Leave Negative for Global Shipping Program

[willpetewaitara]

The whole GSP (Global Shipping Program) is a typical eBay abortion.

I think the easy way to send a message to eBay US Sellers who use GSP is to leave them Negative Feedback when an item doesn't arrive which was shipped using GSP.

Unfair against the Seller you say....well it sure is, however I email them first and advise what I'm doing and why.

Most understand and simply Opt-Out of the GSP, or has been the more common result they deal with you direct.

Ebay are just SO DUMB, they can't run anything right and will now lose even more customers and $$$$$.

Thanks eBay, but the US Seller and I have just concluded a transaction outside eBay on the same items your GSP said couldn't be shipped to Australia (which of course was wrong as chainsaws are perfectly legal in Australia) you MUPPETS

[afantiques]

And if a seller has used the GSP and the buyer does not get the item....then it is too bad, so sad....you have lost your money and negative feedback on the seller will go poof.

You will not lose your money if you do a normal Item not Received claim.

Negative FB for GSP items will be removed, see the seller terms and conditions.

I'm not saying it is a good idea, although very heavy objects can be cheaper than with USPS shipping but let's have the facts straight.

[lyndal1838]

Yes, you get your refund from the seller.....but not from Pitney Bowes.....that amount is withheld from the refund.  I did not have to open a dispute.  The seller could see that there was no tracking for the item and issued a full refund.....paypal clawed back the postage component of the refund after it had appeared in my account.

And I have already said that negative feedback will be removed.

Where have I not got my facts straight?

You have chided me for incorrect facts about the GSP in the past afantiques but every fact that I have posted has been verified by my experiece.

I have no doubt that you are correct about the way the system is supposed to work but we all know that a lot of the ebay systems do not work as they are supposed to.

Please do me the courtesy of not calling me a liar when I post my own experiences...they are what has happened even if they are not supposed to happpen.

[cq_tech]

Lyndal, are you saying that Paypal refunded the item price but withheld the postage component, thereby breaching their own Terms & Conditions?

If so, did you lodge a complaint with the FOS and eventually have the issue resolved?

[lyndal1838]

CQ, the seller issued a full refund after I asked for a tracking number 9 days after I paid for the item.  There was no tracking number....the full refund was issued and I received an email from paypal advising of that fact.   Half an hour later I received an email from paypal to say I was not elligible for the postage refund because an item was shipped.

And to add insult to injury paypal also took US$1.90 (AU$2.20 at the time) from the amount of the item cost.

Paypal was not involved in the dispute.....there was no dispute as the seller refunded as soon as he found out that there was no tracking number.....and Pitney Bowes is within their rights to keep the money if they say the item has been shipped.  The problem I have with that is that there was no tracking number so how am I supposed to know if anything was shipped.

[cq_tech]

Thanks Lyndal, and I'm very sorry to hear that. I can't believe they can get away with it and had it been me, I'd have moved heaven and earth to make sure that I'd received back every cent that I'd paid, purely as a matter of principle.

I'd have certainly taken Paypal to task, via the FOS if necessary, because what they did was unconscionable and very likely in breach of their own Terms & Conditions, and Pitney Bowes appear to have a lot to answer for as well.

[phorum_junkie*]

I don't often buy from the US but is the seller used GSP I buy elsewhere and tell the first seller why. many of them do not realise that the buyer is being charged so much extra and there is also a high chance the item will not even be sent.

[afantiques]

Yes, you get your refund from the seller.....but not from Pitney Bowes.....that amount is withheld from the refund.  I did not have to open a dispute.  The seller could see that there was no tracking for the item and issued a full refund.....paypal clawed back the postage component of the refund after it had appeared in my account.

Your problem was due to the fact that you did not follow proper procedure to get a refund.

I am not disputing that things happened the way you say they did, simply that if you had done what you should have done you'd have had a full refund of all charges.

It is not fair to blame ebay systems when you did not use them.

Your foot, your shot, spot on.

The only route for recourse with a GSP item is a formal Paypal claim. 

The seller is powerless, and your seller was under no obligation to refund you. Once you start anything ouside the defined procedure, the results are liable to be as unsatisfactory as your experience showed.

The lesson to learn is not that all GSP problems will end in financial disadvantage, but that any attempt to resolve them without a formal PP claim will be disadvantageous.

[lyndal1838]

I had no reason or opportunity to start a paypal claim.

After 9 days there was no tracking number for the item.  I asked the seller if he could provide the tracking number.  The answer came back that he did not know what had happened to the package, could not provide a tracking number and would issue a full refund.  This message was followed within minutes by a paypal advice of the refund.

Are you suggesting now that at the slightest sign of a problem, no matter how minor, we should all go screaming to paypal to open a dispute?  And I do consider having to ask for a tracking number to be a very minor annoyance, not even a full blown problem

I note your account is registered in the UK and has no recent trading history.  What practical experience have you had with the GSP that makes you such an authority on it?

[afantiques]

Are you suggesting now that at the slightest sign of a problem, no matter how minor, we should all go screaming to paypal to open a dispute?  And I do consider having to ask for a tracking number to be a very minor annoyance, not even a full blown problem

I am saying that the only way you will get a full refund is by making a formal claim. Your seller had good intentions but did you no favour, as it turned out. Sellers are as inept at the use of the GSP as buyers can be. Any tracking available should be accessable through your purchase history.

GSP is notorious for the uselessness of the tracking of the international portion of the shipping. Allegedly, they are working on this.

I note your account is registered in the UK and has no recent trading history.  What practical experience have you had with the GSP that makes you such an authority on it?

This is a posting ID, retired from selling.

I have been studying the GSP since it was first announced, since I could see at once just how much of a disaster it was likely to be. I have probably read all GSP related posts on the US, UK, and Canadian sites and many on ebay Australia. I have also conducted practical experiments with test listings of BIN and auction format listings to assess the buyer's eye view and experimented with item specifics and weight and dimensions to try and work out how shipping costs and import charges were derived.

By far the biggest cause of problems is the ignorance of both sellers and buyers, due to a woeful lack of effort by ebay devoted to explaining the system, and the confusion among buyers concerning the difference between postal imports and the GSP bulk airfreight imports. Describing the shipping as 'International Priority' which many users confuse with USPS 'Priority International' is just one of many poor choices by the system designers.

[lyndal1838]

You are to be very highly commended for all the research you have done but it does not always make your "book learning" relevant to the actual operation of the system.

As I have mentioned...there was no tracking number to be found which is why I asked in the first place.  And I must admit that once a parcel is showing in the system the tracking has always worked quite well.   I always know when it it is stuck somewhere.

And despite you trying to tell me that I do not know what I am talking about, it has also been confirmed by other members that USPS and Australia Post are used by the GSP at times.

One of my poarcels arrived in Australia with FedEx but they handed it to AP to be delivered.  AP said it was an invalid address and sent it back to FedEx.  It was finally delivered to me nearly 2 weeks after it arrived in Australia...and I only live about 3ks from the FedEx depot in Mascot where it arrived and cleared Customs.