BEWARE Global shipping program

[daffyduk]

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!

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

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@4channel wrote:

   I just wish Global Shipping Pitney Bowes never appeared here and so do many others.

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channel, you are right that many others wish the GSP had not been introduced.

However, for many buyers, the introduction of the GSP has made so many more items available for purchase as USA sellers who were not selling internationally are now doing so due to the protections that the GSP offers for sellers.

This is also true for rare collectibles.  It has made more of them available for purchase from USA sellers, so the GSP can be a villain and a hero at the same time.

As has been noted many times on these boards, USA sellers may not even be aware they are signed up for GSP.  I contacted one seller to ask them to put the weight and dimensions into their listing so that a more reasonable GSP cost would show.  Their response was that they did not ship internationally.  I had to take multiple screengrabs to show them that their items were in fact available for overseas buyers.  Once I explained the GSP to them and they put in the dimensions and weight the shipping cost halved.

There is no point crying if a seller refuses to remove GSP from their listings as the only reason the item may be available to you is because of the GSP.  With eBay's MBG it is hardly surprising that sellers would appreciate the protections offered by the GSP.

[lyndal1838]

Sorry 4channel...it was not me who advised how to opt out of the GSP.....I am not a seller so have no idea how it works.

I think you will find it was imastawka who has posted the information on several threads.

I am very glad to see that you have given up advocating USPS First Class as the only acceptable method of shipping and acknowledged that some items are not suitable for that service.  In terms of some collectibles, $400 is a very low threshold.

[robertrowland71]

just an update Guys ,

this is what my $56 is paying for this Great Service , Thanks Ebay , thanks Global Shipping Program

Date/Time	Activity		Location
6/06/2017 - Tuesday
11:27 am	At local FedEx facility		SINGAPORE SG
	Package not due for delivery
11:27 am	At local FedEx facility		SINGAPORE SG
	Package not due for delivery
7:19 am	In transit		SINGAPORE SG
6/05/2017 - Monday
1:02 pm	In transit		NARITA-SHI JP
6/04/2017 - Sunday
10:42 am	Departed FedEx location		ANCHORAGE, AK
6:19 am	Arrived at FedEx location		ANCHORAGE, AK
3:02 am	Departed FedEx location		MEMPHIS, TN
6/03/2017 - Saturday
12:17 pm	In transit		MEMPHIS, TN
4:37 am	In transit		MEMPHIS, TN
3:37 am	In transit		MEMPHIS, TN
6/02/2017 - Friday
10:59 pm	Arrived at FedEx location		MEMPHIS, TN
4:59 pm	Picked up		HEBRON, KY
4:59 pm	Left FedEx origin facility		HEBRON, KY

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

looks like it is travelling on an indirect route on its way to you.  Please do keep us informed of the progress, and whether it arrives by the 21st June (14 business days)

[tazzieterror]

This is fairly normal for a GSP shipment to Australia. An order I made from the USA via GSP had a similar variety of transit points in its tracking history.

[daltex2007]

At least all of you actually received your items via the Global Shipping Program. I was advised yesterday that my $800 worth of items would not be cleared for international shipment with no reason given. Both the seller and I received a full refund without any other option. I had been searching for one of the items for over 5 years for my collection. How can an aluminium model plane motor and balsawood model kit be banned from international shipment when I have previously purchased and received more than a hundred? I have now totally lost confidence in purchasing anything from US eBay sellers when I haven't even been told why the items have been confiscated.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

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@daltex2007 wrote:

At least all of you actually received your items via the Global Shipping Program. I was advised yesterday that my $800 worth of items would not be cleared for international shipment with no reason given. Both the seller and I received a full refund without any other option. I had been searching for one of the items for over 5 years for my collection. How can an aluminium model plane motor and balsawood model kit be banned from international shipment when I have previously purchased and received more than a hundred? I have now totally lost confidence in purchasing anything from US eBay sellers when I haven't even been told why the items have been confiscated.

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if the plane has ever had fuel in its fuel tank then Pitney Bowes is likely to not send it internationally.

Do you know anyone who lives in the USA?

The reason I ask is that Pitney Bowes has an eBay store that sells items that are not shipped to their original buyers.  You may well find that the item you bought may end up being listed as an auction or B-I-N.

If you have a USA address you can use for shipping you may be able to buy the item (again) and have it shipped to a USA address and then forwarded to you by a shipping method that you know you have used before, OR have a US friend buy the item and then forward it to you once it arrives.  If you know a fellow model plane enthusiast who resides in the USA then that would be ideal as you could send them funds via PayPal for the item.

I used to buy cameras from USA sellers and have them shipped to a person in Oregon who would forward them to me once he had enough cameras to fill a large fixed rate box.  This was a very cheap method of buying from US sellers as most of the cameras were free shipping to US addresses.

The PB eBay store is called global_deal_store

 https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/global_deal_store/m.html?_ipg=50&_sop=1&_rdc=1

You can read another member's experience in having to buy an item from the PB store because they refused to ship it to Australia.  The item this buyer bought was a musical drum and PB refused to ship because they claimed it was made from a protected species of wood.  The buyer bought from their store and had it shipped to a third party freight agenncy.

PLEASE DO NOT POST ON THAT THREAD AS IT IS OLD AND HAS BEEN IDLE FOR NEARLY THREE YEARS.

http://community.ebay.com.au/t5/Buying/GSP-stands-for-Galling-Stupid-People/m-p/1491993#M45163

[aeroland]

eBay's Global Shipping Partner Pitney Bowes Inc. has a policy of not shipping model aero engines.  I am told this is due to an  (incorrectly) perceived fire risk.   I referred the eBay representative who told me this in writing that it was incorrect and referred eBay and Pitney Bowes to the American Petroleum Instute who would be able to give them unbiased and technicaly competant advise.

In my experience the national postal services of Australia, USA, UK Germany, France, Sweden, Russia, Denmark, Finland, Japan, New Zealand and others ship used model aero engines all the time without incident to the best of my knowledge.

If I come across an item of interest with GSP shipping I request the Seller to send by that country's postal service.  If they will not do that then I walk away from the sale.

[brettg1226]

I have only recently come across the evil that is the Global Shipping Program. I collect posters and it seems that the standard charge to send a few pieces of paper to Australia through the GSP is $US119! I will NEVER again buy from any seller that uses the GSP. In fact, as it seems to be an American thing, I will probably just not buy from US sellers at all. If I were to say what I truly think of the GSP my comment would, no doubt, be removed as inappropriate material. All I will say is that it is a scam of epic proportion and that it is beyond infuriating.

[lyndal1838]

If you refuse to buy from a country that uses the GSP you need to add the UK to that list, although it is not as bad as the USA and they do combine postage which lessens the pain a bit.

There is some talk of it being introduced here as well....we usually seem to get whatever is introduced in the USA and the UK.