THE GLOBAL SHIPPING FIASCO - JUST POSTED THIS ON US FORUM TELLING SELLERS WHY THEY ARE LOSING SALES!

[some999]

SELLERS WHY YOU ARE LOSING SALES WITH THE GLOBAL SHIPPING PROGRAM! [ New ]

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‎07-27-2014 05:47 AM

I live in Australia & am having lots of problems with the Global Shipping Program.

I phoned ebay today to voice my disapproval & ask for help, but they could not help.

The Global Shipping Program apparently DOES NOT allow combined shipping for multiple items Nor does it allow Free shipping.

It actually charges 2 lots of shipping fees.  It charges to ship within the USA to a point & then charges again to ship from that point to the destination.

As a seller, if you ship via your local avenues (USPS ETC)  it is much cheaper as there is only a single shipping charge.

If you are worried about insurance not being available with 1st class mail, ask your buyer to purchase using Auction Sniper & add insurance (which is what I do when the seller is concerned).  Insurance through auction sniper is about 85c per $100 coverage.

This morning I wanted to buy a very lightweight small item = 1-2 ounces.  It was $18.95 & shipping via the Global Shipping Program was $31.66 which is disgusting.  (1st class mail via USPS for 3oz is approx $9).

I'd already purchased a larger item from the same seller a couple of days ago & this small item would fit in the same box with the larger item & did not increase the initial shipping charge.  
The seller was happy to combine it for me. as it meant that he was getting a further sale that he would not have got otherwise!

The seller changed the listing for the 2nd small item to FREE POSTAGE but Global Shipping still wanted to charge me the shipping cost.

Ebay advised that Global Shipping does not allow FREE shipping, NOR does it allow COMBINED shipping.  They were unable to help.

Several times just this week, I've purchased on non-ebay sites due to this Global shipping Program & its problems.

As sellers you are losing customers.  

Ebay say it is making it easier to ship globally but it is making it too expensive & complicated & once you have listed using this program you can't change it.

AS A BUYER, I PLEASE ASK SELLERS NOT TO USE THIS GLOBAL SHIPPING PROGRAM ESPECIALLY FOR LOWER PRICED SMALL ITEMS!  It may be ok for larger items but I'm usually buying craft items which are low priced & combining purchases gives the best deal to me for shipping.

I have been avoiding sellers who use the Global Shipping Program due to the cost & problems & I know of many others who are doing the same.

My online purchases used to be about 95% via ebay, now they would be about 10% as I usually only buy discontinued items that I can't buy elsewhere.

Thanks for reading this post.

[some999]

I live in Australia & am having lots of problems with the Global Shipping Program.

I phoned ebay today to voice my disapproval & ask for help, but they could not help.

The Global Shipping Program apparently DOES NOT allow combined shipping for multiple items Nor does it allow Free shipping.

It actually charges 2 lots of shipping fees.  It charges to ship within the USA to a point & then charges again to ship from that point to the destination.

As a seller, if you ship via your local avenues (USPS ETC)  it is much cheaper as there is only a single shipping charge.

If you are worried about insurance not being available with 1st class mail, ask your buyer to purchase using Auction Sniper & add insurance (which is what I do when the seller is concerned).  Insurance through auction sniper is about 85c per $100 coverage.

This morning I wanted to buy a very lightweight small item = 1-2 ounces.  It was $18.95 & shipping via the Global Shipping Program was $31.66 which is disgusting.  (1st class mail via USPS for 3oz is approx $9).

I'd already purchased a larger item from the same seller a couple of days ago & this small item would fit in the same box with the larger item & did not increase the initial shipping charge.  
The seller was happy to combine it for me. as it meant that he was getting a further sale that he would not have got otherwise!

The seller changed the listing for the 2nd small item to FREE POSTAGE but Global Shipping still wanted to charge me the shipping cost.

Ebay advised that Global Shipping does not allow FREE shipping, NOR does it allow COMBINED shipping.  They were unable to help.

Several times just this week, I've purchased on non-ebay sites due to this Global shipping Program & its problems.

As sellers you are losing customers.  

