Ebay sellers in the USA are lazy.

[rant]

Ok at this point I am getting really pissed off with the Ebay global shipping program BS. And the lazy ass attitude I get from most USA based sellers when I contact them about it.

I simply cannot buy games anymore off ebay from the USA. It has just become impossible.
GSP charges at least 15$ to ship a game to Canada. While most are "free shipping in US", meaning that the actual shipping I pay for Mario 3 is about 18$.
It also cannot combine for shit. I filled a shopping cart with 7 games from the same seller as a test and GSP charged 60$ shipping for 7 games, most were loose carts.
I know by experience this can be shipped to me in Canada with Tracking through First class mail for about 15$, 20$ max. So why am I paying 3 times more than I should??

I used to buy games from the USA on ebay but now just everybody there is Using GSP.
Think I am exaggerating when I say Everyone?
I just did a little test and searched for Mario Bros 3. Out of the first 35 American sellers that shipped Outside the USA only 2 did not use GSP. ONLY 2 ON 35!!!
This means that about 95% of the games available to me from the USA on ebay are through GSP. This means 95% of games are grossly overpriced on shipping.

For expensive game auctions, say over 60$, GSP can get to over 20$ to ship a single game. As a result I get overbid by Americans all the time.

But the worst is when I talk to US seller about it. The way they shrug it off and ignore me is the worst.

I actually just contacted a seller saying I was ready to buy him over 100$ worth of games, all bin, if only he could ship them to me without GSP.
His response was that he would have to go to the post office to find out how much it costs, making it sound like it was a fucking chore.
I told him all he needed was the weight so he could use USPS calculator. In case he had no scale I even proposed him to weight a crate of CIB games of equal number I wanted from him, so he could give me a quote.
HE never responded to this, that was 36 hours ago. I get similarly ignored almost every times I ask for something like this. WTF?! This is what happened the 5 last times I tried that.
Sellers just don't respond.
I am sorry but that is the lazy man's approach. Just tell me you don't want to sell your games to me and let's be done with it, but no, I am not even granted that.
They just do nothing and hope I buy their stuff anyway with GSP, so they have nothing too complicated to do, like taking measurement.

Some other sellers appear just clueless and do not seem to realize they are even on GSP or know what I am talking about. Some even say they do not ship outside US, seemingly oblivious that they are enlisted to GSP. Some do not even seem to know what it is and when I tell them they are actually enlisted on it, again, they just don't respond. What the hell is happening to you American sellers? We used to do good business, now it seems you are all high on ether or something!!

[/rant]

 

I would never touch the GSP with a 100ft pole. You can look at Luke Morse's videos on that. Shipping out of country is just stupidly expensive which is why I don't ship outside the US. $25 for a small flat rate bubble envelope to Europe.

 

People have problems with buying from other countries, & others have problems with selling outside of their country. & if they are not willing to reply/work with you on something, it's because it is too much of a hassle for what it is worth, sadly. The GSP is there for a reason, yet it seems to be causing more problems than it solves.

I can't tell you how many times I've seen people outside of the US not willing to ship to us, but that's just the way it is.

It's not a US problem. It is an all of us problem.

 

Even business have problems shipping from US to Canada. I uses to work for online shopping website. We had to stop using UPS for all Canadian orders. Because, UPS will try to collect import duty from the customers and most of time they will refuse. So we got stuck with the original and return shipping cost on top of issuing a full refund to the customer, even though we had 15% restocking fee. The customer will just do a credit card chargeback saying they never received the order, which the UPS tracking will show it was refused and the credit card company will sided with the customer.

With USPS, we can only ship small size/weight order because it too cost much to ship oversize item to Canada. Then USPS like to recycle their tracking numbers, so when we first sent a copy of the tracking number to the customer and if they do a search that day, it will show the previous order that used that tracking number. Which it will show all the previous tracking history. After the order is shipped, it will take forever for the tracking info get update once it leave the US. By the time the customer received the order, the tracking will show it was still at Canadian custom. Then try to file any lost package claim, because USPS will said it's Canada Post problem and Canada Post will say it's USPS problem. So we eat the full cost of order and issue a full refund back to the customer, again that why we only ship small, as in low price, orders to Canada.

