Global Shipping disaster

[catgirl770]

This new program in the UK and the US is a disaster. It routinely charges 200% or 300% of the usual cost and it's very difficult to get round. I've been badly stung twice with purchases from the UK and now I won't buy items that are sent by Global Shipping - and it's not as though the seller gets the money. If it was some random seller not on ebay you'd think it was a scam, it's so outrageous.

[cq_tech]

Just like in the US, a lot of UK sellers have no idea they've been opted in to the rotten GSP and they need to specifically opt out, otherwise their shipping prices will be 3 or 4 times what they would be if they'd used Royal Mail.

[i-love-my-sheep]

I just found the listing that I mentioned above and sre enough, GSP. Shame, as I said, I really wanted it, but not paying that amount of postage.

[afantiques]

The UK GSP was started because the UK is already the GSP hub for all the EU countries and it was very simple to add UK origin parcels to US GSP stuff arriving and being distributed around the EU from the UK's South Normanton distribution centre.

Including a few destinations such as US, Australia and Canada was cheap and easy because these items can be sent from the UK to the Kentucky distribution hub relatively cheaply using lines of communication and contractors already set up. Expect UK GSP stuff to Australia to be handled by FedEx (and sometimes post for the last leg) as it is now from US sellers.

I'd say there is no chance of this spreading to Australia because the hub and spoke model is used for distribution, the UK is a hub already but Australia is the end of a spoke. The UK situation was unique because of the customs union status of the EU. It means goods imported to the UK can go anywhere in the EU without further customs clearance. This gave the UK a volume of parcels that must be very much larger than the relatively small Australian market would involve. Compared with the EU countries Australia has half the population of Spain, just one small part of the EU market.

The program was introduced to UK sellers with a bit more publicity than the US sellers ever saw. Sellers were sent an email if they were to be opted in, and the option to opt out was given. Criteria for opting in were that the seller did not have international shipping prices set up, and also did not have overseas shipping specifically blocked in their shipping preferences.

There were also general ebay announcements 2 months in advance about the scheme.

Naturally, many users will not have read the emails or the announcements. But that's the way it goes.

It should be impossible to pay for a GSP Buy It Now item without seeing the full costs and being able to back out, auction items show the shipping charges before the bid is placed.

International Priority shipping is just a meaningless way of saying 'air freight' and has nothing whatsover to do with USPS Priority International mail service.

[zanadoo_56]

I had it figured that Australia's population would be too small to interest eBay/PB in inflicting the GSP here......let alone the whole 'hub' thingy.

This is a case where isolation is an advantage.  We've dodged a bullet there I reckon.

[lyndal1838]

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@zanadoo_56 wrote:

I had it figured that Australia's population would be too small to interest eBay/PB in inflicting the GSP here......let alone the whole 'hub' thingy.

This is a case where isolation is an advantage.  We've dodged a bullet there I reckon.

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How do you work that out zanadoo.  To me it is not dodging any bullet when we have to pay the exorbitant GSP prices from the UK as well as the USA.   Australians are being shut out of buying from overseas now purely because the shipping costs are too high.

And how fast is GSP shipping going to be from the UK if it now goes via the USA?

[zanadoo_56]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

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@zanadoo_56 wrote:

I had it figured that Australia's population would be too small to interest eBay/PB in inflicting the GSP here......let alone the whole 'hub' thingy.

This is a case where isolation is an advantage.  We've dodged a bullet there I reckon.

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How do you work that out zanadoo.  To me it is not dodging any bullet when we have to pay the exorbitant GSP prices from the UK as well as the USA.   Australians are being shut out of buying from overseas now purely because the shipping costs are too high.

And how fast is GSP shipping going to be from the UK if it now goes via the USA?

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I agree as buyers we are screwed by the GSP from the US and UK.  But Oz is already far enough away for some OS customers to complain about postage.  True I'm not a seller and probably never will be, but I've got friends and family who do sell internationally, and the bullet I think they will dodge is GSP caused complaints about the cost of posting/shipping items.  Mind you, the GSP might make Aust Post look good. A cloud with a silver lining perhaps?

[lyndal1838]

Maybe, but Pitney Bowes already has a foot in the door here anyway.  Australia Post is using some of their technology in their digital mailbox system.

I fear that they well slowly creep in here too.

[aps1080]

"But Oz is already far enough away for some OS customers to complain about postage."

Distance is not the problem (nowadays) if the item is sent airmail which most is.

It's the hub system of send to a location, hold it, on to the next etc that holds it up

- ie the consolidation.

Once it is packed in the containers and loaded, it takes bugger all time to get here.

And then it hits Aust Post which CAN be another hold up.