney Bowes take note :- a Wusthof kitchen knife is not " A weapon of Mass Destruction " so please stop blocking my bids.

[lyndal1838]

Forget about bidding on kitchen knives of any sort if your seller is using the GSP.....Pitney Bowes will not ship any sort of knife to Australia even when they are not a restricted item according to Australian Customs.

At least the system seems to have improved slightly.....in the early days yiou could buy and pay for knives and they just never turned up.  If you missed the cutoff time for a dispute you just lost your money.

If you want to know that Aussies think of the system do a board search.....we are a vocal bunch when things displease us.

[harley_babes_hoard]

There is nothing stopping you asking the sellers if they will ship USPS and get a quote, most are happy to send this way if asked.

[ken6311_2008]

It's not as simple as asking the seller to send via USPS . I'm sure they would be happy to . BUT Pitney Bowes BLOCKS the bids if they regard the item as "restricted " i.e. kitchen knives . It means the seller has to relist the item without going through GSP . It's all very very frustrating as an international buyer .

[imastawka · Accepted solution]

They don't have to relist.   They simply 'opt out' by changing

the postage options.  

To opt out US sellers only have to go into

(My eBay summary page)

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

[canberrafisher]

I just got stung by these crooked **bleep**s. I had no idea what this charge was on my PP account NEVER had it before. On closer examination I realised they converted my payments to an exchange rate of $1Australian to $US0.7196cents...Bull **bleep**. I printed the exchange rate when I bought the items to be exactly sure of funds...I keep good books..The exchange rate was $1Aus = $US0.75... They have STOLEN over 3% from me. Then I paid shipping to the seller and then their bill amount just STOLEN straight from my PP and Bank Account at the DOCTORED exchange rate for shipping again, another $27.77...EBAY is over for me after over 15 years. I will be posting this everywhere I can online to show people what corporate theft really is.....It's name is EBAY and Pitney Bower inc....Will be removing my listing NOW.

[canberrafisher]

I just got stung by these crooked **bleep**s Pitney Bowes...Global Shipping Porgram or whatever. I had no idea what this charge was on my PP account NEVER had it before. On closer examination I realised they converted my payments to an exchange rate of $1Australian to $US0.7196cents...Bull **bleep**. I printed the exchange rate when I bought the items to be exactly sure of funds...I keep good books..The exchange rate was $1Aus = $US0.75... They have STOLEN over 3% from me. Then I paid shipping to the seller and then their bill amount just STOLEN straight from my PP and Bank Account at the DOCTORED exchange rate for shipping again, another $27.77...EBAY is over for me after over 15 years. I will be posting this everywhere I can online to show people what corporate theft really is.....It's name is EBAY and Pitney Bower inc....Will be removing my listing NOW.

[lyndal1838]

Pitney Bowes is just a shipping company.....they have nothing to do with the exchange rate you have been charged by paypal.

When you pay by paypal and allow paypal to do the exchange you will find that they build their charges into the exchange rate instead of charging a separate fee as the banks do.

After many many years of using paypal for overseas transactions I still find they give the best exchange rate/fees structure.

[*tippy*toes*]

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@canberrafisher wrote:

I just got stung by these crooked **bleep**s Pitney Bowes...Global Shipping Porgram or whatever. I had no idea what this charge was on my PP account NEVER had it before. On closer examination I realised they converted my payments to an exchange rate of $1Australian to $US0.7196cents...Bull **bleep**. I printed the exchange rate when I bought the items to be exactly sure of funds...I keep good books..The exchange rate was $1Aus = $US0.75... They have STOLEN over 3% from me. Then I paid shipping to the seller and then their bill amount just STOLEN straight from my PP and Bank Account at the DOCTORED exchange rate for shipping again, another $27.77...EBAY is over for me after over 15 years. I will be posting this everywhere I can online to show people what corporate theft really is.....It's name is EBAY and Pitney Bower inc....Will be removing my listing NOW.

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Your whole one listing. You've done it now, eBay will go completely broke and we'll have nowhere to buy or sell. I hope you're happy with yourself for single handedly bring eBay down by removing your one listing. Shame on you.

Ebay is over for you?

Don't slam the door on the way out. You'll wake everyone up.

[4channel]

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@canberrafisher wrote:

I just got stung by these crooked **bleep**s Pitney Bowes...Global Shipping Porgram or whatever. I had no idea what this charge was on my PP account NEVER had it before. On closer examination I realised they converted my payments to an exchange rate of $1Australian to $US0.7196cents...Bull **bleep**. I printed the exchange rate when I bought the items to be exactly sure of funds...I keep good books..The exchange rate was $1Aus = $US0.75... They have STOLEN over 3% from me. Then I paid shipping to the seller and then their bill amount just STOLEN straight from my PP and Bank Account at the DOCTORED exchange rate for shipping again, another $27.77...EBAY is over for me after over 15 years. I will be posting this everywhere I can online to show people what corporate theft really is.....It's name is EBAY and Pitney Bower inc....Will be removing my listing NOW.

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Good on you canberrafisher for sharing that. I applaud your coming forth to share your distasteful experience. This is what people need to know about this hideous scheme. Don't let this deter you from ebay yet. I would like to think that ebay will look into this as part of their quality control and realise that this Global Shipping in the long run will servce no good purpose. People suffer and get dismayed. I know that people are now looking to Amazon for a cheaper alternative and I understand that. I'm still winlling to hang on in here for now.

I too have had a distasteful experience with Global Shipping.

Thanks again for alterting people to what happens with Global Shipping. I appluad you for your staight forwardness. We need more of that in the ebay community.