 

Global Shipping Program is a great idea with typical horrible ebay execution.

That being said I understand how sellers getting tired of tons of questions taking the time to answer them just to have the buyer disappear. I've also had a buyer ask me to take 8 pictures of a $5 game. Typically the amount of work I put into a sale is proportional to what I'm selling it at. There is definitely a balance to be had though. I'm much more likely to put more effort in for a member of a forum then some one randomly messaging me on eBay.

 

[RESUMING RANT]
Of course you need to stop using UPS for Canada and other countries... this is the most basic thing to know. Same thing is true in reverse, I ship to US all the time and If I used UPS americans would got batshit at me because of the brokering fees those shippers charge. Do you think this prevent Canadian business from shipping to the US? No, all of them do it.
Business have problems with international shipping when they do it wrong, not when they do it right.

It is the same answer I always get from Americans: '' International shipping is too much hassle, it is too much risk, it is too expensive''
Which is true to some degree with the way ebay is setup. But shipping to Canada in particular is not complicated and is very safe if you actually know how to do it properly and It boosts your market opportunity by about 10% for some type of items.
10% is a pretty good chunk, companies pay a lot in publicity and other things for less gains than this.

For shipping to Canada all you need is to have one dude in the shop that actually knows how to do it, which he can learn by himself in under an hour of reading about it. Might be too complicated for a big business that can't get it's own head out of its ass but some small business have figured it out and they have no problems with it. There are actually commercial treaties that facilitate mailing of goods from Canada - USA so the rates are not as bad as for other countries and the reliability is extremely good. Problems occurs when people botch the job. I still ship worldwide but I do not sell much outside Canada and US because of extreme shipping costs.

US sellers can use cheap and tracked First class mail to Canada, which is very reliable and tracked. We do not even have this luxury on our side, all we have in the inexpensive category is Small Packet-USA, which is not even tracked. I still ship plenty of items to USA with it and have yet to have a Item not received complaint. Before ebay GSP plenty of sellers used First class mail to Canada, but now many have converted to GSP. The big sellers are those that still mail by themselves because they realized GSP would hurt their sales. But the ''average dude-at-home seller'' seems to just be scared of selling outside his own country or something.
[/RANT]

 

Geez, I mean it's not like stuff is getting shipped to Italy or to where I'm at!

Seriously, given that you even offered to weigh something similar... I would've taken the offer as a rough basis and an agreement to if there was a general shipping difference that it would be covered.

This is the sort of shit that is part of the reason I tend to only buy stuff in Australia, UK or Japan. Even then if I get stuff from the US, it'll likely be off Amazon and not eBay and if it's via eBay then I'll have gotten relatives to deal with it and mail it to me later on as it's such a freaking hassle. If they can't, then I get a middleman service that will do it, mainly to avoid my stuff ending up (somehow) in the Bahamas!

I mean, I'm not super fussed about the price of the shipping - it's the fact that the GSP bit has resulted in repeatedly fucked up details on labels and I've had to repeatedly go back and forth with couriers and the postal service because of their failure to: get my address correct, get my postcode correct, get my name correct, get my gender correct. ("Oh no, it says here, "Mr.", I can't give you this parcel.")

This isn't including the fact that they've also broken shit too by not packing stuff properly either (despite privately messaging the seller that I'm happy to pay excess for the items to be packaged safely). I wanted to replace my copy of Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within for one a bit less worn, NOPE. Mint in factory seal copy gets shattered before it gets to me. Box was also water damaged.

I just shelled out more money and ordered a used but good condition copy from Amazon with photos from the seller. :/

 

To be fair, shipping to Canada is an ABSOLUTE FUCKING PAIN. I don't know why either. I live 2 hours away from the Canadian boarder, and somehow something that costs me to ship $5 to California, 2000 miles away, costs $45 to ship the Ontario Canada, 200 miles away. Worse yet sometimes when the buyer gets it, he gets TAXED or DUTY FEE'D on it. So much for the U.S and Canada free trade agreements. I understand why sellers went to the GSP program or just abandoned shipping there all together. It shouldn't be that difficult to ship to Canada, but it is.

Edit: I might not be the best example because I've only shipped two things to Canada, but I remember shipping a GameCube there was a total pain and made me vow to never ship there again.

