topic Re: BEWARE Global shipping program in Buying

BEWARE Global shipping program

daffyduk — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 04:41:24 GMT

Buyers beware before you purchase from US sellers check that they do not use the Global shipping program. You will have to pay 2 shipping costs. One for the seller to ship the item to the shipping company in the US. And a second exorbitant cost (min of aboutUS$25) to then ship to you. A simple $5 purchase becomes $50 before you know it. To make it worse most of the yanks don't even know they have signed up for it. This has to be one of ebays biggest rip offs yet!

Re: BEWARE Global shipping program

pinkperth — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 05:05:17 GMT

I would like to know how to track items shipped by PBI .

I can find nothing, I have written to the supplier twice and all they say is contact Ebay.

Re: BEWARE Global shipping program

lyndal1838 — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 05:11:05 GMT

You should be sent a tracking number when Pitney Bowes actually ships the item....sometimes they use the USPS and sometimes a courier. Until you get the tracking number you have no idea how it is being shipped.

Re: BEWARE Global shipping program

afantiques — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 12:06:12 GMT

.sometimes they use the USPS

They never use the USPS, Packages are shipped in bulk by air cargo carriers, and delivered by various locally contracted agents.

Re: BEWARE Global shipping program

lyndal1838 — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 12:40:48 GMT

@afantiques wrote:
.sometimes they use the USPS

They never use the USPS, Packages are shipped in bulk by air cargo carriers, and delivered by various locally contracted agents.

Sorry, but they do use USPS. I have had a number of items which have been sent using the GSP (more fool me for buying from those sellers) and they have come by USPS Priority Mail or USPS Priority Express Mail.

Re: BEWARE Global shipping program

afantiques — Fri, 15 Nov 2013 11:13:57 GMT

Can you give any details of these.

Was the return address Erlanger, KY?

Did they have individual customs forms?

Did they show signs of possibly being shipped to Erlanger before being forwarded.(label over label)

I suspect that your sellers may have sent the items dierectly to you, misunderstanding the GSP process. This is not uncommon, since misunderstanding and the GSP are practically synonymous.

Re: BEWARE Global shipping program

davewil1964 — Fri, 15 Nov 2013 11:23:43 GMT

Without being Lyndal, I suspect that the items she got were in USPS branded packaging.

Whether they went through PB she will have to elucidate, but with her buying only feedback I suspect she has a fair handle on postage methods.

Re: BEWARE Global shipping program

lyndal1838 — Fri, 15 Nov 2013 17:59:58 GMT

@afantiques wrote:
Sorry, but they do use USPS. I have had a number of items which have been sent using the GSP (more fool me for buying from those sellers) and they have come by USPS Priority Mail or USPS Priority Express Mail.

Can you give any details of these.

Was the return address Erlanger, KY?
Did they have individual customs forms?
Did they show signs of possibly being shipped to Erlanger before being forwarded.(label over label)

I suspect that your sellers may have sent the items dierectly to you, misunderstanding the GSP process. This is not uncommon, since misunderstanding and the GSP are practically synonymous.

It is several weeks ago now so I am a bit hazy on the details of the individual parcels now but I will give you what details I can remember.

The return address on one parcel was the sellers own address...the others I don't remember.

One parcel had no Customs form at all, which I thought a bit strange. Two parcels had individual Customs forms filled in by hand.

None of them had labels stuck over labels and no mention of Erlanger in sight.

They all had postage labels stuck on them with the USPS service used and $ amount paid.....and very clearly the words Pitney Bowes.

The first two were sent by Priority Mail and were very slow getting here....the third one came Priority Express and was almost as slow.

When they arrived in Australia they wre delivered to me by Australia Post...either my regular postman or the parcel contractor...that does not happen with parcels arriving in Australia by courier services.

I doubt if I have any of the boxes now....they were mostly rather flimsy and poorly packed so the boxes were rather mangled, but I will have a look in the recycle bin over the weekend.

And in case you have doubts that I know what I am talking about....I am married to a Canadian and several of his relatives live in the USA so we have 40 years of experience with both postal systems. His nephew is a senior pilot with UPS, my daughter works for an International freight/logistics company and my husband and I have had 25 years experience in the courier industry.

Re: BEWARE Global shipping program

afantiques — Fri, 15 Nov 2013 19:35:08 GMT

It is several weeks ago now so I am a bit hazy on the details of the individual parcels now but I will give you what details I can remember.

The return address on one parcel was the sellers own address...the others I don't remember.

One parcel had no Customs form at all, which I thought a bit strange. Two parcels had individual Customs forms filled in by hand.

None of them had labels stuck over labels and no mention of Erlanger in sight.

They all had postage labels stuck on them with the USPS service used and $ amount paid.....and very clearly the words Pitney Bowes.

The first two were sent by Priority Mail and were very slow getting here....the third one came Priority Express and was almost as slow.

From that it seems that the GSP was not involved at all in the shipping. Pitney Bowes is famous for postage meters, USPS labels are likely to have been paid for online using a Pitney Bowes app, no connection to the GSP except coincidence and it being another aspect of PB's business.

GSP sent items do not have individualk customs forms, the seller sends to Erlanger as they would to New York, no customs form.