Ebay say it is making it easier to ship globally but it is making it too expensive & complicated & once you have listed using this program you can't change it.

AS A BUYER, I PLEASE ASK SELLERS NOT TO USE THIS GLOBAL SHIPPING PROGRAM ESPECIALLY FOR LOWER PRICED SMALL ITEMS!  It may be ok for larger items but I'm usually buying craft items which are low priced & combining purchases gives the best deal to me for shipping.

I have been avoiding sellers who use the Global Shipping Program due to the cost & problems & I know of many others who are doing the same.

My online purchases used to be about 95% via ebay, now they would be about 10% as I usually only buy discontinued items that I can't buy elsewhere.

Thanks for reading this post.

[the_great_she_elephant]

Two sayings spring to mind. "The squeaky wheel gets the most attention" and "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." Posters on the US boards may not be replying to the complaint threads. but that doesn't mean they are not reading them. 

[harlequin5546]

I'd like to add a further criticism to the Global Shipping Program.

I have purchased 2 completely different and separate items from Sellers un the US in the last few weeks. Both used the Global Shipping Program.

Completely aside from the inordinate cost - one of them was $19 to send a PEN (which cost $30) - the time taken to deliver is a JOKE and is being deliberately extended by the freight companies - in my two cases, FEDEX.

Firstly, both items travelled from the West Coast of the US all the way across the continent to the East Coast - to a "Distribution Centre" before then travelling back again and eventually on to Australia.

Once they arrived here they were transported to my local FEDEX Depot where the status changed to "Package not due for delivery" and a projected delivery date of a further 8 days from that point.

The Sellers had both quoted an 8-16 business day delivery timeframe - which is what eBay had then purchased from FEDEX. This DID NOT include the time spent bouncing around the continental US before being handed over to FEDEX. In on case this was almost 2 weeks.

Upon investigation of this "Package not due for delivery" status I have discovered that this is FEDEX's way of making people pay for a higher grade of shipping. If the Shipper - in this case eBay - uses economy shipping then the package will be held at the local depot until it is "due" to be delivered. 

I cannot believe that eBay is unaware of this. It's all over the internet.

To summarise:

1. The shipping time quoted is inaccurate as it doesn't take into account the time for local US shipping to the Disitribution Centre and THEN the international shipping. It assumes instant transfer from the seller to the Distribution Centre.

2. The freight charges are definitely not "economy" level but that is what eBay is using - causing delays in delivery.

3. Any company that holds up its deliveries on purpose in order to gouge more money from the customer is an unethical company and eBay should NOT be using them without our knowledge or consent.

I will not be purchasing ANYTHING from ANYONE who uses the Global Shipping Program ever again.

[some999]

To harlequin5546 -

That is just dreadful!  

I hope that you will point out to ebay directly what you experienced.  

If they receive enough comments eventually they must at least consider what is being said - hope so anyway!

Thank you to those who have posted for adding your comments & suggestions - especially  to imastawka for adding how to turn off GSP.  

The comments added directly to the US forum have also been interesting.

The only ebayers happy with GSP seem to be those where larger, heavier items are involved.
Apparently some of those are being shipped at a reasonable cost but as mentioned, my experience is the opposite because like many others I'm purchasing lower priced, small, lightweight items.

[imastawka]

 Credit is not mine on how to turn off GSP.  It's been posted numerous times

over the last few months.

I can top everybody's GSP postage.  I posted on the boards a while ago -

One single deck of playing cards -  $105 postage!

[davewil1964]

I hope they came wrapped in gold foil.

[chezzy]

---

@imastawka wrote:

 Credit is not mine on how to turn off GSP.  It's been posted numerous times

over the last few months.

---

I dug for the info and have certainly posted it a few times. Perhaps I need to have it as my signature.

Better still if it could be a sticky/pinned item. Instead of some of us going over the same old ground we

could just say look up there ^

[imastawka]

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@davewil1964 wrote:

I hope they came wrapped in gold foil.

---

 The deck was $5.  I'm not that stoopid.

But if I was, I'd want them to be hand delivered personally by the seller       LOL