 

I like to point out I was in the tech support/customer service of the online shopping company, so I don't know all of the in and out. I just had to listen to all of the angry Canadian customers who had the shipping issues. People who had work there a bit longer said that UPS change the policy on collect the custom duty fee couple years ago, they used to have any issue shipping with UPS. Anyway, some bigger companies had just basically open a Canadian division to solve this shipping issue like Newegg did. My old company was thinking of doing that, but they haven't done it when I left. Another solution I notice when I worked there was that Canadian customer will rent a mailbox at mailbox store on the US side of the border and have their order shipped there, since most Canadian live close to the border. Or ship to companies that specialize to forwarding parcels to Canada. We had to always call 1st time customer to verify that they actually had placed the order, since the billing address is in Canada(which credit card verification system said it matched), but the shipping address is in the US. Just in case the card wasn't stolen.

 

Ugh sounds like I am glad I have stopped this hobby. Ebay are just a pack of c*nts, have sold a few consoles recently under the new-ish (for Australia) "we now take a cut from postage costs, regardless if you charge actual or not". Bloody hell if they keep going pretty soon they will take a 50%cut lol!

 

Many sellers are lazy, not just from the USA even locally. If it means them having to get their fat ass out of the chair it's a hassle, even if you're willing to pay for the extra shipping. They just want a quick buck.

I've started to get sick of eBay myself, recently offered someone a price for their Xbox, they changed it to a BIN with the price I offered them. Did they message me saying for be to buy it? No of course not, that'd be the right thing to do, even after in the message with my offer I stated for them to let me know.

Sent another message saying I wasn't notified and now someone else bought it. Completely ignored me, well jokes on them because I waaaaay underoffered them.

 

Are you talking about items shipped through the GSP? If so it doesn't matter what you ask the seller to do. eBay will open up every parcel sent through GSP and repack it, and repack it rather poorly, too.

 

It is not complicated, it is just that you guys are not used to it. On the Canadian side it is a lot more complicated actually, we need to consider zip codes, weight, dimensions, type of item, value of item, it is a complete mess. USPS is super easy and simple in comparison.

I can give you a crash course to shipping to Canada on ebay, using your own packages. It is easy.

STEP 1: Find a box for the item. ( or know by experience what size the box will be because you are awesome like that )
STEP 2: Weight the damn item in the box. ( Tip: you can use a 20$ walmart food Scale for small stuff and your regular step-on scale from your bathroom for big things, Always round the weight UP )
STEP 3: Find the Proper Package Category
A) Package is less then 4 lbs: Use First Class mail ( Size limit is 24'' for length and sum of all 3 dimensions must not exceed 36'', but unless you ship air you should be good)
Use the following table to put a fixed price on your auction, price depends only on weight
1 pound or less: 10$
1-2 pounds: Add 1$ per 0.1 lbs over 1 pound.
2-3 pounds 23$
3-4 pounds 25$
( Note: You can ship up to a Dozen CIB games with First class mail before you reach 25$ That is still 2$ shipping per games, your Canadian buyers will be happy )
B) Package is heavier then 4 LBS : Priority mail. (Max. length 46", width 35", height 46" and max. length plus girth combined 108)
Pretty much anything there video game related will be between 35-40$. ( Stuff like console + games lot will be in that category)
You need to measure and weight the package to be sure. If you do not want to do this for each items you can make yourself a chart Like I did for first class mail.
C) Huge freaking stuff. Can go to over a hundred bucks in the upper range of priority mail. Then you get into Freight Category. You probably will never go in this category unless you sell things like Arcade machines or the likes.

Bottom line is that single Games are all in the First class mail range. Unless you bundle enough of them together to go in the 35-40$ range of Priority mail.
STEP 4: Purchase the shipping label: Always purchase shipping label online, writing with a sharpie on the box is for noobs, I think most people selling on the internet have a printer. It saves you time and costs less than going to the post office. Also true for your domestic shipping, this is a no brainer really. ( Pro tip : Use the ''Print Shipping Label button'' button built in ebay, it automates everything including sending the tracking number to the buyer and gives you a discount to boot )
STEP 5: Go to post office, walk past everyone waiting in line and drop you ready to ship package on the counter. Bid good day to the lady and walk off whistling your favourite tune.
STEP 6: Wait for positive feedback.