There is no need for one as the prepaid money covers the import clearance of the items as a bulk shipment. \items sent as yours were were only not charged again for import taxes because of the high import tax threshold Australia, pretty well uniquely in the world, enjoys.

It is probable that the item sent with no customs form was simply incompetence piled on incompetence by the seller.

All you have said supports my original contention. The GSP does not use USPS to do the international shipping and anything that arrives with USPS mailing labels through AusPost has been mis-sent by the seller.

The level or misunderstanding and general **bleep**-up shown by GSP users is very evident on the USA International Trading board and the Canadian Buyer Cental board.

It really seems pretty calm over here.

Re: BEWARE Global shipping program

lyndal1838 — Fri, 15 Nov 2013 20:43:41 GMT

All of those sellers had the GSP showing on their listings as the service used and I have never before seen the PB name on any of my USPS mail. It just seems too much of a coincidence that ebay introduces the GSP and some of my USPS mail is also showing PB on the labels.

Since making a conscious effort to avoid sellers using the GSP I have not seen the PB name on any of my USPS mail again.

As for it all being pretty calm here....maybe in comparison to the US boards it is. Don't forget we have a very small ebay membership in comparison to the US and Canada and a lot of members do not buy from overseas at all.

There are quite a few buyers coming to the boards complaining of the very slow transit times and confusing tracking....if they can track anything at all. And it is getting worse...transit times are blowing out badly.

FedEx used to deliver here (Sydney) in 4 days....now it is more likely to be 4 weeks. It is taking 3 weeks for the items to flit all over the USA before even being loaded on a plane for Australia.

Re: BEWARE Global shipping program

afantiques — Fri, 15 Nov 2013 22:10:12 GMT

There was a thread today on the US Packaging and Shipping board about the PB label app having problems, that's how I heard of it. It may be a new, it is not the GSP, your items were clearly shipped direct to you. There may even be some tracking retrievable from your item detalis pages for these purchses that will show they never visited Kentucky.

If they are not reshipped at Erlanger, they are not shipped by GSP. I don't know exactly what happened, but from what you say it is clear they did not come through GSP using USPS. The logistics of this program involve bulk air freight from KY to national hubs in GSP countries, bulk inward clearance by manifest of the skipful of packages, and once cleared, breaking bulk in a distribution centre for locally contracted delivery.

Re: BEWARE Global shipping program

afantiques — Fri, 15 Nov 2013 22:14:11 GMT

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Packaging-Shipping/Pitney-Bowes-Printing-App-About-To-Die/m-p/18288221#U18288221

Here is the thread about PB label printing. Clearly using it is minority interest so it is not surprising that you have not seen it. It does support my point that PB does not mean GSP automatically.

Re: BEWARE Global shipping program

clary629 — Mon, 23 Dec 2013 01:11:04 GMT

Hi,

I have recently purchased an item from the USA using the GSP, seemed to work just fine, cost was $30AU for an item weighing 29lbs, much cheaper than others not using the programme. Seemed to go to some odd locations, but made it to my location. Time was estimated at 9 days, it took 12 days, but that's just my experience, all good.

Re: BEWARE Global shipping program

lyndal1838 — Mon, 23 Dec 2013 02:54:03 GMT

Well I am glad there is someone who is happy with the GSP.

I purchased a very small item on the 9th December and it was shipped immediately. The postage was $24.95 and the item would not have weighed 29 ozs fully packed, let alone 29 lbs.

We are now up to 14 days and no indication that the item has even left the USA yet.

Normally I avoid sellers who use the GSP but in this case it was something that I really wanted and it was a very good price (half price sale) so I decided the extra postage was worth it to get the item quickly.

Before the GSP I would have paid $10 maximum and had the package in 7-10 days.

Definitely not happy.

Re: BEWARE Global shipping program

cq_tech — Mon, 23 Dec 2013 13:07:19 GMT

"cost was $30AU for an item weighing 29lbs"

Just so there's no mistake, I presume you meant to type 29 ounces above, right?

Re: BEWARE Global shipping program

the-lotus-heart — Tue, 24 Dec 2013 05:39:42 GMT

Oh my, I just came across this! My postage has suddenly become $55 USD! Crazy! Seller says she cannot send me an updated invoice either as it wont let her. No way am I paying $55 USD when in the listing itself postage was like $20 (bad enough)

Re: BEWARE Global shipping program

the-lotus-heart — Tue, 24 Dec 2013 06:05:13 GMT

My seller doesn't even know she is signed up for it! She thinks it is me as a buyer. How frustrating.

Re: BEWARE Global shipping program

afantiques — Tue, 24 Dec 2013 12:41:29 GMT

Your seller can see how the items look to Australian viewers by going to the Shipping and Payment tab on the item page, selecting Australia as the ship to destination, then clicking 'get rates'.

Untill the location is reset to USA every item the seller looks at will show the full GSP charges.

Re: BEWARE Global shipping program

massrodder — Wed, 25 Dec 2013 08:09:42 GMT

Yes this a very BIG problem from the US.It is killing vinyl sales!

Re: BEWARE Global shipping program

massrodder — Wed, 25 Dec 2013 08:13:39 GMT

This system is insane.I saw the postage of a CD from the US at $24!!Prices of shipping from the US have gobe nuts since this sytem started.