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!

[psrossouw]

As GSP use Economy shipping there is no signature required on delivery by Australia Post, so they will just leave the parcel there if no one is home! 

[4channel]

---

@psrossouw wrote:

So true!

Beware of the Global Shipping Program.

- they are not contatible by phone!

- they don't respond to customer service request from eBay customre help!

- ttheir customer service is non-existent unless you make a complaint!

- they wont allow you to change the shipping address at any stage.

- they charge you for Priority shipping but ship with Economy and take their cut.

- they wont refund you because they used Economy shipping and make many excuses.

- they only use courier within and from the US and then use Australian Post in Australia - so no priority delivery.

- they will ship to the outside of the estimated delivery time so they can use Economy shipping.

- In short: terrible service and shipping times - way to go Pitney Bowes!

- I'll pay extra to avoid GSP in future.

---

Hi psrossouw , actually, one one of the few times I used this horrible service, they did deliver my stuff via Fed-Ex but that was a shambles. They demanded I give more personal info or they would return my ultra rare video tapes back to the sender. It was an actual threat.   The  tapes had been re-packed and it was the work of a very lazy or amatuerish person. They could have easuly been damaged. Actually, I got a rare box set of DVD's sent via Ptney Bowes and one of the dvds was damaged to the extent it was uplpayable. Lucky seller had an extra set so she sent me the replacement.

Yes best to avoid this scam if you can.

[4channel]

---

@psrossouw wrote:

As GSP use Economy shipping there is no signature required on delivery by Australia Post, so they will just leave the parcel there if no one is home! 

---

While my parcel was delivered by fedex and a horrible experience, I do recall one of the other members here a few months ago, possibly a lady saying that her item came via GSP and was left on the door step, in full view of passers by. Lucky it wasn't knocked off..

[schelydrauk]

Same experience here — an $800 laptop left (in a damaged package) on a doorstep! There was also a cryptic message from eBay saying they had waylaid it for a while to check for contraband, but apparently didn't find any. 

[4channel]

---

@schelydrauk wrote:

Same experience here — an $800 laptop left (in a damaged package) on a doorstep! There was also a cryptic message from eBay saying they had waylaid it for a while to check for contraband, but apparently didn't find any. 

---

Sorry to hear of your misfortune. I hope you got some compensation of resolution in the end.

GSP / Global Shipping / Pitney Bowes has never been about providing a service. I looks to be a rudely and arrogantly inserted middle man where there was no requirement for one. It's sole purpose seems to be to skim money and it does that.

[countessalmirena]

Use a mail forwarding service like ComGateway.

While it's not a cheap option, it's ideal if you're consolidating a fair few orders from different sellers. You have a long period of free storage while your various orders arrive. Once everything is there at their depot/warehouse, you'll declare the value of any item which doesn't have an invoice included, choose whether or not to have everything repacked with their OneBox option (but DO request special packaging with extra bubblewrap if anything is fragile - it is free), pay the total shipping cost (including insurance, fuel surcharge, and GST), and within a few days the parcel/s will arrive at your doorstep.

If anything is damaged, you'll be compensated. It's quite a quick process, as I discovered only recently. (That is also when I discovered that one can request extra careful bubblewrap for fragile items.)

I prefer this option infinitely to using Pitney Bowes. One of the most troublesome things with regard to PB is that one can't get in touch with them to request careful packaging, and of course there's no way to request combined invoicing for multiple shipped items. Additionally, chasing PB in respect of damaged or missing items is (I understand) a difficult and obfuscated business.

However, for some buyers, in some circumstances, using the GSP may be good value and an acceptable option.

[4channel]

---

@countessalmirena wrote:

Use a mail forwarding service like ComGateway.

While it's not a cheap option, it's ideal if you're consolidating a fair few orders from different sellers. You have a long period of free storage while your various orders arrive. Once everything is there at their depot/warehouse, you'll declare the value of any item which doesn't have an invoice included, choose whether or not to have everything repacked with their OneBox option (but DO request special packaging with extra bubblewrap if anything is fragile - it is free), pay the total shipping cost (including insurance, fuel surcharge, and GST), and within a few days the parcel/s will arrive at your doorstep.

If anything is damaged, you'll be compensated. It's quite a quick process, as I discovered only recently. (That is also when I discovered that one can request extra careful bubblewrap for fragile items.)

I prefer this option infinitely to using Pitney Bowes. One of the most troublesome things with regard to PB is that one can't get in touch with them to request careful packaging, and of course there's no way to request combined invoicing for multiple shipped items. Additionally, chasing PB in respect of damaged or missing items is (I understand) a difficult and obfuscated business.

However, for some buyers, in some circumstances, using the GSP may be good value and an acceptable option.

---

Thanks countessalmirena, I'll definitely look into that. That coul be a good idea and I don't mind waiting for a while with some items.

You're right about the packing issue with Pitney Bowes. I had extremely rare video tapes (a once in a lifetime score) that were still sealed. The packing was pathetic and there was no protection (from memory) on the top end. Luckily they weren't damaged. The DVD set that I got was an ultra rare set. Poor packing and one of the DVDs was damaged. Luckily the seller had one extra set and sent me over the discs to replace. So yes, I'll look into ComGateway.

Cheers

[djsimba82]

I made the mistake of ordering an alarm panel through this awful program. The panel was only $25 but shipping took it to $70.

As it was "premium" shipping I thought it would get here quick... Amazon only takes a few days. eBay is taking 3 weeks. 😥

[lyndal1838]

If the GSP only took 3 weeks then you have very little to complain about.....it is far more likely to be 4+ weeks.

[padi*0409]

---

@djsimba82 wrote:
 Amazon only takes a few days. eBay is taking 3 weeks. 😥

---

Since the GST on low-priced imports was introduced and up until a couple of days ago, you could only buy from Amazon Australia, so that may explain why deliveries only took a few days.