 

As I recall... Last time I tried to print postage to Canada online USPS wouldn't allow me. I had to do it in the USPS store. It could of been because the buyers address was unconfirmed. However, I did ask the USPS lady at the front desk and she said a lot of international shipments cannot be printed online because of certain forms are required and you can't do them online.

Also First class postage in the U.S is sub 13oz, not sub 4lbs. (but almost every game is under that weight). Anything over is Priority Mail. (which doubles the cost, and is a lot faster/safer)


Again, I know you want to vent to the sellers, but really the issue is the difficulty shipping to Canada. Canada is just as hard to ship to as Europe which is ridiculous considering how close and similar the two countries are. Australia is actually MUCH easier to ship to then Canada.

 

You are wrong.
First-Class Package International Service from USPS To Canada is 4 lbs and under.
You can definitely print and purchase shipping label online, I get packages from the states with home printed labels.

As a matter of fact, I recently received a package with 5 SNES games I bought from someone on Racketboy.
I am holding the box right now and looking at the label, which is home printed and purchased online. It is a 1 lbs 10 ounce, as per written on the package. It is First class mail package with tracking and the cost is printed on the package : 13.28$

 

Honestly, its a huge risk for very little reward when it comes to shipping internationally. If there was a service that better had the buyer's back, Id be all for it, but for now I try to limit myself to people who I can trust.

 

Do you use ebay's GSP ?

 

No, I just limit my overseas sales, not that I sell a whole lot anyway.

 

I've had it happen from US sellers via GSP or done individually.

Was charged for whatever is the fast one with tracking, got multiple items on upwards of FOUR MONTHS LATER. Express shipping my ass, as I also checked the labels and aside from being charged for incorrect shipping there were numerous other issues with details provided when it would've been easy as to copy and paste the provided shipping details.

The only reason I finally got a couple of parcels with the info fucked up on them were because the courier argued with me, went to the post office and had one of the locals as a witness to confirm my ID, address because I had to go and get my: birth certificate, passport, photo ID, bank statement that showed my address that included the Paypal charge, the Paypal/eBay transaction also listing my details correctly and including the tracking number.... All because they fucked up details on the parcel and the courier wouldn't believe me.

On top of also having items sent through GSP, somehow got sent back to the seller. Seller then had to go and resend the parcel but luckily, he didn't end up charging me extra for it.

It's an absolute clusterfuck. The US services that the items with tracking have been sent through have been utterly useless with having my parcels repeatedly bounced through sorting facilities, ending up in the completely wrong place before they finally end up here. Then the partner courier services that handle their services here have then delivered things to the incorrect post office or have flat out lied about delivering parcels (or delivery failures when I've been at home all day on the stated days) or, have alternatively ignored the signature required bit and have thrown parcels at the door.

Mind you, I've had Australia Post do the last one repeatedly on their own too.

Seriously, the only parcels that I ever get in pristine condition and have never had any issues with picking up have all been via EMS.

It's a miracle that stuff from the US arrives most of the time given I've also had gifts sent by my mother in law for Christmas and my birthday arrive ten months later, opened and retaped, water damaged with items stolen or lost from the parcel. It wasn't even a large parcel either, it mainly had lollies, clothing, books and general stuff as my mother in law doesn't really know what I like. It was sent express in May or so, it arrived (even combined with Christmas delays) in March. Utterly trashed.

My husband was heartbroken as a book his father (before he passed away) had picked out as a gift for me had been included in there with a note specifically for me in it. That book was missing. There was a letter but it was impossible to read due to the water damage. I only found out about what was written in the note roughly from his girlfriend. He wrote it shortly before my husband proposed to me but he sadly, passed away before we got married. It was written beforehand in case he wasn't around to give his speech when we got married and we couldn't include it in our ceremony either.

So, yeah. I'm just more than a little sick of getting parcels out of the US after all of this shit beforehand and having managed to get about two parcels safely in the last two or so years since then, I thought that perhaps the mail and/or courier service would've gotten their shit together or the new GSP might have made some improvements but that's obviously not the case.

 

If you were selling to Canada or Europe on ebay, would you feel safer using GSP vs shipping stuff yourself?